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"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.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen 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 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."
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, the wind began to howl.
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen 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 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."
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, the wind began to howl.
Lyrics submitted by oofus, edited by CrimsnEdge
Track duration: 02:31
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There are 12 verses, giving 12 / 2 = 6 couplets..
The joker refers to his manager who was trying to make him feel better after all of the pressures of the music business. When Dylan got into the accident, the manager never contacted EMS and they attempted to find their way home without people knowing Dylan got into an accident!. Hence, There must be some way out of here. The thief responds kindly no need to get excited meaning: I am okay don't worry!
A lot of it goes right to the Four Horsemen.
The thief is a legitimate criminal.
The irony is that they are both imprisoned in the same place.
The joker is confused as to why he has been imprisoned. Besides, all he did was speak his mind about how the lower class are mistreated by the upper ie: businessmen. And how none of the lower class do anything about it. They don't know or care about their own worth and the worth of our world. The upper and lower treat life like some kind of joke.
Most criminals, from the streets, are not confused by these issues because they live it daily. They know the world is corrupt, there are no REAL rules. Which is why they steal. Its only wrong when you get caught. The thief also knows that one day everyone will wake up to this. That will be the day the people who caused all the confusion will get whats coming to them. He can hear it on the street.
Maybe the joker and the thief's sentence is to be carried out soon hence the hour getting late. So, calm down Mr. Joker, its just a matter of time.
All along the watchtower, or the borders of our nations, the rich and powerful can see some kind of storm coming. why do you think people hide their money offshore? The criminals can sense it thats why they steal all they can get in the time they have. Live it up, right?
And you have all these jokers speaking their minds and being punished either by criminals or the powerful. The jokers are trying to prevent what ever is going to happen from being a bad thing. However hopeless it is to try.
So, as everyone is seeing that something big is about to happen, the women and servants want no part. They are getting the heck out of there.
The wildcat is natures revulsion to what we have become. Sometimes I think it is nature that shrinks and flinches away from us, rather than us invading it.
So, finally the riders (war and death) have come, with a storm heralding them, to destroy the world as we know it.
All that will be left are jokers, thieves, women, and ex-servants.
1st verse, God is looking at his creation and no one acknowledges Him, they just use everything up for their own ends, He's sorry he made it all. (many think if there is a God he must be a 'Joker' because of all the pain and sorrow.)
2nd verse, Satan the thief cleverly talks to God saying he already knows this, but we've covered this ground (Eden?) and it's time to move to the end game.
3rd verse, some people are wondering what it's about, looking for a meaning of life (seems like only the princes are watching, perhaps Princes = the wise people among us). God and Satan come riding, there IS something more than meets the eye and the world will soon see it in the end of days.
Testing
Reasons revolve and lightly touched they softly shimmer
Monumental precepts to oasis
Thoughtlessly the will dissolves the tiny fortunes
And returns to darkened alleys, ergo stasis
Hollow impetus ignores the light of dawn
The waking lingers as it blends the last sensations
Now fast forward till the evening stars are drawn
Bleeding out before us, shifting constellations
Some hurt removed the restless pace of silent living
Indulgent injuries becoming less neglected
Blindly lust perfumed anonymous occasions
Preferred but never valued or expected
Weary consciousness exhausts the light of day
The worker struggles till he meets his expectations
Now fast forward till the stars are pushed away
Bleeding out before us, shifting constellations
Rick Delmonico
Read more at songmeanings.net/songs/view/5727/
has three effect on the listener:
1. It shows that this story is cyclical in the history of humanity ("all of this has happened before and will happen again"). This is strengthened by using archetypes that can be recognized throughout the history, thus they are eternal: joker, thief, businessman, plowman, prince, woman, servant.
2. It creates tension: even without an open conflict, you can feel the drama from the first word of the song.
3. It sends the message that all this is happening right now.
II. The first verse
The joker archetype has many layers. In relation to this song he's intelligent, uses his head rather than his hand, although he's not doing the actual work he coordinates the "plowmen" and the process of making goods, but most importantly he says the absolute truth when it seems he just fools around. (Traditionally only the jester had the right to tell the king the complete and harsh truth, even though he seemed only as a fool making jokes.)
So when he says these things he says the absolute truth: businessmen who doesn't know the value of goods, though they trade with them, plowmen who also doesn't know the value, though they are the ones who do the "hard" work. This is confusion, but true: only the joker can see the whole system, the whole society, and know the real value of the goods. He's in the system, but wants out of it, he desires a world where everything is in its right place: everybody respects what everybody else does.
In his speech he implicitly and seemingly insults the thief, because usually the thief is the one who doesn't know the value of things, because he just takes them from others.
III. Second verse
But what he says doesn't insult the thief ("he kindly spoke"). They are both partly outsiders and has the perspective to see things as they are. The thief says that there are many among them (those who has the perspective - clever, middle-class,partly outsiders), who think that life is but a joke, but confusingly he states that he and the joker are not among them. Instead of dislike each other, the joker and the thief teamed up, they acknowledge each other's true nature. Their allience is what starts the event in the story.
Now let's talk about the thief archetype. Like the joker he has also two face. Normally a thief takes other people's values, but our myths are full of the opposite: Prometheus who "steals" the fire and gives it to humanity, the Good Thief in the Bible beside Christ on the cross who offers us true wisdom and of course Robin Hood.
Altough teamed up, the thief warns the joker not to talk falsely. He approves the joker's assessment of the system, but that's not all there is. What can be worse than confusion in the value of goods, work, so material things? Confusion in inner, moral and spiritual values. So this thief offers us wisdom.
And their dialogue stops abruptly with "the hour is gettin late". They don't have any more time to talk, things are changing. Maybe they are the ones who can't wait more with acting on their beliefs or knowledge. In any case the thief hopes that the joker understands what he told him.
IV. Third verse
And their dialogue gets a context. The princes, the leaders try to figure out what's happening, because something IS happening. The submissive, acceptive and caring women come and go, so those who are the cornerstones and protectors of a community feel that something is going on. They show their feelings not with brooding but making unnecessary moves as do the servants who serve the system's leaders and the system's providers.
A creature of the wild nature, a part that lives in all people, a predator signs the beginning of the turbulence with his growl.
And now we know that the cause of the turbulence is the two riders who are approaching from a distance... and the storm is coming.
The lyric starts again: the two rider, not other than the thief and the joker arrived because at the end of their part they had, have or will have to stop talking...
Testing
Reasons revolve and lightly touched they softly shimmer
Monumental precepts to oasis
Thoughtlessly the will dissolves the tiny fortunes
And returns to darkened alleys, ergo stasis
Hollow impetus ignores the light of dawn
The waking lingers as it blends the last sensations
Now fast forward till the evening stars are drawn
Bleeding out before us, shifting constellations
Some hurt removed the restless pace of silent living
Indulgent injuries becoming less neglected
Blindly lust perfumed anonymous occasions
Preferred but never valued or expected
Weary consciousness exhausts the light of day
The worker struggles till he meets his expectations
Now fast forward till the stars are pushed away
Bleeding out before us, shifting constellations
Rick Delmonico