Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVII)

by Larry Fyffe.

An index to past episodes and an index of the cover versions of Dylan songs from this series are given at the end of the article.

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The associative Postmodernist Dylavinci Odyssey continues; things get downright interesting.

Mary Magdalenes’s body gets placed in the judgement hall of Christ.

That is, in the Egyptian Sphinx, the ‘way out’ that allows the wayward drifter to escape.

Time traveller Bob Dylan, shape-shifts into Christ (plays a joke on Henry, a Scottish Rastafarian, which fools Queen Mary into committing suicide when Jesus and wife Mary Magdalene vacation in Ethiopia).

Sure enough, Jesus swears to God Almighty that He’ll never again be taken in, never again be enticed, by bright eyes like those of the demonic darling Mary Magdalene.

So beautiful Magdalene be; so like Annabel Lee, a distant cousin of the high-born Scotchman Henry Lee:

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
Of beautiful Annabel Lee
And so, all the night tide, I lay down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride
In her sepulchre there by the sea
In her tomb by the side of the sea
(Edgar Allan Poe: Annabel Lee)

Maggie of Magdala, so like the dead beauty laid out in a hospital that’s named after St. James the Great, one of the twelve apostles, and the patron saint of Spain – aka “Big Jim”:

I went down to St. James Infirmary
Saw my baby there
Stretched out on a long white table
So cold, so sweet, so fair
(Louis Armstrong: St. James Infirmary ~ traditional)

Everything is delivered by the song lyrics quoted below when the Dylavinci Code therein is unravelled as carefully as a wrapped-up mummy.

With second thoughts, Jesus muses that perhaps there was no need to rush headlong into redemption.

Maybe there’s still time to be enticed yet again into temptation by Mary who lies so sweetly stretched out in her cold sepulchre within the walls of the Sphinx.

But perhaps not:

You're the queen of my flesh, girl
You're my woman, you're my delight
You're the lamp of my soul, and you torch up my life
But there's violence in the eyes, girl, so let us not be enticed
On the way out of Egypt, through Ethiopia 
    to the judgement hall of Christ

(Bob Dylan: Precious Angel)

According to the Code, Jesus is angry, thinks Mary’s sister can be damned:

Ring them bells Sweet Martha for the poor man's son
Ring them bells so the world will know God is one
(Bob Dylan: Ring Them Bells)

And Saint Jerome, with his ‘original sin’, can be damned too:

You bring it up to Saint Jerome
You can bring it all the way over
Bring it all back home
(Bob Dylan: My Own Version Of You)

Which brings us back to the play on words, such as “home”/”Holme”, in the following song about Sin City:

Scarlet Town in the month of May
Sweet William Holme on his deathbed lay
Miss Mary by the side of the bed
Kissing his face, and heaping prayers on his head
So brave, so true, so gentle is he
I'll weep for him as he would weep for me
Little Boy Blue come blow your horn
In Scarlet Town where I was born
(Bob Dylan: Scarlet Town)

https://youtu.be/U3XP-S2Z9xw

The Dylavinci Code Index to videos (songs without links are in the article above)

• Ahab The Arab -Ray Stevens
• Angelina -Bob Dylan
• Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream -John Bull And The Bandits
• Changing Of The Guards -Whitley & Lang
• Changing Of The Guards -Gaslight Anthem
• Crossing The Rubicon -Bob Dylan
• Drifter’s Escape -George Thorogood/Destroyers
• Duquesne Whistle -Benmont Tench
• False Prophet -Bob Dylan
• Goodbye Jimmy Reed -Bob Dylan
• Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar -Elkie Brooks 
• Handy Dandy -Bob Dylan
• High Water – Joan Osborne
• Highway 61 Revisited -Ross Scrivener
• I Contain Multitudes -Emma Swift
• I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine – John Doe
• Idiot Wind -Gerard Quintana
• Idiot Wind -The Coal Porters
• I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight -Robert Palmer
• Isis – Julie Corbalis
• Isis -White Stripes
• Just Like A Woman -Old Crow Medicine Show
• Little Maggie – Bob Dylan
• Lord Protect My Child -Susan Tedeshi
• Maggie’s Farm -Chicken Diamond
• Maggie’s Farm -The Specials
• Maggie’s Farm – Zero Prophet
• Maggie’s Farm – Jimmy Vivino And The Black Italians
• Mary And The Soldier – Bob Dylan
• Memphis Blues – HC Handy
• My Own Version Of You -Bob Dylan
• Precious Angel – The Weather Station
• Pretty Mary -Bob Dylan/Band
• Ring Them Bells -Muscle And Bone
• Ring Them Bells – McCrary Sisters
• Rocky Racoon -Charlie Parr
• Romance In Durango – Julie Felix
• Romance In Durango -Gerard Quintana
• Scarlet Town -Bob Dylan
• Seeing The Real You At Last -Bettye Lavette
• Sign On The Window -Al Turk
• Slow Train – Clas Yngstrom
• Stuck inside Of Mobile – North Mississippi Alstars
• Summer Days -Brothers Lazaroff
• Talking World War III Blues -Toni Vescoli
• Tin Angel – Bob Dylan
• Visions Of Johanna – Stephen Inglis

Index to past episodes

• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code Part 1
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part II)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part III)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part IV)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part V)
• Bob  Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part VI)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part VII)
• Bob Dylan And the Dylanvinci Code Part VIII
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part IX)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part X)
• Bob Dylan And The DylanvincI Code (Part XI)
• Bob Dylan and The DylanvincI Code (Part XII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XIII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylanvinci Code (Part XIV) 
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XV)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVI)