1
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 distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl
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 distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl
Lyrics submitted by oofus, edited by CrimsnEdge, Dartman, Backstage
All Along the Watchtower Lyrics as written by Bob Dylan
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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MY INTERPRETATION
Commentators have suggested that Dylan mixed up the chronology in this song perhaps to make the beginning more dramatic and attention grabbing. The temporal beginning of the song is really the third and fourth verse, followed by the first and second verse.
The "Watchtower" is life or even consciousness. "Princes" could be a symbol for those in power but also people like philosophers, thinkers or poets because they are the ones looking out upon life and existence. They "keep the view".
"The women coming and going" is seeing women from a cynical heterosexual male perspective. "They come and go". It is just in the nature of things.
"The barefoot servants, too" - could be a symbolic reference to ordinary people who work, do their jobs and carry on with life without asking too many questions about existence. They are encountered "they come and go" but are irrelevant as to investigating the meaning of life.
The "wildcat growling in the distance" is a reference to the feeling of menace, trepidation and foreboding that anyone really alive can feel.
The "two riders" are the joker and the thief. They symbolise two of societies outsiders who can see things from a very different perspective and are in a good position to comment on existence.
The "joker" realises there is an urgent quandary to existence and wonders if there is a way to do away with the extreme discomfort that life can induce much as someone like Kafka, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and countless others did. He considers his way of seeing life as relentlessly confusing and without answers.
The "joker" goes on to complain about all the exploitation, injustice, ignorance, lack of understanding of true values around him and in the world.
The "thief" consoles him, advising him to keep cool. After all there are many, including himself, who consider existence just a meaningless, mocking piece of mummery.
He says that these are recurring arguments between them. They both know about the absurdities of existence and all they can do is stay true to their vision of things. Time passes and extinction approaches.