Bob Dylan - All Along the Watchtower (Official Audio)

[Verse 1] “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“ [Verse 2] “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“ [Verse 3] 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 Lyrics The original lyrics are in twelve lines, which the Financial Times writer Dan Einac commented, make it “akin to a truncated sonnet“.[20] The lyrics feature a conversation between a joker and a thief, whilst they ride towards a watchtower.[12] Scholar Timothy Hampton comments that the pair is “overwhelmed by circumstances“.[21] Reviewers have pointed out that the lyrics in “All Along the Watchtower“ echo lines in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 21, verses 5–9:[22][23] ''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.'' Other writers, such as Keith Negus, have indicated that Dylan also drew on verses from the Book of Revelation to write the song.[24] Elliot Wolfson found that Dylan's lyrics also reflected his own response to a melancholy reading of his own approach to Jewish gnosis.[25] The general theme of justice is commented upon by Lisa O'Neill-Sanders, who states that Watchtower presents a “thief in the song... who consoles the victimized and exploited joker. The thief sympathizes but urges the Joker to 'not talk falsely'“.[26]