Untold Dylan

The Mississippi-series, part 14

by Jochen Markhorst

Like earlier “Desolation Row” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, “Mississippi” can’t really be dealt with in one article. Too grand, too majestic, too monumental. And, of course, such an extraordinary masterpiece deserves more than one paltry article. As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): Its’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

XIV      Unca Donald

My clothes are wet, tight on my skin
Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in
I know that fortune is waitin’ to be kind
So give me your hand and say you’ll be mine

Claustrophobic words indeed, the words with which the narrator describes his current state of mind. Of course, the most famous scene of a hero trapping himself in the corner while painting is Donald Duck, but there it is not oppressive. Donald locks himself in to avoid an obligatory “social” with Daisy, so as not to have to accompany her to one of those stupid social events where Daisy is always so eager to show up.

At first it is tempting to take the opening metaphor literally; wet clothes sticking to his skin… maybe he really did swim across that wide river to reach his beloved. But no – the second line, with the paint metaphor, suggests that the image of the wet, sticky clothes is a first step to yet another accumulatio, in this song the third accumulation of more or less similar images.

In terms of content we are back to the first accumulatio, in which the narrator also indicated to be “boxed in”, “trapped”, with “nowhere to escape”. This quatrain provides the corresponding images: the anguish of the tight, sticky clothes, and like Donald, painted into the corner, nowhere to escape.

The coincidental resemblance with Duckburg’s most famous resident will receive a remarkable psychological deepening in the next line.  Fortune waiting to be kind are striking words to characterise the Donald Duck as it was created by Carl Barks. The brilliant Carl Barks, who managed to transcend the anonymity of “the good Duck artist”, is the creator of Duckburg, the creator of Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander, of Neighbor J. Jones and the Beagle Boys, in short: of the Donald Duck as etched in our collective memory. He is the man who turns the side-figure Donald, the impetuous, frantic pusher next to Mickey Mouse (in The Wise Little Hen and in Orphan’s Benefit, 1934) into a protagonist with the image as we know him today: the Eternal Loser, the schmuck. Similar to Charlie Brown, for example, or Basil Fawlty – and to the narrator of “Mississippi”.

They are usually popular heroes with the public. Perhaps even more popular than the underdog, who usually wins at the end of the film or story. Dramatists can explain that phenomenon: a bad ending “you take home with you”, lets you lie awake at night. Shakespeare, Lessing, Brecht… that’s why they like to write tragedies, plays in which the main character has to die – because the impact is many times greater than a happy ending. The original storytellers were aware of that too, by the way. At Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood is eaten, and finito. No fuss with some hunter cutting open the wolf’s belly, and whatnot (Le petit chaperon rouge, 1697).

The less poignant variant of those fatal tragedies are the stories with the schmuck, who at least does survive his adventure. In Jewish humour and literature, the schmuck has existed as an archetype for centuries; in Western culture it has become increasingly popular since the second half of the twentieth century. Culminating in the 1990s, when Beck scores a mega hit with the schmuck’s signature song “Loser”, when The Big Lebowski becomes the new cult hero, when entire halls roar along with Radiohead’s “Creep” and comedians like Louis C.K. and Seth Rogen lay the foundation for their success: the loser personage.

The most heart-breaking then are the losers like Donald Duck and Charlie Brown, the unlucky ones who so often have happiness at their fingertips. In the music it is most movingly portrayed by John Hiatt in the beautiful song “You May Already Be A Winner” (Riding With The King, 1983):

Dry your eyes pretty girl
I just got news from the outside world
I don't know how they got our names
But yesterday this letter came
“Mr. and Mrs. Resident Dweller, your lucky number is…
You may already be a winner!”

Well, I've suspected this for years
Still in all its good to hear
They're pulling for us in the post
To you my dear, I raise this toast

But the most beautiful words for exactly this state of mind are of course chosen by the Nobel laureate: “I know that fortune is waiting to be kind”.

Variants of the one-liner can be found in Dylan’s record cabinet. With Charlie Daniels for instance, on his rather obscure, nameless debut album from 1970, which he is allowed to record after he assisted Dylan on Nashville Skyline and on Self Portrait. It is a remarkably rugged, kaleidoscopic country rock album by an untamed, extremely talented ruffian (highlight is the closing “Thirty Nine Miles From Mobile”, a hard rocking, Allman Brothers-like jam), with halfway through the beautiful “Georgia”, which sounds like a left-over from Music From The Big Pink. In which Charlie sings:

All of my life I've been told
That the LA streets was paved with gold
Fame and fortune waiting to reward ya
But it didn't take long to understand
California ain't the promised land
But at least a man's a man in Georgia

A more improbable, but bizarrely more striking source is an English Puritan Baptist preacher from the nineteenth century, the “prince of preachers” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a prolific author of Christian books, hymns and sermons that are still popular in Calvinist circles today. In 1866 he collects all the psalms and hundreds of Christian hymns in Our Own Hymn Book, and number 499 therein, attributed to one Hewett, is called “Seek And Ye Shall Find”:

Come, poor sinner, come and see,
All thy strength is found in me;
I am waiting to be kind,
To relieve thy troubled mind.

Still, Dylan does use the most unlikely sources. More attractive, however, is a source like Charlie Daniels. Or the so admired Bing Crosby (“quite a man, quite a singer,” as Dylan says in Theme Time Radio Hour), whose charming “Meet The Sun Half-Way” also has such a similar “fortune waiting to be kind”-oneliner:

Stop hiding behind a pillow whenever the dawn looks gray,
Get up, get out, and meet the sun half-way!
There may be a fortune waiting, or maybe an egg souffle,
Get out, get out, and meet the sun half-way!

And this Bing Crosby song becomes even more attractive when the last verse is sung:

You may be a new Dick Tracy, conducting an exposé
Get up, get out, and meet the sun half-way!
Now don’t you blame your luck, say, do you want to sound like Donald Duck?
You know, when you smile, you throw yourself a big bouquet!

But then again, Donald Duck would, obviously, have swam to the other side of that wide river without any problems.

And finally, the sweet closing line So give me your hand and say you’ll be mine completes the eclectic character of this exceptional quatrain.

Jesus has a small supporting role in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian (1979). We see him in the scene “Jesus’ Lack of Crowd Control”, the scene in which Brian and his mother, on their way to the stoning, do happen to pass by Jesus, just starting his “Sermon on the Mount”.

It is hardly a spectacular performance. Jesus speaks insecurely and too soft, the audience is noisy and easily distracted. “Mr. Cheeky” (Eric Idle) can’t stay focused either, and finds it more entertaining to harass the nose picking “Mr. Big Nose”.

MAN #2: You hear that? Blessed are the Greek.
GREGORY: The Greek?
MAN #2: Mmm. Well, apparently, he’s going to inherit the earth.
GREGORY: Did anyone catch his name?
MRS. BIG NOSE: You’re not going to thump anybody.
MR. BIG NOSE: I’ll thump him if he calls me ‘Big Nose’ again.
MR. CHEEKY: Oh, shut up, Big Nose.
MR. BIG NOSE: Ah! All right. I warned you. I really will slug you so hard–
MRS. BIG NOSE: Oh, it’s the meek! Blessed are the meek! Oh, that’s nice, isn’t it? I’m glad they’re getting something, ’cause they have a hell of a time.

The poor, pathetically awkward Jesus is played by Kenneth Coley, who can be admired in these same months in the BBC production Measure For Measure, the television adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. Coley will have seen the link with the “Sermon on the Mount” when rehearsing his text for Life Of Brian: For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again (Matt. 7:2).

Kenneth Coley is standing at the same crossroads of Shakespeare and the Bible that will inspire Dylan more than once. “The Sermon on the Mount” provides references and idiom for songs like “Up To Me”, “Buckets Of Rain”, “Angelina”, “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “The Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar”, and delivers in these same days of Life Of Brian and BBC’s Measure For Measure jargon and theme for “Do Right To Me Baby” (don’t wanna judge nobody, don’t wanna be judged).

Dylan used Measure For Measure’s plot a long time ago for “Seven Curses” (1963), although the format for this particular song probably is the old folksong “Anathea”. Presumably, 21-year-old Dylan is not yet that familiar with Shakespeare’s use of the same storyline – the plot around the dirty old judge who falsely promises a fair maiden to save her lover from the gallows in exchange for sex.

The young bard soon fills the knowledge gap. Shakespeare and his oeuvre still get only superficial name checks in “Highway 61 Revisited”, “Desolation Row” and “Stuck Inside Of Mobile”, but from The Basement Tapes Dylan processes longer quotes and paraphrases with more substantive relevance for the lyrics in question. “Tears Of Rage”, of course, and “Too Much Of Nothing” in particular, and Professor Christopher Ricks ultimately finds a total of forty references in Dylan’s oeuvre – although it should be noted: sometimes very far-fetched.

Not too far-fetched is this one appropriation in “Mississippi”, literally lifted from Measure For Measure:

DUKE VINCENTIO
If he be like your brother, for his sake
Is he pardon’d; and, for your lovely sake,
Give me your hand and say you will be mine.

From the last act, in the BBC adaptation faithfully, spoken verbatim by Kenneth Coley, who in 1979 is the physical manifestation of the Dylan Crossroads, somewhere in Mississippi; the crossing of Shakespeare Alley and Sermon Mountain Row.  

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part XV: Gaze into the abyss

The Mississippi series

• The Mississippi-series, part 1; no polyrhythm here please
• The Mississippi-series, part 2: the line that never was.
• The Mississippi- series, part 3: Belshazzar on the steppe
• The Mississippi-series, part 4: Bertolt, Bobby, Blind & Boy
• The Mississippi-series, part 5: Frost in the room, fire in the sky
• The Mississippi-series, part 6: Charades
• The Mississippi series: part 7 : Dorsey Dixon
• The Mississippi-series, part 8: Pretty Maids All In A Row
• The Mississippi-series, part 9: Abandon all hope
• The Mississippi-series, part 10: Eyesight To The Blind
• The Mississippi-series part 11: Bonnie Blue
• The Mississippi-series, part 12: Roses Of Yesterday
• The Mississippi-series, part 13: Down in the Groove

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold.  His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967

By Tony Attwood

Reaching the end of the working day I occasionally mooch around (as my dear mum used to say – meaning, meander aimlessly), surveying Dylan facts and figures, with no particular destination in mind.  And doing this yesterday I found myself chancing upon the list of songs the Bob has played once, and only once on tour.

Now the first song I tried out was “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”, and playing it I felt I could see and hear why it was tried only once – it sounded to me singularly unrehearsed, and not really something I cared to share with my esteemed audience at large.

But I decided to try my luck again and so moved on to 10,000 Men which was played at Keaney Gym, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, on 12 November 2000.  It’s the original song ok, but not all the verses are covered.

https://youtu.be/s3GJ2W3ZZ8Q

It’s a fun and bouncy

Ten thousand men standing on a hill
Ten thousand men on a hill
Some of them going down, some of them going get killed

Ten thousand men dressed in Oxford blue
Ten thousand men dressed in Oxford blue
Drumming in the morning, in the evening they’ll be coming for you

Ten thousand men on the move
Ten thousand men on the move
None of them doing nothin’ that your mama wouldn’t disapprove

Hey! Who could your lover be?
Hey! Who could your lover be?
Let me eat off his head so you can really see!

Ten thousand men looking so lean and frail
Ten thousand men looking so lean and frail
Each one of ’m got seven wives, each one of ’m just out of jail

Ten thousand women all sweepin’ my room
Ten thousand women all sweepin’ my room
Spilling my buttermilk, sweeping it up with a broom

Ten thousand men digging for silver and gold
Ten thousand men digging for silver and gold
All clean shaven, all coming in from the cold

Ooh, baby, thank you for my tea!
Baby, thank you for my tea!
It’s so sweet of you to be so nice to me

It is a song from the generally forgotten “Under  the Red Sky” album and came at a time when Bob was searching to find a new way to write protest songs.  The songs of that time are generally appearing to be about childhood or adaptations of nursery rhymes but in the end are about something much darker.  Here’s how I categorised them in the review of songwriting in 1990.

• Handy Dandy (Contradictions)
• Cat’s in the Well (It’s all over, there’s no way out)
• 10,000 men (All is not as it seems)
• Unbelievable (We are being fed a pack of lies)
• Under the red sky (Our childhood has been obliterated)
• Heartland with Willie Nelson (Capitalism is destroying us)

I think this live version goes rather well; there’s nothing wrong with it as a rocking R&B song.  Good entertainment all round.

So having started with a song sung only once, which starts with a number, I then found another: 20/20 vision a song by Jimmy Martin.  It was performed at City Coliseum, Austin Tx on 25 October 1991.

I been to the doctor he says I'm all right
I know he's lying, I'm losing my sight
He should have examined the eyes of my mind
20/20 vision and walkin' 'round blind

She's gone and left I feel so alone
I carry a heart as heavy as stone
?
20/20 vision and walkin' 'round blind

With my eyes wide open I lay in my bed
If it wasn't for dying, I wish I was dead
But this is my punishment, death is too kind
20/20 vision and walkin' 'round blind

You just couldn't know her the way that I do
You say that she's wicked and I know it's true
I know that she cheated, I knew all the time
20/20 vision and walkin' 'round blind

Since she's gone and left me I feel so alone
I carry a heart that is heavy as stone
I know she cheated, I knew all the time
20/20 vision and walkin' 'round blind

She's gone she's gone oh what will I do?
I bet your not happy if she's there with you
The eyes of your heart will have trouble like mine
20-20 vision and walkin' 'round blind

20-20 vision and walkin' 'round blind...

By Larry Fyffe

In “Murder Most Foul”, Bob Dylan refers to a number of singers/songs that he likes to hear.  Can direct links to Dylan’s own song lyrics be found?

Let’s see.

Therein, the song “Twilight Time”; in it rhymes ~ ‘done’/’sun’:

Deepening shadows gather splendour as day is done
Fingers of light will soon surrender the setting sun
I count the moments darling till you're here with me
Together at last at twilight time
(The Platters: Twilight Time ~ Ram/Dunn/M&A Nevins)

Rhymes ~ ‘sun’/’begun’ in the song lyrics below:

Beyond the horizon, behind the sun
At the end of the rainbow life has only begun
In the long hours of twilight beneath the stardust above
Beyond the horizon, it is so easy to love
(Bob Dylan: Beyond The Horizon ~ Kennedy/Grosz/Dylan)

The song “Memphis In June” makes the list; therein rhymes ~ ‘moon’/’June’:

With sweet oleander blowing perfume in the air
Up jumps the moon to make it much grander
It's paradise, brother take my advice
Nothing half as nice as Memphis in June
(Hoagy Carmichael: Memphis In June ~ Webster/Carmichael)

Found is a tight connection to the figurative diction in the lyrics below:

Well my heart's in the Highland, gentle and fair
Honeysuckle blooming in the wildwood air
Bluebells blazing where the Aberdeen waters flow
Well my heart's in the Highland
(Bob Dylan: Highland)

The song title is noted in the lyrics below; so is the “rhyme” ~ ‘moon’/’June’:

Well, they're not showing any lights tonight
And there's no moon
There's just a hot-blooded singer
Singing 'Memphis In June'
(Bob Dylan: Tight Connection To My Heart)

Mentioned in “Murder Most Foul” is “Driving Wheel’:

My baby don't have to work, my baby don't have to rob and steal
I give her everything she needs, I am her driving wheel ...
Got up this morning, man, said she'd be back soon
Be back early Friday morning, either Saturday afternoon
(Roosevelt Sykes: Driving Wheel)

Paid tribute to in the song lyrics below; rhymed is ~ ‘rob’/’job’ rather than ~ ‘steal’/’wheel’:

Well, she can make you steal, make you rob
Well, she can give you the hives, make you lose your job
Make things bad, make things worse
She got stuff more potent than a gypsy curse
(Bob Dylan: My Wife's Home Town ~ Dylan/ Hunter/Dixon)

Mentioned too is “Love Me Or Leave Me”; Frank Sinatra, for one, sings it, but not Bud Powell as Dylan suggests:

Love me or leave me, and let me be lonely
You won't believe me, and I love you only
I'd rather be lonely
Than happy with somebody else
(Frank Sinatra: Love Me Or Leave Me ~ Kahn/Donaldson)

Below, another song by Frankie ‘blue eyes”; rhymes ~ ‘garden’/’pardon’:

A country dance was being held in the garden
I felt a bump, and heard an oh, beg your pardon
Suddenly I saw polka dots and moonbeams
All around a pug-nosed dream
(Frank Sinatra: Polka Dots And Moonbeams ~ Burke/Van Heusen)

Which is paid tribute in the following lines ; note the rhyme ~ ‘garden’/’pardon’:

As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden ...
Someone hit me from behind ...
Excuse me, ma'am, I beg your pardon
There's no one here, the gardener is gone
(Bob Dylan: Ain't Talking)

https://youtu.be/Hx6fHd99SxA

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

by Rolf Säfström, Sweden

I have now listened, for more than a month, to the latest Bob Dylan Album, ”Rough and Rowdy Ways”. I’m thankful for being in the same historical time that Dylan gives us so much of his art.

Now I just want to share with you, one of the many thoughts I have about this beautiful album – and in fact simply about one of the songs, ”Mother of Muses”.

I have a theory about it, which I would like to present to you, along with the arguments supporting my point of view that the first spark of inspiration for the idea of writing the lyrics to this song, came to Bob Dylan in the afternoon of 1st April 2017!

I don’t know how long he worked with this song after that moment. But the more I listen to it, the more I am convinced that this is another masterpiece; one of the several he has ”painted”, so far.

He has put in so much of himself, and how thankful he is over the gift he is given, and his ability to be the artist he is.

So what is the source of my theory?

On a Saturday, 1st April 2017, Bob Dylan started his European Spring Tour.

The concert started at 8 pm, in Stockholm. I was there, with my youngest daughter Moa, and I had bought VIP tickets ( 2nd row) for us. I had a little hope that he would receive the Nobel medal on the scene, so I wanted to be there in the historical moment.

We took our seats, half an hour before the concert, filled with expectations.

Just then, a few minutes later, I recognized some well-known people took their places, some rows back, to the left above our seats. It was a handful members of The Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, Horace Engdahl and some more!

I became more excited and I decided to walk up to them and asked, “Has he received his medal already today?”

One representative of the Academy answered, very politely, “Well, this is not official yet, but yes he has!”

So the concert (my 18th since 1978) took place as normal, but that is not a part of this story.

Later the same year Sara Danius, secretary of the Swedish Academy,  wrote a little book about Bob Dylan. (”Om Bob Dylan”, S Danius, Ad Libris 2017) and there she gives us an inside story, about Dylan receiving his Nobel medal, earlier the same day.

It was a small ceremony with just the Academy, Dylan and some of his nearest men. No press, journalists nor photographers. Dylan wanted it that way. Danius writes:

When he had the golden medal in his hand, he turned the backside up, looked at it for a long time and seemed amazed about the motive.

This is a picture of Dylan’s original medal, and it is of ”Mother of Muses, sing for me…”  

The other picture is of my daughter, just outside the concert hall. As you know, there is no cameras allowed inside, which we all should respect.!

So that’s my theory, and the argument to prove it. I think it is a bit of the truth, but who knows? / Rolf Säfström, Sweden

Best wishes and may God be with You!

Footnote, from the Untold team.  Here’s the setlist from the gig that Rolf attended

Mother of Muses: From Mnemosyne to Elvis, Talking Heads to Leonard Cohen

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.

Tony Attwood

The Mississippi-series, part 13

by Jochen Markhorst

Like earlier “Desolation Row” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, “Mississippi” can’t really be dealt with in one article. Too grand, too majestic, too monumental. And, of course, such an extraordinary masterpiece deserves more than one paltry article. As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): It’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

XIII       Down In The Groove

Everybody movin’ if they ain’t already there
Everybody got to move somewhere
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow
Things should start to get interestin’ right about now

“What would I say if I met Dylan?” His answer, in keeping with his stylish image, is elegant: “I hope you don’t mind.”

Bryan Ferry is being interviewed for his Dylan album Dylanesque (2007), a tribute project arousing rather diverging opinions. The title is a red rag: the Dylan covers by Ferry, the grand master of irony, are anything but Dylanesque – smooth polished, tastefully arranged, wrinkle-free produced… in short, Ferry-esque. Hardcore Dylan fans are rarely tolerant of covers anyway, but the less rabid fans also miss the rough and rowdy, the jagged edges and the raw emotion.

However, the more neutral listeners are generally positive. Also because songs like “Simple Twist Of Fate” and “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” have a magical, almost indestructible power – they are almost impossible to mess up. And Ferry’s adaptation of “Positively Fourth Street” actually has an enriching quality. The acoustic package (piano and Spanish guitar, mainly) plus Ferry’s somewhat plaintive, high pitched vocals do have an unreal, alienating effect; the contrast of the graceful recitation with the mean, snarling lyrics is fascinating.

Anyhow, it’s quite likely that the bard at that fictional meeting with Roxy Music’s old foreman would say: “I most certainly don’t mind. On the contrary.”

Ferry has been lining Dylan’s pockets since 1973, when the single from his first solo album These Foolish Things, an equally alienating version of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, became a big hit. The royalties for “It Ain’t Me, Babe” from the successor Another Time, Another Place – again gold – and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Don’t Think Twice” from the well-selling album Frantic (2002) are not bad either and are increased fivefold by the equally well-selling Dylanesque.

Apart from that financially motivated, obvious approval from the master, Dylan might also have artistic appreciation. Dylan repeatedly confesses, both in Chronicles and in interviews as well as in his MusiCares speech, his gratitude and sympathy for all his colleagues who cover his songs. Bryan Ferry probably even has an edge.

The contemporaries (Dylan is four years older) largely share the same musical taste, the same missionary drive and even an overlapping choice of repertoire. Years before Dylan’s “Sinatra albums” Ferry already has success with his declaration of love to the same American Songbook, the gold-scoring As Time Goes By (1999).

This shared, wide-ranging taste is perhaps best noticeable on Ferry’s third solo album, Let’s Stick Together (1976). A tasteful adaptation of the long-standing “You Go To My Head”, which Dylan will record for Triplicate forty years later, “Shame, Shame, Shame” from Jimmy Reed, sung on Rough And Rowdy Ways, Ferry’s own ode to Dylan’s cast-iron art motto “Re-make/Re-model” (“next time is the best time, we all know”), his ode to Humphrey Bogart (“2HB”) and the opening song, the song with which Ferry scores his biggest solo hit: “Let’s Stick Together”.

Dylan chooses “Let’s Stick Together” as the opening track for his maligned album Down In The Groove (1988) and most music lovers will agree that Dylan can’t match the excitement, drive and pure musical pleasure that bursts from Ferry’s arrangement. Or from the original, by Wilbert Harrison, 1962.

Wilbert Harrison has earned his ticket to the rock ‘n’ roll Olympus three years earlier, with “Kansas City” – the song from which Dylan lovingly steals for “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (they got some hungry women there is a hardly disguised derivative from Wilbert’s they got some crazy women there) and for “High Water” (He made it to Kansas City, Twelfth Street and Vine is literally copied), and the song from which radio maker Dylan says in 2006: “You all know this song, and it’s always good” (Theme Time Radio Hour episode 20, “Musical Map”).

Harrison himself edited “Let’s Stick Together” in 1969 and turned it into “Let’s Work Together”, with the classic line Together we will stand, divided we’ll fall. He scores a modest hit with it. But in 1970 it becomes for Canned Heat the biggest hit in the band’s long career (number 2 in the UK, bigger than “On The Road Again” and “Going Up The Country”). However, both Ferry and Dylan prefer the less preachy, more pure rock variant “Let’s Stick Together”.

It is, after “Shenandoah”, the second time that thematic or textual lines can be drawn from Down In The Groove to “Mississippi”, providing yet again some insight into Dylan’s working method and sources of inspiration, and illustrating Dylan’s own wording of his working method:

“What happens is, I’ll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That’s the way I meditate. A lot of people will look at a crack on the wall and meditate, or count sheep or angels or money or something, and it’s a proven fact that it’ll help them relax. I don’t meditate on any of that stuff. I meditate on a song. I’ll be playing Bob Nolan’s ‘Tumbling Tumbleweeds,’ for instance, in my head constantly — while I’m driving a car or talking to a person or sitting around or whatever. People will think they are talking to me and I’m talking back, but I’m not. I’m listening to the song in my head. At a certain point, some of the words will change and I’ll start writing a song.”

(Robert Hilburn interview, 2003)

In the run up to “Mississippi” quite a few songs are playing in the head, apparently. And Down In The Groove reveals some of them. The stick with me from “Let’s Stick Together”, the hopeless narrator in “Sally Sue Brown” is goin’ south to humiliate himself in front of Sally Sue again, and the desolate state of the protagonist in “Mississippi” is an echo of what Dylan already heard from his beloved Stanley Brothers, in “Rank Strangers To Me”:

I wandered again to my home in the mountains
Where in youth's early dawn I was happy and free
I looked for my friends but I never could find them
I found they were all rank strangers to me

Still, the apotheosis, the brille of the final line things should start to get interesting right about now does not come from a song that haunts Dylan, but is one of the three or four selfless contributions by soulmate Henry Rollins:

I shook 1992 by the neck
The road shot into me
Now there's only 1993
Don’t attach
Hit hard
Disappear into the treeline
Keep moving
It gets harder to get up in the morning
Lines on my face
It should start getting interesting right about now 

(Now Watch Him Die, 1993)

Rollins, the great, multitalented artist from Washington D.C., and in every conceivable respect the opposite of the distinguished Geordie Bryan Ferry from Washington, County Durham.

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part XIV: Unca Donald

The Mississippi series

• The Mississippi-series, part 1; no polyrhythm here please
• The Mississippi-series, part 2: the line that never was.
• The Mississippi- series, part 3: Belshazzar on the steppe
• The Mississippi-series, part 4: Bertolt, Bobby, Blind & Boy
• The Mississippi-series, part 5: Frost in the room, fire in the sky
• The Mississippi-series, part 6: Charades
• The Mississippi series: part 7 : Dorsey Dixon
• The Mississippi-series, part 8: Pretty Maids All In A Row
• The Mississippi-series, part 9: Abandon all hope
• The Mississippi-series, part 10: Eyesight To The Blind
• The Mississippi-series part 11: Bonnie Blue
• The Mississippi-series, part 12: Roses Of Yesterday

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold.  His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.

Tony Attwood

The Symbolism Of The Pine Tree (Part II)

by Larry Fyffe

This article continues from The Symbolism of the Pine Tree I 

In ancient mythology, the Mother Goddess, is depicted as hermaphroditic before being transformed into a female; s/he is associated with the coniferous pine; son Attis turns into a sweet-smelling evergreen tree with needled leaves. . The Hebrew God by some is considered at first to be hermaphroditic, but the female aspect soon disappears from the Judaic/Christian Bible:

And God said "Let us make man is our image
After our likeness, and let them have dominion ..."
So God created man in His own image
In the image of God created He him
Male and female created He them
(Genesis 1: 26, 27)

In any event, the coniferous juniper tree appears later on in the Holy Bible, standing over the prophet Elijah, protectively and mother-like:

And he lay and slept under  juniper tree
Behold, then an angel touched him
And said unto him, "Arise and eat"
And behold there was a cake baken on the coals
And a cruse of water at his head
And he did eat and drink
And laid him down again
(l Kings 5, 6)

In the song lyrics below, the deciduous Dionysus, the “Semi-God” of the Vine from Roman/Greek mythology, appears beside the motherly juniper in the form of an ash, hickory, and oak tree:

Build you a fire with hickory, ash, and oak
Don't use no green or rotten wood, they'll get you by the smoke
We'll just lay down by the juniper while the moon is bright
Watch them jugs a-filling in the pale moonlight
(Bob Dylan: Copper Kettle ~ Albert Beddoe)

The year-round shelter, smell, and warmth provided by the pine tree serves it well as a symbol for matronly comfort.

As illustrated by the following song lyrics:

You can smell the pinewood burning
You can hear the school bell ring
Gotta get close to the teacher
If you wanna learn anything
(Bob Dylan: Floater)

According to Greek/Roman mythology, Titan Saturn (Cronus), is overthrown by the Olympian Zeus, the Sky God of Thunder. The ancient Romans celebrate Saturn, the God of Agriculture, at the winter solstice, a sign of spring in the offing. The Romans hang evergreen boughs in their houses and temples, and the tradition is taken up by the followers of Christianity:

Though the years we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Hang a shiny star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas
(Bob Dylan: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas ~ Martin/Blane)

The mythological Fates be three females figures:

• Clotho – the Spinner – spins the thread of life
• Lachesis – the Alotter –  assigns destiny
• Atropos – the Shearer –  cuts the thread at death

The following song lyrics could be a depiction of Clotho:

First we wash our feet near the immortal shrine
And then our shadows meet, and then we drink our wine
I see the hungry clouds up above your face
And then the tears roll down, what a bitter taste
And then you drift away on a summer's day where the wildflowers bloom
With your golden loom
(Bob Dylan: Golden Loom)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.

Tony Attwood

An index to the series thus far is published at the foot of this article.

By Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet)

We finished Part 1 of this tour through some of Dylan’s 1992 performances by considering some of the songs from Under the Red Sky (1990) on his setlist that year. Now we turn to his previous album, Oh Mercy (1989), and catch up with some of those performances.

The four Oh Mercy songs Dylan presents this year were all first performed in 1990 and 1991. Two of these songs, ‘Man in the Long Black Coat’ and ‘What good am I?’ would stick around, and would be further developed, whereas ‘Most of the Time’ and ‘Everything is Broken’ would fade away.

That makes the performances of the latter two songs all the more precious, especially ‘Most of the Time’, as it is a masterpiece of ironical undercutting. In 1990 we heard a passionate presentation of the song which was anything but reconciled to the song’s contradictions.

This 1992 version creates a mixed impression. The sound is richer and more laid back, with Bucky Baxter again creating some fine musical textures. It all sounds pretty good. Then Dylan starts to sing and the whole thing becomes a lot more fraught. It’s a strange, almost strangled performance, full of odd timing, moments of bitterness – and maybe he’s not quite remembering the lyrics, the order of the verses. It’s all pretty hair-raising, and far from the triumphant 1990 performance.

It’s a pity that the harp break at the end is not better articulated. It strikes me that Dylan is just not able to find his way into this song in terms of performance, and it is perhaps not surprising that he drops it from his setlists.

Most of the time

‘Everything is Broken’ fares much better. The band sounds good and strong with a rocking beat. Dylan sounds a little diffident at the beginning but soon warms to the vocals. Like a lot of Dylan’s protest songs, this one is couched in terms which manage to be both specific and general.

Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is broken

I quote these particular lines because they could have been written yesterday – or tomorrow. That ‘feel like you’re chokin’ reminds me of ‘I can’t breathe’ which has become the rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement. By these mysterious means Dylan songs stay relevant. When I hear ‘broken laws/ broken bodies, broken bones’ I see scenes of police violence in the streets of American cities right now.

Everything is broken

‘What good am I?’  is a song full of self doubt, often performed with Dylan on the piano. Not in this case, however. A soft easy rhythm is established against which Dylan delivers a passionate, quivering vocal. As I suggested when looking at the 1990 performance, I find this song seems to gain in contemporary relevance as the years roll on, and all those things we might turn a blind eye to have just grown worse. The question ‘what good am I?’ confronts us in the face of growing injustices, social and environmental.

What good am I?

Arguably ‘Man in the Long Black Coat’ is the jewel in the Oh Mercy crown, and Dylan worked hard at developing the song over the years. The direction of that development is towards great grandiosity, as the drama enacted in the song evolves from the swampy horror story of Lanois’ album production into a cosmic tragedy – the seduction of innocence on a grand scale. Moral doubt and self-reflection play a large part in the album, including, ‘What Good am I?’, ‘The Disease of Conceit’, ‘What was it you wanted?’, and ‘Shooting Star’. This shows up in ‘…Black Coat’, in lines that cast doubt on the function of our consciences:

Preacher was talking there's a sermon he gave
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it's you who must keep it satisfied

This is the human paradox; morally, we can’t trust ourselves. This is a shot across the bows of anybody who appeals to their own conscience alone as justification for their actions. That twisted sanctimoniousness that would take the word of scripture and turn it to evil purposes.

Somebody said from the bible he’d quote
There was dust on the man in the long black coat

Perhaps what makes this song special in the Dylan canon is that the devil himself puts in an appearance, sinister and dramatic. I can’t think of any other Dylan song, even from his gospel period (1979 -1981), that so vividly personifies the seductive power of the devil.

This 1992 performance is certainly the best so far, with a sharp, telling harp break at the end, doing what Dylan’s harp does best, elaborating and exploring the emotional valences made possible by the song. It’s a wonderful performance, and a stepping stone to even greater performances in 1995

 Man in the long black coat

We move the clock back now to Blood on the Tracks (1974), and catch up with how Dylan has been working with those songs. We heard a scintillating performance of ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ in Part 1, 1992, and we now turn to those other perennials, ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ and ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’, songs Dylan has been cultivating since they were written.

‘Simple Twist of Fate’, with its famously shifting pronouns is a quiet reflective song, and the effectiveness of Bucky Baxter’s dobro in creating long sustained sounds behind the verses is evident. I nearly dropped this song out because of the rowdy audience. The background noise is frustrating, especially at the beginning when a quiet, melancholy mood is being set, but things quieten down somewhat after a while and Dylan delivers a moody, if scratchy vocal. The expression ‘ships that pass in the night’ is what passes through my mind when I think about this song. A connection made, but only just. A one night stand that turns sad with the dawn. A memory that will never fade. The one that got away will always haunt.

He woke up, the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere
He told himself he didn't care
Pushed the window open wide
Felt an emptiness inside

Except in this variation Dylan sings:

He told himself he didn’t care
But he pushed back the blinds
Found a note she’d left behind
To which he just could not relate
Any more than that simple twist of fate

 A simple twist of fate

There is a gorgeous harmonica break, sweet and sensitive, against the rolling thunder of the drums, but audience noise once more distracts us from the beautiful quiet ending.

More darkly driven than ‘Simple Twist of Fate’, ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’ registers the anguish we might all feel when someone grows away from us, grows out of us as if we were clothes that had grown too small. The one that got away is the one most bitterly regretted.

Oh, I know where I can find you, oh
In somebody's room
It's a price I have to pay
You're a big girl all the way

Dylan’s in fine voice for this performance, and once again we hear how this band can create quiet, more intimate music without having to be acoustic. Baxter again creating a rich, ‘orchestral’ texture. Dylan can go softly with the voice or hard; give it a harsh edge, or sound thin and vulnerable.

You’re a big girl now

As far as I know, 1992 was the last year Dylan attempted to perform that great splenetic masterpiece ‘Idiot Wind’ on stage. It must be a hell of a song to sustain, all that outrage and anger, over so many verses.

And it’s not the kind of song that offers alternatives in terms of musical interpretation or reworking. It flashes like fire or not at all. It can’t be tamed. There is no sweetening the bitter pill. It is an aggrieved beast. I think the 1976 Rolling Thunder versions are probably the best in performance terms, but Dylan gives this 1992 performance his all, using ‘upsinging’ (raising his voice at the end of every line) to keep it rolling. The harp break keeps up the brittle edge of the song, but, perhaps in the final analysis, Dylan’s voice, although he’s trying hard, just isn’t quite up to it – it’s your call.

I’m going to finish this post with a song that doesn’t quite fit anywhere else, ‘Seeing the Real You at Last’. Off the 1985 album, Empire Burlesque, it’s one of the new songs from that album that Dylan keeps coming back to from time to time. In one performance he had the stage lights directed at the audience when he hit the chorus line, suggesting that it might be us he’s singing about. We, the audience, lurk behind the figure of the girl, but eventually we are exposed for what we are. Or again, the woman in the song could be a personification of America, the promised land which doesn’t turn out to be quite what was promised but just a set of filmic projections.

I'm hungry and irritable
And I'm tired of this bag of tricks
At one time there was nothing wrong with me
That you could not fix.

Well, I sailed through the storm
Strapped to the mast
Oh, but our time has come
And I'm seeing the real you at last.

The strapped to the mast reference is to Odysseus, who straps himself to the mast so he can hear the song of the sirens and not be lured to his death, as the travellers pass that island.

But there is no escaping paradox:

From now on I'll be busy
Ain't going nowhere fast

When I take a look around me, I see a whole world busy going nowhere fast. Maybe we are all seeing the ‘real you’ at long last – and it’s not a pleasant sight.

Seeing the real you at last

Take care and stay wise. I’ll be back soon to look at some of Dylan’s acoustic performances in 1992

Kia Ora

• The Never-Ending Tour: 1987 – Farewell to all that
• NET 1988: Desperate stratagems, Part 1: Heroes and Villains
• 1988 Part 2: The 60s revisited
• 1988 Part 3: Absolutely still on the road
• 1989 Part 1: A sharper edge
• Never Ending Tour 1989 Part 2 – A fire in the sun
• 1989 Part 3: Blown out on the trail
• 1990 Part 1: Vomiting Fire
• 1990 Part 1: Vomiting Fire
• 1990 Part 2 – Songs of love, songs of betrayal
• 1991: Part 1 Hidden Gems in a Train Wreck – The Undesirables
• The Never Ending Tour 1991 Part 2 – Feet walking by themselves
• NET 1991 Part 3: King of the unsteady
• 1992: Heading for the promised land

By Tony Attwood

As you may know one of the more unusual things we have done here is to invite readers of Untold Dylan to look at Dylan lyrics which have never been put to music.

The most recent that we have had completed is Song to Bonny and there are details of other such songs below.

Recently I announced another song we’d found: Tioga Pass.    Thus far no one has ventured to add any music to that song, and unless someone does I am going to be adding my own music and I am not sure you want that.  So that offer is still there.

But if you don’t fancy Tioga Pass, we now have one more.  Here’s the original

This was discovered by Aaron and is Bowling Alley Blues.   Aaron says of this, “I tried to work out the lyrics from the typed up sheet and left out some bits from the top of the page which seemed incongruous with the rest, like he was trying something out before moving on to the real work of the day.

“It turned up in Writings and Drawings, and here’s what I came up with”

I got your letter today
And I’m glad to hear you’re doing fine
I see you still got your habit
And I’m so happy to hear it isn’t mine

I read your name in the paper again
Going out with Mr So and So
So the news is out and you can’t pretend
That you did not know

Maybe tomorrow morning
When you wake up and find
That your dear sweet daddy’s got fed up
And has left everything behind

Or why wait for tomorrow
When you can find this out today
So just be good and do like you should
And don’t spend your time throwing it away!

I love a switchboard operator
She’s the only one for me
I love a switchboard operator
She’s the only one I wanna see

Anytime I need some money
I just call her on her line
And she always tells me looky honey
Everything will soon be fine

I love a switchboard operator
And she’s the one that I desire
And of course I’m bound to see her later
And we’ll go dancing on the wire

On the wire
Sing something safe
Is it right to think about what one can do
Or is it right to think about what one has done

So there we are – you now have two songs to play with, through which you can achieve immortality by writing your own version of the music.

When you have done your work, just send me a music file to Tony@schools.co.uk   An MP3 or MP4 will be fine, and we’ll publish the result here and add the song to our list of 616 compositions by Dylan already covered on this site.

Here are some of the songs we have had completed so far…

• Don’t let anyone write your story – original renditions
• Don’t let anyone write your story, Rob Beretta
• Don’t let anyone write your story, Paul Robert Thomas
• Don’t let anyone write your story, fourth edition
• Listen Robert Moses: Chris Sheriden
• Song to Bonny Paul Robert Thomas
• Don’t Let Anyone write your story: Claudio Diarni
• Dope Fiend Robber Nick Juno.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.

Tony Attwood

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

Selection and introduction by Aaron, other comments by Tony

Aaron: Now those of us from the British Isles will recognize the Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger cover of This Wheel’s On Fire used as the theme song to the “Absolutely Fabulous” TV show. How many of us would then know that for the Ab Fab movie national treasure Kylie Minogue sang the same track!? I’m not even sure if I like what she does here, but I do love that fact that Kylie has a Dylan cover in her back catalogue!

https://youtu.be/8GEl78He2Kg

If that recording doesn’t work in your part of the world try this link.

Tony: I don’t know if I came to like this version through watching the series on TV, but this version still gives me goose pimples.   I think maybe it is the harmonies in the chorus – indeed the only thing that I don’t like is the backing vocals of “oooooo”.

The solid beat seems to me to work perfectly with the notion of the song – it is after a wheel that is travelling and on fire.  It just keeps rolling on and burning all the way through.

Next,  Barbara Dickson doing Tears Of Rage and again two links depending on where you are in the world

and the alternative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA3xdpV-oP0

This song gives me a lot of problems – and I am sure they are just mine.  The song is so desperately emotional (what could possibly be more emotional than having a child turn away from a parent) and perhaps because I actually have two friends to whom this has happened, I feel the issue very strongly.   I’m incredibly lucky in that my three daughters have grown up to be my closest friends and allies, but I think of my friends and their lives without contact with their siblings and grandchildren, and I feel so much for them.

And that’s the issue with songs about deep emotions – if one is at all emotional, then one can be touched by events, even when they happen to others – and remembrances of such events are not always welcome.

I can take Dylan’s version because, I guess, I can focus on the music not on the lyrics.  But here Barbara Dickson makes the lyrics to be of prime importance, and so it is not for me.  But of course that is just me – and that is why I am so enjoying this series of “Play Lady Play” articles.  If I was selecting the songs as well as writing these commentaries, I’d never have put this track in the selection – but the deal is that Aaron selects and I comment, and I’m not breaking the contract!

Barbara Dickson was described by The Scotsman newspaper  as Scotland’s best-selling female singer in terms of the numbers of hit chart singles and albums she has achieved in the UK since 1976 and she is also a two-time Olivier Award-winning actress.  Hard to argue with that.

Aaron: Next up, with possibly the best track from The New Basement Tapes, Kansas City, it’s Jessica Paige

Tony: My review of the original release of this track opened with, “May I say from the start I utterly love this song and since discovering it, have played it over and over, time and time again.”

Jessica Paige is not an artist I know, so I had to go searching for her online and found her own site which opens “I spent most of my childhood  running around our Kansas Farm.”

For me Ms Paige’s version doesn’t add anything to the New Basement version of Kansas City which is one of those real standout pieces of music for me from that collection, but she has an excellent voice and the arrangement is very well done.   But that is the problem with covers of Dylan songs – I think the singer and arranger really has to go somewhere else to make the new version something that stops one in one’s tracks.

However, to be fair, the lady is from Kansas, so her recording it makes sense, and she really does have a good voice.

Now Peter, Paul & Mary with Too Much Of Nothing

I doubt that there are many people, in fact I doubt that there are any people, who have been following my ramblings on this site since the days when I wrote a negative review of this song on the original Basement Tapes without realising that there was this second version (which turned up on the complete Basement Tapes) recorded by PPM.  A silly mistake on my part.

I’ve updated my commentary and this site also has a very different take on the song: that of Jochen.  As so often if the case, we take the same song and go our different ways.

Next, The Roches – Clothes Line Saga

This is all about the harmonies, and oh they work perfectly, giving us a clear link back to the original.   And I have to say hearing this version is the first time ever I have really enjoyed this song as a piece of music.   It is also the first time I’ve felt that something really good could be made out of an opening that reads

After a while we took in the clothes
Nobody said very much

Absolutely love it – not least because the music keeps changing to reflect the words.  If you don’t know this, do listen, or if you are familiar with Bob’s version and the original never did anything for you, do try it.   It is wonderful.

Big Mama Thornton with I shall be Released

Now if you have been with us through this series over a period of time, you might have realised that I don’t really have too much time for lady singers who use Dylan compositions as an excuse to show off their extensive vocal range and ability to shout.  I leave this one with you.  Which brings us to…

“Last up today it’s the amazing Sandy Denny (with the equally amazing Richard Thompson on guitar and duet vocals) – Down In The Flood”

That comment was written by Aaron, and I (Tony) looked forward to this as the final track …

… but oh, it is so… ordinary.  Like a track filler.  I love the music of these two and had the honour of meeting them both in the early days.

And so I am going to cheat here.  Earlier this week I offered up a little article on “Why does Dylan like ‘Black Jack Davy’?”  Here’s Sandy Denny and her band with a version of that ancient song.

https://youtu.be/00hpupoh4eU

Sandy died tragically young in April 1978, after a very troubled life, but having known her briefly I have always felt there was such natural talent in her, and still love to come back to her music, even after all this time.

• Play Lady Play in the 21st century
• From “me me me” to exquisite interpretations
• Play Lady Play: the joyful remembrance of staggering performances
• Play lady play: Bettye LaVette – and a kiss on the mouth
• When a woman sings Just like a woman and beats the bass issue
• Play lady play: I believe in you.
• The strange the eccentric and the beautiful
• Play Lady Play: A simple twist of fate
• Play lady play: the strange ones, the eccentric, and the beautiful
• Knocking the pony with the sisterhood

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

By Larry Fyffe

The narrator in the poem quoted below compares himself to William Shakespeare’s character Hamlet and finds that it is the Prince who is lacking in fortitude:

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was I meant to be
Politic, cautious, and meticulous
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse
At times almost ridiculous

(TS Eliot: The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock)

The narrator in the following song lyrics asserts that, unlike the Danish Prince, neither is he cowardly:

You don't know me, darling, you never would guess
I'm nothing like my ghostly appearance would suggest
I ain't no false prophet, I just said what I said
I'm just here to bring vengeance on somebody's head

(Bob Dylan: False Prophet)

As we shall see, Bob Dylan intends to have his revenge on TS Eliot for the poet’s critique of Shakespeare’s Danish play.

The persona of the poet and of the singer/songwriter are both well aware of their mortality:

Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought to me on a platter
I am no prophet - and here's no great matter
I have seen the moment of of my greatness flicker
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker

(TS Eliot: The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock)

Below, a metonymic piano serves to express the same sentiment:

You can bring it to St. Peter, you can bring it to St. Jerome
You can bring it all the way over, bring it all the way home
Bring it to the corner where the children play
You can bring it to me on a silver tray

(Bob Dylan: My Own Version Of You)

Personification in the following lyrics summons a yawn:

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers
Asleep  - tired - or it malingers
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me

(TS Eliot: The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock)

Diction rather similar appears in the song lyrics below:

Deepening shadows gather splendour as day is done
Fingers of light will soon surrender the setting sun
I count the moments darling 'till you're here with me
Together at last at twilight time

(The Platters: Twilight Time ~ Ram/Dunn/A&M Nevins)

TS Eliot claims that the Shakespeare’s Danish play fails to capture the disdain that the Prince has for his mother’s marriage to Hamlet’s uncle; there are no adequate ‘objective correlatives’ therein to invoke the mood of her son, says Eliot; the play is not so much about Hamlet’s revenge for his father’s death as it is about his emotional struggle due to Gertrude’s lascivious behaviour.

Bob Dylan is not anxious to make the same mistake; the song “Murder Most Foul” centres on the assassination of President John Kennedy – it draws on Shakespeare’s play:

Murder most foul, as in the best it is
But this most foul, strange and unnatural

(William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act I, sc. 5)

The music surrounding those days, and after, that Dylan listens to, including the Platter’s song quoted above, the singer/songwriter tells his listeners to play in order to catch the mood of the times when the murder happens.

Some of the musical ‘objective correlatives’ listed are:

• Cry Me A River
• Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
• Saint James Infirmary
• Driving Wheel
• Memphis In June
• Lonely At The Top
• Love Me Or Leave Me
• Nature Boy

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

The Mississippi-series, part 12

by Jochen Markhorst

Like earlier “Desolation Row” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, “Mississippi” can’t really be dealt with in one article. Too grand, too majestic, too monumental. And, of course, such an extraordinary masterpiece deserves more than one paltry article. As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): Its’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

XII        Roses Of Yesterday

Well my ship’s been split to splinters and it’s sinkin’ fast
I’m drownin’ in the poison, got no future, got no past
But my heart is not weary, it’s light and it’s free
I’ve got nothin’ but affection for all those who’ve sailed with me

For many fans of the song, the favourite quatrain. The opening accumulatio indeed has a crushing, pleasantly archaic and terrifying visual power (plus a cheap, yet irresistible alliteration in split to splinters) – but the exceptional beauty of these four lines is due to the contrast, to the completely unexpected and beautifully poetic change to gentleness and bonhomie in the third line.

“Willkommen und Abschied” (Welcome and Farewell) is the best known of Goethe’s so-called Sesenheimer Lieder, a collection of poems to which Goethe contributes around the age of twenty-one. The young law student then lives in Strasbourg and befriends the theologian and art theorist Herder. Johann Gottfried Herder is only five years older, but he becomes Goethe’s literary mentor, teaches him Rousseau, Shakespeare and Homer and opens his eyes to the beauty of Volkslieder, of folk songs. Goethe already had some literary ambition – and now it’s taking shape. The inspiration, lastly, lives forty kilometres away, in the Alsace village of Sessenheim: the eighteen-year-old minister’s daughter Friederike Brion.

The two portraits that exist of Friederike do not really reveal her attraction, but apparently there is something about her – after Goethe has left Friederike, the young poet Jakob Lenz, who is just as madly in love, reports for duty. Lenz will write the remaining Sesenheimer Lieder.

Goethe’s genius awakes here and now, in the poems he writes being in love with Friederike. In “Willkommen und Abschied“, the young Sturm & Drang poet lyrically recounts how he does not think, but rather acts, on a whim, jumping on his horse late at night and galloping out of town, through the dark forest, the forty kilometres to Friederike. The second verse reveals his affinity with the narrator of “Mississippi”:

From out a hill of clouds the moon
Mournful gaze through the mist:
The winds their soft wings flutter’d soon,
And in my ear horribly hissed;
The night a thousand ghouls had made,
Yet fresh and joyous was my mind;
What fire within my veins then play’d!
What glow was in my heart shrin’d!

Darkness and horror, yet fresh and joyous was my mind. The secret of this untouched, uncluttered mind is clear: the narrator is in love, is wearing his rose-coloured glasses, is on his way to his lover – by whom he is indeed welcomed “with tenderness” in the next verse.

At Dylan’s protagonist, the source of his “light and free heart” is less unambiguous. If this verse had stood alone, it would unmistakably be a death scene. “My ship’s been split to splinters and it’s sinkin’ fast” would then be something like “my life is done” or “my mind is leaving me”, just as the Dantesque “drowning in the poison” evokes a life farewell rather than an “ordinary” gloomy, pessimistic state of mind.

Appropriate then is the closing line, in which the narrator speaks mild, resigned and summarizing deathbed words: “I’ve got nothin’ but affection for all those who’ve sailed with me”.

Only the beautiful, aphoristic got no future, got no past fits less supple in such an interpretation. It seems to derive from that corny inspirational quote, which gets new life thanks to Kung Fu Panda (2008). It is the aphorism the old Master Oogway, the guru-like turtle, shares with Panda Po in the face of his approaching death:

Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
Today is a gift –
That’s why we call it the present

Corny enough to brighten up kitchen tiles, calligraphed wall posters and Facebook statuses of unimaginative house mothers, and does indeed approximate something like no future, no past. By the way, it is attributed rather stubbornly to Alice Morse Earle, the American historian and writer, and would then have come from her fascinating study Sun-Dials and Roses of Yesterday (1902), but really cannot be found therein.

More obvious is that the poet Dylan incorporates an echo of his Bible studies, the same notion he already incorporated in “Born In Time”: that God and Jesus were always there, “outside of time”, and Jesus is born in time only for those few earthly years. God, as Dylan learned at the Bible study, is an Eternal Being – He has no past and no future, being “outside of time”.

However, to extend the impact of these words to “Mississippi” goes far too far; it would imply that the I-person, who with these words places himself outside of Time, imagines himself divine. No, this verse fragment is probably another example of “words that just come up”, as Dylan often says about his own song writing. Like in the conversation with Happy Traum:

“There are times you just pick up an instrument – something will come, like a tune or some kind of wild line will come into your head and you’ll develop that. If it’s a tune on a piano or guitar – you’ll just uuuuuuhhhh [humming] whatever it brings out in the voice, you’ll write those words down. And they might not mean anything to you at all, and you just go on, and that will be what happens.”

That’s what Dylan says in 1968, and almost half a century later he repeats it in slightly different words in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

“I don’t have to know what a song means. I’ve written all kinds of things into my songs. And I’m not going to worry about it – what it all means.”

And somewhere in between, between 1968 and 2016, he records “Mississippi”, in which he also writes all kinds of things. Like got no future, got no past.

“I don’t know what it means, either. But it sounds good. And you want your songs to sound good.”

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part XIII: Down In The Groove

The Mississippi series

• The Mississippi-series, part 1; no polyrhythm here please
• The Mississippi-series, part 2: the line that never was.
• The Mississippi- series, part 3: Belshazzar on the steppe
• The Mississippi-series, part 4: Bertolt, Bobby, Blind & Boy
• The Mississippi-series, part 5: Frost in the room, fire in the sky
• The Mississippi-series, part 6: Charades
• The Mississippi series: part 7 : Dorsey Dixon
• The Mississippi-series, part 8: Pretty Maids All In A Row
• The Mississippi-series, part 9: Abandon all hope
• The Mississippi-series, part 10: Eyesight To The Blind
• The Mississippi-series part 11: Bonnie Blue

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold.  His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

The full index to this series which considers how the subject matter of Bob Dylan’s songs changed over time, can be found here.

The essence of this series is simple: to take each song written by Dylan in a single year, and try to express the meaning of the lyrics of each song in a word or simple phrase, such as “love”, “lost love”, “protest”, or “faith.”

This worked perfectly well up to 1978 for during that period Dylan not only offered up a variety of songs topics, but it turned out to be fairly easy to put each song into a classification.

By 1977 we could see clearly what Dylan’s favourite topics were.  Since the 1950s Dylan had written over 10 songs on each of these ten topics or themes…

• Being trapped/escaping from being trapped (being world-weary): 12
• Blues: 11
• Environment: 17
• Humour, satire, talking blues: 13
• Lost love / moving on: 43
• Love, desire: 56
• Moving on: 16
• Randomness: 11
• Surrealism, Dada: 15
• Travelling on, leaving, farewell, moving on: 16

1978 however seems to be a troubled year for Bob as the topics in his songs as they were virtually all about negative subjects:

• Moving on: 4
• Love: 3
• Blues: 3
• Lost love: 3
• Treating me badly: 1
• Come back to me: 1
• Legionnaires Disease: 1
• Let me be me: 1

Bob was clearly a troubled man, and as we all know that he resolved his dilemma very clearly in 1979, writing 19 songs in that year all of which were about his new found faith.  It was the only year when he wrote over ten songs with all of them on just one topic.

In 1980 Bob opened the year by continuing to write about fundamental Christianity and the thought that salvation was assured.  But then after asserting that God made the world in Every grain of sand, everything changed.  Dylan now wrote a series of five songs starting with Caribbean Wind and its theme of the end of relationships and indeed pretty much everything else, concluding with Making a liar out of me which appears to reject all of his faith and commitment that has gone before.   As a set of songs it is an amazing journey from utter faith, to the rejection of faith.

So Bob was now back writing on a variety of topics, and in 1981 three themes dominated Bob’s writing:

• Love: 9
• Religion / Christianity: 3
• Uncertainty / doubts / don’t believe: 5

But then in 1982/3 Bob seemed to turn away from most of his previous themes as he began to explore what he could say in songs in a new way.  If there is a central theme to 1982/3 it is that nothing is what it seems – which is as big a rejection of a previously held religious faith as it is possible to imagine.

Nothing symbolised this contradiction more completely than Blind Willie McTell, a song seemingly about a famous blues singer, saying that the blues can describe the world, but with that message encapsulated in a piece of music that has nothing to do with the work of Blind Willie.  Although it was not a consistent theme, the notion that nothing is really as it might seem and that life is chaos became a dominant thought expressed by Bob in such songs as Man of Peace, and Someone’s got a hold of my heart / Tight connection to my heart.

As the year progressed so did the notion that not only is nothing what it seems, but also that there is no going back which occurs in Neighbourhood Bully (a song on which I had to stop accepting comments from readers, so angry did the debate become), Tell Me, Foot of Pride, Julius and Ethel and even Death is not the end (in which Bob seems to conclude that yes there is an afterlife, but there still ain’t no going back).

In 1984 Bob seemed to resolve some of these problems as he returned to some more traditional themes, and my article on that year defined the subject matter of the songs as:

• Blues/moving on: 2
• Love: 4
• Lost love: 4
• Moving on: 1
• Tedium, the bad life: 1

which looked much more liked a Bob Dylan year from earlier days.  But if love and lost love could be balanced in 1984 it was only a temporary reprieve from the troubles, and by 1985 there was no chance of this, for that was the year in which lost love, and just being lost, dominated his thoughts.  The analysis of the most common topics of the songs that year gives us

• Lost love: 12
• Love: 6
• Chaos / criminals escaping / life is a mess / being lost: 6

So what would Bob offer in 1986? My first article on this year was called  Experiment, experiment, experiment, genius, ignore which was the only way I could find of summarising a year in which Bob ended up creating To fall in love with you – a song that many of us consider one of his most incredible pieces, but then ignoring it.

Indeed he didn’t just abandon it, he did so to work on two songs Silvio and Ugliest girl in the world in which he didn’t write the words.  Indeed I would suspect many Dylan fans would find it hard to remember the songs that preceded the Robert Hunter co-compositions other than “To fall in love with you”, but the only one I have found myself singling out repeatedly is Rock em Dead – and that is a song which owes a lot to “Uranium Rock” by Warren Smith.

So we are left puzzled – the great masterpiece of “To fall in love” is abandoned while other songs from the era and either nowhere near that standard or are derivative.

And yet then, suddenly, we get what I have noted as Possibly the greatest trilogy of compositions in Dylan’s career:

• Political world
• What good am I
• Dignity 

These songs, written one after the other, tell us the world’s gone wrong, the man’s gone wrong, but if we work at it we can as individuals, try and pull ourselves together.

Because Dignity was not released at the time of its writing, the three songs are not normally seen as a trilogy,  Yet playing Dylan’s compositions in the order of composition (especially if we play the early, shorter, acoustic version of Dignity) certainly give us that feeling.

Thereafter Bob handed himself over the the Travelling Wilburys before going on tour – and not just any tour, for 7 June 1988 was the start of what we now call the Never Ending Tour.

In my review I called 1989 the year in which The menace emerges  meaning that Dylan in his songs of that year recognised that we are often fooling ours, that the old certainties are gone (What was it you wanted, Everything is Broken) while out there in the darkness a menace emerges (Man in a Long Black Coat.)

This now is a completely different Dylan in terms of his songwriting, a Dylan with a message about the world falling apart.  This is not “Times they are a changing” (which suggests whether we do anything or not things are going to be different, and probably better) but much more following up on that other early theme of “Darkness at the break of noon”.  Except that now this is most certainly not all right ma.  For here we have songs of contradictions, songs which tell us there is no way out (such as Cat’s in the Well) , songs which tell us all it not as it seems (such as 10,000 men), songs which tell us that we are all being fed a pack of lies (Unbelievable), songs that tell us our childhood has been obliterated (Under the red sky)  and songs that suggest that capitalism is destroying us (such as Heartland written with Willie Nelson).  It was, The re-birth of protest, before the end of all songs.

And yet, looking back, it wasn’t the rebirth of protest, at least not in the purest sense, for this was more the announcement of the end, and in a very real sense it was the end of Dylan the songwriter, for after his time with the Willburys (in which he probably only wrote one song – the magnificent lost love piece Where were you last night) Bob stopped writing.   The man who had just gone on and on writing year after year with only the occasional pause, simply stopped.

True there are four songs that some commentators have as being written in 1995 but it appears these were actually originally put together in 1984.  It really was the first time since the launch of his career in the late 1950s that Bob Dylan stopped writing.

As to when he did start writing again in 1996 what we got were some of the darkest songs Bob had ever written:

• Dirt Road Blues (Blues, lost love, moving on)
• Can’t Wait (Emptiness, loss, desperation)
• Mississippi (Lost love)
• Highlands (Beyond death)
• Dreamin of you (Love disconnected from the world)
• Marchin to the City (Doing alright)
• Million Miles (Drifting, thinking)
• Not Dark Yet – (Dying)
• Red River Shore (Love is a hopeless myth)
• Standing in the doorway (The darkness)

Just look at the concepts within these songs – and if this does not convince you that Bob’s vision of the world had gone extremely dark, just stop everything you are doing, close your eyes and listen to this video.

https://youtu.be/9IyDZab3_Wc

I’m walking through the summer nights
Jukebox playing low
Yesterday everything was going too fast
Today, it’s moving too slow
I got no place left to turn
I got nothing left to burn
Don’t know if I saw you, if I would kiss you or kill you
It probably wouldn’t matter to you anyhow
You left me standing in the doorway crying
I got nothing to go back to now

The light in this place is so bad
Making me sick in the head
All the laughter is just making me sad
The stars have turned cherry red
I’m strumming on my gay guitar
Smoking a cheap cigar
The ghost of our old love has not gone away
Don’t look like it will anytime soon
You left me standing in the doorway crying
Under the midnight moon

Maybe they’ll get me and maybe they won’t
But not tonight and it won’t be here
There are things I could say but I don’t
I know the mercy of God must be near
I’ve been riding the midnight train
Got ice water in my veins
I would be crazy if I took you back
It would go up against every rule
You left me standing in the doorway crying
Suffering like a fool

When the last rays of daylight go down
Buddy, you’ll roll no more
I can hear the church bells ringing in the yard
I wonder who they’re ringing for
I know I can’t win
But my heart just won’t give in
Last night I danced with a stranger
But she just reminded me you were the one
You left me standing in the doorway crying
In the dark land of the sun

I’ll eat when I’m hungry, drink when I’m dry
And live my life on the square
And even if the flesh falls off of my face
I know someone will be there to care
It always means so much
Even the softest touch
I see nothing to be gained by any explanation
There are no words that need to be said
You left me standing in the doorway crying
Blues wrapped around my head

Bob had found religion, lost religion, looked around once more and found that the world really was a place he didn’t like.  He walked away from his old occupation of giving us insights into that world, and then, after five years out, he found the words and music to explain it all to us.

And pretty grim it was.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

In Greek mythology, the original gods were thought to have been born out of the void – the gap created by the separation of heaven and earth.  These were the primordial deities Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky) and they created the Titans.

There were six male Titans, Oceanus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus, and six female Titans, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe and Tethys.

Mnemosyne became the goddess of memory and remembrance and the mother of the nine Muses. And of course memory was of central importance the oral culture of the Greeks as much as it is to a performer of pop, rock and folk music today.

Zeus, the sky and thunder god appeared in the form of a shepherd, and stayed with Mnemosyne for nine consecutive nights, and as a result she conceived the nine Muses: Calliope (the muse of epic poetry), Clio (history), Euterpe (music), Erato (lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (hymns), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy) and Urania (astronomy).

Mnemosyne, the mother of Muses, is subsequently called upon by poets who seek her help so that they may correctly remember the lines that they are to recite – this occurs both in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Mnemosyne was thus worshipped in Ancient Greece and statues were erected to her while in drawings she is often shown alongside her daughters.   Thus in “Mother of Muses” Dylan, now aged 79, can be seen to be asking for a little help in remembering his lines.  Or he may just be reflecting upon the ancient Greek traditions.  Or both.

The Odyssey begins, “Sing for me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.”

Dylan then cites five generals from America, Russia and Britain, who created the modern world into which Bob’s heroes could create the world.

Mother of Muses sing for me
Sing of the mountains and the deep dark sea
Sing of the lakes and the nymphs in the forest
Sing your hearts out - all you women of the chorus
Sing of honor and fame and of glory be
Mother of Muses, sing for me

Mother of Muses sing for my heart
Sing for a love too soon to depart
Sing of the Heroes who stood alone
Whose names are engraved on tablets of stone
Who struggled with pain so the world could go free
Mother of Muses, sing for me

Sing of Sherman - Montgomery and Scott
Sing of Zhukov and Patton and the battles they fought
Who cleared the path for Presley to sing
Who carved out the path for Martin Luther King
Who did what they did and then went on their way
Man, I could tell their stories all day

Bob then focuses on one of the muses – Calliope, the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry who taught Orpheus verses that he could sing.  According to some tellings she was the wisest of the Muses, and the most assertive.

I’m falling in love with Calliope
She doesn’t belong to anybody - why not give her to me
She’s speaking to me, speaking with her eyes
I’ve grown so tired of chasing lies
Mother of Muses wherever you are
I’ve already outlived my life by far

Mother of Muses unleash your wrath
Things I can’t see - they’re blocking my path
Show me your wisdom - tell me my fate
Put me upright - make me walk straight
Forge my identity from the inside out
You know what I’m talking about

Take me to the river and release your charms
Let me lay down in your sweet lovin’ arms
Wake me - shake me - free me from sin
Make me invisible like the wind
Got a mind to ramble - got a mind to roam
I’m travelin’ light and I’m slow coming home

In this final verse Dylan refers to some of his favourite songs as he reviews his travels on the Never Ending Tour, and gives me a rare chance to include a Talking Heads recording.

“Traveling Light”, “Slow,” and “Going Home” are from Leonard Cohen.  Here’s just one of those…

Rough and Rowdy Ways

• My own version of you: Bob’s revenge; Bob’s desire
• I contain multitudes; where do we start, where do we end?
• False Prophet: the meaning of life
• Why Murder Most Foul?
• The Black Rider
• I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You. And Offenbach and Johnny Cash.
• Goodbye Jimmy Reed: Bob Dylan and the random-abstract song.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

The Mississippi-series, part 11

by Jochen Markhorst

Like earlier “Desolation Row” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, “Mississippi” can’t really be dealt with in one article. Too grand, too majestic, too monumental. And, of course, such an extraordinary masterpiece deserves more than one paltry article. As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): Its’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

XI         Bonnie Blue

Well I got here followin’ the southern star
I crossed that river just to be where you are
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

One of the few successful songs on one of Dylan’s weakest albums, Down In The Groove (1988) is his version of the old folk song “Shenandoah”. It is, of course, a beautiful nineteenth century song by itself – almost impossible to ruin.

The origin of “Shenandoah” is unclear. Alan Lomax guesses it’s a sea-shanty, an old sailor’s song of French-Canadian origin, probably originated around 1810. Given the lyrics, other musicologists conclude, it might be a “river-shanty”, deriving its name from the Shenandoah River in Virginia. Why then the protagonist repeatedly sings he has to cross the Missouri River is unexplained, though – that particular river is almost a thousand miles away. “Shenandoah” is a singing, melodious name, that’s probably the best explanation.

Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter
Look away, you rollin' river
It was for her I'd cross the water.
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri

Dylan sings the version in which the narrator so desperately seeks to reach “Sally”, across the wide Missouri, and she is the “daughter of Shenandoah”. Which could indicate an Indian tribe, or the name of the river where she lives, or, in the literal interpretation, the name of his future father-in-law. “Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter,” after all.

The Indian tribe-option is by far the most attractive to lay a line to “Mississippi”. The Senedos, a tribe along the Shenandoah River, are the obvious candidates – all the more so since Shenandoah in their language means “daughter of the stars”. Following the star, I crossed the river. Coincidence, of course, but certainly a nice coincidence.

The real link, however, is that ancient image of “crossing a river”, the metaphor to represent the effort the man makes to reach the woman of his dreams. We sang that already in the Middle Ages:

Het waren twee koninghs kindren,
Sy hadden malkander soo lief;
Sy konden by malkander niet komen,
Het water was veel te diep.

There were two royal children,
Their love was turned to grief.
They could not come together
The water was too deep.

 The “Song of the Two Royal Children”, about the regal kids who are not allowed to see each other. One king puts his daughter in the monastery, on the banks of the wide river. She puts a candle on the balustrade at night so that the king’s son on the other bank can orient himself as he swims towards her, in pitch darkness. An “evil nun” blows out the candle when he is halfway, the king’s son drowns, and when his beloved finds the body the next morning, she commits suicide out of desperation.

A familiar story which, of course, goes back to the age-old Greek myth Hero and Leander, the story that inspired hundreds of artists from Antiquity to the twenty-first century – it’s an ancient, popular and ineradicable image, the river separating lovers. Or as a metaphor for every figurative meaning of “border” at all; it is not a coincidence that watershed is synonymous with milestone, radical event, turning point. Which is how the poet Dylan uses river throughout his entire oeuvre. From “Watching The River Flow” to “Baby, Stop Crying” and from “Man In The Long Black Coat” to “Moonlight” and “Crossing The Rubicon”; the rivers symbolize turning points.

In “Mississippi” Dylan gives it an extra, mythical touch; the narrator follows the southern star that leads him to that turning point. Mythical, as a Southern star does not exist – unlike a North Star, Polaris, there is no fixed star in the southern sky. A less romantically inclined astronomer might argue that the Sun is “the star in the south”, but in the arts it’s usually a nickname (for a special diamond, for example, as in the film The Southern Star with Orson Welles and an Ursula Andress at her most beautiful, 1969).   It’s not really a household name, though.

Presumably the poet wants to avoid digressing – after all, the star in any other wind direction has additional meanings or associative consequences. The Star in the East leads to the Child Jesus, the aforementioned North Star, which is shining too in one of Joni Mitchell’s breath-taking songs, “This Flight Tonight”,

"Look out the left," the captain said
"The lights down there, that's where we'll land"
Saw a falling star burning
High above the Las Vegas sand

It wasn't the one that you gave to me
That night down south between the trailers
Not the early one that you wish upon
Not the northern one that guides in the sailors

…is an age-old orientation point. And a Western Star conjures up completely different images, obviously. So, all that’s left is a “safe”, a neutral southern star. At most it pushes the associations, especially in the light of Dylan’s enigmatic statement that the song is about “the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights”, towards the Civil War, to the Bonnie Blue Flag hoisted on the Capitol Dome of Mississippi in 1861.

That flag consists of a single, large, “Southern” star on a blue field. In the South it is popular, a hastily written song perpetuates its popularity and promotes the flag to become the first unofficial flag of the Confederate States of America:

We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil,
Fighting for our liberty with treasure, blood, and toil;
And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far,
Hurrah! for the Bonnie Blue Flag, that bears a single star.

The song is sung in Gods And Generals (2003), the film for which Dylan writes the brilliant “Cross The Green Mountain” (well after “Mississippi”) and the cinephile Dylan will have noticed the song earlier in Gone With The Wind – Rhett Butler lovingly calls his daughter Bonnie “Bonnie Blue”, Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) says her eyes are “blue as the Bonnie Blue Flag”.

Too bad the movie’s in Georgia. And not in Mississippi.

The Bonnie Blue Flag – Gods and Generals

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part XII: Roses Of Yesterday

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold.  His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

Bob Dylan: The Symbolism Of The Pine Tree
by Larry Fyffe

In Roman/Greek mythology, the One Great God is hermaphroditic; the Olympians, out of fear, castrate her/him, and she becomes the Great Mother Goddess, Earth. The detached male organ becomes a deciduous almond tree that falls on the lap of a river goddess, and she gives birth to Attis; so beautiful is Attis that the Mother Goddess falls in love with him; he goes mad, and cuts off his genitals; out of remorse, the Mother Goddess turns Attis into the long-needled, and sweet-smelling pine tree, forever green.

As previously noted, Dionysus is sired by the chief Olympian god Zeus; the mother of Dionysus is the human princess Semele who is tricked by Hera, the wife of Zeus, into getting herself  killed by Zeus’ thunder bolts; the vine-generating son of Zeus is condemned by Hera to spend half of his life in the Underworld; he returns to the ground above for the spring and the summer; frenzied and dancing female Maenads, befriended by Dionysus, carry pine-cone-tipped wands, and keep him company.

As a literary symbol, pine trees represent regeneration, longevity, peace, and security.
According to the Holy Bible, such trees will stand in Jerusalem:

The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee
The fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together
To beautify the place of my sanctuary
And I will make the place of my feet glorious
(Isaiah 60: 13)

The symbolism of conifer trees is not lost on the singer/songwriter in the following lyrics, whether they be considered addressed to a former girlfriend or, as others like the Transcendentalist Romantics or Orthodox Christians might suggest, to the crucified Jesus – a Dionysian archetype:

I'll remember you
When the wind blows through the piney wood
It was you who cut right through
It was you who understood
Though I'd never say
That I did it the way
That you'd have liked me to
(Bob Dylan: I'll Remember You)

The leaves of the ‘Semi-God” Dionysus tree be not permanently present:

The rocks are bleak, the trees are bare
Iron clouds go floating by
Snowflakes are falling in my hair
Beneath the gray and stormy sky
(Bob Dylan: Tell Old Bill)

Unlike the always-evergreen Mother Goddess tree that provides refuge though not necessarily warmth:

Little girl, little girl, where you been so long
Not even your mama know
In the pine, in the pine
Where the sun never shine
I shivered the whole night long
(Bob Dylan: In The Pines ~ traditional/various)

Indeed, the coniferous cypress tree symbolizes sadness:

The boulevards of cypress trees
The masquerades of birds and bees
The petals, pink and white, the winds have blown
Won't you meet me in the moonlight all alone?
(Bob Dylan: Moonlight)

And this:

I waited for you on the running boards
Near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned
Slowly into autumn
(Bob Dylan: Idiot Wind)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

I think we last met Black Jack Davey in Bob Dylan and Cowboy Jesus (part V) and it’s no surprise that we’ve come across this song before because it is a fundamental of the English and Scottish folk song tradition upon which Bob has lavished so much interest over the years.

Bob first played the song in September 1993, before its 18th and final outing the following month.  It was released on “Good as I been to you.”

The song has been through many mutations and has multiple names from Gypsy Davy through to the “Raggle Taggle Gypsies O” throughout reflecting the notion that the gypsies were somehow different and separate from the rest of society, not just by their style of living and dress, but through some deeper power that they could exert.

Perhaps because it tapped into a mystery and to a degree a fear, the song was incredibly popular across the English speaking world, along with “Barbara Allen”.  Throughout all versions, the gypsies’ power enables them to entrap the lady against all her normal judgement and rationality.

Robert Burns quoted the song in his “critical observations on Scottish songs” at the start of the 19th century, and Cecil Sharp who was the prime collector of music of the English folk song tradition also noted and recorded it.  The sanitised version of “Wraggle Taggle Gypsies O” became part of the singing lessons in English schools through the first half of the 20th century.

Woody Gutherie, the Carter Family and many many others all recorded the song – and throughout the lady (sometimes identified as the wife of a nobleman) is charmed away from her life of luxury to be with the gypsies.  When she is found she is asked, “Would you forsake your husband and child?” and the answer is yes – often with her saying, “What care I for your fine feather sheets?”

Nick Tosches suggests the song is based on the story of John Faa, the outlaw, and Lady Jane Hamilton, wife of The Earl of Cassilis.  In that telling pretty much everyone (the wife and the gypsies) are caught and either die or are imprisoned.

https://youtu.be/SUL-VcSoERo

Here are the lyrics – although of course they vary from version to version

Black Jack Davey come a-riden’ on back,
A-whistlin’ loud and merry.
Made the woods around him ring,
And he charmed the heart of a lady,
Charmed the heart of a lady.

“How old are you, my pretty little miss,
How old are you, my honey”
She answered to him with a lovin’ smile
“I’ll be sixteen come Sunday,
Be sixteen come Sunday.”

“Come and go with me, my pretty little miss,
Come and go with me, my honey,
Take you where the grass grows green,
You never will want for money
You never will want for money

“Pull off, pull off them high-heeled shoes
All made of Spanish leather.
Get behind me on my horse
And we’ll ride off together,
We’ll both go off together.”

Well, she pulled off them high-heeled shoes
Made of Spanish leather.
Got behind him on his horse
And they rode off together.
They rode off together.

At night the boss came home
Inquiring about this lady.
The servant spoke before she thought,
“She’s been with Black Jack Dave,
Rode off with Black Jack Davey.”

“Well, saddle for me my coal black stud,
He’s speedier than the gray.
I rode all day and I’ll ride all night,
And I’ll overtake my lady.
I’ll bring back my lady.”

Well, he rode all night till the broad daylight,
Till he came to a river ragin’,
And there he spied his darlin’ bride
In the arms of Black Jack Davey.
Wrapped up with Black Jack Davey.

“Pull off, pull off them long blue gloves
All made of the finest leather.
Give to me your lily-white hand
And we’ll both go home together.
We’ll both go home together.”

Well, she pulled off them long blue gloves
All made of the finest leather.
Gave to him her lily-white hand
And said good-bye forever.
Bid farewell forever.

“Would you forsake your house and home,
Would you forsake your baby?
Would you forsake your husband, too,
To go with Black Jack Davey.
Rode off with Black Jack Davey?”

“Well, I’ll forsake my house and home,
And I’ll forsake my baby.
I’ll forsake my husband, too,
For the love of Black Jack Davey.
Ride off with Black Jack Davey.”

“Last night I slept in a feather bed
Between my husband and baby.
Tonight I lay on the river banks
In the arms of Black Jack Davey,
Love my Black Jack Davey.”

Thus it is an incredibly popular Scottish / English folk song which has travelled across to America, and it taps at the centre of the fear of the unknown, the power of  the outsider to override rationality, of love, desire, lust….  It is all there.

And it can be re-worked as often as anyone wishes in every way imaginable.   Here are my two personal favourites of all time.  First, the slow version

And now all hell breaks loose..

https://youtu.be/dSyaYxxQl3U

Why does Dylan like it?  It is a fundamental song within our folk tradition, with a vibrant story and really engaging melody.  What else would you need?

Why does Dylan like (the series)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Introduction by Aaron…

You might have noticed that usually for this series I’ve tried to maintain a theme for each episode…a particular song, artist, genre or some other theme linking the selections together. Well, for this one, I thought I’d throw all that out the window and just give you a fairly random selection of tracks which I like (or at least found interesting) but I was unable to fit into another episode for one reason or another.

First up, a couple of Knockin On Heaven’s Door covers. Proving that the song is a boon for soundtrack compilers, both of these were used on the soundtrack for TV shows…so along with the original from Pat Garrett, the Angela Aki cover (which was actually commissioned for a Japanese movie called Heaven’s Door) we now have two more to add to that list.

Raign – from the series finale of The 100.

Tony:  This is certainly atmospheric, although I am not sure it is the sort of atmosphere I associate with the song.

And having established the bass drum effect from the start for the knocking, I felt I wanted the arrangement to move on.  Not least because if I came to play this again I would know exactly what it was all about – it was about the bass drum.

The sudden stop of the drum was unexpected and from there on bringing it in and out, I was somewhat lost.  Just how many times do you have to knock on that door in order to get in?

In all I got the feeling that the arranger had lost contact with the music and the lyrics.

Anthony & The Johnson’s from Sense8

Now this was a relief to get out of the drum knocks – but it also shows it certainly is worth hearing these versions next to each other.  But somehow, that couple of sections of the introduction is never lived up to by the rest of the performance, entrancing though it is.

The harmonies however are magnificent, as is the accompaniment.  Maybe it is the voice that simply isn’t right for me.  Somehow, because I know the song so well, I wonder if I am going to be taken anywhere else, or shown anything else.

I appreciate that when knocking on heaven’s door nothing more is going to happen, but musically it still feels like there is a need for more to be there.   Maybe if I was listening late at night in a darkened room it would help.  The end is simple and gorgeous, but that’s still not enough.

Aaron: Next up, and to help you recover your emotions a bit from the previous selections…it’s The Dead Weather with New Pony

Tony: OK, I love Jack White, and loved the Dead Weather.  And this record shows why.

It is a simple 12 bar but they manage to squeeze every single element out of it, plus then some more.  There is Jack doing his amazing stuff, a drummer who sounds like he has two assistants working with him, and a superbly simple idea (calling “How much?” over and over) which just works as simplicity does when handled correctly.    Over and over and over, and we are thinking, where is that next word, how much…. longer???

Best of all the band never rest – the arrangement changes throughout so even though it is a 12 bar song it isn’t anything like that.   If I ever have guests at a dinner party who just won’t go home at 3am, I’m putting this on.  Twice.

I wonder what Bob thought.

The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Wilburys

Aaron:  Now The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Wilburys (Love the name!) with their cover of Handle With Care. Seems like this is a one off collaboration between five of LAs female singer songwriters…very interesting to hear this done by woman, as I always thought this was very much a “guys” song and it’s a fairly straight cover but it works, at least for me!

Tony: Strangely, I was writing about the original just the other day as part of my series going through Bob’s writing year by year in terms of the subject matter of each song, and this was one of the songs I lingered over.  (It really is a hell of an experience working through Dylan’s composition in the order  they were written, rather than any other order.  I can recommend it).

Anyway, yes I love this, but not the instrumental breaks – the lead guitar is far too thin for my taste given the warmth and depth of the vocals.  But that doesn’t make it a poor recording, the actual singing and the accompaniment is superb and very much worth a listen.

Madeleine Peyroux – You’re Going To Make Me Lonesome When You Go

Tony: Jochen’s piece on this song is something to read – he does the insights far better than I can, which is a bit worrying given he’s not writing in his mother tongue while I am.  But leaving that aside, he chose this version as one of his selection of covers, and I recall listening to it over and over when I first got hold of the article ready for publication.

It’s memorable, and stands the test of time.  A beautiful rendition of lightness and elegance.

Bonnie Raitt – It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue..

It is a real shame that I can’t get the cover to copy here as a way of playing the song, but that happens sometimes.  Here is the link – take a click and then look at the cover and listen.

Everything here is perfect – even the way the bass guitar enters the affair in the second verse.  And that’s without mentioning the lady’s voice, plus the exquisite arrangement.  It just shows you don’t to go overboard with an all encompassing array of instruments – this is simple and exquisite because the arranger and/or band knows where they are going, and they go there.  And stay there.

In short: songs don’t have to grow and explode.  By the time we got to “your lover who just walked out the door” I was moved beyond words and had to stop typing.

Even the next verse which is spoken not sung in the first two lines (which I normally hate) is a piece of perfection.

Anthony and The Johnson’s: Pressing On

Aaron: Last up I thought I’d include another Anthony and The Johnson’s cover, this time of Pressing On, I know you didn’t like the Alicia Keys Version, so see how you get on with this one!

Tony: Oh, I am so sorry, but no.  And I promise I really closed out the lyrics and listened to the sounds, but no, I can make no sense of this at all.

Dear Reader, if you would like to write a proper review of this version of this song, please send it to me at Tony@schools.co.uk and I will publish it here.  Or if it is a substantial review, I’ll publish it as a piece in its own right.

Aaron: PS on a side note, if you do like the Antony tracks might I recommend her album I Am A Bird Now, whenever someone asks me for a recommendation for an album that’s my go-to answer (besides Dylan, Beatles etc obviously!)

Play Lady Play: some earlier editions

• Play Lady Play in the 21st century
• From “me me me” to exquisite interpretations
• Play Lady Play: the joyful remembrance of staggering performances
• Play lady play: Bettye LaVette – and a kiss on the mouth
• When a woman sings Just like a woman and beats the bass issue
• Play lady play: I believe in you.
• The strange the eccentric and the beautiful
• Play Lady Play: A simple twist of fate
• Play lady play: the strange ones, the eccentric, and the beautiful

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.   Tony Attwood

Previously in this series

• The Mississippi-series, part 1; no polyrhythm here please
• The Mississippi-series, part 2: the line that never was.
• The Mississippi- series, part 3: Belshazzar on the steppe
• The Mississippi-series, part 4: Bertolt, Bobby, Blind & Boy
• The Mississippi-series, part 5: Frost in the room, fire in the sky
• The Mississippi-series, part 6: Charades
• The Mississippi series: part 7: Dorsey Dixon
• The Mississippi-series, part 8: Pretty Maids All In A Row
• The Mississippi-series, part 9: Abandon all hope

by Jochen Markhorst

Like earlier “Desolation Row” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, “Mississippi” can’t really be dealt with in one article. Too grand, too majestic, too monumental. And, of course, such an extraordinary masterpiece deserves more than one paltry article. As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): Its’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

X          Eyesight To The Blind

Some people will offer you their hand and some won’t
Last night I knew you, tonight I don’t
I need somethin’ strong to distract my mind
I’m gonna look at you ’til my eyes go blind

More than halfway the song and it gets harder and harder to follow Dylan’s claim from that Rolling Stone interview, about the song touching on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And it’s increasingly understandable that producer Lanois argues for “sexy and more sexy”.

The narrator is emotional and at the very least suggests that his current feelings of regret and loss are due to a recent break-up. In the blues jargon of Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon, the mule in the stall is a love rival, the man with whom your wife has just deceived you. The narrator worries about the things “Rosie” said and dreams of lying in “Rosie’s” bed again. And now he’s wandering around like a stranger, dazed and confused, regretting the things that can’t be undone, and presuming that “you” have regrets too… no, it’s quite easy to follow how Lanois hears a sultry love drama between the lines.

That doesn’t get any less in this verse.

Genesis 38 is a somewhat lust-filled, ruthless, and farcical intermezzo in the Bible’s first book. The book tries to bring some order to the chaotic family history of Judah, the fourth Founding Father of the Tribes. Judah’s first son Er is “wicked”, so God has to kill him, unfortunately. Brother Onan then has to fulfill his obligations and impregnate Er’s widow, but he prefers to spill his seed on the rocks. Beep beep, Jack, you’re dead (“And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also”). Which means, subsequently: another widow to take care of. All right, says Judah to this fresh widow, his daughter-in-law Tamar, when my third son will be old enough, you shall be his wife.

But Judah forgets, or changes his mind. Thamar works all these years in his household but does not get a husband – not even that third son, who is old enough by now. Then comes the farcical element: Tamar “covered her with a vail” and, masked and anonymous, stands whorishly “by the way to Timnath”, where her father-in-law passes by a little later. He thinks he sees an attractive harlot and wants to “come in unto her”. He can’t pay now, but gives his signet ring, cord and staff as pledge. When Judah returns to pay, Tamar and his pledge are gone.

A few months later his daughter-in-law Tamar turns out to be pregnant. So obviously, she has to die, because that’s how it’s supposed to be. But then Tamar shows the things of the man who has impregnated her: signet ring, cord and staff. This puts Judah in his place. “She hath been more righteous than I.” And he knew her again no more.

It is the fourth time in Genesis that knew is used in the sense of having intercourse. That’s how Daniel Lanois hears Dylan using it in “Mississippi”: “Last night I knew you, tonight I don’t” – and in that case it may indeed sound sexy and more sexy.

Hardly “Constitutional” or “Bill Of Rights”, but equally erotic, or at least amorous, is the desperate follow-up. Word choice now seems to be inspired by the blues canon again, although the well-versed may also think of Samson – who remained in love with Delilah, after all, until his eyes were gouged out. More obvious, however, is Aleck “Rice” Miller, better known as Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Sonny Boy Williamson comes from Mississippi, which may be a trigger, but the harmonica virtuoso is a constant in Dylan’s oeuvre anyway. The bard quotes Williamson in songs like “Outlaw Blues”, copies “Don’t Start Me Talkin” for the throwaway “Stop Now” (of which he then literally takes the chorus from Williamson’s “Stop Now Baby”), and Dylan plays the same “Don’t Start Me Talkin’” with The Plugz in the David Letterman Show, 1984.

In Chronicles, the autobiographer dreams up the story how Sonny Boy gave him a harmonica lesson once (“Boy, you play too fast”); in Theme Time Radio Hour, radio maker Dylan plays no less than eight of his songs and his later songs are stuffed with references too; “Your Funeral And My Trial” in “Cry A While”, for example, and in “Spirit On The Water” the Nobel Prize winner quotes both from “Black Gal Blues” and “Sugar Mama Blues”.

Here, in “Mississippi”, Dylan chooses a reversal of Sonny Boy’s immortal classic “Eyesight To The Blind”:

You're talking about your woman, 
I wish to God, man, that you could see mine
You're talking about your woman, 
I wish to God that you could see mine
Every time the little girl start to loving, 
She bring eyesight to the blind 

It seems to be some sort of a personal matter for Williamson, by the way. “Born Blind”, “Don’t Lose Your Eye”, “Unseeing Eye”… quite a few songs from his catalogue lack the light in the eyes.

His most famous in that category, “Eyesight To The Blind”, he does record a few times himself (among others, with Willie Dixon and with Elmore James), and appears on the records and setlists of big guns like B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Mose Allison, Gary Moore and Aerosmith. Officially promoted to rock history, the song is in 1969, by Pete Townshend for Tommy, of course. Though the biggest hit with it was scored by The Larks in 1951 (Top 10 in the R&B charts), which is perhaps one of the best arrangements indeed.

But Dylan’s reversal is the most clever variant; Sonny Boy’s blind can see again when she “starts to loving”, with Dylan the seeing “therefore” become blind when she stops loving again, when the love is over.

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part XI: Bonnie Blue

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold.  His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics who teach English literature.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a subject line saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.

by Larry Fyffe

Bob Dylan, singer/songwriter/musician, as previously noted, draws inspiration from the poetry of John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Frost for his song “Key West”; he also mixes in the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer with lyrics from a  a blues singer:

"Love you daddy, real good daddy
Soothe me baby, move me baby"
Yes, I heard it all
Another mule is kicking in my stall
(Dave Bartholomew: Another Mule)

In the song verse below, there’s the ‘Dylanesque rhyme twist” ~ ‘all’/’stall’; ~’wall’/’all’:

McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled
Doctor said, "McKinley, death is on the wall
Say it to me, if you got something to confess"
I heard it all  -  the wireless radio
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

And from the famous ‘Canterbury Tales’:

But show me your complete confession
"No", said the sick man, "By St. Simon
I have been shivered today by my curate
I have told him of my condition
There is no further need to confess again"
(Geoffrey Chaucer: The Summoner's Tale ~ modernized)

But most noticeably, mixed in is the tale of the Aeneas heading off to found Rome, a story told by the Roman poet Virgil. Therein, the Trojan hero descends into the Underworld with his buddy, and a Sibyl prophetess as their guide, to visit Aeneas’ father to ask him for advice; Aphrodite sends doves to guide her son to the ‘golden bough’ that he breaks off to serve as a pass to Hades:

At last they reached the spot where the road divided. From the left came horrid sounds and the  clanking of chains. Aeneas halted in terror. The Sibyl, however, bade him to have no fear, but fasten boldly the golden bough on the wall that faced the crossroads. The regions to the left … punished the wicked for their misdeeds. But the the road to the right led to the Elysian Fields where Aeneas would find his father (Edith Hamilton: Mythology:Timeless Tales Of Gods  And Heroes).

In the song lyrics below, the island of Key West, at the bottom of Florida, is figuratively transformed into the Underworld of Greek/Roman mythology, and the singer/songwriter takes on the persona of Virgil’s Aeneas:

Key West is under the sun, under the radar, under the gun
You stay to the left, and then you lean to the right
Feel the sun on your skin, and the healing virtues of the wind
Key West, Key West, is the land of light
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

So interpreted, the road to the Elysian Fields lies there in Key West:

There when they arrived everything was delightful, soft green meadows, lovely groves, a delicious life-giving air, sunlight that glowed softly purple, an abode of peace and blessedness. Here dwelt the great and the good dead, heroes, poets, priests, and all who had made men remember them by helping others (Edith Hamilton: Mythology).

In the following lyrics, the Elysian Fields of the Floridian island are depicted as real, as supposed to be by the Ancients; it’s no imaginary Land of Oz:

People tell me that I'm truly blessed
Bougainvillea blooming everywhere in the spring, in the summer
Winter here is an unknown thing
Down in the flat lands, way down in Key West
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

As goes Virgil’s mythological tale, in order to leave Hades to re-enter the Upper World, Aeneas and his companions must drink the Waters Of Oblivion from the River of Forgetfulness.

So apparently it be in the underworld of Key West:

Fly away, my pretty little Miss
I don't love nobody, give me a kiss
Down in the bottom, way down in Key West
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

Dylan reworks another song of his:

Well, I went back to see about her once
Went back to straighten it out
Everybody that I talked to had seen us there
Said they didn't know who I was talking about
Well, the sun went down on me a long time ago
I've had to pull back from the door
I wish I could have spent every hour of my life
With the girl from the Red River Shore
(Bob Dylan: Red River Shore)

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By Tony Attwood

From our 2015 review of “If you ever go to Houston”

David Hildago, who played accordion on the album, is quoted in Uncut magazine as saying of this song that, “It started out like a Jimmy Reed tune and it ended up… Bob was playing organ, he started this riff, and it went from this completely other thing, to what it is now. It was fun to be in the room when it happened.”

From Jimmy Reed to “Houston” is really quite a journey.  Here’s Jimmy in 1961…

https://youtu.be/l9xXchxodYg

It is a classic “lost love” song – and as we’ve seen on this site, “lost love” is Bob Dylan’s second favourite topic for lyrics (beaten only by love itself).

Bright lights big city, gone to my baby’s head
I’d tried to tell the woman, but she don’t believe a word I said …

So this is a 12 bar blues, which not only got into the R&B charts but the pop charts too.  Every band that ever played R&B through the 60s and 70s played this song.   It is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”.

OK so far so good – we know Jimmy Reed.  But Jimmy Reed died on 29 August 1976, so isn’t it a bit late to say goodbye?

And isn’t it a bit odd to write a song called “Goodbye Jimmy Reed” which has musical constructions that would never ever come from a Jimmy Reed song?  I don’t mean that if Bob wants to do this he can’t – of course he can – but it’s just unexpected, not least because Bob himself has written so many classic 12 bar blues.

Take the opening guitar solo which then has a couple of drum beats behind it before the song proper begins – and it sounds like it is going to be a 12 bar blues of  the type Jimmy Reed wrote.  BUT that opening guitar solo is three beats long – something you will never find in R&B.

And we do find the three beat bar happening again before each verse – it really trips us up and would make it impossible to jive to, unless one knew it was coming and with one’s partner worked out how to jive a three beat bar.  Of course Dylan has played with unexpected length bars before – Jochen and I had great fun disentangling a similar trick in Not Dark Yet (although with a different number of beats) so Dylan knows what he is up to and has form here.  But in a song called Goodbye Jimmy Reed????

And then there is the opening verse.

I live on a street named after a Saint
Women in the churches wear powder and paint
Where the Jews and the Catholics and the Muslims all pray
I can tell a Proddy from a mile away
Goodbye Jimmy Reed - Jimmy Reed indeed
Give me that old time religion, it’s just what I need

So we are getting a lot of religion here – but I am sure that’s not connected with the Jimmy Reed whose music I know (and in my own limited way, played in R&B bands in my youth).  Jimmy and religion?  No, not a thing.  The man was a drinker not a Christian.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory
Go tell it on the Mountain, go tell the real story
Tell it in that straight forward puritanical tone
In the mystic hours when a person’s alone
Goodbye Jimmy Reed - Godspeed
Thump on the bible - proclaim the creed

And so it goes on – and now I am getting really worried because I simply don’t get the connection between Jimmy Reed and religion.   Unless, rhythm and blues is the bible, (Matthew 6:31, I got that) and come to that the creed.

You won’t amount to much the people all said
‘Cause I didn’t play guitar behind my head
Never pandered never acted proud
Never took off my shoes and threw them into the crowd
Goodbye Jimmy Reed - goodbye and goodnight
I’ll put a jewel in your crown - I’ll put out the light

OK I am sinking fast here, because Bob has never played the guitar behind his head and nor did Jimmy Reed, at least not in the films I have seen.  Charley Patton did, and we’ve had a song about him, but not Jimmy Reed.  The Jimmy Reed guitar did have a jewel in the crown illustration on it though.  Confusing isn’t it?

Now the lyrics I am quoting here come directly from the official Bob Dylan site (I’m hoping they don’t mind) and what is interesting is that the final verse is written…

G-d be with you, brother dear
If you don’t mind me asking, what brings you here?
Oh, nothing much, I’m just looking for the man
I came to see where he’s lying in this lost land
Goodbye Jimmy Reed and with everything within ya
Can’t you hear me calling from down in Virginia

Now that “G-d” is a bit odd isn’t it?  Jimmy Reed died aged 50, in 1976, and is interred in the Lincoln Cemetery, in Worth, Illinois.  And I say again with all the certainty I can muster, he was not a religious man.