“All Along the Watchtower”

[asterroc]

In case you missed it, the BSG "Final Five" theme is a cover of the Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower". From the iTunes snippits, the Dylan original is as miserable as all Dylan, the Hendrix cover is pretty good, and there are a plethora of other versions I didn't listen to. According to Wikipedia, 11 versions in total. iTunes offers 150 versions total, but that includes multiple versions by the same artists.

Ages ago the_xtina found a page that posted billions and billions of covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in mp3 format. Well now I'm looking for the same for "All Along the Watchtower". Anyone got?

Comments

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

You didn't like the original Dylan song?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

As I just mentioned to ferret who IMed me nearly the same thing, I don't like *any* Dylan. His voice is not melodic enough for me and drifts around like he's incapable of staying on key. Ferret pointed out that Dylan is not singing, he's telling a story, but I listen to it as bad singing rather than good storytelling.

[best-ken-ever.livejournal.com]

Dylan took me a very long time to like at all. It took me listening to music in between my old comfort zone for folk/folk rock and Dylan in order to stretch to there. In doing so, I've discovered one of my favorite artists.

If you're curious, I recommend an Idahoan by the name of Josh Ritter.

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

i much prefer the arrangement and energy of the Jimi Hendrix version. i do like some Dylan, but i heard the Hendrix version before i heard the Dylan version and it's just a lot more fun. the Grateful Dead version is marginally better but it's still pretty close to Dylan's.

i prefer the Simon & Garfunkel version of The Times They Are A-Changing for the reasons zandperl cites.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I have a CD ("All The King's Men") done by an 12-voice male a capella group from Carleton College, the Carleton Singing Knights. It's a thing of beauty. Very different arrangement from any other I've heard. Sadly unavailable on iTunes. If you're fond of a capella, let me know and I can email this track to you (and if you like that, I can point you to where you can buy the album, I think).

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I *am* fond of a capella - I sing it even. zandperl-AT-gmail

[best-ken-ever.livejournal.com]

You sing it even? Since when? Where? With whom?

I went to school with a guy who did this live mashup on voice/acoustic guitar of "All Along the Watchtower" with "Stairway to Heaven". It was about 10-11 minutes and epic. Sadly, the only surviving recording is really, really, trashy.

I have a few other covers of live people performing Watchtower. Definitely Dave Matthews Band, and at least one of {Indigo Girls, Dixie Chicks}, I forget which. Poke me tonight?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I've been in a capella and madrigal groups off and on since around 10th grade (1994). I'm currently in a small a capella group at the college where I teach. We perform primarily at graduation and do caroling around the winter holidays. We have lots of fun arguments about religion that time of year. My classical singing voice (Soprano II) is much softer than my pop singing voice (which is not all that loud either), but I've got a decent ear for pitch. My sightreading skills are poor but non-zero, which makes me better than most of my current chorale.

*Poke* Care to email or link me any of those renditions? My gmail account can take it.

a capella, etc.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I've sung in a number of groups (a capella, vocal jazz, symphonic chorales, etc. including some semi-pro stuff), as well as instrumental stuff (horn). I used to study classical voice and horn, but not since my first year in college.

Haven't had time since the kids arrived to keep up with a group, but I'm hoping that sometime in the next couple of years I can get back into doing music on a more organized basis than teaching my 4-year-old how to sing the main theme from "Ode to Joy" in the original German. :)

(I usually sing either Bass I or II, depending; there are people that sing a lot lower than I can, but I've got a lot of resonance almost until I bottom out.)

Yay for decent ear for pitch. :)

Side note: I'd love to have a copy of the Indigo Girls doing AATW; Dixie Chicks might be interesting, too.

The Carleton group rendition should be in your inbox now; let me know if it didn't arrive.

Re: a capella, etc.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Thanks, received it in my inbox, though the actual downlaoding and listening will have to wait until I get home later tonight.

Edit: I've been in choruses off and on since 5th grade (circa 1988). My 15 minutes of choral fame was in around 7th grade when my middle school chorus sang backup on Pete Seeger at Carnegie Hall.

Re: a capella, etc.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Pete Seeger? Awesome!

I'm not sure what my analogous 15 minutes would be. I haven't performed in Carnegie Hall, although I have in the Kennedy Center a couple of times (not as a soloist!). A youth orchestra I was in once did a concert series with Bob McGrath of Sesame Street (one of those 'young person's guide to the orchestra' concerts, in which Bob at one point accidentally described a harp as being the only instrument with 47 pedals and 7 strings :P :) ).

Re: a capella, etc.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Heh, you must either be older than me or else a fan of folk music, as my generation usually does not know Pete Seeger. :) I also was in a chorus in a music and art summer camp for a while that rented out Carnegie Hall for a big 50th anniversary bash and the chorus sang for that - to me it's not "really" performing in Carnegie Hall b/c it was just an unknown private group renting it out.

Regarding my sense of pitch, I can usually tell when I'm off-key, but I can't always tell if I'm too high or low, and I can't always correct it. I do always know which part is mine though, so my current chorale director puts me in the back row so I can keep the louder people in the front row on the correct part. :-P Sometimes I feel like they're amplifying my voice.

Another example of my sense of pitch (or something related) is when I try to say the few words I know in Chinese (my mother's family is Chinese). I can always tell whether I am saying the words correctly or not (usually closer to not), but much of the time I am unable to correct what is coming out of my mouth/larynx. I can hear the difference between subtle inflections, but I can't make my body create them. Some day I would like to try to learn Chinese; I expect I would be much better at understanding it than speaking it.

Re: a capella, etc.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Well, 1988-9 was junior year of high school, so a few years older, yes,...and yes, I'm a fan of folk music...but my parents are also Pete Seeger fans. (It has not escaped my attention that there may be a causal connection or two in there somewhere. :) )

As for "renting out" Carnegie Hall--that's what everyone does that performs there, I presume, so I'm not sure that disqualifies you.

I usually get put in the back row (or on one end) simply because I'm tall, but my sense of pitch is generally quite good.

Interesting about your experience with Chinese. I studied Mandarin for a year or so when I was about 12, so I can read a page of Pinyin (with tones marked) with decent pronunciation while having (sadly) at this point hardly any idea what I'm saying. It's an interesting language: the grammar is trivial but learning to read (or, worse, write) is a major pain.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

*poke again* did you say you could send one of these?

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

Actually, the most interesting "All Along the Watchtower" I have is a re-setting by John Corigliano from his "Mr. Tambourine Man" suite. He's a contemporary classical composer who decided to treat a bunch of Dylan lyrics as poems and re-set them to music of his own composition.

[(Anonymous)]

My two favorites are Hendrix and Dave Matthews. I think there is even a Dylan quote about the Hendrix version being the epitome of the song. Maybe something about how he feels he's playing a tribute to Hendrix when he performs it.

[kelsin.livejournal.com]

I hate forgetting to log in, that's me up above