Of all the myriad ways in which the 60s counterculture challenged perceived notions of morality and the status quo, the anti-war song was perhaps its most popular. Given the stakes and devastation of the Vietnam War, which necessitated the draft and angered an increasingly independent and rebellious generation, songwriting and instrumentation increasingly took on these pacifist subtexts. From a Neo-Confucian perspective, the case of Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” defies the Confucian ideal of yayue, combining aggressive instrumentation with its cryptic vocals to create an atmosphere conducive to an anti-war, rebellious morality (consistent with the compassionate nature of ren).
The most important element of the song’s expression of its rebel, vernacular spirit is its instrumentation. While Bob Dylan’s original song was comparatively straightforward, using a three-chord structure to make it easier to play while using a harmonica and singing, Hendrix complicates “Watchtower” with an increasingly ominous and unpredictable sense of instrumentation. Improvisation is used quite heavily in the song, many of Hendrix’s guitar riffs deviating from the song structure and conveying the need to break free of conventional lines of thinking. The switch from acoustic to electric guitar is evidenced in the beginning; the initial harsh strumming of the main three chords is quickly punctuated by Hendrix’s lead electric guitar, playing almost plaintively over the main rhythm. By establishing a strict, limited minor tonality, only to break out from it in this explosion of emotion and anger, Hendrix puts to music the frustrations of Vietnam youth, who started the counterculture as a way to break free of what they saw were the restrictive, conservative values of Lyndon Johnson-era America. In this way, the musicality of the song is an expression of a rebel morality, a resistance to traditional values and an anthem of ren-like progressive, anti-war values.
The staccato nature of the instrumentation, in addition to the minor key of the song itself, presents “Watchtower” as an omen of things to come, rather than a rallying cry or call to action. The song feels apocalyptic, using its circuitous and repetitive structure to make the listener feel trapped. The only times in which these strict structures are broken are Jimi’s guitar riffs, which follow each lyric briefly, and linger for 16- or 32-measure sections after each verse or chorus. These solos keep getting longer, making their plaintive wail even more pronounced each time – this implies that the rebellious cry for freedom is becoming louder and louder, working harder to break free from the mold the status quo has established. The overall goal of the song is to agitate its listener into action, by pointing out just how cathartic it feels to advocate for social justice (ren) over the restrictive depression of li notions of stability and order. The strict acoustic rhythm guitar may well represent the cold aristocratic nature of yayue, while Hendrix’s wailing electric guitar solos represent the vernacular music screaming for relevance.
In conclusion, Jimi Hendrix’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower” is an immensely moral, transgressive song that addresses ideas of ren quite well, defying Confucius’ concept of yayue in a progressive way. It captures the anxieties of 60s anti-war counterculture youth through its loud, chaotic breaking of the strict mold by which Dylan’s original song was structured. These lyrics, combined with the sinister instrumentation, take the song from its beginnings as an acknowledgement of society’s dark times and ending with a cry to change it all through aggressive, decisive action.
Works Cited
Hendrix, Jimi. “All Along the Watchtower.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY.
