The Tarantula Files Continued

by Larry Fyffe

In regards to ‘Tarantula’ by Bob Dylan ~

Details about the three pin-up gals are rather sketchy and confusing, but it seems Betty’s gangster-friend gets a bit too fresh with Zelda and Jenny at a steamy bar; apparently, he ends up stabbed to death; the cool-headed narrator of the story, with his donkey, take off with Jenny.

Next morning, says to a reporter from the National  Enquirer:

"(I) still aint gonna tell you nothing
about Jenny"
(Bob Dylan: Tarantula)

Certainly leaves the impression that Jenny did the bad boy in.

In any event, detectives Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes, both disguised, are snooping around for clues:

Mona’s cousin – this 320 pound Frenchman

– he resembles Arthur Canon Doyle

(Bob Dylan: Tarantula)

A guy named ‘Monk’ raises Sherlock Holmes’ suspicious eyebrow:

Monk, typical flunky
& writer of eccentric gag lines to tell yourself
if you're ever hung up in the Andes
(Bob Dylan: Tarantula)

Detective Auguste Dupin notes that the author who pens the the song beneath is surely ultimately responsible for the death of Big Diamond Jim:

Big Jim lay covered up
Killed by a penknife in the back
And Rosemary on the gallows
She didn't even blink
(Bob Dylan: Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts)

It’s quite likely that the monk, who’s disguised as such in the song below, is the killer of Betty’s gangster friend in ‘Tarantula’ ~ anyway, so surmise the two detectives with the help of Lord Buckley:

As the leading actor hurried by
In a costume of a monk
There was no actor anywhere
Better than than the Jack of Hearts
(Bob Dylan: Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts)

The two private-eyes set out to prove the robber called Jack in the song above is the one and the same figure who’s known as Monk in the spider-book.

They claim that Monk is the offspring of the AntiChrist – based on the line ~ “(T)here is a gigantic mirror & Monk immediately disintegrates.”

The son of the Beast alluded to in the Holy Bible:

I considered the horns, and, behold
There came up among them another little horn ....
And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man
And a mouth speaking great things
(Daniel 7:8)

Now ain’t that just like the Jack of Hearts who moves across the mirrored room; says, ‘set it up for everyone’ … and then later disappears.