Bob Dylan and Patti Page Part 3

Bob Dylan and Patti Page Part 1.

Bob Dylan and Patti Page Part 2

By Larry Fyffe

Take what you gather from coincidence.

Influenced by Edgar Allen Poe, many of the lyrics of singer/songwriter Bob Dylan demonstrate a dark-humoured interest in the macabre; certainly in painful loneliness.

She wears an Egyptian ring, it sparkles before she speaks
She's a hypnotist collector, you are a walking antique
(Bob Dylan: She Belongs To Me)

In the movie “All About Eve”, an aspiring young actress, Eve, conspires to take the place of an aging star played by Bette Davis.

Therein says a theatre critic to Eve:

"And you realize - you agree now completely
you belong to me"

“You Belong To Me” is sung by Bob Dylan for “Natural Born Killers”, a movie that satirizes the role the media takes on for monetary gain through the sensationalizing of mass murderers. In context of the macabre movie mentioned directly above, it’s no romantic song as it is elsewhere rendered by sweet baby Patti Page:

See the pyramids along the Nile
Watch the sunrise on a tropic Isle
Just remember, darling, all the while
You belong to me
(You Belong To Me ~ Price/King/Stewart)

In the psycho-horror movie “What Ever Happened To Baby Jane”, based on a story by Henry Farrell, Bette Davis plays an ageing vaudeville actress who’s upstaged by her younger sister with the arrival of talking movies.

The Davis film features a porcelain Baby Jane doll with a wide ribbon on her head.

Brings an association by at least some listeners to the following song lyrics:

And Laurel's playing for money
On your ribbon wide
(Bob Dylan: Patty's Gone To Laredo)

Songwriter/singer/musician Bob Dylan covers the song below (rendered by Page and others as well):

We three, we're all alone
Living in a memory
My echo, my shadow, and me
We three, we're not a crowd
We're not even company

(Patti Page: We Three ~ Robertson/Cogane/Mysels)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suYoM7rre1k

A sorrowful sentiment reworked in the song lyrics beneath:

Sign on the window says,"lonely"
Sign on the door says,"no company allowed"
Sign on the street says,"you don't own me"
Sign on the porch says ,"three's a crowd"
(Bob Dylan: Sign On The Window)

Take what you can from coincidence.

———-

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