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Bob Dylanâs âAll along the Watchtowerâ â an analysis by Kees de Graaf
This song was written and recorded in 1967 for the album âJohn Wesley Harding â. Dylan at the time remarked that this album was â the first biblical rock album â, this remark gives us a hermeneutical key, not only for this song, but for the interpretation of the whole album. âAll along the watchtowerâ has only three verses and there is no chorus. The narrative of the song has a rather unusual structure. The third verse: â All along the watchtower, princes kept the viewâŚetc.â tells the story and one would expect the song to start with this verse. But in fact the song starts in the middle of a conversation. In an interview which Dylan gave in 1968 , he commented on the album âJohn Wesley Hardingâ saying: " I haven't fulfilled the balladeerâs 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." The unusual structure of the narrative was also noted by Christopher Ricks, an English Literature Professor, who commented that " All Along the Watchtower" is a typical example of Dylan's audacity at manipulating chronological time: " at the conclusion of the last verse, it is as if the song bizarrely begins at last, and as if the myth began again." On the album version of the song there is a high haunting harmonica and the simple motion of the riff hurriedly drives you in a forward direction as if you are heading towards some abyss from which there is no turning back. There can be no doubt that this song represents a very important, if not the most important, place in Dylanâs works. The song was performed in concert for the first time in 1974 and as per today (December 2011) the song has been performed a staggering 1957 times, more than any other Dylan song, even more than his best known song âLike a Rolling Stoneâ which has been performed 1810 times up till now. One may say that âAll along the Watchtowerâ represents Dylanâs trade mark or identity card. What is the secret behind this song? First of all, weâd like to reiterate what we earlier wrote on our weblog about the 60 minutes CBS television interview Bob Dylan gave in 2004. I think that this interview may give us an important clue on how we should position â All along the Watchtowerâ. In this interview Dylan is asked why after so many years he still out there on stage, performing all of his songs
on tour. After emphasizing that he doesnât take any of it for granted, Dylan gives the following reply: ââIt goes back to that destiny thing. I mean, I made a bargain with it, you know, long time ago. And Iâm holding up my endââ. On the question what his bargain was Dylan answers: ââto get where I am nowâ. And asked whom he made that bargain with he answers: âWith the Chief Commander, in this earth and in a world we canât seeâ. It all seems to demonstrate that Dylan doesnât do anything at random. He feels there is a divine purpose, a plan behind everything he does as an actor. He seems to believe that his shows, the set lists, the albums, the songs and in particular this song âAll along the Watchtowerâ , all are part of some sort of âperfect finished planâ, a carefully selected process for which he has guidance from above. He feels that as an artist he officiates as â Watchtowerâ to warn people, in some sort of a way like the old biblical Prophets once did, that this world is doomed. This may be the reason why â All along the Watchtowerâ has such an important place in his works and has run like a continuous thread through almost all of his shows for so many years. Letâs take a closer look at the lyrics of this song to see how we can piece all those things together. First and foremost, we feel it is important to note that the third verse: â All along the watchtower, princes kept the viewâŚetc. âechoes the Book of Isaiah Chapter 21 verses 5 - 9. We will discuss these verses later on in more detail but here it is important to note that in these verses the prophet Isaiah prophesizes the fall of the great Neo-Babylonian Empire, which indeed fell in 539 BC. But it did not end there. In the Bible and notably in the Book of Revelation Babel and Babylon represent, in a spiritual way, all powers, of all ages, which oppose and are hostile to the coming of the Kingdom of God. In all ages, each and every individual human being is called upon to take a moral stance towards Babylon, this call is timeless; the picture that is drawn in this song is therefore also timeless. The question therefore of all ages that now lurks in the background is: â which side are you on?â If your heart is with Babylon (like that of the joker), you will perish with Babylon and there is no hope left. If you repent (like the thief did) and obey to the call to get out of Babylon, you will be saved (Revelation 18:4). I think that this question also marks the discussion between the joker and the thief, to which we are now going to have a detailed look. âThere must be some way out of here,â said the joker to the thief. In this timeless conversation, the big question is: who is this joker and who is this thief and what do they represent? Some commentators say that Dylan is the joker and Elvis the thief. Elvis was once called a thief by many African Americans because his music was so much influenced by black artists. Others say that the joker and the thief represent the two riders which were
Dylan seems to write a parody on this discussion between the two thieves on the cross. But there is more to it. We have good reasons to believe that the two thieves on the cross represent two sorts of inhabitants of the great spiritual â all time - kingdom of Babylon. The one thief on the cross â called the joker â represents the part of the kingdom of Babylon which opposes and rejects the Kingdom of God represented by Jesus on the cross. On the cross we see this joker persevere in his rejection of Jesus and His Kingdom. The joker is for that reason doomed to perish when Judgment Day comes falling from the sky upon Babylon. âThere must be some way out of here,â shows that the joker is desperately trying to find a way out of the dreadful situation he is in on the cross. The only way out for the joker is to apply to Jesus and to surrender to Him. But the joker refuses to do that and applies for advice and help to the thief. But the thief cannot help the Joker, the thief needs redemption himself. In his refusal to accept redemption the joker represents the fallen Babylon which has been beaten on the cross by Jesus. For the thief, representing the people of God in Babylon, there is a way to get out of the fallen Babylon; in Revelation 18:4 Godâs people are summoned to leave the spiritual Babylon: âAnd I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues â. â Thereâs too much confusion, I canât get no reliefâ. Of the Aristotelians it is said that they were liable to the confusion of thought. James 3:16 says: âFor where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil workâ. When the joker says â Thereâs too much confusion, I canât get no reliefâ , the joker uses this as a pretext not to repent as if he says: âthere are too many confusing, conflicting, things happening here around the cross, there is a Babylonian âconfusion of tonguesâ going on here, a perfect Babel of tongues, it is therefore not clear to me who and what is right or wrong, so I see no reason why I should turn to Jesus for redemption, I must use my own ingeniousness to get out of hereâ. The thief could have said to the joker: âI know what you want, joker, you only want is to get relief from the dreadful situation you are in. âOh, Jokerman, you don't show any response to the suffering of Jesus, on the contrary, you keep on mocking Him. The only thing you are interested in is saving your own neck, you have the same attitude as the Pharaoh once had, when he was hit by the plagues, he was after relief and not repentance and as soon as relief had come, he became stubborn again (Exodus 8:15) and refused to listen to Mosesâ. The joker continues his lamentations: â Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth. None of them along the line know what any of it is worthâ. âBusinessmenâ is a word from our modern times whereas âPlowmenâ has an ancient undertone; it underlines the
timelessness of the meaning of the song. As said the thief â called joker by Dylan â on the cross may represent the fallen spiritual empire of Babylon. In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 18, we find a lamentation on the downfall of Babylon. â Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth. None of them along the line know what any of it is worth â is Dylanâs a parody on this downfall of Babylon. The joker, representing the falling Babylon, regards all the riches of this world as his personal property. âBusinessmenâ merchants, they drink my wine and plowmen they dig my earth. It is as if the joker says: â Iââll plant and Iâll harvest what the earth brings forthâ just like Revelation 18:12,13 says: âgold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet cloth; things made of fragrant thyine wood, ivory goods, and objects made of expensive wood; and bronze, iron, and marble cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses etcâŚâ but Iâm going to use it for my own purposes, to glorify myself because all of this belongs to me, it is mineâ. The Bible however, teaches us that the earth and all her riches belongs to the LORD (I Cor. 10:26) and is only given to man to glorify God and to serve your neighbor. âTheftâ in the Bible means using the earth and her riches for your own purposes, to glorify yourself as if you are the legitimate owner. And if you do that you are called a âthiefâ. The thief, the joker, on the cross represents an empire of thieves: Babylon. Revelation 18:17 tells us that all the wealth and riches of Babylon will be destroyed in a single moment. The businessmen and merchants, who became wealthy by selling her these things, all the captains of the merchant ships and their passengers and sailors and crews will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They, including the joker, will weep and cry out to all those standing by as if they were saying: âNone of them along the line know what any of it is worth. What a shame and waste that all the wealth and riches of Babylon, all the treasuries of the whole world, which are of incalculable value, are destroyed in the twinkling of an eye, nobody seems to realize what any of it is worthâ. Rather than repenting and worrying about her immorality and the â blood of the prophets and of Godâs holy people that flowed in your streets and the blood of people slaughtered all over the world â (Revelation 18:24), the joker- the thief, representing Babylon - is only concerned about the loss of material property, about the loss of his wine and whatever his plowmen, digging in his earth, will bring forth. In concert Dylan usually repeats this first verse and ends the song with this verse, emphasizing and lengthening this line and in particular the word âworthâ. The band often ends the song with a dramatic end chord. It all sounds like a last, final warning as if Dylan
this is not our fateâ, it is as if the thief says: âWe are both part of this fallen world of Babylon .Iâm not naĂŻve unworldly person; just like you, I experienced all the ups and downs and all the hardships of this fallen world. In this world I was no better a man than you are. We are both thieves and we fully indulged in whatever we could grasp in this world and we all grabbed it fast. Weâve both been to Sugar Town and we both shook the sugar down. We both deserve to die here on the cross but the saving grace of Jesus came over me and now Iâm on my way to heaven and I will be in paradise with Jesus today (Luke 23:43). It was grace that taught me how to fear but Jesus reaches out for you too. You can either accept his hand or refuse it; that is your own responsibility. You can no longer hide and say that this is your fate, if you go down now, itâs gonna be your own faultâ. â Fateâ â if defined as the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned- is often unjustly invoked as a last resort to justify immoral practices. Dylan has always been preoccupied with the concept of fate and destiny, the idea of âfateâ as a last resort to justify immoral practices is very immanent in songs like "With God on our side" and in âWho killed Davey Mooreâ where the death of Davey Moore is in the end unjustly justified by: âDonât say âmurder,â donât say âkillâ It was destiny, it was Godâs willâ. Dylan wants to make it clear that although from a biblical point of view âfateâ and âdestinyâ play an important role in the unfolding of Godâs plans â â God knows everything, âGod sees it all unfoldâ, âsome perfect finished planâ- this concept never intends to neutralize individual human responsibility. On the contrary, when the thief on the cross says to the joker: â but this is not our fateâ he wants to make it clear that they both have a choice. The choice is to either accept the saving grace of Jesus â which the thief will do â or to reject this saving grace; at the same time the thief emphasizes that is no use for the joker hiding behind words like âfateâ or âdestinyâ when spiritual freedom for the joker is available just around the corner of his eyes. But if the joker perseveres in his unbelief, the thief presumably will have to heave a sigh in the end, saying to himself about the joker: â But with truth so far off, what good will it do!â When the thief goes on to say to the joker â So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting lateâ he increases the sense of urgency. The word "falselyâ reminds us of the Biblical ninth commandment not to "bear false witnessâ. The ninth commandment tells us that we must never give false testimony against anyone, twist no oneâs words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone rashly or without a legitimate hearing. But all these things happened to Jesus on the cross. It is as if the thief now says to the joker: âLook at that Roman officer standing there at the foot of the cross, this officer is a pagan, canât you see
that even he is convinced that the way in which Jesus died is such an unprecedented and world shaking event, that this officer has to admit: âThis man â Jesus - truly was the Son of God !â(Mark 15:39), so please open up your eyes to the truth which is now more apparent than ever, how long can you falsify and deny what is real, how long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal?â. âThe hour is getting lateâ is a biblical metaphor for the approach of the Day of Reckoning (Judgment, it) expresses here that time is running out quickly. Time is piling up for the joker and he has nearly reached the end of his trail, it is now or never. Just like the thief, the joker will die on the cross within the next few hours. The joker must come to a decision now. The thief now gently urges the joker, in the same way Dylan would do later at the beginning of this century when he performed the bluegrass gospel song â This world can't stand longâ 38 times in concert: âT his world it canât stand long, be ready don't wait too late, â.
We now come to the final verse which, as we said above, should actually be the first verse. It was Dave Van Ronk, a fan and mentor of Dylan at the time, who remarked that the â Alongâ of âAll along the watchtowerâ, is simply a mistake. A watchtower is not a road or a wall, and you can't go along it. In van Ronkâs eyes it was a poetic liberty Dylan thought he could get away with. Probably the words â All alongâ were inserted for rhythm purposes or to focus not on what happened on the watchtower but on what happened alongside the watchtower, the activities surrounding the watchtower. We also remarked above that he whole of the discussion between the joker and the thief on the cross is marked by this verse. This verse â All along the watchtower, princes kept the viewâŚetc. â reflects the Book of Isaiah Chapter 21: 5-9 which reads: â Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower , eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint 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 he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: 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 â. This prophecy of the great Prophet Isaiah (740-639 BC) focusses on the fall of the great Neo- Babylonian Empire. A typical phenomenon of the prophecy of the Old Testament is that a prophecy may have multiple fulfillments throughout the history of this world, even without
riders of Isaiah 21:7; they may be, in a figurative sense, the joker and the thief, approaching your life house, urging you to make a decision: â which side are you on? âor the two riders may be, also in a figurative sense, the last two witnesses of Revelation 11.This final line warns us: âwhatever you wish to keep, youâd better grab it fastâ because the hour is getting late, the hour is near.
In part 1 of this analysis we raised the question why this song is so important for Dylan. Does Dylan see himself as some sort of a prophet like Ezekiel? Ezekiel received orders from the LORD: â Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for meâ. (Ezekiel 33:7) During his 1979/1980 gospel tour we hear Dylan say in a stage rap: âYears ago they ... said I was a prophet. I used to say, "No I'm not a prophet" they say "Yes you are, you're a prophet." I said, "No it's not me." They used to say "You sure are a prophet." They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say Jesus Christ is the answer. They say, "Bob Dylan's no prophet." They just can't handle it â. In his 2004 CBS interview Dylan says that people use to say to him: " 'You're the prophet. You're the savior.' I never wanted to be a prophet or savior. Elvis maybe. I could easily see myself becoming him. But prophet? No.". We conclude that it is true that Dylan never regarded himself as a prophet with a capital âPâ, speaking with divine authority like the biblical prophets. I Corinthians 14, however, says that all Christians may be in a sense prophets, but they are prophets with a small âpâ and Dylan is certainly one of them. And that is why this song is so important to him.
