Dylan Song By Song: "All Along the Watchtower" Quiz

Answer: John Wesley Harding

Though an electrified version did appear on Dylan's live Budokan album, the song first came out on "John Wesley Harding" in 1967.

Answer: Isaiah

Dylan sings of "barefoot servants," and Isaiah is known as the "barefoot servant" (Isaiah 20:3-4) Dylan sings, "All along the watchtower, princes kept the view." Isaiah says, "Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield" (21:5). Dylan sings, Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl / Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl. " Isaiah speaks of the wildcat and two riders: "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: And, behold, there cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen" (21:8-9).

Many other songs on the "John Wesley Harding" album also draw imagery from this Biblical book.

Answer: The thief

"'There must be some way out of here,' said the joker to the thief." Some have argued that the joker is Bob Dylan (he was frequently referred to as a jester). Others have argued that he represents Christ, who was crucified between two thieves. And, as the hour grew late, one of the thieves spoke to Christ and begged Him to remember him in His kingdom ("...the thief, he kindly spoke . . . 'let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.'")

Answer: All the women

"While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too." In his book "Song and Dance Man III," Michael Gray points out that this line conjures up the picture of T.S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufcock," where the women "come and go" in an empty, deadened world, casually "talking of Michelangelo." This wasteland image sets the backdrop for an impending apocalypse.

Answer: Business men

"Business men, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth. / None of them along the line know what any of it is worth." Some see this as Dylan's own complaint about those who consume and critique his music; others see in it a picture of Christ, who in the Bible is depicted as the abused husbandman of the vineyard.

Answer: joke

Those who are reminded of Christ crucified between two thieves point out that one of the thieves treated the crucifixion as a joke, and "railed on [Christ], saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us" (Luke 23:39). But the other saw Christ for who He was.

Answer: A wildcat

"Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl / Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl."

Answer: Greatest Hits Volume 1

The song does not appear on the first volume of Dylan's greatest hits (released in 1967), but it does appear on the second volume, released in 1971.

Answer: Confusion

"'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.'"

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

The song also, naturally, appears on Hendrix's "Best of" album, and even Dylan himself took to calling "All Along the Watchtower" Jimi's song.