You think you'll stick with folk rock or are you going on into more writing? I don't play folk Rock
What would you call your music?
I'd call it
There must be some way out of here
Said the Joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief
So there are some novels some trilogies in fact with less actual content than Bob Dylan's ”All along the watchtower”
it's really astonishing what Dylan achieves in 12 lines
130 words and two and a half minutes. I don't think I can explain the song definitively
I don't think anyone could do that with Dylan
But there's a lot here to explore. And the first thing to note is exactly when and where all along the watchtower
fits in Dylan's career, the song is the fourth on his
1967 album, John Wesley Harding coming after two of his most famous and most
Celebrated records Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde Dylan had already gone electric already
repudiated much of the political significance he had in his first years and
alienated a lot of his folk music following in the process His lyrics in those albums were lyrics of a man
possessed shot through with some magic spirit singing gorgeously beautiful
Epics in a stream of illusions and vignettes for this reason John Wesley harding can only come as a shock
It's totally spare
instrumentation mostly
guitar bass and drums under vocals and Harmonica and largely two to three-minute songs strike a
Bold contrast not only to his previous albums, but to the maximalist psychedelic feeling of
1967 the same year that the Beatles released sergeant Pepper's lonely Hearts club band which by the way Dylan called quote very indulgent
Despite this Dylan's eighth album was universally praised and rightly, so it's among the tightest work
he's ever released both conceptually than the themes found in the 12 song cycle and
Lyrically, there's no line that you can stick your finger through. He said in 1968. There's no hole in any of the stanzas
there's no blank filler each line has something in all along the watchtower there are exactly twelve lines a parable framed as a
Conversation between two archetypes a joker and a thief the joker speaks first looking for a way [out] of here though
We don't quite know where here is
Then complaining that businessmen drink his wine plowman dig his earth while neither of them know what those things are worth the thief
Responds saying that there's no reason to get excited those people may feel that life is a joke
But we know better because we've been through that already
the story then pulls back to a watchtower where there is some kind of commotion as
Watchmen notice two Riders approaching in the cold distance
The final quatrain is a little bit jarring. It's almost as if it's misplaced in time
It's been suggested in fact that the last lines are actually
Chronologically the first in the story and by doing this dylan gives the song a kind of endless
Circular feel the story always rapping around to the start again
Emphasizing just how futile the Joker's first comment is
there must be some way out of here
of course
It's unclear whether the two riders spotted from the watchtower
are the Joker and the thief or whether the joker and the thief spot them or some other configuration
And for that matter it's worth questioning who exactly these two figures are
some think that the Joker is Dylan while the thief is
Elvis who stole
African-American music for white pop culture.
Others see the two figures as two sides of Dylan's own personality before and after the horrible
motorcycle accident that in many ways
Generated this new style of music
still others see the joker as jesus in conversation with one of the thieves that was crucified
Alongside him
Making biblical connections, isn't that far-fetched?
There are some 70 biblical allusions in John Wesley harding all told and those close to Dylan remember him repeatedly
Consulting a large version of the King James Bible at his home in Woodstock
Several people have noted the similarities between this song and a passage from the book of ISaiah Chapter 21 to be exact
It's a passage that prophesies the fall of babylon and the jews return from exile to Jerusalem
Dylan spent much of his early career fighting off the label of prophet
It's a responsibility he felt was thrust on him ilegitimately, but here
He seems to accept the role laying down an apprehensive
Apocalyptic scenario as if to say ”You want a prophecy? Okay? I'll give you a prophecy”, but it comes at a price the price is
Mistery and Entrapment a prophecy the meaning of which is forever out of reach
He casts himself in the role of Joker, thief, narrator, Jesus and prophet all simultaneously
Removing any anchoring personal presence like you might find in his previous work by the end the audience is left in as much
Fearful anticipation of what's to come as the reader of yates's second coming as a great beast?
impossible to fathom slouches toward Bethlehem
to be born
Where this gets really compelling for me though is in the actual music
a lot of people prefer Jimi Hendrix's version of this song and obviously it's incredibly fantastic
but for me the Sonic quality of Dylan's original
fits perfectly with this narrative at the heart of the song is a driving guitar and bass chord progression which
Once it's repeated a few dozen times locks you into a hypnotic momentum. onto this is added Dylan's call-and-response lyrics
with each line comprising two parts that swing pendulum-like back and forth in his singing
never varying outside of a narrow lane of pitch more overtones of
being trapped the high-pitched relentlessness of the harmonica interludes just fray the nerves adding to the sense of
apprehension and foreboding that the song is trying to create in us
All along the Watchtower
princes kept the view
Dylan is conversing here with two of his favorite musical Genres
The song is technically a folk ballad albeit a short one. It's a story told as a conversation that Aims to Convey a message
but the fingerprints of the blues are
Everywhere on the song namely one of Dylan's Heroes Robert Johnson who the legend has it sold his soul to the devil
for musical genius
like Dylan Johnson told evocative stories with dark undertones on songs with simple repetitive structures
Think that's the key to the power of this song all along the watchtower
delivers its prophecy of impending doom on to a steady and
unfaltering foundation something that points backward to both his roots in folk and
to the black roots of Rock and roll
it was Bob Dylan's great gift that he could take something that orient's itself toward the past and
push himself and his music forward
It's the music that makes all along the watchtower a cryptic
Prophecy that you can't escape something that teases you in and always at the end
begins
There must be some [way] out of here
Sidda [Joga] [Jealousy]
Is too much hey everybody thanks for watching [I] had so much fun making this video such a blast to edit if you guys want
To check out my Tedx. Talk it [just] went live a couple days ago. It's right here. It's about video essays
Thanks to lafayette college for hosting me there
I hope that this video on Bob Dylan brought you guys a little bit of joy on this specially sad week
And I'll see you guys next Wednesday