| Bob Dylan – All Along the Watchtower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Also the joker and the thief are not apathetic. 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 not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late." The thief reminds the joker that they came to realise that life is no joke,and that escapism is just a tool of those who wish to secure their privileges. Thus he urges the joker to ride on towards the watchtowers and to leave all false doubts behind |
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| Bob Dylan – All Along the Watchtower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Ok, we should put some things in contest. The song is written in 1967,a year before the great social uprising throughout the world. Dylan was obviously left oriented but was also raised in a religious enviorment, thus the biblical imagery. The joker and the thief represent two sorts of social outcasts. The joker represents the class of people which denounce the system because they realise it's flaws and find it unjust. This is probably a more middleclass and intelectual stand. The thief on the other hand is also an outcast but he is not an outcast by choice. Thievery is in most cases a result of poverty. The majority of those who steal do it because they need to eat and feed their families so the thief here represents the more down-to-earth proletarian ,working class side of the social outcasts. They are obviously the two riders approaching the watchtower. It is suggested here that they are in a silent march towards something which symbolises the capitalist/social darwinist society. The princes are concerned. They observe the situation from their watchtowers, the princes being the capitalist, those who own the wine and the earth mentioned in the first verse. That is a reference to the unjustness of private property. The land and its fruits should be for everyone, including the jokers and the theives of the world. So,the princes are concerned,yet not that much,here Dylan realises that the social movements only managed so far to stir the structure, the watchtowers,but not yet to endanger it. Yet the last verse is essential. It somewhat gives a glimpse of things to come. The wildcat growl and the wing that howls give you an unsettling sentiment,it sends goosebumps up your spine. You can feel a tension. The two riders are approaching. And when they come too close to the wathctowers there will be conflict. |
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