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"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Dr. Hunter S. Thompson  "It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it." David Stanowski To find older articles; use Search or Site Map |
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Wednesday 12 July 2006 All Along The Watchtower! I never was a big Bob Dylan fan. I was aware of much of his work during The Golden Age of Rock and Roll, but he was doing mostly Folk music, so I was focused elsewhere! However, my interest in Dylan was re-kindled, over the last two weeks, as I watched the documentary, “Bob Dylan – No Direction Home”. I was intrigued enough by the film to do a little research, to refresh my memory, and to get a new perspective on this legendary figure in the music world! It seemed to me that the film makers didn’t really understand this man, because their approach to him was from a political point of view, as was the case for most of those who were interviewed in the film. They tried to make Bob Dylan into a political figure, rather than seeing him as a poet, and a spiritual Channel; which is probably a lot closer to the truth!  Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman, in May of 1941, and he grew up listening to Rock and Roll, Blues, and Country music, in Northern Minnesota. His early musical efforts were in these same genres, and he played harmonica, piano and electric guitar in his first bands. However, by the time he left home, after graduating from high school, he had swerved off of "Highway 61", into the Folk genre, and began to see himself as the next Woodie Guthrie. It wasn’t long before the Folk circuit took Bob to New York, where he immediately fell in with the musicians and poets in Greenwich Village. They were all involved in the Protest Movement, of the day, which sought to replace the American Patriarchy with a new Matriarchy based on Marxist principals. As Dylan became famous and popular, his friends embraced the inspiring lyrics of his songs as a call to arms for their cause; but were they totally wrong? The documentary does make it clear that, although Bob Dylan wrote what could be called “protest songs”, he was not really part of the political Protest Movement, and was certainly not its leader, as his friends wished him to be. He did perform at some demonstrations, but did not attend unless he was going to play. As I discovered, in my research, even though his friends were not aware of it, Dylan seemed to have some strong religious leanings, even in his earliest days, in the music business, and many of his lyrics were inspired by Biblical verses! On 29 July 1966, Dylan crashed his motorcycle, broke his neck, and was laid up for a long period of time. This gave him the chance to escape from the pressures of stardom, and from those who were still trying to use him as the figurehead of their cause. During his recuperation, he began to study the Bible every day. One of the first songs to emerge from this new religious period was “All Along the Watchtower”. This tune is said to be inspired by the Book of Isaiah, from the Old Testament, which set forth the proposition that "watchmen" should go to a "watchtower" to look for a sign that Babylon had fallen. That sign was the approach of “a couple of horsemen”. In 1979, Bob Dylan appeared to leave behind his Jewish roots, when he became a Born-Again Christian. However, by the mid-1980s, he was deeply involved in Hasidic Judaism, so his choice of an organized religion was unclear. Looking back over the span of his life, it would probably be more accurate to say that he was independently searching for his own personal spiritual authenticity; to find his inner light, with little need to belong to an organized religion. His experiences with Christianity, and Hasidic Judaism are probably just parts of his never- ending journey! It was very interesting to watch interviews in the film where Dylan maintained that he had little understanding of the "true meaning" of the profound, and poetic lyrics that flowed through him. He just seems to act as a Channel for the messages that some Higher Power wants to send to the world. One of his producers even said that when you are with Dylan in the studio, you just stand back, and get out of his way because "The Spirit" just flows through him! When he was first getting started, Dylan gravitated to Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Allen Ginsberg, and others, who were committed atheists and Marxists. They used his songs as anthems for their struggle to overthrow the religiously-based Patriarchal system that built this country. For this reason, the true irony of Bob Dylan's life may be that his often apocalyptic lyrics were really warning us of the havoc that his friends were about to let loose on this country, but no one, including Dylan himself, understood that at the time!  A few months after its release in
late 1967,
Jimi Hendrix
heard “All
Along the
Watchtower” for the first time. He was
immediately inspired
to cover it with
his own unique Rock
and Roll interpretation. Jimi used it as
the opportunity to record some of the most famous and memorable guitar
solos in history, including a section where he used a metallic matchbox
for a slide. After his version was released, in 1968, even Dylan
admitted that it became the definitive
interpretation, and many people
still believe that Hendrix wrote
the song. It was Jimi’s
only Top 40 hit
in the U.S.,
during his lifetime!Since it’s 1967 release many other bands have covered this classic tune, but how do the cosmic events of 1966, 1967 and 1968 tie in with the music scene in Galveston, today? RECAP: On 29 July 1966, the greatest poet of the last four decades was severely injured in a motorcycle crash. Only two days later; on 31 July 1966, a boy named Jeff Pennington was born on a large sandbar in the Gulf of Mexico. In late 1967, our rock poet composes a song proclaiming that the modern Babylon (United States) had fallen. In 1968, the greatest guitar player of all time transforms the poet's song into a Rock and Roll anthem! FAST FORWARD: The young lad on the sandbar discovers the guitar. Sometime later, he hears Jimi play “All Along the Watchtower”, and vows that, some day, he too will perform this song as the great Master had; as a tribute, and as a measure of his own ability. It will take a lot of work, and he must wait until the time is right! Eventually, Jeffrey P. learns this apocalyptic song, but, he is not a squirrelly kid from Minnesota with an acoustic guitar, and a harmonica strapped around his neck! No, he is NOT a folk singer! His destiny is to play a left-handed Stratocaster, in a Rock and Roll band, just as Jimi had; BUT it must be the RIGHT BAND! It has to be a band that can play songs like “All Along the Watchtower”! It’s now 2004, and Jeffrey P. joins The Line Up! This is a band that is gifted enough to stand on the shoulders of the poet from Minnesota, and the guitar player from Seattle; and let it rip!! It all begins with the Foundation! Willy G. starts it off by laying down an anguished drum beat that sounds just like the horsemen who are galloping toward us with apocalyptic news! Onto this, Stacy C. adds a layer of inspired, urgent baseline, that leaves no doubt what is coming! Then, into this controlled chaos steps Jeffrey P. with an absolutely faithful rendering of Jimi’s searing guitar work! It is a truly astounding performance! How do I KNOW that it is THAT GOOD? Because it gives me the same chills that I got the first time I heard Jimi do it in 1968!! And, I'm not the only one who "gets it", since it seldom fails to draw a standing ovation, no matter who is there to hear it! It is the highlight of their show! When The Line Up performs “All Along the Watchtower”, at the East Beach Pavilion, it is more powerful than at any other location! It is like being at an ancient ceremony re-enacted on a sacred Rock and Roll alter! It is in that special place, that the heavens align to help the band Channel the Power of the Universe! It is as though you have gone back in time to Stonehenge, to watch the Druid High Priests perform one of their sacred rituals! Thank you: Willy Gonzalez, Stacy Cook and Jeffrey Pennington! You have kept the ancient rituals of the Golden Age of Rock and Roll alive! Since Babylon has indeed fallen, as Dylan told us; what else do we have to keep us going? And, if you listen to them play this song, with the right kind of ears; it does sound like it’s 1968 again! ************************************************************** Isaiah 21:5-9 5: Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. 6: For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. 7: And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: 8: And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: 9: And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. ************************************************************** All Along The Watchtower "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. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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