Someday Baby / Rollin’ and tumblin’ / Bob Dylan and how women always will get in the way

Someday Baby / Rollin’ and tumblin’ / Bob Dylan

How women always will get in the way

By Joost Nillissen

Music is my business and women get in the way. Blues is about men blaming women, while at the same time loving them.

Since time immemorial men have been singing about their hardships, so why shouldn’t I? I have hardships. I worry a lot. So I’ll pay tribute, pick up a tune and make it mine. But don’t make the mistake thinking the song is about me. It’s about hardship and self-doubt. How hard it is to love a woman. I keep recycling the same old thoughts and tunes. I don’t care.

She can do what she likes, say what she likes, he don’t care, she spends his money, drives him hard. He doesn’t have to take that crap from her, he’s got self respect. So many good things that he never noticed and it’s true, she’s got him hooked. But she’s driving him insane and he’s not bragging when he says he could wring her neck. Or maybe just one day he might get up and go. She won’t have to worry about him anymore.

You’re gonna me leave now? Pack up your bags and tent, go down the road, but don’t think you can ever come back. Hasn’t he been friendly, hasn’t he been kind? He’s done all he could, but now he’s gonna drive her from her home. He was driven from his.

Wait. Living this way isn’t normal. Why was he born to love her?

He can’t sleep at night, he cries and rolls and tumbles the whole night long. When he wakes up he knows he’s bet his money wrong.

As a lazy slut she charmed away his brain and now he’s got troubles.  At dawn in the golden light of day he sees the land and lays in the shade, because he can’t stand the strain. He paid and he paid, did everything he could to keep her of his mind. This woman is driving him to tears, he’s tired and he doesn’t wanna be her houseboy or well trained maid. He’s a man and he’s never ever gonna touch another woman again.

The sun is rising and the weather is warm and it’s depressing to sit here all day thinking of ways to satisfy his wife. Night falls with shadows and doom. Nothing to do but conjuring up old dead men and their music. Play an old tune. There’s nothing new under sun. It’s all been said and sung before. So let’s forgive each other and put old matters to en end.

You might also enjoy Rollin and Tumblin: the meaning of the music and the lyrics

And also Someday Baby: Why didn’t Dylan choose the TTS version for the album?

What else is on the site

  • 1: Over 400 reviews of Dylan songs.  There is an index to these in alphabetical order on the home page, and an index to the songs in the order they were written in the Chronology Pages.
  • 2: The Chronology.  We’ve taken all the songs we can find recordings of and put them in the order they were written (as far as possible) not in the order they appeared on albums.  The chronology is more or less complete and is now linked to all the reviews on the site.  We have also recently started to produce overviews of Dylan’s work year by year.     The index to the chronologies is here.
  • 3: Bob Dylan’s themes.  We publish a wide range of articles about Bob Dylan and his compositions.  There is an index here.  A second index lists the articles under the poets and poetic themes cited – you can find that here.
  • 4:   The Discussion Group    We now have a discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook.  Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 
  • 5:  Bob Dylan’s creativity.   We’re fascinated in taking the study of Dylan’s creative approach further.  The index is in Dylan’s Creativity.
  • 6: You might also like: A classification of Bob Dylan’s songs and partial Index to Dylan’s Best Opening Lines

 

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