There must be some way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion here
I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None of them know along the line
What any of this is worth, yeah

No reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are many among us
Who think that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that
And that is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
Because the hour is getting late, hey, hey, hey

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While horsemen came and went
Barefoot servants, too

All I got is a red guitar
Three chords and the truth
All I got is a red guitar
The rest is up to you

There's no reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are some among us here
Say that life is just a joke
You and I, we've been through that
And that is not our fate, at least today
So let us not talk falsely now
Because the hour is getting late, late
Yeah


Lyrics submitted by Holladee

All Along the Watchtower Lyrics as written by Bob Dylan

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover) song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    I have been looking at song meanings discussions for months. It wasnt until today, when I made it to the Dead song sites, that I got insulted enough to realize how little people understand about the sixties and seventies music. It seems that people are trying to make Casey Jones about drugs OR a historical RR engineer. That misses the point. By miles. So many people argueing about Hippies and Drug use! WTF are you thinking? I am one of the "Over 50" Hippies and I would like to tell you how I understand these songs. I would like to let you know that I used to smoke pot about every chance I got. I have taken many Hallucinogens over the years, also, just like a LARGE number of people in my generation, and I SHOWER BEFORE I START TO STINK! These songs have blended the drug, historical, fantasy, and humanitarianism so beautifully, that they can never be separated. It would be like seperating the "left" and "right" sides of your brain surgically and expecting to survive and prosper in society using only one side. It would be like never using more than one finger to play a piano. Stop making it so "cut and dry" and "black and white". My generation used the drugs, sex, and rock n roll so that our brains could better integrate ALL of those ideas and think "outside the box". We partied and played a lot, but when we woke up the next morning we started dialing up our engineer peers and worked out ways to improve the electronic amps with them so that we could Have sex, drugs & rocknroll even better the next night. So: everybody is right! the songs were written by evolutionary geniuses who combined words to make a drug experience to night so awesome that, when you learned all the lyrics, you learned something about the past, and then used the lessons to make it a better world tomorrow. It couldnt have been as sucessful without all three components. 'Cause the rock and roll demanded synthesizers, the engineers gave them the FIRST PERSONAL COMPUTERS EVER INVENTED!!!! Are you starting to understand the importance of the hippies who loved, supported, and FINANCED the artists and engineers of of the world into the prosperous, modern societies of the future? Yeah, we may not be the brain surgeons and rocket scientists, but we play our part as the lovers and nurturors that keep the universe together. We are basically Duct Tape!!

    groovyleeon August 12, 2010   Link

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