by Larry Fyffe
(T)he little old man is planning revenge just as the same old time train shakes his picture of whistler's mother painting off the wall (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
American James Whistler, who settled down in Britain, was a leader of the Aesthetic Movement, its motto “art for art’s sake.” That is, the search for beauty is more important than moralising about human behaviour.
He paints a portrait of his mother in shades of grey and black; the painting comes to be known as “Whistler’s Mother”. Sitting there in the picture by herself, she looks like she believes in strict interpretations of the Holy Bible
The old man mentioned above obviously has little money. He lives in a small apartment very close to the railroad tracks; he jumps every time the train roars by. And the painting that keeps falling off the wall may remind him of his own mother and how sternly she treated him when he was young.
Poor and lonesome now, the old guy has mental problems ~ he seems to blame the economic, social, and political forces of modern America, symbolised by the train, for his loneliness.
The revenge plan could be that he intended to burn the place down, but it seems he couldn’t get the fire started, perhaps because of dampness.
(T)he next day the rent collector comes to get the rent - finds that the old man he disappeared & the room's full of garbage
(Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
The word-images in the following song illustrate that one doesn’t have to be poor in order to go crazy.
Sung humorously:
Grandpa died last week
And now he's buried in the rocks But everybody still talks about How badly they were shocked But me, I expected it to happen I knew he'd lost control When he built a fire on Main Street And shot it full of holes
(Bob Dylan: Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again)
On his TV show, Wladziu Liberace plays piano and, often thanks his mother for taking good care of him.
Wladziu gets thanked himself in the song below:
I'm gonna make you play the piano Like Leon Russell, like Liberace (Bob Dylan: My Own Version Of You)
The piano-player’s sexual orientation gets a lot of fun-puns thrown at him:
(B)road save the clean, the minorities - liberace's country side (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
Bob Dylan finds inspiration from a variety of sources.
For example, from serious Christian writers.
Alone in his room like "the little old man": (I) just got done spending five days reading Kierkegaard alone in a room - just me & Kierkegaard, yeah (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
As well as from Walt Kelly’s satirical cartoon “Pogo” that makes fun of President L.B. Johnson (previously pointed out by me):
(L)yndon johnson yes & so anyway on the seventh day he created pogo (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
Many of Dylan’s references aren’t as clear:
Marcellus, wearing khaki when madness struck him (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
History informs us that Marcellus was a loyal senator and military commander in the Roman Republic; he does not trust Julius Caesar.
The senator gets killed in an ambush while chasing after Hannibal.
Marcellus is dead, but he’s right ~ Caesar subsequently crosses the Rubicon into Italy.
And wouldn’t you know ~ movie director John Huston’s middle name is “Marcellus”:
(E)verything wouldve been overlooked but John Huston & I do mean John Huston - he made a Bible movie out of it (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
A reference to the epic film “The Bible: In The Beginning”. John writes it, directs it, and plays Noah in it.
The two Hustons are everywhere:
(W)e get stoned on joan crawford & form teeming colonies & die of masculine conversation (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
In the movie “Rain”, Joan Crawford plays a prostitute “Sadie”; Walter Huston, John’s father, plays a fire-and-brimestone missionary who’s out to convert her. Sadie protests but the persistent preacher appears to succeed. Then, overcome with sinful lust, he rapes her.
The Christian missionary is found dead the next morning, his throat slashed with a knife.
Sadie returns to her former ‘immoral’ self, a bejewelled frapper who likes to listen to the jazzy tune “Wabash Blues”(Meinken/Ringle):
Oh, those Wasbash Blues I know I got my dues A lonesome soul am I I feel that I could die
Her story has a happy ending, though ~ she runs off with her soldier boyfriend who loves her.
Retold and changed, in the song below:
Well, you defiled the most lovely flower in all her womanhood Others can be tolerant, others can be good I'll cut you up with a crooked knife Lord, and I'll miss you when you're gone I stood between Heaven and Earth And I crossed the Rubicon (Bob Dylan: Crossing The Rubicon)