All along the watchower was written and originally recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967, but it was the Jimi Hendrix cover that made the song famous.
This was recorded while Hendrix played with the Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hendrix on guitar, Noel Redding on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. For this song, however, Redding was not on bass; Hendrix did it. Redding was also the guitar player for his band Fat Mattress, which Hendrix referred to as Thin Pillow. Hendrix often felt that Redding did not put his heart into the bass and was concerned that Redding concentrated more on Fat Mattress than he did on the Experience. Things like these led to him being replaced by Billy Cox.
Hendrix said:
"All those people who don't like Bob Dylan's songs should read his lyrics. They are filled with the joys and sadness of life. I am as Dylan, none of us can sing normally. Sometimes, I play Dylan's songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that Watchtower is a song I could have come up with, but I'm sure I would never have finished it. Thinking about Dylan, I often consider that I'd never be able to write the words he manages to come up with, but I'd like him to help me, because I have loads of songs I can't finish. I just lay a few words on the paper, and I just can't go forward. But now things are getting better, I'm a bit more self-confident."
Lyrics
"There must be some kind of 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 will level on the line Nobody offered his word Hey!" "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 stop talking falsely now The hour's getting late Hey!" 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 And the wind began to howl, hey All along the watchtower All along the watchtower
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