ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
BOB DYLAN
SONGWRITER: BOB DYLAN
WHERE: AT THE CONCERT FOR THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF
FAME
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: JOHN WESLEY HARDING
LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS
GENRE: FOLK ROCK
YEAR: 1967
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May
24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist. Widely
regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major
figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from
the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin'
in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964)
became anthems for the civil
rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of
political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture.
Following his
self-titled debut album in 1962, which
mainly comprised traditional folk songs,
Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the following
year. The
album features "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex
"A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". For
many of these songs, he adapted the tunes and phraseology of older folk songs. He
went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In
1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy when he adopted
electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three
of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway
61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966). Commenting on the six-minute single "Like
a Rolling Stone" (1965), Rolling Stone wrote: "No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and
transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all
time."
In
July 1966, Dylan withdrew from touring after a motorcycle accident. During
this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of
the Band,
who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were released as the
collaborative álbum The
Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early
1970s, Dylan explored country
music and rural themes in John
Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969), and New
Morning (1970). In 1975, he released Blood
on the Tracks, which many saw as a return to
form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again
Christian and released a series of albums of
contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based
idiom in the early 1980s. Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind marked the
beginning of a renaissance for his career. He has released five critically
acclaimed albums of original material since then, the most recent being Rough
and Rowdy Ways (2020). He also recorded a series of
three albums in the 2010s comprising versions of traditional American standards,
especially songs recorded by Frank
Sinatra. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians,
he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour.
Since
1994, Dylan has published eight books of drawings and paintings, and his work
has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has
sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards,
a Golden
Globe Award and an Academy Award.
Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize Board in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture,
marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". In 2016,
Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for
having created new poetic expressions within the great American song
tradition"
"All Along the Watchtower" is a
song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
The song initially appeared on his 1967 album, John
Wesley Harding, and it 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.
Covered by numerous artists in various
genres, "All Along the Watchtower" is strongly identified with the
interpretation Jimi Hendrix recorded for the album Electric
Ladyland with the Jimi
Hendrix Experience. The Hendrix version, released
six months after Dylan's original recording, became a Top 20 single
in 1968, received a Grammy
Hall of Fame award in 2001, and was ranked 47th
in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.
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
Business men they
drink my wine
Plow men 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 fell 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 wild cat did growl
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl.
Postagens
