Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” raises more questions than answers.
One of Bob Dylan’s great songs is “All Along the Watchtower” from his John Wesley Harding album. Dylan’s eighth album remains one of his great accomplishments. Released in December of 1967, seven months after The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band, the acoustic sound of John Wesley Harding appears as a stark contrast to the psychedelic sounds from across the ocean.
The lyrics to “All Along the Watchtower” raise more questions than answers, but that is the brilliance of the song. Who are the princes and the two riders? Who is the joker and who is the thief, and why did the joker tell the thief, “There must be some way out of here”?
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.
Nerdwriter 1 created a short video exploring the depth of “All Along the Watchtower,” a song you may have thought was a simple tale. But in the video, Nerdwriter1 dissects some of the mysteries behind the lyrics, and why the brilliance of the song helps explain why Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in literature. Check it out.
Some believe that Dylan is the “Joker” in the song, while Elvis Presley is the “Thief.” Others surmise how the two characters are really different sides of Dylan. Still others see a Biblical reference, with Jesus as the Joker and the Thief being the thief on the cross. There is no one answer, but a great thing about the song is how it can make you think and find your own interpretation.
Another wonderful feature, as Jimi Hendrix knew, is the way the song rocks.
What do you think is the meaning behind “All Along the Watchtower”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Although Bruce Springsteen is generally known for clean lyrics, he does occasionally use swear words. Perhaps because he rarely inserts the f-word or graphic imagery, when he does do so, the language usually has a special impact on the listener.
Some of the songs where Springsteen uses the f-word include “Long Time Comin’,”
Long Time Comin’
The first time Springsteen used the “f-word” in lyrics on an official record was in “Long Time Comin’,” which appeared on Devils & Dust (2005). “Long Time Comin'” is one of my favorite Springsteen songs and it makes effective use of one simple swear word.
Many think of Springsteen for his songs of youth and escape, but as he has aged the topics of many of his songs have matured with him. In “Long Time Comin’,” the adult singer remembers his own father not being around during the singer’s childhood as the singer reflects on his own family.
In one of Springsteen’s most beautiful lines, he notes that his one wish for his children is that they will make their own mistakes. As the Western-themed song closes, the young family is camping:
“Well there’s just a spark of a campfire left burnin’; Two kids in a sleeping bag beside; Reach ‘neath your shirt, put my hands across your belly And feel another one kickin’ inside; And I ain’t gonna fuck it up this time.”
The f-word comes out of nowhere, but it makes it all the more powerful because it is exactly how many men would describe the joy and fear of having a child. Perfect.
Queen of the Supermarket
Another recent song where Springsteen effectively drops the f-bomb is “Queen of the Supermarket,” which also may be one of Springsteen’s most hated songs. Still, others try to defend it. In the song from Working on a Dream (2009), the singer begins with the wonders of the modern grocery store:
There’s a wonderful world where all you desire, And everything you’ve longed for is at your fingertips; Where the bittersweet taste of life is at your lips, Where aisles and aisles of dreams await you. . .
The opening reminds me of Don DeLillo’s great novel White Noise, where the character’s existential angst is reflected in the description of the modern supermarket, a place that takes an unusual role in modern people’s lives. Springsteen, however, goes from there into more typical Springsteen territory with the singer longing for one of the cashiers: “The way she moves behind the counter/Beneath her white apron her secret remains hers.”
While I understand why some people hate the song, it does capture a common human experience of seeing someone and for that moment feeling like you are falling in love. But what really saves the song for me, is the rare Springsteen f-bomb. “As I lift my groceries in to my car, I turn back for a moment and catch a smile That blows this whole fucking place apart.”
As in “Long Time Comin’,” Springsteen saves the f-bomb for the end of the song for maximum effect, and it works here, expressing the depth of the singer’s feelings and making the song a highlight on the album. Again, if you are going to swear, you are much more effective if you save it for special occasions, and falling in love — or even obsession — is one of those occasions.
Harry’s Place
More recently, the f-word appeared in “Harry’s Place” from Springsteen’s 2014 album High Hopes. But the word in this song lacks the dramatic impact of the word’s use in other Springsteen songs and almost seems gratuitous: “You don’t fuck with Harry’s money, you don’t fuck Harry’s girls.”
There is nothing wrong with the lyrics of the song, it is just that the use of the f-word in “Harry’s Place” lacks the dramatic impact of his graphic words or imagery in other songs. But it is still a good song.
Other Dirty Springsteen Songs
Springsteen’s use of the f-bomb seems to be a more recent phenomena. But he earlier had used other swear words in “The Big Payback,” a B-side and outtake from 1982’s Nebraska album.
Perhaps he became more comfortable with using the f-word in his art when, during his acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad tour in the mid-1990s, he regularly gave a semi-serious and semi-humorous suggestion that audience members tell chatty neighbors to “shut the f-up.” His comments led some to call the Tom Joad tour, the “Shut the F-Up Tour.”
In another unreleased song, Springsteen incorporated the f-word into the mostly spoken-word song, “Pilgrim in the Temple of Love.” Like “Long Time Comin’,” Springsteen performed the song during his solo Devils & Dust tour.
“Pilgrim in the Temple of Love” recounts a Christmas Eve visit to a strip club, ending with a drunken vomiting Santa who wishes everyone, “Merry Christmas to all you assholes/ And to all a good fucking night!” Below is a December 12, 1996 performance in Cincinnati, Ohio, featuring some additional swearing in the introduction.
“Pilgrim in the Temple of Love” is played for humorous effect, so the cursing serves that purpose. Yet, because of the humor in “Pilgrim in the Temple of Love,” the swearing does not give the surprise and depth as it does in “Long Time Comin'” and “Queen of the Supermarket.”
Springsteen has described sexual acts in songs without using swear words. For example, he sang about getting on your knees to taste a “Red-Headed Woman.”
Springsteen’s song that probably has the most graphic description of sex does not actually use the f-word. In “Reno,” off of Devils & Dust, the singer sings about an encounter with a prostitute. Several lines are graphic, including where the woman explains, “‘Two hundred dollars straight in/ Two-fifty up the ass’ she smiled and said.”
But unlike “Pilgrim in the Temple of Love,” the singer’s adventure in “Reno” is not for humor. And it is one of Springsteen’s most heartbreaking and beautiful songs. As the sexual encounter begins, the singer thinks back to a lost love named Maria. By the end of the encounter with the nameless prostitute, he closes with lines so devastating, he does not need to add a curse word.
She brought me another whiskey, Said “Here’s to the best you ever had.” We laughed and made a toast; It wasn’t the best I ever had; Not even close.
Of course, a songwriter would not expect graphic songs or songs with swear words to get radio airplay. Still, a songwriter could get by with merely using symbolic wordplay as in “Born to Run” (“Just wrap your legs ’round these velvet rims / And strap your hands ‘cross my engines”).
Perhaps Springsteen has loosened up as he has aged. Or maybe he no longer worries about radio play due to the development of other avenues for accessing music through the Internet that do not require radio deejays or MTV.
Whatever the reason for the evolution in his lyrics, some of these songs from Springsteen’s most recent decade have revealed a songwriter’s skill continuing to explore effective ways to use language. Even if that language might get your mouth washed out with soap.
What is your favorite Springsteen lyric with a swear word? Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via public domain.
On May 26, 1897, Bram Stoker‘s novel Dracula went on sale in London bookshops. The vampire book would eventually spawn many versions in other media as well as other stories about the Count from Transylvania.
The novel originally only achieved moderate sales, so that Stoker’s obituary in 1912 did not even mentioned the name of the novel Dracula. But a Broadway production in the 1920s started boosting sales of the book. And the real breakthrough came with Universal’s 1931 film that starred Bela Lugosi and was directed by Tod Browning.
A Taste for Love
Many other TV and movie versions followed. Although one of my favorite versions only appeared in part in the excellent comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008).
In that movie, the character Peter Bretter — played by the film’s writer Jason Segal — is working on a puppet play about Dracula. Below, Mila Kunis encourages him to perform one of the play’s songs, “Dracula’s Lament.”
We never see the whole play, entitled A Taste for Love. But at the end of the film we get a good taste of it, which only makes us wish Segal would film the whole thing in a new movie.
The music is surprisingly wonderful, the puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop are brilliant, and actor Bill Hader adds a nice touch. Check it out.
Segel has explained that he really did work on creating the Dracula puppet musical to be its own production. But with help from director Judd Apatow, he concluded it worked better as a segment in another movie rather than as a production all its own. Too bad, but at least we got to see some of it in the very funny Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
I wonder what Bram Stoker would think?
Photo of Bela Lugosi as Dracula via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.
The following is a Guest Post by Brad Risinger, reporting on the James Taylor concert in Greensboro, North Carolina on May 18, 2018.
James Taylor has told interviewers that he was “clinically nervous” in 1968 when he played an audition for Paul McCartney and George Harrison for The Beatles’ new record label, Apple. Returning to his North Carolina roots for a May 18 show at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, he just chuckled introducing the song he played for Sir Paul: “Something in the Way She Moves.” “I wish I could remember it,” he said of the Apple session, “but I’m told I had a good time.”
Playing a show so close to his beginnings in Chapel Hill – where a bridge south of town bears his name – any gaps in his memory are readily forgiven by an aging, but adoring, crowd. At 70, Taylor’s voice remains as soothing as a soft blanket on a cool morning. His longtime backing vocalists – centered around the charismatic Arnold McCuller – may cover small corners of his range that now elude him. But their interlaced voices are so familiar and compatible that it is hard to think about them without each other.
This tour is unabashedly fueled by memory as much as it is music. It was intended as a summer barnstormer with his old pal, Bonnie Raitt. But illness forced her to back out of at least its early dates.
The homey digital graphics package that accompanied most songs featured photos scattered across his more than 50-year career, both phases of his family life and his many band mates. He signed autographs for most of the intermission at the corner of the stage. And he was tugged back for the second set seeming to enjoy the interaction almost as much as his fans.
Stars, of course, play their catalogues. And two robust sets got to most of Taylor’s critical and fan high-water marks. The applause for “Fire and Rain” in the middle of the second set was so sustained my daughter asked if the show was ending. But in a knowing nod to a loyal fan base, the tour of his discography is reminiscent but not reverent.
James Taylor is comfortable with the chronology of a decades-long career, but won’t be the pop star who plays the same show he offered 30 years ago. He will give you what he has, from where he is, understanding where he and his fans have been together.
He confides that “the old jokes are best, told over and over again.” He never fails to tell the story of his nephew James, and the “cowboy lullaby” he wrote for him driving south to see him for the first time (“Sweet Baby James”). But he’ll also offer differing arrangements that feature many of his stalwarts who share the stage, and truncated versions of classics like “Steamroller” that would seem out of place in their old, extended forms. Even a shortish “Steamroller” in Greensboro caused a slightly winded Taylor to offer “that got a little out of hand.”
At a time when the country is foundering to find its way, Taylor has never been shy about his belief that music, and love, work hand in hand to show a path forward. Back in politically purple North Carolina, he uttered not a word of the socially conscious politics that have defined much of his public life. Instead, he offered what he always has in his lyrics: something to hang onto, for each listener in her own way.
He introduced “Jump Up Behind Me” as a song about getting out of New York in the 1960s when his early band, “The Flying Machine,” had flown apart. He called his father, who sensed the moment, and told him not to move and drove to get him in 12 hours. “I was in trouble,” Taylor recalled.
Taylor’s mellow, reflective folk rock has been so enduring in part for this ability to help listeners cope with what cards life deals you along the way. The Carole King mainstays in the show – “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Up on the Roof” – are hopeful and understanding. One of his best ‘80s songs, “Never Die Young,” is written from a bleaker viewpoint. The song counsels that sometimes we are only managing setbacks to get to a better place, as we “cut up our losses into doable doses, ration our tears and sighs.”
But 10,000 people singing “Shower the People” is at the core of the James Taylor experience. A background video board showed 100 or so video clips of Taylor’s friends and random fans singing along in little boxes that resembled the closing scene of the movie “Love Actually.” There are likely few large-scale tours left for Taylor. But it seems that Taylor, and his fans, are just fine with the legacy message of showing kindness to those around you. “Things are gonna be much better if you only will.”
Photo courtesy of Brad Risinger. Leave your two cents in the comments.
One of my favorite podcasts lately has been Cocaine & Rhinestones by Tyler Mahan Coe. In each episode, Coe delves deep into the history of country music in the twentieth century.
Episodes run anywhere between forty minutes and two hours, and each one may examine an artist’s career or may analyze the history behind a certain song, or both. For example, one two-part episode centered on the relationship between Buck Owens and his guitarist Don Rich. Another episode tells the story about how radio stations banned Loretta Lynn’s song, “The Pill.” Another episode focused on Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Bille Joe” while also giving a fascinating overview of Gentry’s career.
Coe does an outstanding job trying to tell the truth behind the stories behind country music. An avid reader, Coe delves into books that tell the stories, comparing versions of events so he can explain his best estimate of what really happened.
Coe’s goal of telling us what really happened is part of the reason why he does not use original interviews but wraps information together to tell us the stories. And at the end of each podcast, Coe also fills us in with “liner notes,” telling us a little more about his sources and other information that might not have fit in the main tale.
As you might guess from the title Cocaine & Rhinestones, Coe does not shy away from the darker legends of country music, such as the first episode about how Ernest Tubb once showed up in slippers to try to shoot someone.
But Coe is most interested in the music behind these artists. His podcasts feature excepts from important songs, and he often breaks them down to help you hear them in a new way.
Coe recently explained to The New Yorker how one of his radio inspirations is Paul Harvey, who hosted, among other shows, The Rest of the Story. I used to listen to those shows as a kid too, and I even bought books with written versions of Harvey’s episodes. So, I can hear the connection, mostly in the way that Coe tells a good story that keeps you entertained while you learn something new.
Tyler Mahan Coe’s background in country music goes back to his birth, as he is the son of country legend David Allan Coe and later played guitar in his dad’s band. Now, he lives in Nashville as he spreads the gospel of country music through the Internet.
So, check, out the episodes from the first season of Cocaine & Rhinestones at the show’s website. Find an artist or topic that interests you and start with that episode. One of my favorites was his take on The Louvin Brothers (Running Wild), which also inspired me to read one of the books Coe recommended.
Yet, part of the joy is learning about people you do not know and the way Coe ties together a number of country music characters throughout the episodes. So, yes, start with a song or artist you think you know already. But, like me, you probably will just give in and decide to go back and listen to all of the episodes of Cocaine & Rhinestones in order. And then you will wait anxiously for Season Two.
What is your favorite episode of Cocaine & Rhinestones? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One of Bob Dylan’s great songs is “All Along the Watchtower” from his John Wesley Harding
Although 
(2005). “Long Time Comin'” is one of my favorite Springsteen songs and it makes effective use of one simple swear word.
(2009), the singer begins with the wonders of the modern grocery store:
, where the character’s existential angst is reflected in the description of the modern supermarket, a place that takes an unusual role in modern people’s lives. Springsteen, however, goes from there into more typical Springsteen territory with the singer longing for one of the cashiers: “The way she moves behind the counter/Beneath her white apron her secret remains hers.”
. But the word in this song lacks the dramatic impact of the word’s use in other Springsteen songs and almost seems gratuitous: “You don’t fuck with Harry’s money, you don’t fuck Harry’s girls.”
On May 26, 1897, 
(2008).
Episodes run anywhere between forty minutes and two hours, and each one may examine an artist’s career or may analyze the history behind a certain song, or both. For example, one two-part episode centered on the relationship between Buck Owens and his guitarist Don Rich. Another episode tells the story about how radio stations banned Loretta Lynn’s song, “The Pill.” Another episode focused on Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Bille Joe” while also giving a fascinating overview of Gentry’s career.
