Later this week I hope to put up a major piece on “American foreign policy,” a nice euphemism for US imperialism. In the meantime, continuing in my recent musical vein, here is my work-up (this morning) of the Bob Dylan classic “All Along the Watchtower.”’ This is the first time I did a recording of this song that I didn’t hate. What makes it work for me at least is its simple modesty. If you try to replicate the well known kickass rocked-out version of this song on your piano with your little phone voice app no matter how multi-functioned and electric, you will make an even bigger ass out of yourself than usual.
But what follows below is not mainly about the music. I want to get into the words and suggest an interpretation appropriate for communistically inclined (and other decent) folks in 2024, when the hour is most definitely getting late.
Okay so let me dig into the lyrics of Dylan classic. I fully admit that my interpretation is loaded with political projection :)
There must be some kind of way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief
Street: no shit. The world today — under the sadistic and pathological and parasitic rule of capitalism-imperialism — is a nightmarish Hell. Millions upon millions of people have no fucking idea of what’s really happening and why. They are confused. They’ve got their heads up their asses. I can’t take it anymore. There’s got to be some way out of this mess!
Business men, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None will level on the line
Nobody offered his word
Hey, hey
Street: So all these years I’ve had this wrong: I thought it was “None of them along the line know what any of it’s worth.” Seriously, that’s what I thought and its what is said/sang in my audio :) To which I thought: “yep, agribusiness and other capitalists are raping and killing the Earth and have no care or concern for the value of the planet.” I’m not sure what to make of “None will level on the line, nobody offered his word,” though that does seems to suggest nefarious dishonesty and dark intentions on the part of “business men” and farmers who take from the planet without giving back
No reason to get excited
Street: disagree.
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin' falsely now
The hour's getting late, hey
Street: yes, let’s drop the cynicism and dark pessimism/fatalism/indifference. We’ve been there and done that. Let’s get real about what’s happening in the world and our ability to change things with revolution for a new way of living (. The hour is getting late? No shit: capitalism-imperialism has brought us to the precipice of ecocide, terminal war, pandemicide, and fascism, with constant false rhetoric and imagery.
No bullshit. Always tell the truth. Bob Avakian: “the truth is good for the proletariat/the revolution” (paraphrase).
And yes, I know of course that Bob (Dylan) recoiled against calls for him to be a trubador of revolution - or even of reform.
Hey
All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants, too
Well, uh, outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl, hey
Street: All these years I thought it was “the Princess kept the view.” :) but that’s no big deal. Here I put a positive spin on “princes.” Think of them not as aristocratic oppressors but rather as those using science and intelligence to stand above the mass of humanity on the vital and necessary watchtower to detect and warn against menace to the people. And guess what: apocalyptic horsemen (the “riders” conjured by our insane class rule system) are approaching, forces of nature humanity has brought to life (think how fossil capitalism has conjured up the current deepening climate catastrophe). Ever been around a tornado, hurricane, typhoon, derecho? The wind howls and its gonna how like never before in the age of capitalogenic climate change.
Think of the princes and princesses on the watchtower as Earth scientists who have been trying to warn about the climate horesman who is already showing his deadly face to us right now in this already late hour full of howling winds. And the other scientists who warn of nuclear war, which will bring no small cold distance.
Yes, I am importing stuff/analysis but I do that sometimes :) It’s fun.
BTW, Bob Dylan’s birthday is one day after mine. If my mother had held back 20 more minutes, it’d be the same day.
Let Us Not Talk Falsely Now