How Jimi Hendrix Perfected This Bob Dylan Classic

When Bob Dylan heard Jimi Hendrix cover “All Along The Watchtower”, he was overwhelmed by the interpretation.

“He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there,” Dylan said. In fact, it inspired him to rework the original to more closely match the Hendrix reading.

Said the Joker to the Thief

Released in 1968, Electric Ladyland was the third and final release by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. “All Along The Watchtower”, in the guitarist’s hands and voice, explodes with the fury of humans’ struggle to navigate justice and disorder.

“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.”

Balancing an underdog anthem with nihilism, Dylan’s verses foreshadow a kind of reckoning, punctuated by the wailing blues of Hendrix.

“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.”

The Wind Began To Howl

Dylan’s folk-rock original appears on his 1967 album, John Wesley Harding. Following the release of Blonde On Blonde, he had been holed up for months, recording with The Band in West Saugerties, New York, amassing the now-iconic demos, later released as The Basement Tapes in 1975.

During this prolific period, he emerged with a separate batch of songs that made up John Wesley Harding, which was recorded in Nashville.

Meanwhile, Hendrix had planned to record “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine”. Instead, he opted for the LP’s following track, transforming Dylan’s righteous sonnet into a timeless hit.

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.

Photo by Müller-Schneck/ullstein bild via Getty Images