"All Along the Watchtower" is one of those songs that is rather special to me. Back when I first got started doing the band thing (gasp - that was really 10 years ago!!), "Watchtower" was the song that my bandmates chose to end the practice with.
It was a pretty easy song to rock out on - there are 3 chords in the song, and they are some of the easiest chords (for the keys anyway) out there - Am, G F (repeat until your hands hurt). At the time, it was really important that every instrument get their solo - which was fine for everyone else. I, however, had just ventured into the world of playing without pre-written music and I can remember just dreading my turn. Still, even with the dread, it was awesome to get to play around and really experiment and I have such fond memories of that time in my life.
Some of you will also know that I am a complete Battlestar Galactica (not the 1970s one) nut. If you haven't seen the show (unfortunately it's now canceled), add it to your must watch dvd queue now. Its an amazing show, and oh yeah, it happens to have spaceships and robots in it :) They did an excellent job of discussing/bringing up really deep questions about identity, violence, faith - really what does it mean to be "human". It wouldn't be a huge leap to think of the show as a rather relevant thought experiment. Ok, so lots of love here for BSG.
The awesomeness of that show increased by about 100-fold when "All Along the Watchtower" played a key role in the last episode of Season 3. And then they kept it as a theme during the Season 4. Its been somewhat my music theme this week - work seems so much easier when I imagine I'm on a spaceship :)
Click here to see a live recording (the video gets the whole song) of Bear McCreary (BSG composer) and Katee Sackhoff (played Starbuck) playing the most kick-ass version of this song yet. You've never heard 3 chords rock out so well :) And I highly recommend the rest of the soundtracks - they are awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment