Screw television. I mean, really: why do we need self-appointed ‘opinion leaders’ deciding what we the proletariat should see when we can cater to every last niche via our own labours?
Take, for example, the corner of YouTube I’m going to label “Amateur
choral arrangements of Bear McCreary’s version of Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.”
Example #1, Sac State Jazz singers:
Awesome. Example #2, Fife High School Jazz Choir:
Shame the audio recording is ropey, it’s a spectacular rendition.
Example #3, Vocal Velocity AKA Folsom High School Jazz Choir:
A bit heavy on the beatboxing and emoting for me, but there is room in this brave new world for all perspectives.
If you wonder what all this is referencing… well, you’d pretty much have to watch three seasons of Battlestar Galactica to experience the complete hairs-on-back-of-neck nature of its use at the end of season 3. Then you’d have to watch season 4 to find out how the song isn’t just in the frakkin’ ship, it’s woven through the whole damn series.
But for a taste, here’s actor Katee Sackhoff trying to remember how to play it with McCreary. That she almost can’t is pretty much what the story was about: