30/10/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Deceptively simple, which combines with the following track on New Morning “Went to see the gypsy” to offer an insight into Dylan’s very private world.

The simplicity of the world (up here in the mountains) is captured by the piano, single guitar notes and occasional drumming. It is full of a girl who is good looking, rhyming of course with cooking.

But without noticing the melody is changing, the drumming is getting more complex, combining with the insistance that there is no reason to go anywhere. It is as if there is a pull on the singer - but he wants to stay - the instrumental break which adds a second guitar moves towards a comparatively frantic moment, but then, we are back to one more verse, and a most unusual ending of a chord repeated quickly over and over.

This is the simple land, where nothing happens, and it prepares us for the surreal dream like quality of Went to see the gypsy - a different world but one that can coexist with Time passes slowly.

The simple land is deceptive - the mountains don’t change but the thoughts and dreams of those who live are not as controlled as the environment. It is a challenge - a challenge that is taken up by the following track.

It’s a simple song in the solid world of E flat but with a twist at the instrumental end of each world. “Ain’t no reason to go anywhere” - true - but you need to keep shouting it to keep the demons at bay. Just listen to those two inter twining guitars.

You can win - but then time passes slowly and fades away.

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29/10/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Suddenly on Tell Tale Signs Mississippi becomes a new song, having been a political commentary when it first appeared in Time Out of Mind.

The two guitar production is utterly perfect for this interpretation which is wholly about the woman the singer has left, and for once in a Dylan orchestration it actually sounds like the performers know the piece and are listening to each other - the only roughness being the extra bars between verse 1 and 2.

What makes this a love song is the sympathy with which the words are sung to this, the original melody. “So many things we never will undo” is sympathetic, while “Last night I knew you tonight I don’t” has a melody and chord sequence that simply vanishes in other versions.

This is quite possibly one of Dylan’s greatest love songs. “Got no future got no past” is now just a throw away line, because the song is no longer about the singer, but about the woman he left behind. “Stick with me baby” becomes much more meaningful in terms of the relationship. When Dylan sings, “Don’t even have anything for myself any more,” he is not making a statement about his economic or political or surrealistic or modernist self, he is simply talking about a life lost. About the simple need to get away.

It is the lack of a full accompaniment that makes this work - it is the man singing to the woman or perhaps women that he has lost. “Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme” becomes a powerful line, not a throwaway.

If you still need convincing just listen to the delivery of “I have heard it all” with its extra quaver on “heard”.

“Some people will offer you their hand and some won’t” can be an aggressive line as in its original delivery, but now it is sad, because the singer knows he is the one who has mucked all this up. He is now gentle, sorry, thankful for the good times, sad about what went wrong.

It’s all over (no future no past) but he’s still here. “Stick with me baby anyhow” suddenly makes sense. “I know that fortune is waiting to be kind, so give me your hand and say you’ll be mine” despite everything. A simple life is offered at the end.

Yes, the best ever Dylan love song.

(Commentary revised 22 December 08)

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