Dave Matthews… backed by Dead & Company (remnants of The Grateful Dead)… playing the Bob Dylan classic “All Along the Watchtower”… via Jimi Hendrix… What more, I ask you, could you ask for?

Both Matthews and the Dead have separately covered the song for years, Matthews to particular acclaim. So, it’s no surprise that the latter deferred to the former’s unique take on the famed musically cryptic conversation between “a joker and a thief” in this recent (2023) collaboration, simply adding their own inimitable jam-tastic touches to the proceedings.

Lyrics

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
Businessmen, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth

No reason to get excited, the thief, he kindly spoke
There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too

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