Bob Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding” album (Dec 1967) came after the years (61 to 65) covered in the new film “A Complete Unknown.” Dylan’s “going electric,” handled portentously at the time and since and in the film, split genre on the “Bringing it All Back Home” album (Mar 65), including both acoustic and electric backing, and flung wide open in “Highway 61 Revisited” (Aug 65), was not all that new to Dylan, who has always followed John Cage’s sage advice to get out of whatever cage you might find yourself in. As a kid, Dylan listened to radio, and what did he hear there? The Golden Age of Radio.
Off the “John Wesley Harding” album Jimi Hendrix created a cover hit with Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” At the end of that song, we find “two riders were approaching,” but where do they go, and what do they do when they get there? I tried to answer that question in my song “Two Riders Were Approaching.” Here’s a new recording by an old player below:
“Two Riders Were Approaching”
Chords and Lyrics
G Two riders were approaching
C7 On hogs and wearing leathers
G Stopped into a tavern
D7 For a cool glass of beer
Break G C7 D7 C7 G D7
G Two pints for us my friend
C7 The day is warm and grim
G The dust has found its corner
D7 The dogs want shade and water
Break G C7 D7 C7 G D7
G We are the two riders who were approaching
C7 Said one fellow to the other
G Let’s stop here for a cool drinking beer
D7 Night time is drawing near
Break G C7 D7 C7 G D7
G Yippie-yi-yo
C7 Yippie-ki-yay
G We’re gonna go
D7 Our own way
G Yippie-yi-yo
C7 Yippie-ki-yay
G We’re gonna go
D7 Our own way [G]
“Two Riders Were Approaching,” lyrics and music by Joe Linker. Find an alt-version with the title first explained on The Coming of the Toads blog here.
The Coming of the Toads 