Watchtower Revisited
(B. Cole, B. Dylan, B. Shakespeare)
{three voices, male and female with a narrator}
“Nobody knows the way outta here!”
Cried the Juggler to the Thief;
“We’re cornered by a cold collusion
In which there’s no belief:
Business* men, they taint my wine
While plowmen steal my soil
And none of them, who undertake their crime,
Would dare to quit their morbid toil...”
-—
“No need to get so excited,”
The Thief she finely spoke.
“Hell, there are those who hide among us
Who’d likely claim it’s all a joke.
But you and I, we won’t fake that —
We won’t be lightly played.
So let us both speak playingly now
For the hour is plainly late!”
-—
All around us spins The Watchtower
Where the pundits brake their news:
Where Truth is burned and Time is turned
As if that’s what we’d choose...
And the Outside...it’s not so distant any more
Where the Rabid Gambler prowls:
The rivals, they are approaching as
A wild Nor’easter howls!
* this word is to be spat, whether in recital or sung
…..
It’s time to release this rewrite as a poem, I think, Bob Dylan having just sold his entire song catalogue to a Dominant Entity. My rationale is that a DE is somewhat more likely to sue for copyright infringement than Dylan’s own lawyers would have been, and with Dylan, who knows; he may even agree to the co-write with me and Bill under the rubric of this being a new old piece, putting one of his older tunes weirdly outside Universal’s grasp. That is my defense strategy, in fact.
Oh, and there’s the upcoming storm, as well, with regard to timing, obviously.
With that in mind, if anyone decides to perform or record this piece of revisitism (“Go for it,” I say, “but don’t wait too long!”) and is subsequently sued by the DE in question, please make sure my name is listed as one of the defendants. Thanks.
Feel free to deride my art, tactics and eschatology. That’s to be expected.