The Music

As the Fleet approaches the Ionian nebula, several people, specifically Saul Tigh, Samuel Anders, Tory Foster and Galen Tyrol, begin hearing fragments of strange music that only they can see and hear. The music becomes more distinct and distracting as the nebula gets closer.

Once the Fleet arrives at the Ionian nebula, the Music reaches a piercing shrill. The Colonials affected not only hear the music complete, but begin to add lyrics as well. As the Fleet plunges into darkness, losing electrical power for reasons unknown, the music compels the four to meet in a isolated room.

The four are able to assemble the lyric fragments with the intact music to form a strange song. Because of the mutual experience, the four believe themselves to be Cylons. The source or cause of the music is not known (Crossroads, Part II).

At the end of the episode the song starts playing as background music for the viewers to hear. These are the complete lyrics that are sung:

There must be some way out of here

Said the joker to the thief

There's too much confusion

I get no relief

Businessman they drink my wine

Plowmen dig my earth

None level on the line

Nobody of it is worth

No reason to get excited

The thief he kindly spoke

There are many here among us

Who feel that life is but a joke

But you and I we've been through that

And this is not our fate

So let us not talk falsely now

The hour's getting late

Notes

• The music is, indeed, a version of Bob Dylan's song, "All Along The Watchtower," specially composed by series composer Bear McCreary.
• The song is not intended to indicate that the Colonials have picked up an Earth communication. Series executive producer Ron D. Moore considers the song to be an invention created by a Colonial citizen in a curious parallel to what had or will develop on Earth. The series creators have intentionally avoided citing whether Battlestar Galactica occurs in the real-world Earth's past, present, or future.