By Larry Fyffe
In his song ‘False Prophet’, Bob Dylan grabs hold of Frederick Nietzsche’s arm, and searches for meaning in life:
Well, I'm an enemy of treason An enemy of strife I'm the enemy of the unlived meaningless life I ain't no false prophet I know what I know I go where only the lonely can go (Bob Dylan: False Prophet)
Pays tribute to a melancholy singer:
Only the lonely know the way I feel tonight Only the lonely know this feeling ain't right There goes my baby, there goes my my heart They're gone forever, so far apart (Roy Orbison: Only The Lonely ~ Melson/Orbinson)
The song pays tribute to those happier, to rocknroller Ricky Nelson who sings about Mary Lou; the blues singer Pearl Bailey stars in the Broadway musical ‘Hello Dolly’:
Hello, Mary Lou Hello, Miss Pearl My fleet-footed guides from the underworld No stars in the sky shine brighter than you You girls mean business, and I do too (Bob Dylan:False Prophet)
Hermes and Persephone are the guides to Hades, the mythodical underworld:
Hello Mary Lou, goodbye heart Sweet Mary Lou, I'm so in love with you I knew Mary Lou, we'd never part So hello Mary Lou, goodbye heart (Ricky Nelson: Hello Mary Lou ~ Pitney/Mangiaracina)
To the movie anti-hero Robert Mitchum attention is paid; ie, “Rachel And The Stranger”:
Hello stranger A long goodbye You ruled the land But so do I You lusty mule You got a poison brain l'll marry you to a ball and chain (Bob Dylan: False Prophet)
The movie features the following song about a lusty mule who’s after a Mary Lou: the womanizing stranger leaves after the husband starts to appreciate wife Rachel:
Once there was a man, a hateful man Had a wife, but didn't see the danger 'Till one day, one fateful day Along long came a tall dark stranger (Robert Mitchum: Tall Dark Stranger ~ (Webb/Salt)
“The Long Goodbye” is a pastiche on the ‘noir’ detective movies starring Humphrey Bogart; features the following song:
There's a long goodbye And it happens every day When some passer-by Invites your eye To come his way Even as you smile a quick 'hello' (Clydie King: Long Goodbye ~ Williams/Mercer)
In the Humprey Bogart movie “The Treasure Of Sierra Madre”, greed takes its toll; the bandits kill Bogart at the water hole; thinking that the gold dust is sand they throw it away:
Put out your hand There's nothing to hold Open your mouth I'll stuff it with gold Ah, you poor devil, look up if you will The City Of God is there on the hill (Bob Dylan: False Prophet)
The song pays tribute to adventure stories of hardship and romance; ie, Jack Livings’ “Mountain Of Swords Seas Of Fire”:
I search the world the over For the Holy Grail I sing songs of love I sing songs of betrayal Don't care what I drink Don't care what I eat I climbed the mountain of swords on my bare feet (BP Bob Dylan: False Prophet)
Referencing:
I'll eat when I'm hungry I'll drink when I'm dry If hard times don't get me I' ll lay down and die (Tex Ritter: Rye Whiskey ~ traditional)
https://youtu.be/kyk1BPEABsE
Lines also in:
I eat when when I'm hungry I drink when I'm dry And Iive my life on the square Bob Dylan: Standing In The Doorway)
As Dylan so often does, the singer/songwriter from the North Country has a little fun at the expense of interpreters of his lyrics – Freudians, for example:
What are you looking at? There's nothing to see Just a cool breeze that's encircling me Let's go for a walk in the garden So far and so wide We can sit in the shade by the fountain-side
Or is it that King Solomon actually likes his country pie:
A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters And streams from Lebanon Awake, O north wind, and come thou south Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his garden And eat his pleasant fruits (Song Of Solomon 4: 15,16)
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* I searched …
**What are you looking at ….
(Bob Dylan: False Prophet)
Since Dylan has recently recorded three (or five!) albums of songs associated with Sinatra, I’m sure Frank was also on his mind when he wrote about ‘only the lonely’.
Yes indeed:
“Each place I go only the lonely go” by Heusen/Cahn
sung by Sinatra closely matches
“I go where only the lonely can go”
The Long Goodbye was a novel by Raymond Chandler. The Robert Altman movie was based on that novel.
*A enemy of…
**I just know …
***….the lonely kind go