Editor’s Note: There are certain tracks that are, well, “epic” — memorable, larger than life, carved into music history. In this series, we look at one of them.
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There are some rock songs that are epic, and there are other tunes that are so memorable they achieve epic status not once, but twice. That’s certainly the case with “All Along The Watchtower,” originally written and recorded by Bob Dylan, and later covered by Jimi Hendrix. Dylan’s original version was included on his album John Wesley Harding, which was released in 1967. The songs on this critically acclaimed record featured a more folk and country-leaning sound than his previous disc, Blonde on Blonde. Tracks like “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” and “Drifter’s Escape,” highlight his gifts for ironic wordplay and evocative images. Dylan’s version of “All Along The Watchtower,” is a stark, harmonica-infused tune whose lyrics are often viewed as having Biblical themes, but like much of his work, that’s open to interpretation.
One person who was impressed by “Watchtower” was Jimi Hendrix, who recorded a cover of the song at Olympic Studios in London in early 1968, during sessions for Electric Ladyland, the third album from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. In addition to drummer Mitch Mitchell, Dave Mason of Traffic played 12-string acoustic guitar on the song, while Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones contributed percussion to the track. Bass player Noel Redding, who was having issues with Hendrix at the time, did not play on the tune. Hendrix played lead guitar and bass, and later re-recorded some of his guitar parts at the Record Plant in New York City. The chilling aural landscape created by Hendrix’s expressive vocals and guitar work, as well as the stellar contributions of the rest of the musicians, provide the song with a dark, atmospheric, and almost apocalyptic tone.
“All Along The Watchtower” was released as a single in the fall of 1968, reaching number twenty on the charts in the US, and rising to the top ten in the UK. It became one of the defining records of the 1960s, powerfully expressing the turbulent nature of the decade. Dylan was so impressed by Hendrix’s take on the song that he began performing it in Hendrix’s arrangement. He expressed in the liner notes for his 1985 retrospective collection Biograph that whenever he performs it “I always feel like it’s a tribute to him (Hendrix) in some kind of way.”
“All Along The Watchtower” has been featured in numerous films, including Forrest Gump, A Bronx Tale, and Watchmen. On television, the song was used as a key plot point in the final season of the 2004 iteration of Battlestar Galactica. It’s been covered by artists such as U2, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, and Eddie Vedder. Hendrix’s rendition of the song was ranked at number 40 on the list of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs Of All Time” in 2021. “All Along The Watchtower” isn’t just epic, it’s truly part of the pantheon of classic rock songs.
-John Visconti
Public domain image of Jimi Hendrix
I didn’t know Dave Mason played on this song! Excellent article. I’ll have to check out more of this writer’s work.
Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, John V has been with us for a long time and turns out consistently interesting work.
Both versions are great, both in their different ways are apocalyptic. I get a bit annoyed when someone says the Hendrix version is so much better than the Dylan version. I think John Wesley Harding is one of Dylan’s greatest albums, and AATW is arguably the centrepiece – It’s incredible what is achieved in the starkest terms with guitar, bass, drums and harmonica (the latter a highlight of the album – Dylan’s a great harp player, despite what some cloth-eared critics may say), and of course the lyrics, which say a helluva lot in few words. Hendrix, of course, nailed his version; he was a great Dylan fan, and must have heard, as he was mastering the studio, how he could take it to a cosmic level. I think these two very different versions complement each other.