“All Along the Watchtower” (3) is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The final version of “All Along the Watchtower” resulted from two different takes during the second of three John Wesley Harding sessions. The session opened with five takes of the song, the third and fifth of which were spliced to create the album track. As with most of the album’s selections, the song is a dark, sparse work that stands in stark contrast with Dylan’s previous recordings of the mid-1960s. John Wesley Harding was released in December 1967, less than two months after the recording sessions. The song was the second single from the album, released in November 1968, but did not chart. The song has been included on most of Dylan’s subsequent greatest hits compilations. Since the late 1970s, he has performed it in concert more than any of his other songs. Different versions appear on four of Dylan’s live albums.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience began to record their version of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” in January 1968, at Olympic Studios in London. According to engineer Andy Johns, Jimi Hendrix had been given a tape of Dylan’s recording by publicist Michael Goldstein, who worked for Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman. “(Hendrix) came in with these Dylan tapes and we all heard them for the first time in the studio”. Zak summarizes the Hendrix adaptation of the Dylan song in three main points stating: “There are three basic strategies apparent in this transformation (of Dylan’s version): (1) the intensification of essential musical gestures and formal divisions; (2) the introduction of pitch material dissonant with the pentatonic collection of the original; and (3) the tracing of a long-range, goal-directed melodic line over the call-and-response structure of the arrangement. It is in the latter that Hendrix asserts most forcefully his protagonist claim.” In the US, Reprise Records issued the song as a single in September 1968, over a month prior to the album release on Electric Ladyland. It reached number 20 on Billboard chart, Hendrix’s highest ranking American single. Track Records released the single in October and it reached number five in the British charts, becoming the first UK stereo-only single to do so.
Lenny Kravitz regularly covers All Along The Watchtower in his live sets. In this performance from 1999, he echoes both Dylan and Hendrix, whilst Eric Clapton brings his own take on the Hendrix guitar motifs.
Dave Matthews performs an acoustic cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” with Mickey Raphael live at Farm Aid 2001: Concert for America in Noblesville, Indiana in September, 2001. He slows the tempo down and the phrasing of the song is quite different to that of either Dylan or Hendrix.
Paul Weller recorded this ‘English’ take on the song Live @ Studio 150 in 2009. The shredding guitar of Hendrix is not present, it has been replaced by a keyboard. However the song holds together well and moves along with considerable pace. There is just a hint of the Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’, in the background.
Finally, a round of ‘spot the celebrity musician’ in this clip fromthe 1988 Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame show.
