“All Along the Watchtower” is one of the most famous covers ever. Infamously transformed from its original harmonica- and acoustic guitar-driven story-song from Bob Dylan‘s pivot to country, to one of the iconic psychedelic rock songs of the era. So many people who cover “All Along the Watchtower” are in thrall to the Experience version. Even Dylan.
Sean Taylor is a UK singer-songwriter and roots musician who has been putting out albums for almost 20 years. We’d probably expect someone like this, whose primary instrument is acoustic guitar, to take more inspiration from the original Dylan version of “All Along the Watchtower” than the more famous cover.
But Taylor does something a little unexpected. Instead of following Dylan’s version, he actually finds a middle ground between the two versions. He plays acoustic guitar but takes his rhythm part more from Hendrix’s version than from Dylan’s. He plays contemporary fingerstyle and provides percussion on his guitar as he plays. Though he sort of whispers the vocals, he does not imitate Dylan’s speak-singing in the original.
To take the song a little closer to the more famous version, there are two fiddle solos, the first of which especially hints at Hendrix’s famous guitar solo. But that’s basically all the instrumentation, which makes the cover even sparser than Dylan’s original (which has bass and drums on it in addition to Dylan’s harmonica and guitar).
It’s an interesting approach that both returns the song to its roots but also doesn’t let you forget the most famous version. Check it out:
My iconic version will forever be neither the Dylan nor the Hendrix version, but Bear McCreary’s. This is also great though.