Bob Dylan – The lyrics and the music. God Knows

by Tony Attwood

This series of articles represents an attempt to understand the importance of the music as well as the lyrics in Dylan’s songs both when it comes to appreciating the recordings as works of art, and in terms of understanding the meaning of the lyrics.

And “God Knows” is a perfect song to consider from this point of view, both because Dylan introduced an unusual chord change into the music which symbolised the monumental events the song was about.   But then he changed the song between the two album versions we have (the abandoned Oh Mercy version and then the reprised Red Sky version,) and in the second version that use of one particular chord which was there to emphasise the chaos of the overthrowing of the old order is abandoned, making the whole piece much smoother, as if to signify that the change that will take place at the Second Coming will be much more peaceful than imagined in the first version.  The chaos and the anger have gone, and in the later version, the Second Coming is portrayed musically as much more gentle affair.

Thus in the original version the chord structure is hard to ignore even if you don’t know anything about music, because that unexpected chord is so clearly just there, unexpected and knocking you sideways each time.  But by the time of the second version, everything is much smoother as if the Second Coming can be achieved just by arriving and moving the furniture around.

In that way the second version is still a good piece of music, but the connection with the fulsome meaning of the lyrics as derived from the Book of Revelations is simply not there.

To go back to the Red Sky version, the music makes it clear musically around the 25-second mark that there is something very odd going on (at the “ain’t anybody”).  It is not very clear in that first verse but you can hear it again in the second verse with “no more water, but fire next time.”

After that, the song is incredibly conventional in its chord sequence using an approach that can be heard in hundreds of songs, until we come back to the third verse – before the instrumental break where again the music makes it clear that everything is falling apart, while at the same time being rebuilt.

And that was what Bob was up to introducing a chord change that he had never used before or since (or at least as far as I can remember).  He was giving us the music to symbolise the Second Coming, just as the lyrics did.

Apart from that, basically, the song is a straight rock piece but, originally it accommodates the lines

God knows it's terrifying
God sees it all unfold
There's a million reasons for you to be crying
You been so bold and so cold

Fortunately, we can still compare the two approaches on “Under the Red Sky” and the “Tell Tale Signs” (the version originally recorded for Oh Mercy).  And here is the chord sequence.

Bb                   Eb
God knows you ain't pretty
Bb             Eb
God knows it's true
Bb               Bb+
God knows there ain't anybody
G               Bb
Ever gonna take the place of you

The unusual chords – the ones that make the whole song sound so utterly different are the Bb+ and the G.   Neither chord appears normally in pieces in Bb.   Bb+ is the regular Bb chord of Bb, D and F but with the F changed to an F#.   It adds a real clash to the music since the note of F sharp (F#) has nothing to do with the chord of Bb.

Then to make matters more strange that clashing chord is followed by the chord of G major which is not normally found in pieces in this key either.

Now even if you know nothing about music, and haven’t a clue what all this Bb+ stuff is about, I suspect you can hear that the music does something different at the end of the third and start of the fourth line.

But this is not a composer just throwing in a new chord to liven up what would otherwise be a fun, but not particularly outstanding, piece announcing the end of the world as we know it.  It is there to emphasise that this song is about making a difference – and not just any old difference but a difference made by the Almighty.

Using such an out-of-place chord is not something that Dylan has done very often, and it was clearly introduced here to give the musical emphasis to the words.  Indeed if the music had been much more conventional and without any unexpected almost jarring chord in that third line, it would have been much harder to make sense of the whole piece.

But what is so different with this song from those of a decade previously is that Dylan is no longer telling us that if we don’t accept God as our lord and master in all things, then no matter what good deeds we do along the way, we are going to burn in eternal torment when the Second Coming occurs.  The message in the earlier era was clear and simple: if we have not admitted that God is omnipotent, omnipresent and desiring of worship, then we’ve had it.

There are other differences of course, not least the fact that Red Sky’s version has a very odd fade out during the performance of the verse.  Artistically it is very odd, to the point of being weird, but in terms of making the music reflect the meaning of the lyrics it is perfect.   Because with the Second Coming, there is now eternity in a perfect world.   What better way to symbolise that, than by not having an ending to the music.

I have to admit I didn’t realise that when I first reviewed this song for Untold Dylan, and my original version proclaiming that there was no artistic reason for the fade-out mid-verse is still on the site if you want to find it.   But then, I’ve always tried to admit my mistakes – and my mistake there was to ignore the fact that this was a piece of music and a religious proclamation in the lyrics.  Once we have that, all is clear.