All Along the Watchtower

Given the incomparable definitiveness of Jimi Hendrix's version, I would think it takes an enormous amount of chutzpah for any band to tackle All Along the Watchtower, but I just came across a version by Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and the E Street Band that very nearly pulls it off:

But the original is still my favorite:

Comments

[C.E. Petit]

If I might respectfully suggest a little bit of cognitive dissonance as an alternative (and one that has much, much better recording quality), consider this Celtic revival/bluegrass version:

http://www.paperboys.com/audio/THE_PAPERBOYS-All_Along_the-2.m3u

The style is a much better match for the content of the lyrics... not to mention that the musicianship is vastly better than the E-Street Band's, as all the syncopation in the Paperboys version is on purpose.

[Daniel]

You mean the original after Bob Dylan wrote and recorded it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Along_the_Watchtower

I agree that Hendrix's version is now the definite version, but Dylan's original is still great.

[Steve ("Professor") Bainbridge]

Daniel: Original was a poor choice of words. I meant I preferred Hendrix's version, which blows Dylan's out of the water.

[Seppo]

Professor, have you ever heard Barbara Keith's version? Quite spine-tingling, and powerfully sung. However, I am particularly fond of Dylan's original.

[Ole W. Pedersen]

Never seen the Young & Springsteen version before. Good stuff, thanks. Will, however, have to disagree on the Dylan v Hendrix. Dylan's version is in my opinion superior to Hendrix's.

[sam]

That is a nice version, but I agree about Jimi's. BTW, there is a website, http://www.savevid.com/, that will allow you to download the Youtube video to your harddrive. I run Linux, and it's very straightforward for me. I can replay the video anytime I want. I use Totem to do it. I've only encountered one Youtube that I could not download, Ryan Bingham's Bread and Water. Check it out.

[Casey]

C.E., I liked the version you linked, but Jimi still rulez. :)

The irony is that I was going to crack a joke along the lines of "what, no one mentioned Dave Mason!?," then I found a youtube audio of Mason's version. It sounds as if Neil and Bruce ripped off his arrangement.

I mostly wanted to stab icepicks into my ears from the E Street version, but maybe it was there was bad sound editing.

It would have been great to hear Stevie Ray Vaughn's version; I did find a video of Jeff Healey's cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uRex6moyw4