By Ken Kaplan
Tombstone Blues, because of its wild surrealism, feels incomprehensible to many people, filled with what are thought to be random, stream of consciousness images. I would like to suggest it is not. Rather it is consistent with the major theme of its album “Highway 61 Revisited” (to me Dylan’s greatest work) which is an all out assault on the depravity of American culture in the mid 1960’s. Tombstone Blues is the one song (in my opinion) Dylan wrote that explicitly dealt with the Vietnam war. In April of 1965, Johnson began a massive troop buildup there and the album was released in very late August, 5 months later.
The song was probably written around June-July of that year and was recorded on July 29. It took 12 takes, the final take being the album version.
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With early Dylan, any claims of song meaning, or lack thereof have to be taken with a grain of salt. Desolation Row is NOT “some place in Mexico, across the border. It’s noted for its coke factory,” as he said in an interview.
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**Tombstone** Blues refers to dead people and the dead in this case are soldiers and civilians and perhaps American society itself. Dylan is supposed to have claimed, “he had felt that he had “broken through with this song, that nothing like it had been done before.” He added that he had been inspired by overheard bar-room conversations between police officers about the death of criminals.” Maybe, maybe not.
Sometimes I think people get too “micro” with Dylan. “Who is that person supposed to be? What event is that referring to?” Often this is helpful (as with the “selling postcards of the hanging” which was a real event in Minnesota on June 15, 1920.)
But for me part of Dylan’s greatness, especially in this seminal mid 60’s three “Mt. Everest” albums (“Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde”) is the fusion of the music with the lyrics to create the experience, emotional, mental and spiritual. Thus “Tombstone Blues” in lyrical and musical pace and intensity is like a runaway train. It careens and bounces all over the place at breakneck speed. This mirrors what Dylan portrays as an escalating insanity, a society (and war) spinning out of control. It is part of what gives the song its immense power.
Not every verse and symbol seems clear but the majority do to show that nothing is off limits to Dylan’s attack. Similar in content to the brilliant “It’s All Right Ma (I’m only Bleeding”) Dylan expands the savagery of his contempt and rage into a semi-inferno of images.
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He starts right off, “Well, the sweet pretty things are in bed now, of course.” In conventional, predominantly white, conservative culture, the heart of sanctity is the preciousness of innocence and decorum of its young women and here they are safely tucked away from this dirty, hippie-hipster outlaw rebel and the rest of those that would trample upon that flower with their perverse free love, anti-establishment ways.
"City fathers they're trying to endorse The reincarnation of Paul Revere's horse But the town has no need to be nervous"
In the midst of their perception of invasion, some form of patriotism (The reincarnation of Paul Revere’s horse) is trying to be presented or resurrected. The war was presented as a moral patriotic endeavour by the country’s leaders.
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Dylan then presents contradictions as point counter point:
"The ghost of Belle Starr, she hands down her wits
To Jezebel the nun, she violently knits"
Belle Starr was a famous female outlaw and Jezebel was an immoral seductress in the Bible. Neither were Nuns and one does not “violently” knit, which is usually a calm, sedate activity.
"A bald wig for Jack the Ripper, who sits At the head of the Chamber of Commerce"
Wigs are not bald and Dylan sneers that the worst criminals and murderers imaginable have succeeded in attaining the highest seats of power. Which was true and was a theme Dylan had explored since the great “Masters of War” and other songs.
The refrain
"Mama’s in the fact’ry
She ain’t got no shoes
Daddy’s in the alley
He’s lookin’ for food
I’m in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues
Here we have the image of poverty amidst carnage, death and destruction. There is some contention over whether daddy is looking for “food” or “a fuse”. On the album he sings “food” but in later concerts he at times changes it to “fuse” and that is on his official site. This would only intensify the theme of rampant violence. Dylan also sang “kitchen” on the record.
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The second verse is Dylan’s lashing out at America’s Puritanism about sex and is pretty self-evident.
The hysterical bride in the penny arcade Screaming, she moans, "I've just been made" Sends for the doctor, who pulls down the shade
Say my advice is to not let the boys in
Now, the medicine man comes and he shuffles inside
He walks with a swagger, and he says to the bride
"Stop all this weeping, swallow your pride
You won't die, it's not poison"
The medicine man is of course the unconventional healer where sex outside of marriage is nothing to be concerned about.
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The next verse is one of the most harrowing as it conflates Judeo-Christian references with Lyndon Johnson (and perhaps Jesus) (commander in chief) as the worst of sadists. Here Dylan says your religion is beyond empty.
"John the Baptist, after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero, the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, "Tell me, great hero, but please, make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?"
The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, "Death to all those who would whimper and cry"
And dropping a barbell, he points to the sky
Saying, "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken"
There is a remorselessness here that is chilling.”Death to all those who would whimper and cry”. John the Baptist of course baptized Jesus and the thief died on the cross next to him. This is as raw as Dylan’s contempt can get.
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The next two verses go straight to the war
"The king of the Philistines his soldiers to save
Puts jawbones on their tombstones and flatters their graves
Puts the pied pipers in prison and fattens the slaves
Then sends them out to the jungle"
Johnson is “King of the Philistines” who muzzles war protesters, and those who see the truth (pied pipers), fattens the soldiers like cattle to the slaughter, says worthless pieties about their needless deaths, and sends them off to Vietnam (the jungle).
"Gypsy Davey with a blowtorch he burns out their camps
With his faithful slave Pedro behind him he tramps
With a fantastic collection of stamps
To win friends and influence his uncle"
“Blowtorches” (flame throwers) were used on enemy encampments with Dylan sneering at a sarcastic take on American homilies (“How to Win Friends and Influence People”.)
"The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone
Causes Galileo's math book to get thrown"
The insane calculations of this war (geometry of innocent flesh on the bone- napalm, body counts) cause reason itself (Galileo’s math book) literally to be thrown away.
"At Delilah who's sitting worthlessly alone
But the tears on her cheeks are from laughter
Delilah was an integral part of the Philistine Samson story. Here reason is thrown at the woman who brought down the hero who really is worthless, even though she tried to entrap Samson several times, finally succeeding. What good is great reason when the betrayer has no interest in it?
"Now I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
He could die happily ever after."
Another Samson reference who brought down the Philistines, (Judges 30), Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.”
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For America, a great tragedy and the worst depravity possible is just spectacle, a Cecil B. DeMille movie, the king of such spectacles.
Final verse:
"Where Ma Rainey and Beethoven once unwrapped their bedroll Tuba players now rehearse around the flagpole And the National Bank at a profit sells road maps for the soul To the old folks home and the college"
Where deep culture once reigned, now all we have is pointless patriotic posturing and everything is up for sale, mirroring the verses from “It’s All Right Ma’
"Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark Make everything from toy guns that spark To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark It’s easy to see without looking too far That not much is really sacred While preachers preach of evil fates Teachers teach that knowledge waits Can lead to hundred-dollar plates Goodness hides behind its gates But even the president of the United States Sometimes must have to stand naked' "Money doesn't talk it swears."
The last stanza is self-evident. Dylan is full of disgust and weary of the shallow people who don’t get it, especially the mindless press
'Now I wish I could write you a melody so plain That could hold you dear lady from going insane That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain Of your **useless and pointless knowledge**
( a society with no regard for wisdom or the sacred)
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“Tombstone Blues” is very similar to its companion song on side two “Highway 61 Revisited” as the themes of insanity and depravity of the society are explored in both. Both also are performed at breakneck speed musically. The last verse of Highway 61 is a great exclamation point
"Oh, the rovin' gambler, he was very bored Tryin' to create a next world war He found a promoter who nearly fell on the floor He said, "I never did engage in this kind of thing before, but Yes, I think it can be very easily done We need to put some bleachers out in the sun And have it on Highway 61"
A country that would find a way to profit from a nuclear holocaust.
“We had to destroy the city in order to save it” (quote that emerged after the battle of Ben Tre in Vietnam as American bombs destroyed most of the city.)
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The great difference between “Highway 61 Revisited” (the song) and “Tombstone Blues” is in the latter Dylan takes direct aim at the war in Vietnam and a society that would pursue it with such gusto, lying and unapologetically in its barbarity and savagery.
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“Tombstone Blues” is a great, great song but often is obscured because it is on an album of unimaginable achievement, which includes monumental songs such as “Like a Rolling Stone”, “Desolation Row”, “Ballad of a Thin Man”, the title song and “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”. But, it is an essential stone in an artistic edifice that rivals Picasso’s “Guernica” as one of the supreme artistic works of the 20th century.
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Ken Kaplan
November 2024
There are those for reasons unknown who consider the surrealistic lyrics quite meaningless and unrelated to reality. Au contraire, ie, the Tricoteuses supported the Reign of Terror wrought by the revolutionaries against the royalists in France. They knitted along side the guillotines as the heads rolled and the blood flowed. In Dickens, Madame Defarge.