by Larry Fyffe
Warren Zevon, a singer/singwriter greatly influenced by Bob Dylan.
William Blakes’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” can be taken as a parody of Emanuel Swedenborg’s “Heaven And Hell”; in Blakean poetry, few are capable of escaping from their dark worldly beginnings into the pure light of spiritual heaven.
Bob Dylan’s “Tarantula” can be be taken as a parody of Existentialist writers ~ such as William Burroughs who authors ‘Naked Lunch”; books wherein humankind’s stuck, like a buzzing fly, on the clueless pages of life and death ~ from which there is no escape.
Existence is depicted as a philosophical spider web – a snare in which singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan refuses to get caught:
My existence led by confusion boats Mutiny from stern to bow Ah, but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now (Bob Dylan: My Back Pages)
That is, life’s more than mere existence upon a meaningless brink which all mortals sooner or later are doomed to flow over; down into a deep and dark abyss.
Though it might be construed as presented so in the lyrics beneath, life is not designed for those who are zealous hedonists:
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum Hoist the mainsail here I come Ain't no room on board for the insincere You're my witness, I'm your mutineer (Warren Zevon: Mutineer ~ Zevon/Aldrich)
Nor is life a comical absurdity, albeit it can be imagined filled with Gothic black humour, often involving horrible creatures such as headless ghosts:
And he would have passed a pleasant life of it ... if his path had not been crossed by ... a woman
(Washington Irving: The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow)
The gothic story above akin to the one featured in following song lyrics.
About a paid-for “freedom fighter”:
They can still see his headless body Stalking through the night In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun (Warren Zevon: Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner ~ Zevon/Lindell)
Humorous irony abounds in such Postmodern laments ~ below, both George Orwell and the Committee of Un-American Activities chase after the Little Tramp who’s come down off the silent movie screen:
& you say "no i am a mute" & he says "no no i've told the others you were Charlie Chaplin & now you must live up to it - you must!" (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
Mysterious for sure the figurative winds of existence be, but, mamita mia, rather dangerous they are for those unwary of the driving force Friedrich Nietzsche calls “the will to power”.
That is, the iron wheels of freedom can just as easily spin in cycles rather than move progressively upward:
And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire And them distant ships of liberty On them iron waves so bold and free Bringing everything that's near to me Nearer to the fire (Bob Dylan: Caribbean Wind)
Rip Van Winkle
Now the chimney is rotten And the wallpaper is torn The garden in back Won't grow no more corn The windows are boarded With paper mache And even the dog just ran away (Was Brothers: Shirley Temple Doesn't Live Here Anymore ~ Bob Dylan, et. al.)
Gloomy Washington Irving joins the parade of pilgrims marching to New York City:
(I)t couldnt've been more'n a few hours later when I happened to be passing by again - in the spot where the tree was, a lightbulb factory now stood - "did there used to be a guy up in the tree?" I yelled up to one of the windows (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
Below, Irving’s sorrowful sentiment expressed headlong in the dust:
Where are the men that I used to sport with What has become of my beautiful town Wolf, my old friend, even you don't know me This must be the end, my house is tumbled down (Bob Dylan: Kaatskill Serenade ~ Bromberg)
Below be mentioned West Coast Hollywood; and the founder of the Beach Boys:
Play it for Carl Wilson, too Looking far, far away down Gower Avenue (Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul)
The above quote alludes to the following – lyrics darkly concerned with the passage of time:
Don't the sun look angry through the trees Don't the trees look like crucified thieves .... Look away Look away down Gower Avenue Look away (Warren Zevon: Desperados Under The Eaves)
Which in turn draw upon the somewhat more uplifting lyrics beneath:
Don't the moon look good, mama Shining through the trees ... Don't the sun look good Going down over the sea (Bob Dylan: It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry)
Nevertheless, a horrible ghost, a symbol of death, haunts the land:
Roland aimed his Thompson gun He didn't say a word But he blew Van Owen's body From here to Johannesburg (Warren Zevon: Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner - Zevon/Lindell)
The ghost oft headless:
Just then he saw the goblin hurling his head at him ... It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash - he was tumbled headlong into the dust ... (Washington Irving: The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow)
- 1: Tarantula
- 2: The Tarantula Crawls Across The Circus Floor and 3: Arachnida Is Dead
- 4: The Bride and 5: The Return of Tarantula
- 6: Everybody loves a critic and 7: Hopalong Bob
- 8: Mad, Bad, And A Stranger To Know and 9: Miss Lucy And Mr. Jinx
- 10: A Madder Piece From Ginsberg Street and 11: The Long Dark Stranger
- 12: More Mixed Up Confusion and 13: Oval Faubus
- 14: A tattletale Heart; and 15: Tarzantula
- 16: Tarantula: “Shake that Spear” and 17: “Hopalong Bob”
- 18: The Tale Of Dale And Debbie and 19: The Golden Gate
- 20: Your Harmless Fate and 21: Thelonius
- 22: the Egotist and 23: The Lord of the Spiders
- 24: Cream Cheese and 25 Davy Crocker
- 26: The Lumberjacks Are Coming
- 27: Lem the Clam; 28: An Untold Production: Tyrantula, The Motion Picture
- 29: The Tarantula Files continued
- Tarantula 30: Oh Pancho Oh Cisco
- 31 & 32 “Too hot to handle” and “Lucien’s Tarantula”
- 33: The ‘Untold’ Movie Musical Extravaganza “Tarantula” (with liner notes)
- Tarantulazarus and Clytia (Tarantula 34 & 35)
- Nadine and the Censor (Tarantula 36 & 37)
- Claudette and Peoria: The Tarantula Files (continued)
- Oedipus and Agnes