The Joker and the Thief

“There must be some kind of way out of here said the joker to the thief…”

Life imitates art in the Vietnam War as Bob Dylan’s elliptical lyrics about a conversation between a joker and a thief in “All Along the Watchtower,” a song made most famous by the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1968  version, seem to come alive in this 1969 AP Photo of two marines, one with a Joker card stuck to his helmet. Notice the American flag with them…citizenship! Featured in the book Vietnam: The Real War. HT to Mark Murrman and Mother Jones Magazine.

December 1969: Marines move through a landing zone. AP Photo.

Jimi Hendrix Experience, “All Along the Watchtower,” 1968.

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