Thursday, April 07, 2016

All Along the Watchtower


Alongside the greatest cover of Dylan's classic, courtesy Jimi Hendrix, is Dylan's mono recording of same where the guitar sounds like a 12 string married to a didgeridoo, thus driving home the fact this is one bodacious piece with lyrics both mysterious and powerful.

"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
Businessmen, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line
Know what any of it is worth"

"No reason to get excited"
The thief, he kindly spoke
"There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely, now
The hour is getting late"

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants, too
Outside, in the distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl

Here's Dylan's from the 1965 John Westley Harding masterpiece.


IMHO, Camus would relate to this without question.

The Didgeridoo, something altogether on the other side. :)


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