The "joker" here ["All Along the Watchtower" ] is the older [Bob] Dylan himself, whining about exploitation, and the thief's rejoinder re-contextualizes the earlier critique into the religious frames that would become more prominent as time went on.

Without freedom of speech, I might be in the swamp

I kinda live where I find myself.

Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you have to know what things don't mean.

I'm sick of giving creeps money off my soul.

Bob Dylan wasn't a big star early on; it was the release of his Greatest Hits album in 1967, and the mainstream success of the stoner anthem "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" ("Everybody must get stoned!"), that really put him on the mainstream map.

Every brain is civilized, Every nerve is analyzed, Everything is criticized when you are in need.