No Nobel Prize for Music: 900 words, 15 identical verses, and still it is brilliant music.

By Tony Attwood

If ever there were a song that should NOT work, “Lily, Rosemary” ets is it. Around 800 words, some 15 verses all musically identical, each ending with the lyrics “the Jack of Hearts,” with the whole thing lasting eight or nine minutes, depending on who is performing. And if that were not enough, it is a song that consists of just three lines of music. Line 2 is musically identical to line one, line four copies line three, and line five rounds it all off with the title of the song coming at its end each time.

And this is interesting in that musically, themeatically and lyrically, Bob Dylan jumped around in his songwriting toward the end of 1973. If we look at the last group of songs he wrote, we find songs of leaving, such as “Going, going, gone” and songs of utter adoration, such as “You angel you”. We have songs of disdain, such as “Dirge”, and songs of love like “On a Night Like This”. And the whole year wrapped up with the composition of “Wedding Song,” which is primarily about setting oneself free.

Looked at on their own, we might be inclined to say that while many of the songs of that year are indeed interesting and most certainly worth preserving and still worthy of a listen, they couldn’t in any way prepare us for what happened in 1974. All I can say is that 1974 was a year of explosion. It was, in fact, a year in which it seems the Almighty touched Bob and said, “Now go forth and compose.”

Or perhaps, if we leave the Almighty out of it, we might say that 1973 had served as a year of Bob getting all the old stuff out of his system, allowing him to sit down and write amazing new songs in completely new ways in 1974. It was the year of Bob the composer.

There were 12 new Dylan compositions in that year, which we know about, but really, one only has to list the first four of those 12 to say, “Yes, this was the songwriting year to end all songwriting years”. Bob only wrote a third of the number of songs he wrote in each of those magical years in the 1960s, where works of genius just seemed to pour out of him, but within those 12, we have what many other songwriters would have considered the highpoints of their whole career.

By way of example, just consider the first song Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

Not only is it highly enjoyable as a piece of music, it is also unique in its ambition. 15 verses, of five lines each, just under 900 words (probably the longest he has written, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise unless they actually give you a count – there are loads of internet articles claiming other songs are longer in terms of lyrics).

And what is it all about? Well, mostly about the person whom we don’t really see or get to know – the Jack of Hearts in the background. But in reality, it doesn’t matter because what Bob has given us is a song of images, of scenes, of little bits of the background of people who somehow come together at one moment in one bar. And how one of those people who doesn’t actually show up, as far as we can see, is the subject of the song.

It is unique and masterful. And according to the official Bob Dylan site it was only ever performed once, on 25 May 1976 – although as we have come to find in working through this set of articles, the data from the official site is not always correct. But Joan took it on, which is a good cover, given the way she reconsiders the song

Maybe Bob has said somewhere why he took on such a big song, and if so, I must have missed it. But despite its lengt,h it does give bands a chance to have a bit of fun… don’t give up on this version because of the opening verse….

But although I love this song and have searched out every cover version I can find, just to see what other people think of the song, and how they re-work it, I can still be surprised and delighted. As with this Ryan Adams version.

Obviously, one of the attractions is that he takes the song at a different speed, and this is particularly relevant here, because we never quite know exactly what happens in the story. And this approach does allow the singer to reflect the feeling of the last verse

The cabaret was empty now, a sign said, "Closed for repair,"
Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair
She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw
Thinkin' 'bout Rosemary and thinkin' about the law
But, most of all she was thinkin' 'bout the Jack of Hearts

I tried out AI on this song, thinking it would probably get the issue of the meaning of the song quite wrong, but in fact it actually gave me something moderately sensible….

 The song serves as a testament to Dylan's storytelling prowess, 
inviting listeners to explore its layers of meaning.

I’ll go with that until something else comes along.

But what really intrigues me is that Dylan could come up with a song whose meaning is not quite utterly clear as to the purpose of the Jack of Hearts (and several other elements come to that), despite the extreme length of the song. And indeed, why Bob didn’t seek to vary the song at all, musically. It really is nothing but A A B B A in terms of musical form, all the way through.

Now that immediately looks like a rejection of the theme of this series of articles – that Bob is a writer of music as much as a writer of words. But I would respond to that – even after all these years, and even with all this length, it is a very enjoyable piece of music.

So even now, all these decades after we first heard Bob perform the song, I am still intrigued – as I am sure I am meant to be. After all, the song ends with “The only person on the scene missin’ was the Jack of Hearts.”

So, how to finish? Well, I have featured this final cover version before, but I still like it. If you play it just to see what it is like, do give it a few minutes. There is something more here than I have picked up elsewhere, which, given the minimalism of the music, is quite something.

But why should this song feature in the “No Nobel Prize” series? Well, simply because it has more lyrics than most, it has 15 verses which are all the same, and yet somehow we are still held within the song, even though we don’t quite know what happens. And for that, I just love it.

I think that what Bob is saying is, “I can write an eight-minute piece with just two musical lines in it. Obviously, Bob doesn’t read my ramblings about his talents as a composer, for he has always known how good he is, but here he really is saying, “All I need is a couple of lines”. And how right he is.

Previously in this series….

No Nobel Prize for Music: 900 words, 15 identical verses, and still it is brilliant music.

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