SONG OF THE DAY: ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER - BOB DYLAN

Todays song of the day is inspired by a conversation I had with several train riders today who had no idea what I was talking about when I was mentioning the song and yet they were teenagers at the time. Perhaps they were in a purple haze? If so perhaps the information below will give them all a brief reminder as to what was happening back then. LOL

"All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It initially appeared on his album John Wesley Harding. It has been covered by other artists in different genres, most notably by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. There exists much speculation as to what the song is actually about.

Dylan wrote "All Along the Watchtower" along with the other songs on John Wesley Harding over the year or so following his motorcycle accident in the summer of 1966. His recuperation from the accident, which occurred near his home in Woodstock, New York, enabled Dylan to escape the excesses of touring and make a dramatic turnaround in his lifestyle. With one child born in early 1966 and another in mid-1967, he settled into family life and even took a growing interest in the Bible, as reflected in the album's Biblical allusions, particularly in songs such as "All Along the Watchtower", "Dear Landlord", "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" and "The Wicked Messenger".

Many have analysed the song over the years.

Several reviewers have pointed out that the lyrics in "All Along the Watchtower" echo lines in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 21, verses 5-9:

Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise ye princes, and prepare the shield./For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth./And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed./...And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground

Commenting on the songs on his album John Wesley Harding, in an interview published in the folk music magazine Sing Out! in October 1968, Dylan told John Cohen and Happy Traum:

“I haven't fulfilled the balladeers's job. A balladeer can sit down and sing three songs for an hour and a half... it can all unfold to you. These melodies on John Wesley Harding lack this traditional sense of time. As with the third verse of "The Wicked Messenger", which opens it up, and then the time schedule takes a jump and soon the song becomes wider... The same thing is true of the song "All Along the Watchtower", which opens up in a slightly different way, in a stranger way, for we have the cycle of events working in a rather reverse order."

Most recently television composer Bear McCreary arranged a version of "All Along the Watchtower" for use in the final scene of the Battlestar Galactica season three finale "Crossroads, Part II". The song was also played in various adaptations in the fourth season, including the series finale. A version with all the lyrics was included on the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Soundtrack. The lyrics had been written into the screenplay by Ronald D. Moore. Versions of the song are used again throughout the fourth season, including a piano version. The song became a thematic motif as well as a plot element of the show, with lyrics frequently referenced in dialog during many episodes, and with the final scene of the series' last episode playing out to the Jimi Hendrix version of the song. ("The Music")