Lyrically Speaking: What is Bob Dylans All Along the Watchtower actually about? – Far Out Magazine

Bob Dylan is nothing if not obscure. As Paul Simon once said, [With]Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. Hes telling you the truth and making fun of you at the same time. His textured poetry has depth untold and hidden amid the myriad of swirling images is a cascade of meaning, some of which washes over you, and some you catch as it goes by. This truth has kept his tales constantly evolving, keeping them as fresh as the wind so that decades later you can still derive new meaning.

One track that contains more multitudes than most is his classic and oft-covered anthem All Along the Watchtower. There is something biblical about this timeless tune, but what exactly does that entail? Who is the joker, and who is the thief? Where do they sit in our modern lives? These arent easy questions to answer, but the beauty of Dylan is that even though the truth might escape us, the pursuit is always worthwhile.

Well, crammed in much of Dylans work is the Bible itself. As he once said of Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35, I have never and never will write a drug song. These are people that arent familiar with the Book of Acts. All Along the Watchtower is no differentDylan places biblical tales of old in the context of counterculture to colour his piety with an air of eternity. The search for meaning rambles on in every sense.

The scene that Dylan conjures from the outset is a desolate one. Riders approaching from afar invoke an image akin toGame of Thrones,where a kingdom is soon to be beset with more bad news from nowhere. There is no relief from this bombardment the joker proclaims, and in the modern world where we are greeted with ten grim news stories a day, that sentiment suddenly seems very prescient. The joker seems to plead: How do you rise above this dower malaise?

Well, the thief has a profound answer. He has been privy to this approaching darkness for a long time, it would seemlong enough to invoke the biblical notion of the hour getting late and the sense of salvation that comes with that. Dont get excitable and caught up in this dark storm, he seems to say, you only lose your way down that route, youve got to move on through it. Then you will also be ready to accept Godspeed and good tidings.

This belief comes from a thief no less. Why did Dylan choose to put such wise words in an unreliable mouth? Once more, this is also plucked straight from the Bible and the good thief who was crucified next to Jesus. Therefore, it stands to reason that perhaps the parties chatting in All Along the Watchtower are the pair crucified alongside Christ on the hill of Golgotha. In Catholicism, this was not a moment of despair, but one of salvationthe two riders brought good news.

The fact that a thief can see this is symbolic of the virtue of forgiveness. In the context of the society that Dylan released the song into, this provided an important message. The times were tough, but withAll Along the Watchtower he provided a message that usurped spiritual vapidness and despondent nihilism that pervaded an era of despair in America. In favour, he presented a note of fullness and forgiveness through an attitude of hope and the joyous sequestering of cynicism that comes from looking for solace beyond the despairing insular world of the watchtower.

You cant just stand on your guarded watchtower and look out at the world with a cynical glare expecting only darkness to blight your walls. You have to draw on your own experiences and know that things arent truly as terrible if you grace them with a virtuous disposition. Or at least that is how it seems? Maybe its about something else entirely, but the force is unmistakeably there to behold. A song is anything that can walk by itself, Dylan once said; All Along the Watchtower doesnt walk, it gallops.

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Lyrically Speaking: What is Bob Dylans All Along the Watchtower actually about? - Far Out Magazine