And If You Listen Very Hard

Dave Matthews and Divine Revelation

The Dave Matthews Band first covered “All Along the Watchtower” on September 1, 1991 in the middle of a set at the Eastern Standard Restaurant in their hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. Their first album, Under the Table and Dreaming, wouldn’t be released until later that month, so the cover of the Bob Dylan tune was likely needed to round out their setlist and to give the audience a taste of something familiar. And if later performances are any indication of how DMB started off, it was a good chance to show the world these boys can rock.  

Per setlist.fm, the Dave Matthews Band has performed “Watchtower” an astounding 721 times. For scale, that’s 32% of the 2,226 live shows the band has played to date, making it the 10th most likely song to hear at one of their concerts. I’m a relative newcomer to the fanbase, being just too young to have been caught up in the late-90s craze, but I’ve heard a couple dozen versions of the song and have loved every single one of them. As with their whole catalogue, every live performance is that much different that you’re given a new way of seeing the whole. Each time a song is played, the band pulls back another layer, uncovers a different facet, and shows you a dimension you hadn’t previously seen or considered.

Across performances, some of the differences are subtle and others are more dramatic: a deviation in melody, an alteration in lyrics, a shuffling of instrumentation, a redistribution of solos. But sometime around 2008, as best I can tell, the band began to do something drastically new with “Watchtower”: jamming the big, final solo and bridge of “Stairway to Heaven” right in the middle. The first time I heard it, it blew my mind. I had to think long and hard about whether the added section was actually an addition or whether it was part of the original song. They fit together so seamlessly that it’s now difficult for me to think of one without the other. More on that in a bit. First, let’s listen to some music.

The earliest example of “Watchtower/Stairway” I’ve been able to track down is the April 28, 2009 show in Alpharetta, Georgia, when they played it as the last encore. From then until sometime in 2018, they tended to play “Watchtower” straight up, but since then, they have been adding in “Stairway” as a matter of course. The best version I’ve heard is from the Des Moines, May 14, 2019 concert, which turns up on their SiriusXM station somewhat frequently, if you’re a subscriber. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a decent recording of that on YouTube, but here is one of passable quality, taken by a fan in Philadelphia in 2018.

One of the characteristics that I think makes a song great is, to borrow a concept from John Henry Newman, its assimilative power.¹ Newman noticed how the Church’s doctrine develops organically through the ages by taking in what’s around it and folding it into itself, all while maintaining its essence. A great song does the same, and DMB’s cover makes a strong case for “Watchtower” to be a great song in that regard. Dave’s mellow picking on the acoustic at the beginning reminds immediately of Dylan’s original, but the all-out jam that comprises the second half calls Hendrix’s version to mind. But the band does not attempt to mimic either. Dave doesn’t try to sing like Bob, and Jimi’s guitar solos are replaced by sax or violin. They honor the song’s venerable tradition, paying homage to their predecessors, while making it their own. With the addition of “Stairway”, the song’s history has assimilated something outside itself that now, going forward, must be taken into consideration by every artist who wants to make it their own.

I can’t be sure, but I’m nearly certain that no one involved in the synod process in Rome is thinking deeply about the Dave Matthews Band’s cover of “Watchtower”, but if they were, we’d probably be working with something closer to a Catholic understanding of doctrinal development than whatever they expect a “synodal Church” to produce.

Now, I didn’t come here to rag on the synod, so let me get back to business. What I wanted to talk about was the effect revelation has upon history: how what is revealed later sheds light upon the past, such that the past no longer looks — or, in this case, sounds — the same.

Let’s take a closer look. Harmonically, “Watchtower” is a pretty simple song: verse, chorus, and solo all follow the same chord progression (i-VII-VI-VII). “Stairway”, on the whole, is more complicated, but the part DMB interpolates follows that exact progression, which accounts for why they nestle well together. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Dave and touring lead guitarist Tim Reynolds managed to figure out the two songs could be played together. Both are high-caliber musicians with superior creativity. What surprises me, instead, is how long it took them. Once you’ve heard the combination of “Watchtower” with “Stairway”, go back and listen to any recording of them playing “Watchtower” by itself (here’s a great one from Central Park in 2003). As the song builds, I can guarantee you’ll be waiting for Dave to jump up to high falsetto and belt, And as we wind on down on the road, and for Tim to respond with those tasty, distorted guitar fills. You can even sing the Ahhh, ahhh’s overtop the ripping saxophone, and it’ll fit right in. It’s right there, obvious, theirs for the taking. But, prior to 2008, they just won’t take it, no matter how much you want them to.

I would love to ask Dave and Tim at what point they figured it out and how. Perhaps one day in practice Tim hit a lick similar enough to Jimmy Page’s that it clicked. Maybe they knew it all along but never had a good reason to do it live. Whatever the case may be, once Pandora’s box was opened, there’s no putting “Stairway” back inside. DMB has drawn from the song something that lay dormant within that now, having been brought into the light, now imposes itself upon the past. Every rendition of “Watchtower” without “Stairway” now demands it.

We should have a similar feeling, mutatis mutandis, whenever we read the Old Testament, especially the prophecies. Once you know Christ, the fullness of God’s revelation, you can’t help but see him on every page of it. It amazes me, much as it does listening to early versions of “Watchtower”, how the people of Israel failed to recognize their Messiah when he came among them. His words and his deeds fulfill all the prophecies of old, without exception. The Fathers went to great lengths to draw these out. Here’s a famous example from Melito of Sardis (d. 180):

He is the one who in many folk bore many things. He is the one who was murdered in the person of Abel, bound in the person of Isaac, exiled in the person of Jacob, sold in the person of Joseph, exposed in the person of Moses, sacrificed in the person of the lamb, persecuted in the person of David, dishonored in the person of the prophets.²

Once you’ve read the New Testament, the Old takes on a completely new light, and there’s no going back. You simply can’t unsee Christ throughout, just as you can’t unhear “Stairway” in the midst of “Watchtower.”

The same is true of our lives. When we’ve seen Christ in the present, we can look back and see him there in the past. A very good priest I knew in the seminary once made the comment: At a certain point of your life, you’ll look back in the rearview mirror and see that Christ was busy making all things new. Christ is the center around which the rest holds together. Once we see his face, we’ll recognize him everywhere.

That would be a good prayer for the new year: Lord, show me your face.

And if I may also recommend a good resolution: Listen to more Dave.

1. John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, II.8.

2. Melito of Sardis, A Homily on Passover, 69.