January 16, 2008

Cover & Original - All Along The Watchtower


All Along The Watchtower is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, and it's one of those songs that's covered a lot. Off all the covers that I have, it's got the most versions, good and bad.
There's quite a bit of variety here. The definitive version, by Jimi Hendrix, seems to be the one that's the most copied, although there are some other groups, such as the Dave Matthews Band (who features it regularly in their concerts), who'll do their own take. My favorite version is probably Bear McCreary and BT4's version, which was featured in the show Battlestar Galactica, which was really cool.
Some of the versions that I'm not a huge fan of is the Alexi Murdoch and Blues Traveler set and the one by the Grateful Dead. Just didn't work for me really.

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It's an interesting song, with a number of different meanings through the lyrics. Dylan started writing the song after a motorcycle accident and when he began reading the bible, and there's several biblical and end-of-the-world references in the lyrics.

All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - Bear McCreary
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - The Fratellis
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - Dave Matthew's Band
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - The Grateful Dead
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - Bryan Ferry
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - Alexi Murdoch and Blues Traveler
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - Eddie Vedder and the Million Dollar Bashers
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - Jimi Hendrix
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) / Best of You (Foo Fighters) - Prince
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - U2

All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan