Dagens Dylan # 31

“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.”

“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.”

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.

(All Along The Watchtower, 1968 )

Om den förra låten på Dagens Dylan, Sad-Eyed Lady of The Lowlands, tillhör de sånger som Bob Dylan aldrig framfört live, innehar All Along The Watchtower den motsatta positionen.

Det är helt enkelt den låt han framfört allra flest gånger.

För den med intresse för mer exakta siffror rekommenderas läsning i Michael Grays bibel The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, där författaren under uppslagsordet All Along The Watchtower levererar utförlig statistik, som rundas av så här:

But nothing could be more dramatic, effective or welcome than if he were to come on stage with an acoustic guitar and try to sing it as he’d heard and recorded it in the first place, in late 1967, before Jimi Hendrix.

Dylan har nämligen, ända sedan han framförde All Along The Watchtower första gången, spelat den så som Jimi Hendrix valde att göra sin version, som kom ut på albumet Electric Ladyland, i september 1968. Hendrix påbörjade dock arbetet med All Along The Watchtower redan i januari 1968, bara veckorna efter att Dylan släppt sitt åttonde album, John Wesley Harding.

Men eftersom Dylan inte turnerade mellan 1966 och 1974 hann Jimi Hendrix köra den live ett antal gånger först. Och hans betydligt rockigare version kom att inspirera Dylan.

Första gången Dylan spelade sången live var under den så kallade comeback-turnén, efter nyåret 1974. Det allra första framträdandet var den 3 januari, på Chicago Stadium i Chicago, då han framförde den som nionde nummer.

Bob Dylan förklarar själv sin fascination för Hendrix’ version i texthäftet till Biograph, där en lysande inspelning från 1974 års turné (14 februari Los Angeles) är inkluderad:

I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way. Funny though, his way of doing it and my way of doing it weren’t that dissimilar, I mean the meaning of the song doesn’t change like when some artists do other artists’ songs. Strange though how when I sing it I always feel like it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way. He did a lot of my other songs too from that period … “Drifters Escape”, “Like A Rolling Stone”, “Crawl Out Your Window”, some others I don’t remember. He would have done “Masters of War” exactly the way I do it now. First time I saw him, he was playing with John Hammond. He was incredible then. I’d already been to England and beyond, and although he didn’t sing, I kinda had a feeling that he figured into things. The last time I saw him was a couple of months before he died. He was in that band with Buddy Miles. It was an eerie scene. He was slouched down in the back of a limousine. I was riding by on a bicycle. I remember saying something about that song “Wind Cried Mary”, it was a long way from playing behind John Hammond. That was my favorite song of his-that and “Dolly Dagger” … I don’t know, it was strange, both of us were a little lost for words, he’d gone through like a fireball without knowing it, I’d done the same thing like being shot out of a cannon … I was thinking about him the other night – I really miss him a lot, him and Lennon … “All Along The Watchtower”, it probably came to me during a thunder and lightning storm. I’m sure it did.