The lyrics and the music: the meaning of the Changing of the Guard

 

I don’t know what it means either: an index to the current series appearing on this website.

This series on the lyrics and the music aims to look at both aspects of Dylan’s compositions, rather than focus entirely on the lyrics – just to see what conclusions we might reach.  A list of previous articles is to be found at the end.

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By Tony Attwood

“…those few Dylanologists who bravely attempt to capture “Changing Of The Guards” in one conclusive interpretation, go down struggling.”   That was the view of Jochen Markhorst in his superb review of the song in October 2019, “Chasing a meaning that might not be here”.

But of course others want to have us hear their own views of what the song is all about and those definitions surround us.

So can I add anything more?   In terms of what the lyrics mean no, of course not.  Jochen nailed it five years ago.  But I can add a little I think (with my normal pomposity) that by combining a consideration of the music and the words in one review, and seeing what we get.

And in doing so I am struck by a sentence that Jochen wrote in that article, “The baroque exuberance of the text fascinates…”  And I am once more struck by how true that is, but not just of the text but of the music too – for in Dylan terms this song is unique from a musical point of view (or because it is always possible I have forgotten an example from elsewhere, it is at the very least, extremely unusual).

In this regard, if you are used to listening to some of the live performances it is worth heading back to the original recording, for I do think this is how Dylan wanted it to sound after considerable experimentation – and it was only after this that he upped the tempo and the vigour of the song in the live performances.

First and most obviously we get a fade in – where else does that happen in Dylan?  I am sure it must do somewhere else in Dylan since it is a simple technique to handle in a studio but I can’t think of an example at the moment.  It gives the sense that the music has been there all along and now we are opening the door and entering the room where it eternally plays.

And then from a musical point of view something else hits us – the use of the minor chord.

Now even if you are not a musician, I am sure you will be able to hear the difference between a major and minor chord.   If it is not immediately apparent and you don’t have a friendly musician with a guitar passing by, I will try and explain, using my recording studio (also known as my sitting room) which includes he piano which I still love to play every day.

In this first example, there are four chords and the sequence of four is repeated

The chords are C major, A minor, F major, G major..  To most people used to Western music, it sounds fairly happy and jolly.  The second chord – the A minor, doesn’t bring a sudden sense of uncertainty or negativity or sadness… it is just a passing moment between the other three chords which are all major chords.

But now if we have a piece of music that is all minor chords, the feeling does indeed change.

Most popular music is written using major chords but quite a lot of songs use minor chords as a passing moment – and as in the first example above in this way they don’t affect the nature of the feeling within the song.  In this second example the sound is however much more sombre.

However if one ends a phrase of major chords with a minor chord what we get is a feeling half way between those two examples above – a feeling of uncertainty.

and this is what Dylan does – there are two major chords but then there is a minor at the end.  It is not intrusive, it doesn’t feel out of place, and most people who are not performers or not musically trained most certainly don’t notice it particularly, but that minor at the end gives a feeling of uncertainty.  Not the uncertainty of being lost in an urban environment while driving, and cars and trucks all around, and having no idea where to go or what lane to be in.  But still that edge of uncertainty – of not quite knowing where one is going.

So, the fact is that most pop and rock and folk music is based on major chords.  And most of Dylan’s compositions are based on major chords too.  Where minor chords are used they tend to be used either as the most important chord in the whole piece, setting the scene for of sadness for the music as a whole, or as a passing chord of no particular significance.

But here we have major chord, major chord and then the minor.  And the minor can’t be heard as a passing chord because it is the end of the line.   What we also have is a fade in, rather than a clean start.  And then again we have a musical introduction with a tenor sax (not that common in Dylan once again).  All of that is very, very unusual for pop, rock and Dylan.

And if you want one more variation we have a female chorus singing the opening lyrics of three lines of each verse followed by an “ohhhhh”.   How unDylan do you want to get?

Plus with all that we have these lyrics

Sixteen years
Sixteen banners united over the field
Where the good shepherd grieves
Desperate men, desperate women divided
Spreading their wings 'neath the falling leaves

Fortune calls
I stepped forth from the shadows to the marketplace
Merchants and thieves, hungry for power, my last deal gone down
She's smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born
On midsummer's eve, near the tower

What does all that mean?   Well of course, as ever, a lot of people have ventured to tell us, as Jochen noted, adding quite rightly, that they “go down struggling”.

Which that leaves me hoping that I am not struggling, but rather pointing out that we have highly ambiguous lyrics, along with an accompaniment that is utterly un-Dylan-like, and challenging in a sort of gentle, “I bet you didn’t quite expect this” sort of way.

The fade in, the fade out, the use of the minor chords as a dominant part of the accompaniment, the use of the female vocalists, the use of the “ohhhhh” (or maybe “ahhhh” vocal accompaniment)… none of this is Dylan – or at least not Dylan that we know.

And yet despite these obvious variations, we have person after person telling us that this is Bob the Christian.  Or that the message is …. well, you can make up what you want.

So… Jochen quite rightly says that most analysts of the song “go down struggling” and I utterly agree.   Thus what I want to try and do (and I do it with a lot of trepidation) is to add one point: the musical arrangement is utterly un-Dylan.  If the music says anything within the context of Dylan it says, “This is not me”.

But at the same time, the song is really rather jolly; just hearing the music without any knowledge of the lyrics (if you can imagine that) makes most people feel quite happy.  It is not the music of suffering, or eternal damnation or repenting sins or salvation.  It is a jolly piece of music with a very effective female chors repeating certain lines.

And we can’t even say that the repeated lyrics are particularly important.  What the female chorus sings at the start are the lines

There is no literary sense in those lines – it is just the lines that come at the point where the female chorus is asked to sing.

So let us go back to one of the first bits of philosophy I was taught as a young student: Occam’s razor.   The idea is that when an event has two possible explanations, the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation.

Thus if we apply Occam’s razor to this song, the lyrics have no coherent meaning.  Which then implies that the music has no deep meaning of its own, but is simply there to help the entertainment be, well, more entertaining.

So here is the meaning of the piece according to “The Law of Briefness” which is the alternative title of “Occam’s razor”.  Dylan wanted to write an album that was different, but which was still a continuation of his work from the past.   That meant opening with a song that could also be a single.   So he writes a song which has no concrete or clear start, but just fades in.  It also has no end, it fades out.   It has lines which are clearly often not very significant – and they are repeated by the female chorus because… well, just because.

Lines like “Sixteen years” and “Fortune calls” and “The cold-blooded moon”.

Meanwhile, the band plays along with the saxophone having a particular impact, and the overall sound is rather good.  In fact very good.  I’ve played it hundreds of times.

But I never lose the feeling from the music and from the lyrics, that if you really want an explanation as to what it all means, then the biggest clue is that very unusually for Dylan the songs fades in at the start and fades out at the end.

There’s no musical reason for this – Dylan just decides to do it.  Which if you want an explanation says, “Life goes on”.   Of course, as it goes on it changes.  Hence the title.

The songs reviewed from the music plus lyrics viewpoint…

• A Hard Rain’s A-gonna Fall. 
• Abandoned Love
• All along the watchtower
• Angelina
• Ballad for a Friend
• Beyond here lies nothing
• Blind Willie McTell
• Black Diamond Bay
• Can you please crawl out your window
• Caribbean Wind – Dylan’s musical exploration of evolving uncertainty
• Chimes of Freedom
• Cold Irons Bound
• Cover Down Pray Through
• Dark Eyes
• Desolation Row
• Drifter’s Escape
• Don’t think twice it’s all right.
• Early Roman Kings
• Every grain of sand
• Everything is broken
• Foot of pride
• Gates of Eden
• Goodbye Jimmy Reed, and the 13 bar blues
• High Water, a rise, a fall, a bounce, a flood
• Highway 61 Revisited
• I believe in you
• “I Want You”. It was never meant to be like this.
• Idiot wind
• If not for you
• It takes a lot to laugh
• It’s all over now baby blue
• It’s all right ma: life really is ok despite everything.
• Isis
• It ain’t me babe
• Jokerman
• Just like a woman
• Key West
• Lenny Bruce is Dead
• Love Sick
• Man in the Long Black Coat
• Masters of War
• Mississippi
• Not Dark Yet
• One too many mornings
• Shelter from the Storm
• Simple Twist of Fate
• Sign on the window
• Tangled up in blue
• Tombstone Blues
• The Wicked Messenger
•  Yonder Comes Sin