All Along the Watchtower

Song meaning of All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix

In 1968, Hendrix started modifying "All Along the Watchtower" at Electric Lady Studios in New York.

The song had just been released on Dylan's John Wesley Harding. Hendrix built a turbulent four-part solo using the lyric "And the wind began to howl" as a jumping-off point, turning Dylan's succinct foreboding into an electric hurricane.

Dylan recognised Hendrix's genius: Dylan's later renditions of "All Along the Watchtower," such as the one he performed with the Band during their reunion tour in 1974 and on the live album Before the Flood, imitated Hendrix's cover.

All Along The Watchtower lyrics by Jimi Hendrix

"There must be some kind of 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 will level on the line

Nobody offered his word

Hey!"

"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 stop talking falsely now

The hour's getting late

Hey!"

All along the watchtower

Princes kept the view

While all the women came and went

Barefoot servants too

Outside in the cold distance

A wildcat did growl

Two riders were approaching

And the wind began to howl, hey

All along the watchtower

All along the watchtower