Untold Dylan

by Tony Attwood

Starting with Dylan’s writings in the late 1950s I’ve tried to allocate a simple description title to each song Bob wrote during the year.  About 50 descriptions have been used ranging from those which encompass one or two songs such as patriotism, or the rejection of labelling, and some which turn up over and over again.  Love and lost love turn out to be Dylan’s favourite topics – at least this far.

After each year analysed I have totalled them all up and produced a list of the subject matter that Bob Dylan has used most, from the start to the year in question.  By 1981 the top 10, showing the total number of songs across his career for each subject after.

• Humour, satire, talking blues: 14
• Blues: 15
• Surrealism, Dada, Kafka: 15
• Travelling on, songs of leaving, songs of farewell: 16
• Environment: 18
• Faith: 19
• Protest: 21
• Moving on: 25
• Lost love / moving on: 49
• Love, desire: 73

But then with 1981/2 I hit a problem. A huge problem in fact.  In 1979 every single song Bob composed was clearly about his faith.  But by 1981 Bob had been through his Christian period and had come out the other side with a mix of extraordinarily interesting songs which nevertheless, despite their intricacies, could still each be classified in a word or two.

At the same time, the more I have worked on this series of reviews of Dylan’s songs, the more I have reached the conclusion that while Dylan does often write about ideas and issues that concern him, and while he does sometimes write about real live people, he also often writes about fictional characters, without their story having some moral or deeper meaning.  There they are; he brings them to life.

It is curious that while with novelists we don’t generally assume that they are always writing with a message (rather we expect them to be telling a tale for enjoyment) with song writers – or maybe it is just with Dylan – many people expect there always to be a deeper reference.  A meaning that we have to tease out.  Yet I am increasingly coming to believe this is not the case.

I’ve been puzzling over this in relation to 1982/3 for quite a time and every time I go through this year I come to one conclusion.

It centres around “Blind Willie McTell” which was written in this period.   For the song has nothing whatsoever to do with Blind Willie McTell or his music.  In fact musically it doesn’t relate to Blind Willie at all.

Here is one of Blind Willie’s his most famous pieces

It’s a fairly typical piece.  As I am sure you can hear, Dylan’s song and Dylan’s music has no connection at all with Blind Willie.

The most obvious conclusion to reach is that “Blind Willie McTell” is another song for which Bob has got a title or a first line (or in this case both) and he uses it.  And indeed why not. “No one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell” is a fantastic line and Bob writes a brilliant piece out of it, but musically there is no connection with the supposed subject of the song.

So what do we make of this?  Or indeed if we are to consider the whole year (which is after all the purpose of this article, and each article in the series) what are we to make of the fact that Bob started the year with “Jokerman” and then moved on to “I and I,” a term that relates to the link between God and each individual person, but which also could be taken in a different context to mean that there are many different people inside my head?  God is part of all of us but we are all separate and different.  Or I can be all sorts of people and write all sorts of songs.

Looked at one way Bob is taking interesting phrases and making songs out of them – something he has often done.  But at this point I got stuck, until I started to listen again and again to one particular song: “Foot of Pride”, and I got stuck on the phrase “There ain’t no going back”.

Bob had just come out of a period in which he totally publicly announced that he had accepted the complete message of the Christian religion and spent 18 months writing Christian songs.  And now, it seems, he didn’t feel that way any more.

What’s more, in that year he had done something rather odd.  In all the years when he was writing songs that did not have a particular or clear meaning, he told us nothing about them in his concerts.  He just played.  Now with songs that were quite clear in terms of their meaning he told us exactly what they were all about!

That is ok for most people who just tell and few friends to go to church, and then on changing their mind, stop going to church and don’t talk about such things any more.

But Bob Dylan is the ultimate public figure, despite his desire to stay silent.  In fact when he does stay silent more and more people talk about him.  And he had to cope with having declared himself a servant of the Lord and now not believing in the Christian message any more.

Here’s a list of the songs across this period that I sketched out, as I came to realise that virtually none of the categories I had set out before could be used to fit into these songs.

1. Jokerman (There’s a jokerman out there)
2. I and I (The Lord is out there, but so are we)
3. Clean Cut Kid (We’re all affected by our environment)
4. Union Sundown (Look after what’s out there)
5. Blind Willie McTell (The blues describe what’s out there)
6. Don’t fall apart on me tonight (Stay with me)
7. License to Kill (Progress can hurt what’s out there)
8. Man of Peace (Nothing out there is what it seems)
9. Sweetheart like you (A fictional place, nothing real out there)
10. Someone’s got a hold of my heart / Tight connection to my heart (It’s random out there)
11. Neighbourhood Bully   (Israel, distrust, there’s no going back)
12. Tell Me (Lost love; no going back)
13. Foot of Pride (Life is chaos; there’s no going back)
14. Julius and Ethel (The innocent are prosecuted but that can’t be undone there is no going back)
15. Lord Protect my Child (A father’s wish that his child will have a good life)
16. Death is not the end (There is an afterlife but there still ain’t no going back)

Of course there is nothing to say that there should be a connection between the songs in each year at all.    But still, for me, I find there is a connection.  For Dylan is saying we are not the sum of what Jesus and God makes us, we are the sum of what we make ourselves, and we can’t go back and change what we have done because that is the life we have lived.  There really ain’t no going back.

We live in a world where the innocent are prosecuted, but there is nothing we can do and thus “There ain’t no going back” really is the phrase for the whole year.  We are what we are.  The world is out there.  It is what it is.  We are what we make ourselves.

There really, really, really ain’t no going back.

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

If you’ve not seen them before you might like to look at

• Bob Dylan And The Cowboy Jesus
• Bob Dylan and Cowboy Jesus Part II (The Riddler)
• Bob Dylan And Cowboy Jesus Part III
• Bob Dylan And Cowboy Jesus Part IV
• Bob Dylan and Cowboy Jesus Part V

by Larry Fyffe

In his personalized mythology, singer/songwriter Bob Dylan dons the mask of a Jewish rabbi; he time-travels travels back to the days of Joshua who replaces Moses who’s not made it across the Jordon River to the Promised Land. Robert ‘Joshua’ Dylan sings the praises of God’s faithful servant, the Jesus of the Jews who is instructed by God:

Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, 
     go over this Jordon, thou
And all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, 
     even to the children of Israel
(Book Of Joshua 1:2)

By way of analogy, we find that Moses stays in Mississippi (Egypt) a little too long.

Apparently equating today’s Americans with the Amorites of Babylon is a temptation too sweet for Bob Dylan to resist:

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord
Choose you this day whom you will serve
Whether the gods which your father served
That were on the other side of the flood
Or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell
But as for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord
(Book Of Joshua 24:15)

Thus singeth the the Masked Rabbi as he rides into the dark forest on his faithful horse ‘Silva’, looking for trees.

Cowboy Joshua is not without a sense of humour:

You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Yes, you're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil, and it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody
(Bob Dylan: Gotta Serve Somebody)

In Greek and Roman mythology, chief god Zeus is said to communicate through the rustling leaves of the oak tree, a myth similar thereto that’s found  the Old Testament verse below:

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God
And took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak
That was by the sanctuary of the Lord
And Joshua said unto all the people
"Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us
For it hath heard all the words of the Lord which He spake unto us
It shall be therefore be a witness unto you, lest you deny your God"
(Book of Joshua 24: 26,27)

In the coded mythology of the masked man, there be doubts that the people pay attention to Joshua anymore; instead they worship the Golden Calf in land of the Americans – modern day Amorites who befoul the Promised Land:

The lights on my native land are glowing
I wonder if they'll know me next time 'round
I wonder if that old oak tree's still standing
That old oak tree, the one we used to climb
(Bob Dylan: Dusquesne Whistle ~ Dylan/ Hunter)

It’s a theme that that the Apollonian singer/songwriter/singer sticks with:

You know darling the kind of life that I live
When my smile meets your smile, something's got to give
I ain't no false prophet, nah, I'm nobody's bride
Can't remember when I was born, and I forgot when I died
(Bob Dylan:False Prophet)

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

by Jochen Markhorst

British guitarist Steve Howe (London, 1947) has, in addition to his impressive musical skills, an enviable talent for being in the right place at the right time.

With his first band, he’s already taken to the studio of famous producer Joe Meek (for an inelegant, cutesy recording of Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline”, 1964). When Swingin’ London gets into the grip of psychedelics, Howe is at the forefront with the legendary one-hit-fly Tomorrow (from the underground hit “My White Bicycle”, 1968) and on the eve of their world fame, he accepts the invitation to join Yes. The Yes Album, his first album as a member of Yes, is the commercial breakthrough, successor Fragile (1971) the artistic highlight.

In the ’80s he still fills stadiums with the “super group” Asia, after which Howe allows himself to go as him pleases. Solo projects here, reunions there and the occasional remarkable guest appearance – he’s the only guitarist ever (except Brian May, obviously) to play on a Queen record; that flamenco solo on “Innuendo” is Steve Howe.

An impressive career, in short, but apparently no overlap with the Dylan universe. Surprising therefore is Howe’s declaration of love from 1999: Portraits Of Bob Dylan, a respectful fan collection of twelve Dylan covers. Recorded with a star cast of guest musicians, of which especially the violation of Allan Clarke’s restraining order catches the eye. After the disastrous Hollies Sing Dylan (1968), the universal, tacit agreement was in fact that Clarke could never come near a Dylan song again. Here he sings Don’t Think Twice, and he doesn’t revenge himself – his rendition is just as saltless as the rest of the record.

This one particular skill then, the ability to interpret a Dylan song in a catchy, enriching way, Howe does not have, unfortunately. However, his love is real and deep, Dylan is under his skin. He calls his first child Dylan, for example, and in interviews he likes to sprinkle with Dylan quotes. Like at the eternal question as to when Yes will finally be accepted in The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame:

“I don’t lose any sleep over that. I’ve got a mess of gold albums, lots of awards. I’ve been top guitarist. I can be proud if I wanted to be but I’m very pleased with what we’ve done. As Bob Dylan says: I wouldn’t crawl across cut glass to make a deal.”

The quote is from “Sweetheart Like You”, one of the most beautiful Dylan songs from the lean 80s. Lyrically, the grand master is back on top here; after the poetically less successful lyrics on the trio preceding evangelical records, Dylan brings hope back into the hearts of the fans with Infidels (1983). The opener “Jokerman” already is very satisfying, number two Sweetheart equals that.

The text marks both a break in style and a return to old values. Just like for example in “Visions Of Johanna”, the words suggest that a story is being told here, but the content is so fragmentary that a plot cannot be discovered. The image of a café scene looms up vaguely, in which the slightly inebriated narrator, hanging at the bar, has reached a rosy state of candour. His attempts to flirt, lines like what’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this, are clumsy and worn down. However, the verses have an epic, evocative power, in which the choice of words heralds a familiar characteristic in Dylan’s oeuvre: paraphrase is the stylistic tool.

A first test of this can already be seen in “Heart Of Mine” (1981) and it suits well, apparently. In album opener “Jokerman” the poet continues with classical quotes like fools rush in where angels fear to tread (originally by Alexander Pope, 1709), in Sweetheart the paraphrases really start flowing. So far, we have come to know the poet Dylan as a sponge, fruitfully influenced by admired artists. From the 1980s onwards, he allows the influences to be traced back, almost unedited, directly to his lyrics – to an extent that will eventually lead to awkward plagiarism or inspiration discussions. This is less sensitive for the master himself. After all, he publicly declares himself to be a thief of thoughts as early as the early 1960s.

And he’s good at it. Under Dylan’s hands, other people’s side-lines blossom into aphorisms, giving them the power of a proverb or truism. Steal a little and they throw you in jail / Steal a lot and they make you a king is one. The American Nobel Prize winner Eugene O’Neill wrote his sensational, taboo-breaking play “The Emperor Jones” in 1920: For the little stealin’ dey gits you in jail soon or late. For the big stealin’ dey makes you Emperor and puts you in the Hall o’ Fame when you croaks. O’Neill often hits a Dylan string, by the way. From the same drama the bard also snatches fragments for “Trouble” and for “Spirit On The Water”.

At least as quotable is the marble verse before this one, They say that patriotism is the last refuge / To which a scoundrel clings, and that too is a paraphrase, or rather a pimped up version of Samuel Johnson’s one-liner patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel (1775). The context of Dr. Johnson’s statement is unknown, but the impact is huge; it inspires centuries later films like The Dirty Dozen.

A similar proverbial quality has vanity got the best of him. It seems inspired by an old article in Life (May 27, ’66: “The Guru Comes To Kansas” by Barry Farrell). The article is a beautiful, thorough, almost poetic portrait of Dylan’s friend Allen Ginsberg, and Ginsberg is portrayed like this:

Allen Ginsberg is eating breakfast: sterile, plastic coated Danish pushed crumbling into great Hasidic beard, sips of tea pale as tears, molecules mating in gastric Oneness, sleepy visionary poet munching morning food of Kansas students in afternoon of campus cafe.

An excerpt that seems to be the inspiration for Pink Floyd’s “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”, the closing song of 1970’s Atom Heart Mother. Which it isn’t, by the way – the title is derived from the background noise: band roadie Alan Styles preparing breakfast.

But another excerpt is undeniably influential:

Whenever his vanity got the best of him, nudging the poet out of control, Kerouac, his friend and advisor, would warn him of the danger and denounce him as “a hairy loss.” So, in 1961 he resolved to disappear into the Orient – for awhile, at least.

Ginsberg, Kerouac, Dylan is mentioned too, plus the exact same expression and the subsequent “leaving in style” or “leaving after sundown” … certainly not watertight, but much too distinctive to be coincidental.

Apart from these and other reformulations, the connoisseurs get their money’s worth with Dylan originals as well. The witty heaven/hell reversal at the end is one of them, especially in the light of the rather rigid, humourless lyrics that the minstrel produced on the previous records. Different from the competition up in Heaven, one gets upon entering in hell, as we now learn, not a harp to pluck, but one you play until your lips bleed – a mouth harp that is. Dylan does not suddenly turn away completely, though; in your father’s house there’s many mansions is a Bible paraphrase (“In my Father’s house are many mansions,” John 14:2).

The studio version is beautiful. The outtakes, including a slower, yet livelier version, are also very enjoyable, but the combination of the two guitar heroes Mark Knopfler and Mick Taylor on the chosen recording is phenomenal – especially the ex-Rolling Stone’s guitar solo lifts the already exceptional song even higher. Taylor is undoubtedly inspired by his introduction to the undisputed masterpiece “Blind Willie McTell”, a week earlier. That particular song has gotten under his skin – his cover is beautiful (on A Stone’s Throw, 1999) and live it’s been in his Top 5 of most played songs for three decades now (the Stones classic “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is number one).

Beautiful covers of Sweetheart most certainly exist, but there is not much to improve. Dylan’s vocals are exceptionally good, the accompanying band, with the unsurpassed Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare as rhythm section can hardly be matched. The extremely talented Dylan disciple Jimmy LaFave comes very close, both live and in the studio (on Buffalo Return To The Plains, 1995).

Rod Stewart’s singing is theatrical and overdone, but he has a breathtaking band behind him. And the live version by The Blessing is a soulful, exciting exercise. Few ladies venture into it, perhaps because of the dubious, rather sexist third verse, but still: Judy Collins overstretches.

The only one who really knows how to step out of Dylan’s shadow is Guy Davis. Splendid arrangement (with double bass and accordion) and, above all, sweltering performance art – Davis is that slightly inebriated barfly. On the record of the same name from 2009.
That guitar, by the way, Steve Howe hadn’t improved either.

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

For some songwriters of renown, one could imagine “Dark Eyes” being the pinnacle of their writing careers.   Bob Dylan has played it eight times – those performances spread out between 1986 and 1995.  Here is one of those performances, with Patti Smith

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpb2ISYWenk

Aaron’s comment, having chosen the song for this series of articles…

I think the video really adds something to the performance, rather than just the audio, which is amazing itself. But watching the video really takes it to another level. Look at how she looks up into his eyes during the choruses, there is so much emotion in the eyes, like she can’t believe she is singing this song, at this moment with this man, there is respect certainly but, dare I say it, desire (and maybe even lust) also.

It must be a tough song to sing at the best of times, but this is just amazing, neither sets a foot wrong with the lyrics and Bob is on point with his guitar. It’s a simply sublime performance.

Moving on, or rather moving backwards, we do in fact have a video of the very first performance which is an extraordinary event in itself…

https://youtu.be/YOe3FlOBzGo

And another strange experience

https://youtu.be/38P5oXvQo6w

For the actual version from the album you’ll need to go to Spotify and I hope you might have a moment to do that (or play your own album version if you have it to hand) because after those recordings it is helpful to refresh one’s memories

Here are the lyrics

Oh, the gentlemen are talking and the midnight moon is on the riverside
They’re drinking up and walking and it is time for me to slide
I live in another world where life and death are memorized
Where the earth is strung with lovers’ pearls and all I see are dark eyes

A cock is crowing far away and another soldier’s deep in prayer
Some mother’s child has gone astray, she can’t find him anywhere
But I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise
Whom nature’s beast fears as they come and all I see are dark eyes

They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes
They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I’m sure it is
But I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized
All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes

Oh, the French girl, she’s in paradise and a drunken man is at the wheel
Hunger pays a heavy price to the falling gods of speed and steel
Oh, time is short and the days are sweet and 
         passion rules the arrow that flies
A million faces at my feet but all I see are dark eyes

Tony’s commentary

Summarised: the world is burning, and no one is doing anything.  The lines do not connect, but that is surely the point.  We are drifting into oblivion, not recognising what we have, letting it all slip

away.

But just notice that little twist in the guitar part right at the end, after the conclusion of the final verse.  There’s a skip in the step there, a walking away from the world of sadness and chaos.  It’s chaos.  So what?

And yet although there is direct meaning in the song we also have the lines that are, I feel, are deliberately disconnected from the rest of  the song.  Lines that are part of Bob’s inner thoughts, such as “They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes.”   If we took that literally it would presumably be seen as saying that there are people out there telling Bob to keep his songs obscure.  I doubt that is true.  I doubt anyone would ever dare tell Bob anything about what to do in his writings.

These are, I feel, disconnected lines, a drift of consciousness and subconsciousness, random thoughts, half formed ideas as he observes the world around him.  It is another song we should not try to take too much meaning from, but instead just take the lyrics not as giving us a fulsome meaning, but instead as part of the sound of the song.

As ever, when contemplating what I might add to this little article I took a look at what others have said about the song, and Heylin provides something that although to my mind is inaccurate it is interesting.  He speaks of a “nagging sense phrases have been strung together to create an effect, some of which are highly effective … some of which stop short.”

Yes he’s right, the phrases have been strung together, but I still think he’s missed the point: that is the point.  The phrases are strung together without connection and that is just as the world is.  Events strung together.  The song has images that collide and coalesce in order to give an overall impression.  In fact I am back to my comparison with modern art.  Pointing out that the pink doesn’t really fit with the red or the blue is to miss the entire point.   It is the overall effect that we should be looking at or listening to.  Not the individual lines.

But still, it was rather nice to find that on doing this bit of research into the song 12 years after I wrote my first review of “Dark Eyes” on this website, I discover that review of mine turned up on Google as the second text entry, just behind the lyrics from the official Bob Dylan site.  Of course that might not be the case for you, in your part of the world, but it suggests that at least in England somebody’s reading my ramblings – which is rather nice.

Dark Eyes: The meaning behind the Bob Dylan song

Forgotten Gems, Lost songs

Forgotten Masterpieces: Eight more works of brilliance

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

by Tony Attwood

Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.  Psalm 36:11

(Let me not be trampled underfoot by proud oppressors, or driven from my home by wicked violence).

In 1978 Bob’s songs reflect a troubled mind as he took on themes that we had never heard him explore before.  Songs like Stepchild and Legionnaires Disease really seemed to have little link with the Dylan that we had come to know, varied though the themes of his earlier songs had been.

He finished the year with “Slow Train Coming”, which at least confirmed what we could have derived from these songs – that he perceived that a slow change was afoot.  In retrospect it can sound like a religious song, but there is nothing religious in it… it is simply a song about change naturally happening.  As such it is closely linked to “Times they are a-changing” which also did not speak about people rising up and creating change, but rather change naturally occurring and overtaking us all, whether we like it or not.

And then in 1979, for the first time ever Bob gave us the certainty – for here, for the first time ever, every song in one year was on the same subject: religious belief.  It was a bit of a shock.

1980 started in the same way, and yet as I listen to the songs, already Bob’s mind seems to be wanting to go further.  And as the overtly Christian message was left behind Bob gave us a collection as rich and diverse as he had ever offered.  And remember this list of not a selection from that year but the songs listed in the order he wrote them…

• Every grain of sand God made this world
• Caribbean Wind  End of relationships, the end of time, the end of all things
• Groom’s still waiting at the alter It’s all falling apart
• Yonder comes sin It’s all falling apart
• Let’s keep it between us Love – all we need is honesty
• Making a liar out of me This is me, this is where I have got to

You may disagree with my short commentary on the meaning of each of these songs but I am hoping you can see my meaning about their diversity.  This was a set of quality songs equal in artistic merit to anything in those early years where one classic simply followed another – but the meaning of the lyrics was so much more complex.

And what then?  What after this staggering year which ended with this extraordinary collection.   Well, 1981 was a right mixture.  I won’t set them all out again, but just look at songs 20 to 23 of 1981:

• Watered down love
• Lenny Bruce
• Jesus is the one
• Thief on the Cross

A love song, a celebration of a disreputable rebel who had just died, a purely Christian song, and then the ambiguous thief on the cross, which could be a Biblical tale or something symbolic, and quite, quite different.

Now at this moment we were still only one year on from what I have found to be one of the absolute high points of Dylan’s writing with the sequence from “Every Grain” to “Making a liar”.  (You might recall my little conceit in which I imagine that Bob says he likes Untold, and asks me to create an album of his songs that has some unified concept.  I give him “Bob Dylan 1980.”)

So what would he do next?  Could he see the absolute genius within those songs?  Could he recover it?  Would he stay with religion?  Would he go somewhere else?  If so where on earth could he go?

In fact what happened was, in my view (and of course this is all just my view), that Bob Dylan pulled off one of his most remarkable moves in his career.  And it was all the more remarkable because it came so soon after the 1980 collection.

Looking at his commentary on “Lenny Bruce” (in which he says he didn’t know why he wrote the song – but then went on to perform it regularly on stage and with enormous passion and emotion) and taking it at face value, I feel that he created that song (and almost certainly many others) by taking a promising musical phrase and a lyrical phrase and putting them together without worrying at all about the meaning.  Indeed having listened to “Lenny Bruce is Dead” many more times than I care to recall, I’m certain that Bob read that phrase or heard it or just thought it up, and then put that highly memorable musical phrase with it and thought “That works.”  The meaning of the words was irrelevant, it was just a great phrase.  The music then naturally followed on and other lyrics were found to fit – not because Bob had a message to give, but because the overall feel of the piece SOUNDED right.  Forget the meaning of the lyrics that so bothers Heylin and others.  It just sounded right.

Of course the lyrics do have a meaning, they are not random words; but that is not the essence of the song.  It is the SOUND of the lyrics and the music TOGETHER that creates the brilliance of the piece.

I think to a large degree the same is true with the songs at the end of 1980 – but if you are not 100% familiar with it and you missed my wild ravings over the piece, do listen to Making a liar out of me    What makes this song work is the sound of the words and the rise and fall of the music, not any meaning that there might be in the lyrics.

Of course, I have no proof that Bob Dylan thought along such lines, or indeed if he thought at all about the songs he was writing – I get the feeling that a lot of the time an idea emerges and he writes the piece, and that’s that.

But I can say that in 1983, the idea which I have pursued in these articles, of giving each song a one or two-word explanation for its content, (love, lost love, surrealism, protest, faith etc) breaks down.  In 1983 it doesn’t work any more.  I just can’t do it.

Having run this series year by year since the late 1950s when Bob started writing, and laboriously totaled each subject area as we go, I’m stuck.   But rather than give up I want to try and explain Bob’s new approach through looking for a moment at “Foot of Pride”.  Dylan has never played it in public, and it did not make it onto any album except the first Bootleg collection.  (Mind you, if he did play it now wouldn’t that be something for this little blog!!!)

But as a result of this non-performance, no copy of Dylan singing the song is available for me to offer on the blog, although Spotify has it, and you can register for free and play it that way if you don’t have Bootleg 1-3.

But we do have a recording of Lou Reed’s performance.  Here it is and the lyrics are below along with some further discussion…

Like the lion tears the flesh off of a man
So can a woman who passes herself off as a male
They sang “Danny Boy” at his funeral and the Lord’s Prayer
Preacher talking ’bout Christ betrayed
It’s like the earth just opened and swallowed him up
He reached too high, was thrown back to the ground
You know what they say about bein’ nice to the right people on the way up
Sooner or later you gonna meet them comin’ down

Well, there ain’t no goin’ back
When your foot of pride come down
Ain’t no goin’ back

Now of course you can turn this into a religious piece if you hear it that way, and I am sure you can find references in the Bible to explain some of the lines.  But I would argue you are going to be stretching the bounds of possibility here to make all  those lines connect together – and then to link it all to the Psalm or the oft accepted conversion into modern English to mean

“Let me not be trampled underfoot by proud oppressors, or driven from my home by wicked violence.”

And if so, we are still left with the question, what is Bob doing writing about being trampled underfoot by proud oppressors?

I am further swayed towards my explanation that what Bob is doing is something he has oft done before, but is now taking it to a higher level (that is finding musical and poetic phrases that just sound good and putting them together as a painter puts together colours and shapes in an abstract painting).  And I am emboldened to argue this by the fact that this is what pop and rock has so often done.  After all what does

Whop bop b-luma b-lop bam bom
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
Tutti frutti, woo
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
A wop bop b-luma b-lop bam bom

actually mean?

When I started writing this series of articles about the literary themes of Dylan’s work each year it was because a quick review had led me to conclude that although the protest side of his work was limited, and far smaller than two of the three central themes of popular music (love and lost love), many people still saw him as a protest singer.     And it was only as we approached the religious period, and more specifically its end, and I started to look ahead that I realised that there was another theme that arose, in the post-Christian period: the abstract which I am describing here.  Or if you wish, the meaningless.  (I prefer abstract so I’ll stick with that).

But what’s more, now I have got to this point, I rather suspect that Bob has touched on this form of writing before, and when I get to the end of this series (which at this rate will probably be somewhere around 2030) I will endeavour to go back and unravel this.  He did after all have a Kafkaesque period around the time of the essentially meaningless “Drifter’s Escape”  But for the moment I offer “Ain’t no going back” as an example of an abstract composition.

Hear ya got a brother named James, don’t forget faces or names
Sunken cheeks and his blood is mixed
He looked straight into the sun and said revenge is mine
But he drinks, and drinks can be fixed
Sing me one more song, about ya love me to the moon and the stranger
And your fall-by-the sword love affair with Errol Flynn
In these times of compassion when conformity’s in fashion
Say one more stupid thing to me before the final nail is driven in.

There are so many lines here that I can only describe as “utterly gorgeous.”  I don’t know any other phrase.  How else do you describe, “Say one more stupid thing to me before the final nail is driven in” which comes after “conformity’s in fashion”?

I shall leave you with the rest of the song, to contemplate what I am trying to describe.   The School of Abstract Songwriting.

But before I do, may I suggest one thing.  This is not about interpreting each line – it absolutely doesn’t work that way because the lines often don’t connect.  Just as with a Jackson Pollock painting there is no point is looking for the meaning of a red splodge of paint here, or a green line there, so there is no point trying to say the retired businessman named Red clearly refers to… [insert an example].  It is not about meanings it is about the sound of the words.

That is the genius of what Dylan created at this point.  The sound of the music and the sound of words creating an abstraction of meaning.  I am starting to think we should indeed approach some of Dylan’s work in the same way that we approach a Dylan Thomas poem or a Beethoven string quartet.

There’s a retired businessman named Red
Cast down from heaven and he’s out of his head
He feeds off of everyone that he can touch
He said he only deals in cash or sells tickets to a plane crash
He’s not somebody that you play around with much
Miss Delilah is his, a Phillistine is what she is
She’ll do wondrous works with your fate, feed you coconut bread,
spice buns in your bed
If you don’t mind sleepin’ with your head face down in a grave

Well, there ain’t no goin’ back
When your foot of pride come down
Ain’t no goin’ back

Well, they’ll choose a man for you to meet tonight
You’ll play the fool and learn how to walk through doors
How to enter into the gates of paradise
No, how to carry a burden too heavy to be yours
Yeah, from the stage they’ll be tryin’ to get water outa rocks
A whore will pass the hat, collect a hundred grand and say thanks
They like to take all this money from sin, 
    build big universities to study in
Sing “Amazing Grace” all the way to the Swiss banks

Well, there ain’t no goin’ back
When your foot of pride come down
Ain’t no goin’ back

They got some beautiful people out there, man
They can be a terror to your mind and 
     show you how to hold your tongue
They got mystery written all over their forehead
They kill babies in the crib and say only the good die young
They don’t believe in mercy
Judgement on them is something that you’ll never see
They can exalt you up or bring you down main route
Turn you into anything that they want you to be

Well, there ain’t no goin’ back
When your foot of pride come down
Ain’t no goin’ back

Yes, I guess I loved him too
I can still see him in my mind climbin’ that hill
Did he make it to the top, well he probably did and dropped
Struck down by the strength of the will
Ain’t nothin’ left here partner, just the dust of a plague
that has left this whole town afraid
From now on, this’ll be where you’re from
Let the dead bury the dead. Your time will come
Let hot iron blow as he raised the shade

Well, there ain’t no goin’ back
When your foot of pride come down
Ain’t no goin’ back

If you have got to the end of this, thank you.  If you found it a quarter as interesting to read as I found it to right, you’ll have had quite a good time.

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

By Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet)

‘I am the enemy of the unlived meaningless life.’
(Dylan: False Prophet)

Part One: The Man in the Moon

The transition from 1989 to 1990 was a smooth one in that his line up didn’t change and there was no significant change of musical direction and orientation.

Just as towards the end of 1989 Dylan released a new album Oh Mercy, so towards the end of 1989 another new album appeared Under a Red Sky. So I had all my tracks lined up, according to the pattern I established for the 1989 study, and was about to spin the first public performance of the title track of that album, when I remembered my father who, when teaching us how to play cards, would always say, ‘lead with your longest and strongest’ or ‘lead ‘em like you got ‘em,’ and my plan went out the window. I had an ace; I was dying to play it.

The performance I keep coming back to is that protest song to end all protest songs ‘It’s all right Ma.’ Not only the best of 1990, but maybe the best performance of this song since the flat, hard-driving 1964 performances. We have the swirling performances from the Rolling Thunder Tour, and the fast and furious versions from the Tom Petty years. Dylan stayed with this fast and furious version through the early years of the NET, and you won’t find a better performance of it than this one (02-07):

It’s all right Ma

‘I am the enemy of the unlived meaningless life.’

I have described this song as a wholesale attack on all things false and phony, which is why it sounds so up to date. The false and the phony still rule. If we want to know what he means when, in his new song ‘False Prophet,’ he sings that he is the ‘enemy of the unlived meaningless life,’ we just have to listen to ‘It’s all right Ma.’

The root of this ‘unlived meaningless life’ is the rank and godless materialism lambasted in ‘It’s all right Ma.’ And while we are assaulted by lies, deceptions, false judgments and tyranny, we ‘can make it’, we have the insight and the courage to survive because it’s ‘life and life only’. This grim vision of a spiritually empty life turns out to be an inspirational song at heart.

‘It’s all right Ma’ is not the only song that brings a true and horrifying report of the  state of the world from a young person back to the mother. ‘It’s A Hard Rain gonna Fall’ is built around the same motif. And it’s the 1990 performance of that song which is the second ace in the hole.

While I love the smooth gospel, 1981 version, and the hard, clanging Rolling Thunder version, this performance takes us back to the acoustic, 1960s Dylan, but not so plodding. And, I have to say Dylan’s vocal expression is richer and more varied than his sixties performances. The emphatic vocal style of these early NET years, with broken up lines, suits this song particularly well as it emphasizes the fragmentary nature of the visions.

Hard Rain

(I can’t be the only one to notice the importance of the mother, ‘Ma’ or ‘Mama’, in Dylan’s early songs. And because ‘mama’ can also refer to a girlfriend (‘mama you’ve been on my mind’), there is larger female presence at work here.)

As I’ve suggested before, in my view Dylan didn’t stop writing protest songs, he simply extended the range of his attack on the false and the phony to his personal life, himself and those around him. In that respect ‘Ramona’ is just as much a protest song as ‘Hard Rain’ in its portrayal of someone who has fallen into the false and phony, distorted by propaganda.

‘I see that your head
has been twisted and fed
with meaningless foam from the mouth’

Here is the ‘unlived meaningless life’ right in front of us.

‘And it grieves my heart love
to see you trying to be part of
a world that just don’t exist.

False worlds full of false prophets.

I have to say, when I look at my selection, I do favour the acoustic Dylan. A passionate, vibrant rendition of Ramona coming up.

Ramona

Before leaving the sixties behind, at least for the moment, this seems like a good place to slip in a rare and very well received ‘Oxford Town’, with its scene of racial violence. This is from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 1962, and only occasionally performed. One thing to note, however, a certain scratchiness is evident in Dylan’s voice, a lack of timbre noticeable here,  which will become more accentuated in the following year, 1991. Dylan’s voice is starting to go.

Oxford Town.

So now I deal myself a new hand and pick up the story with some songs from Under a Red Sky (1990). This album lies very much in the shadow of the successful Oh Mercy (1989), and its hard, abrasive tones contrast sharply to the lush, swampy sounds of the earlier album. Nobody much liked Under the Red Sky. And yet, when we look at these two albums from the point of view of the NET, we can see that Red Sky is much more closely aligned to the sounds Dylan was producing onstage than Oh Mercy. Dylan didn’t attempt to produce that swampy sound onstage.

There are, however, a couple of very strong songs on the album. ‘Unbelievable’ is a lyrical masterpiece hidden beneath the frenetic beat. It will be a couple of years before Dylan will try this song onstage. The title track, ‘Under the Red Sky’, with its obvious pathos and appeal to the world of fairy tales, is more immediately palatable.

I’m not sure why critics reacted so negatively to Dylan’s use of childhood themes and motifs on this album. ‘Man gave name to all  the animals’ from 1980 is a little theology in the guise of a children’s song. ‘Under the Red Sky’ uses the same guise to explore adult themes. Perhaps listeners were a bit shocked at the casual way he sings, ‘One day the little girl and the little boy were both baked in a pie.’ Cooking and eating children? Where’s Mr Tambourine Man when you need him? There was the feeling that the whole song was a bit off.

Under the red sky

The last lines of the song, however, gave me a chill when I first heard them, because it seemed to me that the song was a lament for the loss of the creative flow – fatal for any artist. It was as if he was telling us it was all over.

‘Let the bird sing, let the bird fly
One day the man in the moon went home
and the river ran dry’

That magical, creative time of our childhood doesn’t last. The ‘little boy and the little girl’, the divine twins (the eternal syzygy), source of the universal creative drive, are destroyed. As it turned out, my premonition was a true one, and it would be a long seven years before the next album.

But it was the first track of the album, ‘Wiggle Wiggle’, that caused the most consternation. After the sweeping grandeur of ‘Most of the Time’ and ‘Man in the Long Black Coat’, we get… ‘Wiggle Wiggle’? Surely Dylan’s most despised song. At the time it was held up as the ultimate proof that the master had lost his mojo – oh how the mighty have fallen, they cried.

Perhaps this negative reaction is because the song is so good in its vicious, uncompromising attack on the sexual act. The mindless simplicity of the song mimics the mindless simplicity of sex.

‘Wiggle till you’re high
Wiggle till you’re higher
Wiggle till you vomit fire’

Vomit fire? A powerful and disturbing image for orgasm. According to Collins dictionary, ‘if it wiggles , it moves up and down or from side to side’, unlike wriggling which contains a greater range of movements.

‘Wiggle till it whispers, wiggle till it hums
Wiggle till it answers, wiggle till it comes’

The only other Dylan song that expresses such a powerful revulsion to the sexual act that springs to mind is ‘Yonder comes sin.’ (1981)

‘Look at your feet, see where they've been to.
Look at your hands, see what they've been into…’

I think we don’t like the song because Dylan is taking the piss out of our precious sexuality. The simple, childlike language, as if it were a children’s rhyme, makes us even more uncomfortable.

‘Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, rattle and shake
Wiggle like a big fat snake.’

Oh Lordy – well, here it is, rough as hell, with pretty much a completely new set of lyrics! The whole performance sounds pretty improvised to me, including the lyrics. Those incomparable lyrics and he doesn’t sing them! Sounds like he’s making it up as he goes along, and in some cases, just making Dylan-like noises that are not actually words…? (see what you can make of it)

Wiggle Wiggle

‘TV Talking Song’ might be described as a forgotten song on a forgotten album, but it recalls the madcap, fast-paced, early Dylan talking songs like ‘Talking World War 3 Blues’ or ‘John Birch Society Blues.’ Rambling comic monologues with a satirical edge. Lovely twist in the last line. I think this qualifies as a rare performance.

TV Talking song

Dylan doesn’t delve deep into Under the Red Sky. In later years ‘Cat’s in the Well’ gets a good airing, and only much later in the nineties does he try to perform the powerful ‘Born in time.’

He does, however, continue to explore material from the previous album, Oh Mercy. ‘Where teardrops fall’ is a wistful, sad song about a love that might be re-kindled, and this is one case where GE Smith’s hard-edged guitar sound can’t do justice to the, quieter, soft edges of the song. Dylan’s voice sounds good but there’s too much jingle-jangle from the guitar.

Where Teardrops fall

The official narrative has Dylan deserting ‘protest’ songs in the sixties. And yet we have two hard-out protest songs on Oh Mercy, ‘Political World’ and ‘Everything is broken.’ In this fallen world of ours we can’t escape politics.

‘We live in a political world
Under the microscope
You can travel anywhere
And hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope’

‘Everything is broken’ extends the attack from politics to our more common, unlived and meaningless lives.

‘Broken hands on broken ploughs,
Broken treaties, broken vows,
Broken pipes, broken tools,
People bending broken rules…’

It’s a 1990s update on Subterranean Homesick Blues. It’s a political world, and it’s a broken world, and looking around us now, who could argue? As always Dylan’s vision stays true.

Political world.

Everything is broken

Stay centered and keep safe, and we’ll be back soon for the next installment.

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
• 1989 Part 2 – A fire in the sun
• 1989 Part 3: Blown out on the trail

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

If you’ve not seen them before you might like to look at

• Bob Dylan And The Cowboy Jesus
• Bob Dylan and Cowboy Jesus Part II (The Riddler)
• Bob Dylan And Cowboy Jesus Part III
• Bob Dylan And Cowboy Jesus (Part IV)

By Larry Fyffe

According to the thinkings of Gnostics, the physical world be a dark place that’s quite isolated from the many-levelled, and variously-lit planes of spirituality – at least for most of the inhabitants on Earth these levels are out-of-bounds.

In the mythological universe created in the imaginative mind of singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, time-travel through space is one way out of the material world for those who have the unique gift.

But even then there is a terrible price to pay if a mistake is made. The Masked Rabbi in Dylan’s mythology sings an allegorical song to illustrate the problem. Witnesses the Rabbi a dreadful event when time-travelling with Cowboy Jesus (emanates Jesus has from a spiritual plateau into the physical body of outlaw Charles Bolton, aka ‘Black Bart’) who holdups stagecoaches.

It seems that while robbing a Wells Fargo stagecoach, Bart accidentally shoots and kills Zane Grey, the guy who’s riding shotgun, and then, lo and behold, a woman passenger runs off with the thief, herself a bright emanation sent forth to Earth from the mysterious, but basically good Monad. That  young woman is no other than Mary, the would-be Mother of Jesus!

The  Masked Rabbi sings about the incident from Mary’s point of view:

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
(Bob Dylan: Black Jack Davey ~ Dylan/traditional)

Needless to say Cowboy Jesus gets a little upset. God’s Divine Plan for redeeming the whole human race gets derailed, so to speak. For how now can Mary give birth to the Christ child in a manger if she’s run off with Black Bart (or “Black Jack Davey”) in Dylan’s coded mythology?

Therein, Cowboy Jesus tells the Masked Rabbi to take a message to Mary Magdalene, who’s up there in one of the lowest spiritual planes, but not to tell her the truth about the real mess he’s in; Jesus is trapped in the physical sphere, and no one is willing to help him out because he’s shot a man named Grey:

Take a message to Mary, but don't tell her what I've  done
Please don't mention the stagecoach, and the shot from a careless gun
You can tell her I had to change my plans, and cancel out the wedding day
But please don't mention my lonely cell where I'm gonna pine away
(Bob Dylan: Take A Message To Mary ~ B&F Bryant)

https://youtu.be/bbE03UeZOQw

In his gnostic Kabbalah-like visions, Bob Dylan begins his mythology with a Masked Rabbi emanating from the clouds:

Upon four-legged legged forest clouds
The cowboy angel rides
With his candle lit into the sun
Though it's glow is waxed in black
All except when 'neath the trees of Eden
(Bob Dylan: Gates Of Eden)

https://youtu.be/hVSnu4zRrfY

Left up to the reader or listener of these song lyrics is the interpretation of the meaning hidden in these Dylanesque visions; it’s there for uncovering in the manner of the Hebrew ‘Old Testament’ filled with symbolism that’s left there to be unravelled as to what it all means:

Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel
Whom I'd seen in a vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly ...
And he informed me, and talked with me, and said
"O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding"
(Daniel 9; 21, 22)

One interpretation is that  the mythology concludes with ‘organized’ Christian evangelism receiving a blast from the angel Gabriel’s horn:

How I made it back home, nobody knows
Or how I survived so many blows
I've been through Hell, what good did it do
My conscience is clear, what about you?
(Bob Dylan: Pay In Blood)

https://youtu.be/LYMgDRANE2s

Apparently, the Masked Rabbi makes it back to the ranch on his faithful horse ‘Sylva’.

That’s just one holistic interpretation of Bob Dylan’s songs that contain such biblical visions.

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Last year, we were fascinated when a lyric sheet for “Listen, Robert Moses,” credited to Bob Dylan, popped up on the internet.

And yes it seems “Listen Robert Moses” is another Bob Dylan song – in this case it seems it was originally sung to the tune of Listen Mr Bilbo.

So we typed out the words to make them easier to follow and asked for anyone who felt like it to put some music to the song.  And we’ve had one, so it is provided below.

First, the lyrics…

Listen Robert Moses, listen if you can,
It's all about our neighbourhood that you're trying to condemn
We aren't going to sit back and see our homes torn down
So take your superhighway and keep it out of town.

We won't be moved Buddy we won't be moved
We're fighting for our rights and we won't be moved
We're fighting for our rights from our heads to our shoes
We're fighting for our homes and we aren't going to lose

For twenty long years there's been a shadow hanging round
That anyday the bulldozers will throw our houses down
We're going to lift the shadow once and all for good
We don't want a superhighway we want a neighbourhood

Some of us are young and some of us are old
But none of us like to be thrown out in the cold
Are we squatters in the city that we are living in?
Will we stand up for our rights or be scattering the wind?

Up and down Mulberry, Delancy Street and Spring
Chrystie and Canal Streets, you hear our voices ring
From Elizabeth to Thompson, to Varrick Street and Broome
We're trying to save our streets from that superhighway doom

Too many other people have been driven from their doors
To make room for some highway or else some fancy stores
They've been forced to leave their homes and all their roots behind
And dwell in housing projects, the reservation kind

It's time to make a stand, it's time to try and save
This ere neighbourhood of 'curs for it lands down in the grave
So hold up your banners and raise tem to the wind
We'll stand here and fight, and fight until we win.

And now the music…

Now in case you missed our original background notes, we’re presenting them again below (“The background”)

And I would stress there is no limit to the number of different sets of music that we’ll put up in relation to any of these unknown Dylan lyrics.  With some of the other songs we have had three of four different versions.

Below is the information about the song that we have and then after that there are details of other songs from this series in which readers of Untold add music to Bob Dylan’s lyrics.

The background

In this case it seems it was originally sung to the tune of Listen Mr Bilbo.

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

 by Paul Robert Thomas

Previously published in this series…

Seven Days: An Examination of Faith Crisis And Apocalypse

Seven Days: an examination of faith, crisis and apocalypse part 2

Few people have taken Dylan’s conversion account without a pinch of scepticism. After seeming to take Dylan’s account of the experience at face value, in the opening page of chapter 27 of Behind The Shades Clinton Heylin joins company with Paul Williamsin seeing Dylan’s surrender to Christ as a response to ‘woman trouble’ and goes on to say “If Dylan was on the run from the Triple Goddess, he would need the protection of a strong, patriarchal religion”.

Likewise Dylan’s conversion is referred to by Williams in the early pages of his essay ‘What Happened’? (lately republished in Watching the River Flow) as a flight from suffering and frustration, divorce and the conflicts of his pronouncedly dual nature: “When he finally lost faith in the ability of woman to save him…. His need for an alternative grew very great indeed, and he found what people in our culture most often find in the same circumstances: the uncritical hospitality of Jesus Christ”.

I can’t help hearing a note of mild contempt, or perhaps it’s bitterness, in Williams’ voice when I read that -directed both at Dylan, who I suspect Williams felt deeply let down by, and Christ, and Williams makes Christ seem to be pretty undiscerning in his choice of disciples and betrays a poor grasp of the challenge and truth to be found in Christianity”. However, as Williams’ essay proceeds it shows a willingness to, at least, grapple with the problem (to him) of Dylan’s faith and it still stands as the best essay I’ve read to date on Dylan’s relationship with his Lord. However, if anyone should come under scrutiny for the flavour of Dylan’s early days as a Christian it is Hal Lindsey, whose hysterical and wholly inaccurate reading of ‘Revelation’ and The Old Testament influenced Dylan enormously as is shown in his ‘gospel raps.

I believe that both Slow Train Coming and Saved are best understood by the new sense of peace and an unbridled, unreflecting, digestion of The New Testament, and the early excitement and awe it produced in Dylan spiritually and creatively. It’s also important to take into consideration the ‘literalism’ which is a hallmark of branches of the Christian church such as The Vineyard Fellowship, and the way it Imbues contemporary events with biblical significance either by scriptural ignorance or deliberate misreading. I suggest that Dylan’s fierce attacks on unbelievers and his obvious disgust with his past relationships, which he now saw as ‘ungodly’ but didn’t seem ready to take personal responsibility for, are a product of the erroneous teaching he may have received at The Vineyard ‘Bible School’ . To return to Clinton Heylin – “Before he embraced the uniquely Californian brand of Christianity advocated by the Vineyard Fellowship, Dylan could not be described as a fundamentalist. Indeed he does not seem to have immediately considered his vision in Tucson to be a ‘born again’ experience. Only when the born again’ creed was outlined for him did he recognize the nature of his vision…..”

The ‘born again’ creed of this particular fellowship would have been very specific about who was and who wasn’t saved and would have put great emphasis upon Dylan to renounce his past life and loves as being fully corrupt, evil and now dead, buried with Christ in the waters of Baptism. Doubtless he would have been warned about being ‘yoked with unbelievers” Turning from his sins Dylan seemed to be dumping them upon all those which ‘threatened’ the W.A.S.P. Way from China and Russia to Sheikhs with “fancy nose rings” and perhaps most damning and cruel, his former wife.

I had a pony her name was Lucifer

Dylan’s comment on Sara? (Miss Ex?) (The refrain ‘how much longer’ echoes psalm 13 and The Prophets addressing God (YWH) on behalf of Israel.)

In Kabbalah, Satan has been referred to as an Ass. I have wondered if Dylan also saw evil personified in the ‘pony’ as ‘Whore of Babylon’ and might be using this image of evil (pony/whore) as 1 believe he uses ‘she’ in Seven Days. Maybe, maybe not. I think that, again, in New Pony and Seven Days the images are being used in two ways. There are the manifest meanings and the hidden, religious, meanings. With reference to Seven Days I have already mentioned that ‘She’ might refer to Sara but I believe that ‘She’ might also refer to the coming baffle between the forces of darkness and light, and I can believe that Sara may have been viewed, with a lot of other women, as a symbol of temptation and false religious values. But the inner, hidden meaning of this ‘She’, I believe, has Dylan identifying ‘the ungodly’ in a much wider sense taking in all ‘unbelievers and man-stealers’ within Christianity, ‘talkin’ in the name of religion’ and beyond, in other religions and with the prime enemies of America, identified by Hal Lindsey as Russia and China. The biblical ‘evidence’ for Russia was probably suggested by Daniel 7.5 and Revelation 13.2 which both refer to the enemy appearing as a bear or having characteristics of a bear (in Revelation the beast was ‘like a leopard, with paws like a bear’). Likewise the identification of China is based on a misunderstanding or ‘wild guess’ which places an interpretation of a passage in Revelation 20.7-8 out of context. Dylan’s gospel raps are wholly misleading biblically, suggesting that he had been led to conflate the two passages and even add a nation called ‘Rus…..’ which I have searched in vain to find in my Bible and Concordance. Yet in Seven Days Dylan believes Lindsey’s interpretation of these symbols and tells the story of his faith against the backdrop of an imminent apocalypse.

Verse one has him waiting, in ‘the fullness of time’, as the title might suggest, for deliverance. The insertion of the word more suggests he had already waited for Renewal and ‘The Day of The Lord’, The Messiah, and had begun to look elsewhere than in the faith of his fathers. Verse two suggests either an increased impatience for the coming of the Messiah, or perhaps a preparation for the Church, (of which The Virgin Mary is typo-logical) and The Return of Christ. With reference to The Virgin Mary, Dylan featured a statue symbolising her which is visited after the moment beside Kerouac’s grave in the film Renaldo & Clara. Dylan appears to pray before this statue and lay flowers on it.

In the third line of verse two of Seven Days Dylan refers to the ‘positive’ ‘She’ who ‘had a face that could outshine the sun.’ Is this an allusion to the Messianic Nation, God’s Bride Israel, restored to her full glory as promised by his native religion since childhood, a theme constantly alluded to in The Psalms and Prophets. But the line also suggests a possible source in Revelation 10.1 which refers to an angel whose ‘face was like the sun’ and in The Transfiguration of Jesus (Mat 17.2) when Jesus’ face shone like the sun. Sun means presence in Leviticus 19.32. 1 am reminded of The Shekinah here, the divine light, God’s Glory, a manifestation of God’s presence.

In verses one to three Dylan has already made his way to the ‘station’, has prepared himself

I been good, I been good while I been waitin’

Maybe guilty of hesitatin’, I just been holding on (to a solid rock?)

The approach of redemption is near, he’ll get on board that slow train just as he hinted that he would when he recorded the 1965 gospel hit by The Impressions, People Get Ready which Dylan recorded in the Autumn of 1975, (the composition time of Seven Days?). This song, featured in Renaldo & Clara was also released on a promotional E.P. (and I implore you to read the three-plus pages devoted to Dylan’s rendition of this song by Paul Williams in Bob Dylan Performing Artist 1974-1985). Since settling in Israel, the word ‘station’ evokes in me the ‘stations of the cross’ along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem which marks the possible route which Jesus trod on the way to Golgotha, (and I can’t help adding, that David Zimmerman had married a Catholic in 1966 – ‘walking the stations ‘is a catholic practice at times of penitence – Advent and Lent.). From the top of his hill, at the time McFree has talked about, Dylan might well have wondered if he was gonna make it, “all I gotta do is survive”. By the time of Saving Grace he had found his answer. But returning to verse two another interpretation of ‘child’ suggests itself, that of spiritual childhood such as is found in Isa 10:19 and l.Cor 13:11. Thus “She would come only when Dylan had gained enough maturity or knowledge to make an intellectual as well as emotional response. However in the letters of John from The New Testament, the apostle addresses his congregation as ‘children’ – children of God. Finally if ‘She’ is Israel/Judaism, the daughter of Zion, this line might refer to Judaism’s departure as the primary influence on Dylan since his baptism.

“I ain’t forgotten her eyes”

The ‘eye’ may be used figuratively as reflecting the soul, as an image of discernment and Judgement according to Biblical Concordances, Commentaries and Jewish symbolism. In The Gospels it is the lamp of the whole body. And Revelation refers to the Lamb having 7 eyes, Christ is the Lamb and the eyes are the seven churches.

The chorus of the song mixes apocalyptic conceit with Dylan’s personal circumstances prior to redemption (personal and universal)

There's kissin' in the Valley
Thieving in the alley
Fighting every inch of the way
Trying to be tender with somebody I remember
In a night that's always brighter than the day

The kissing could symbolize joy and celebration in the valley of Jehoshaphat which Joel prophesied would be the place of the final judgement. The next two verses might refer, in contrast, to the desperate behaviour of the unrighteous or might just refer to Christ who will come like a thief in the night (Revelation 4.5) and I wonder if the ‘fightin’ every inch of the way’ might refer to the hardships of The Way (following Christ) or to the desperate struggle in trying to resist a mounting revelation to Dylan that the Messiah might have already come – and would return –

The Iron hand it ain't no match for the iron rod
The strongest wall will crumble and fall
To a mighty God

How long can I listen to the lies of prejudice?
How long can I stay drunk on fear out in the wilderness?

Is this the Iron hand of a Godless nation or of a proud and stubborn Dylan, and could the ‘mighty wall’ be the ‘images’ (protest singer, seer, mystic, prophet , messiah) Dylan had become imprisoned by? To return to the final verse of the chorus, ‘Night’ might be interpreted as a time of ignorance and unbelief (Rom 13.12). A ‘night brighter than the day’ might be Dylan reviewing his previous public persona and notorious arrogance as Luciferian. For Lucifer was the greatest of angels, ‘Lucifer’ means light) but fell by refusing to accept his subordination to God. His opposite is not Christ but the Archangel Michael.

Verse 4 is the verse which I have already identified as dealing with the second ‘She’, Christ’s (and Israel’s adversary). The reality of the final baffle for Dylan has been dealt with above and according to the Dylan of 1979 ‘The End’ was imminent:

         “The world as we know it now is being destroyed, sorry, but it’s the truth. In a short time – I don’t know, in 3 years, maybe 5 years, could be 10 years, I don’t know there’s gonna be a war. It’s gonna be called the war of Arrnageddon. It’s gonna be in the Middle East. Russia’s gonna come down first. Anyway we’re not worried about that. We know there’s gonna be a new kingdom set up in Jerusalem for a thousand years. That’s where Christ will set up his kingdom, as sure as you’re standing there it’s gonna happen.” (Dylan on stage in San Francisco 25/11/79 immediately prior to performing Solid Rock).

And in Toronto 20/4/80

“Anyways, in The Bible it tells a specific thing in the Book of Revelation that just apply to these times, and it says that soon at that time it mentions a country to the furthermost North which has as its symbol the bear… Russia’s gonna come down and attack the Middle East.”

Hence Dylan’s phrase “my beautiful comrade (friend) from the north”, friend because it’s action will usher in the Last Judgement and The New Jerusalem. I feel compelled to point out that this interpretation of Dylan’s is again pure Hal Lindsey whose book The Late Great Planet Earth seemed to have been required reading in the Vineyard Fellowship’s bible induction (I almost wrote indoctrination) programme.

It seems obvious to me that Dylan was to radically develop a more sophisticated understanding of Christianity on a personal and a political level with the release of Infidels and a deepening of his understanding of New Testament theology, and I have no proof but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he has found a more profound peace in his life and coupled his study of the New Testament with a study of Kabbalah. I glean this from his involvement with CHABAD and the Lubavitchers. However some have seen in his album Under the Red Sky a restatement of apocalyptic views. Maybe.

The last time that I saw Dylan perform Seven Days was on the second night of his Liverpool concert 27/6/96 after he had introduced the band and, diving into the intro, he was laughing and made a comment which no one seemed to understand but which amused him. Smiling he nodded towards the direction of where Clinton Heylin and Larry ‘Lambchops’ Eden were standing and then proceeded to turn in a performance which was totally lacking in conviction or timing and, more significantly, perhaps to show ‘where he is at’ spiritually these days, he omitted verse 4 concerning my beautiful comrade from the North” – the coming of Armageddon, apart from this and a repetition of verse one he kept faithfully to the words as printed in Lyrics and didn’t repeat the lyrical changes he had made back in Tampa Florida (21/4/76), as preserved on The Bootleg Series.

What a performance that is! Full of menace, mystery and power with delivery and timing fantastic – just listen to the way Dylan draws out the word “Days”, it seems to represent eternity and he ends it with a sort of cry and this song, this performance, is introduced with masterful, Dylanesque understatement “Uh this is a somewhat new song called Seven Days”. The word ‘somewhat’ occurs just once in the Bible in 2 Cor 10:8. St Paul writes “For even though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord has given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed: that l would not seem as if l would terrify you… (KJV). In Tampa the song ended with a loud bang of drums. At Liverpool it simply fizzled out. “(Which) is the way the world ends?” – T.S. Eliot nearly said that.

Footnote: Interestingly the number 7 appears in Seven Days 7 times!

SOURCES

• Behind The Shades. Clinton Heylin, Penguin Books
• In Search of Bob Dylan. John Bauldie, Wanted Man
• Cruden’s Concordance To The Bible (KJV), Lutterworth
• The New Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longrnan and Todd
• The Holy Bible (Authorised Version), Oxford
• The TANAKH, Jewish Publication Society
• The Soncino Chumash. Socino Press
• Saved! The Gospel Speeches. Clinton Heylin. Human Press
• The Holy Kabbalah AE. Waite, Oracle Publishing
• Watching The River Flow. Paul Williams (Onimbus Press)
• Bob Dylan in His Own Words. Christian Williams, Ommibus Press
• A Life In Stolen Moments Day By Day 1941-1995 Clinton Heylin, St Martin’s Press.

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

by Jochen Markhorst

The name of the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan will forever be linked to the librettist of his most successful operas: Gilbert, Sir William Schwenck Gilbert.

In the twenty-first century both names live on in the stage name Gilbert O’Sullivan, whose songs still make it to the radio, the retrospects and The Sounds Of The Seventies compilations, but that is of course not the greatest merit of those artists from the nineteenth century.

In the English-speaking world, their fourteen comic operas, the so-called Savoy Operas, are indestructible. The most popular ones are still being performed (The Pirates Of Penzance, for example, and H.M.S. Pinafore), one-liners and quotes from the operas have entered the vernacular (“hardly ever”, for instance) and the best-known pieces are part of the British collective awareness.

However, Sullivan produced the greatest hit of the nineteenth century without Gilbert: the song “The Lost Chord”, which he composed in 1877 at his brother’s deathbed on a poem by Procter.

The song is an instant success, the great artists of those years put it immediately on the repertoire and the sheet music flies like hot cakes cross the counter. The American Antoinette Sterling spreads it around the world, the popular Fanny Ronalds, also Sullivan’s secret lover, identifies herself so much with “The Lost Chord” that a copy of the song manuscript goes into her grave at her request in 1916, in 1888 Edison plays a recording of the song at the introduction of his phonograph and in 1912 Caruso sings it at the commemoration ceremony of the Titanic disaster.

The persiflage “I’m The Guy That Found The Lost Chord” by American comedian Jimmy Durante (in the film This Time For Keeps, 1947) doesn’t really stand the test of time, but it does inspire a classic in the 60s: In Search Of The Lost Chord, the acclaimed third album of The Moody Blues from ’68.

The lost chord, both Sullivan and Durante find, is a chord with a small dissonant – one like that remarkable G+ that Dylan plays in “God Knows”. Apparently, it opens heavenly vistas: in “The Lost Chord” it is divine, and according to the lyrics it sounds like “a great Amen”. With Durante it leads to an almost religious ecstasy and Dylan has not found that G+ under a pagan stone either.

Basically, it’s a triad, a common major chord, but with augmented fifth, a chord produced by widening the perfect fifth by a semitone – a slight dissonant to Western ears. The first time Dylan plays such a chord is in his religious phase, when he plays “Rise Again” by Dallas Holm, a beautiful song from 1977 that CCM Magazine considers to be one of the 100 Greatest Songs In Christian Music.

Dylan performs it a dozen times, Clydie King sings along, and those performances are all beautiful (Portland, December 3, 1980 is a very successful one). For The Bootleg Series 13 – Trouble No More 1979-1981 (2017) unfortunately only a rehearsal is selected. That is a wonderful, sober version, with excellent vocals of King and Dylan, only accompanied by Dylan’s acoustic guitar – illuminating that heavenly, “lost” chord all the better (it is the second chord, on “drive the nails”, for instance, and on “say it isn’t me”).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NITuVaGZbU

For the sake of completeness it should be noted that around the same evangelical time, a few months earlier, Dylan also plays the G+ – in the ascending tonal order of “In The Garden” the organ climbs via that elevated fifth from G#m to Cm. More of a step in a slowed down loop than a well thought out compositional find, less distinctive than in “Rise Again” and in “God Knows”, but still. By the way, poet and friend Allen Ginsberg takes the credits, in a 1989 interview in Goldmine, for those gradually rising chords:

“I think I invented the chord-change in In The Garden. We went around trick-or-treating in Zuma Beach in masks, and I had my harmonium, and I was playing a funny ascending chord thing, where you just move one finger at a time.”

In the original, rejected version, the version that Dylan recorded with Lanois in the spring of 1989 during the sessions for Oh Mercy, the lost chord has not yet been found, according to the recording that is released on Tell Tale Signs, the eighth part of The Bootleg Series. That’s not the only difference; almost every line of text is different. In the months up to January 1990, when Dylan records the version for under the red sky, he rewrites the entire lyrics. Or at least selected other verses, which is at least as likely.

Dylan the poet has, according to his own words, a tendency to overwrite, to write more than necessary and has already sung several versions with Lanois, in March and April ’89. Not unusual with great songwriters; Leonard Cohen, for instance, writes more than eighty verses for his magnum opus “Hallelujah” and has never been able to choose a definitive version. Coincidentally also the song that sings a “secret chord”, by the way (Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord / That David played, and it pleased the Lord – only to reveal in the next line how that chord goes, so not that secret).

Presumably Dylan also has, just like Cohen has and just like Dylan has for a song like “Dignity”, about twenty verses for “God Knows” and lets the whimsy of the day decide, when he’s in the studio. This is apparent as well in the live versions after January 1990; there Dylan the singer browses left and right in the various versions, seemingly adding and deleting verse fragments at random.

The word combination God knows is a strong trigger, apparently, and Dylan’s inspiration may have been lit by Chekhov, whose short stories he admires so much. Бог знает (“Bog znaet”), God knows, is Chekhov’s favourite stopgap; in the Collected Short Stories alone it appears hundreds of times.

The alternative versions usually have a somewhat friendlier opening than the official one, the version on the site and in The Lyrics 1961-2012. Those versions open with God knows I need you or God knows I love you or God knows I believe you, all friendlier anyway than God knows you ain’t pretty.

That, and the fact that the verses are apparently interchangeable, suggests that Dylan is not dealing here with a lady, fictional or otherwise, but that the you is a personification, that the author poetically expresses his concerns about the vulnerability of an unnamed subject. Earth, perhaps. In this phase of his creation, Dylan does show some environmental awareness every now and then, hinting at ecological pain points.

On The Traveling Wilbury’s “Inside Out” (the grass ain’t green, it’s kinda yellow), in “Everything Is Broken” (Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin’), on this album in “2X2” (How much poison did they inhale?) and in the title song (the river went dry) and here in this song there is a river that no longer flows. The producer, the sympathetic Don Was, gets a vague suspicion when they record “Under The Red Sky” and decides to ask the man directly: “Is this song about ecology?” Dylan answers, without missing a beat: “No. But it won’t pollute the environment.”

Dylan likes to play “God Knows” on stage. Almost two hundred times, until 2006. It often is a nice boost of the set, usually they are driving, rocking versions of a song that stands out on under the red sky as well. However, neither that stage exposure, nor the inclusion of the Oh Mercy version on Tell Tale Signs leads to much recognition. There are hardly any covers – in fact only the tribute bands, dutifully, put a generally bloodless version on the repertoire.

The exception comes from the jazz world. In 2006, the Jamie Saft Trio record a wonderful, special tribute to the master with the album Trouble.

The liner notes are alarming, promising a crippling respect for the bard. “Every man has his rabbi – let me introduce you to mine,” the Jewish Jamie Saft writes, and he explains in detail why he allows himself little freedom with the songs: they are, in Jamie’s opinion, already radical enough of themselves.

Luckily, he is not that respectful in deed. Although the trio plays very recognizable interpretations of the songs, the men most certainly do not feel limited by the original versions. The brilliant, sixties lecture of “Dignity” starts off with the intro of “Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35”, “Living The Blues” gets a Roaring Twenties arrangement and is sung beautifully by guest vocalist Antony, and the track selection deserves compliments too.

Of the eight songs, only “Ballad Of A Thin Man” is one of the more predictable choices on a tribute album, the other seven are songs that are skipped by everyone else: “Trouble”, “Disease Of Conceit” and “Dirge” (Michael Moore’s cover, with Jewels & Binoculars, of “I Pity The Poor Immigrant” is arguably the most beautiful jazz rendition of a Dylan song, but this “Dirge” comes close).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AToDgveg

And “God Knows”, of course, the song that no seasoned jazz fan could ignore, if only because of that dissonant G+ – the penetrating, harmony-disturbing d# is gratefully milked out by the gifted pianist Saft.

Jamie Saft Trio – God Knows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcemrVDTYtE

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

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

Part of the Untold Dylan idea, as you may have noticed, is to explore what happens when we set up a series of articles.  Series allow us to explore in depth and if readers then get interested we keep the series running.  If not the idea is quietly put out for a quiet snooze and I pretend they were nothing to do with me.

I particularly like series because they give us a chance to get our teeth (or if you prefer any other part of your anatomy) into more than just one song and more than just one aspect of Dylan’s work.   The long list that is to be found at the top of the screen by the picture gives links to some (although by no means all) of the series that have been created over the years on this website.  Sometimes with success, sometimes not, but always with the intention of delving much deeper into Dylan and his music that can be achieved in a single short piece.

Much of the desire to explore a topic from every possible angle arises from the original idea of this blog… it is called Untold Dylan because I wanted to go where other blogs were not going, and indeed where the official Dylan site had never gone.  As Captain Kirk said with great grammatical inaccuracy, “To boldly go where no man has gone before…”

That wish has now been fulfilled many times over particularly thanks to my fellow writers who have each contributed their own themes, grasping without my saying that the “untold” part of the title was as important as the fact it is about Bob.

And now I want to explore another idea for a series of song, a series that focuses on Dylan songs which are sometimes relatively unknown but which to the reviewer (that is me, and anyone else who wants to jump in and contribute a piece) are relatively ignored, but may nevertheless can be considered brilliant works of art.  So not a series to consider “Johanna” yet again, as everyone else has already done a million times, but to pick out songs that are less considered yet equally deep, equally meaningful.

My thinking at the start is that I’ve already done some of that with my attempts to highlight such pieces as “Tell Ol Bill,” “Drifter’s Escape” and just recently “Making a liar out of me”.  Each is a song that many of Dylan’s fan may know, but not songs that they may have considered in any depth.  Yet they are, in my opinion, works that really do deserve to be more established.

And now here, by way of example, I might add Lenny Bruce is Dead.  Yet if you follow Heylin’s lead you might instantly turn away from the song with a thought such as, “that’s a load of rubbish.”  If you have, I would beg you to re-consider the piece through these two live versions, and maybe, just maybe, then go on and consider the point below.

Surely we all of us know that there are times in his extraordinary career that Bob has been able to deliver works of such power in the lyrics, melody and accompaniment that the song can send shivers right down your spine.  And for me, that recording is one of those times.

Now part of the argument against the song is that Dylan is reported as saying that he didn’t know why he wrote it, and he had no particular affection for or interest in Lenny Bruce or his message (which was overtly critical of organised religion).   And yet Bob was able to get such power and energy out of the song – something he surely recognised, as he played it 117 times over an 18 year period.

Part of the mystery is that it was composed just before “Jesus is the One” – which makes an interesting additional element in the issue.  Celebrating a man who laughed at organised religion, while being so interested in organised religion oneself.

https://youtu.be/RryGtlcPOYc

My starting point is simply listening to the song as a piece of music – which self-evidently it is.  And I say the downright obvious, “It is a piece of music,” because this is something that Heylin seems to find very hard to grasp, since he so rarely writes about the music and instead tends to treat many songs as if they are neither poems nor treaties.  But it is a piece of music as much as a Beethoven string quartet or Mozart piano sonata is a piece of music.  Just because it has words doesn’t remove its musical importance.)

The fundamental thing about pieces of music is that the music doesn’t have to mean anything.  Just as a work of art doesn’t have to represent something or mean something.  It can simply be.

Now in the classic argument the whole point of language is so that the speaker can convey her or his thoughts to the listener.  But we should also remember that one perfectly reasonable way to use language is to put across complex emotion.  We may describe emotions by giving them names, but in essence they are emotions – and they can be represented and examined to some degree via images, by words, by sounds and by music.

This doesn’t work very well if one says or writes, “He felt horrified” because there is no relationship between yourself as the listener or reader and the horror felt by “he”.  But a song that opens with a line that the subject of the song “is dead” and ends “Lenny Bruce was bad, he was the brother that you never had” is powerful and unrelenting.  Doubly so when the music within the song is itself such a perfect transmitter of the same emotion that is found in the lyrics.

In short, the chord sequence and melody lend themselves perfectly as a way of expressing the emotions that are to be found in that song.  If you just heard the music without the lyrics you would not get as exact a notion of the emotions within the piece as you can from the full song, but you would still feel the angst, the pressure, and the pull.  Each is embedded in the music of the first line.

However this is just the start because we feel the emotion even more so as Dylan is not often known for utilising melody in as powerful way as happens here.   So knowing it is Dylan we pay double attention to the opening phrase of five notes.  Then as we realise that the lyrics open with an announcement of death (something very unusual in a piece of pop or rock music) we pay even more attention.  We give that opening as much notice as we give the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  You don’t talk over the opening bars of this song – at least not if you have any emotional sensitivity.  You are there.  You are held.  You are inside.

But if Bob didn’t know anything about Lenny Bruce, except what he read in the obituary, why did he write the song?  I could of course say “It was almost certainly because…” but that would be untrue.  I have to say, “My guess is… that he saw the headline ‘Lenny Bruce is dead’ and the melody of that bar and a half of music popped into his head.  And Dylan being a consummate composer, recognised a powerful phrase of music and a powerful linguistic phrase when the two came along hand in hand and hit him in the face, so he played it on the piano and then saw where it went.

I find it a supreme piece of music and I find Heylin’s dismissal of it as utterly second rate, a supreme piece of illiterate reviewing.  Yes, if we had just been given the opening line

“Lenny Bruce is dead”

that really would not have meant too much.  But we didn’t get just that.  We got,

“Lenny Bruce moved on and the ones that killed him are gone.”

It is so simple it hurts.  Sing it properly and it will make you cry.

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

By Tony Attwood

A while back we had the idea of asking readers who also wrote songs if they fancied taking any of Dylan’s unfinished works and completing them by adding the music.  We called the series “Bob Dylan Showcase” and among the songs we came up with was “Don’t let anyone write your story”

We had a version sent in, and then yours truly had a bash at making up a version, which was recorded on my phone without studio whatnot – all pretty basic as the Untold office doesn’t actually have its own recording studio.  Those versions are here 

After that Rob Berretta showed us what could be done with the piece.  So that made it three versions.

Now we have a fourth from Paul Robert Thomas.   Here it is, with the lyrics underneath.

We’ve all got a story to tell
But only you can write it well
For you’ve lived through it for real
Only you could know how you feel

You’ve lived through the pain and the glory
Don’t let anyone write your story
You’ve lived through the pain and the glory
Don’t let anyone write your story

When I come home from work when the day is done
I wanna spend the night with my loved one
For it’s lovin’ that makes the world go ‘round
You’re my Angel with both feet on the ground

You might live in a palace or in a dormitory
But don’t let anyone write your story

They try to tempt me with gold and jewels
But I won’t talk to these slithering fools
When I’m ready I’ll start to recall
And I’ll write about this man’s rise and fall

They might talk in rhymes or in allegories
But don’t let anyone write your story

They’ll appear so sincere but it’s just a front
They will twist your words and write what they want
No-one will listen when you try to deny
They will look blindly at truths fading eye

They chased and pursued her till she died
It wasn’t enough their paper chains of lies
It’s a crying shame no less
That she was killed by an overdose of press

You’ve lived through the pain and the glory
Don’t let anyone write your story

Trust yourself to tell what’s true
The only one that knows what’s true is you
So write your story before it’s too late
Before you arrive outside those pearly gates

Bob Dylan/Gerry Goffin/Carole King/Paul Robert Thomas

It turns out these Untold readers are a rather talented bunch!

Bob Dylan Showcase

• Bob Dylan Showcase: Señor, as never before. Listen, be amazed.
• Your chance to write the music to Dylan’s unfinished song
• Untold Dylan Showcase: the publisher’s turn
• Dylan PL – Arlekin and Blind Wille
• Make you feel my love – Denise Konkal
• Rev Kevin Waters, “Tomorrow is a long time”
• Property of Jesus, Ron Sexsmith
• Imaginary Future: Times they are a changing
• Untold Dylan showcase: Make you feel my love – Jüri Aidas

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

By Larry Fyffe

If you’ve not seen them before you might like to look at

• Bob Dylan And The Cowboy Jesus
• Bob Dylan and Cowboy Jesus Part II (The Riddler)
• Bob Dylan And Cowboy Jesus Part III

In his ‘gnostic’-begotten mythology, Bob Dylan as the Masked Rabbi travels back in time in an attempt to reconcile conflicting stories in the Old and New Testament; his travelling companion, the Cowboy Jesus who is trying to do the same thing.

Joseph is considered to be the the husband of Mary who gives birth to Jesus in the New Testament, but the unanswered question is: Who is actually the paternal grandfather of Jesus?

In the Holy Bible, it is written:

And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary
Of whom was born Jesus, who is called 'the Christ'
(St. Matthew 1; 16)

So far so good, but then there is:

And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age
Being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph which was the son of Heli
(Luke 3: 23)

Witnessed by the singing rabbi, eternal Jesus transforms Himself into the prophet Moses back in Ancient Egypt with its red-coloured Nile River in search of the answer to the troubling question.

Jesus speaks through the mouth of the Masked Rabbi:

Well, I went back to see about it once
Went back to straighten it out
Everybody that I talked to had seen us there
Said they didn't know what I was talking about
(Bob Dylan: Red River Shore)

Moses ain’t talking either; he’s got troubles of his own. Hidden by his mother from the Pharaoh, Moses is adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Motherly Isis is worshipped in Egypt, and that Egyptian goddess has had her own problems as well – her husband-and-twin brother Osiris cut up by their jealous brother, the goddess Isis is able to put him back together enough to provide her with a son.

According to the following song, Moses himself has sexual relations with his Egyptian princess, Isis incarnated:

I married Isis on the fifth day of May
But I could not hold on to her very long
So I cut off my hair, and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong
(Bob Dylan: Isis ~ Dylan/Levy)

Moses flees to the country of Midian to escape the wrath of the Pharoah where he marries Zipporah. But God is angry at Moses for not delivering the Hebrews out of the slavery before he runs away, and God threatens to kill him. Zipporah, thinking fast, saves Moses’ life by cutting off his foreskin.

However, in his personalized mythology, it’s not Zipporah nor the Cowboy Jesus, but the motherly girl with the Madonna smile, wearing an Egyptian ring, that the romantic rabbi thinks mostly about:

Well, I've heard of a guy who lived a long time ago
A man full of sorrow and strife
That if someone around him died, and was dead
He knew how to to bring him on back to life
Well, I don't know what kind of language he used
Or if they do that kind of thing anymore
Sometimes I think nobody ever saw me here at all
'Cept the girl from the Red River Shore
(Bob Dylan: Red River Shore)

Needless to say, concerning the name of Jesus’ grandfather, nothing gets delivered:

Well, the Lone Ranger and Tonto
They are riding down the line
Fixing everybody's troubles
Everybody's 'cept mine
Someone musta told'em
That I was doing fine
(Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan's Blues)

https://youtu.be/hvF9jPvDCRU

As expressed through Bob Dylan’s gnostic mythology, Moses stays too long with Isis, the Pharaoh’s daughter, in Ancient Egypt – represented in the song below by the State of Mississippi through which runs the American ‘Nile’.

Because he waits too long, Moses earns the wrath of God, and never makes it back to the Promised Land:

Well, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay
You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way
The only thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long
(Bob Dylan: Mississippi)

In the song lyrics below, Isis gives Moses some good advice, but it comes too late:

Well, I sat by her side, and for a while I tried
To make that girl my wife
She gave me her best advice, and she said
‘Go home and lead a quiet life’
(Bob Dylan: Red River Shore)

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

By Tony Attwood

I say you can be trusted with the power you been given
But you’re making a liar out of me

You can now hear the whole album on Youtube

When we tagged the notion of designing an album cover for “Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing.” (the album that Aaron invented  to replace “Down in the Groove”) onto his excellent choice of tracks, I wasn’t sure that we would get anyone to take up the invitation.

But we have been overwhelmed.   Here are the replies we had

• The first instalment was here.  It came from Rick Hager
• Then we published Aaron’s own version and the cover designed supplied by Babbette.  Those were here.
• Next up came Tomás Gunn.  His contribution is reproduced here.

That was all so good that I decided to take my own personal bizarre pet project a stage further.  Having created the mythical album “Bob Dylan: 1980” which takes us through that most magical of years in terms of Dylan’s compositions, I thought “why not lets look for a cover?”

This is the year when (in my interpretation at least) Bob meandered away from Christianity.  True, it was a meandering that continued through the following year, but the amazing meandering of 1980 is, in my judgement, enough to occupy most Dylan fans for several months without a break.

And  the first submission we have had is an absolute corker.   (S0rry that might be an English expression unknown in the rest of the universe, but it means that it is jolly good.  Excellent.  Brilliant. I love it.)

It comes from Nathan Alcock (ceilingfan_broken)

First, so you have the background, the three articles relating to this album are here

•  Bob says to Tony, “Make me an album”  
• Make me an album part 2
• The hopes and fears and dreams of the discontented

The album consists of all the songs of 1980 taken in order except for the first and last tracks for which the date is uncertain.

1. Street Rock (date uncertain)
2. Are you ready?
3. I will love him
4. Cover Down 
5. Ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody
6. Property of Jesus
7. Every grain of sand
8. Caribbean Wind
9. Groom’s still waiting at the alter
10. Yonder comes sin
11. Let’s keep it between us
12. Making a liar out of me
13. City of Gold (date uncertain)

Now here is the front cover we have been offered….

and the reverse

OK, you are probably getting fed up with my totally over the top articles about “Dylan: 1980.”  And I can assure you that in the end I will shut up.  But, perhaps you can remember back to moments when you first heard a new Dylan album, or one of the classic songs.  And maybe you can recall how utterly you were knocked out by what you now had in your hands, and you played it over and over again.

Well, that’s how Dylan:1980 strikes me.   And everything, yes utterly everything builds up to “Making a Liar Out of Me.

The one thing to remember if you don’t share my utter enthusiasm for this, is that we are still publishing other writer’s materials, so this site is not just me.  You can argue against me, or put your own views forward.   But for now I have the floor, and so I present the album, and its newly created cover, and its most brilliant masterpiece…

I tell people you’re just going through changes
And that you’re acquainted both with night and day
That your money’s good and you’re just being courageous
On them burning bridges knowing your feet are made of clay
Well I say you won’t be destroyed by your inventions
That you brought it all under captivity
And that you really do have all the best intentions
But you’re making’ a liar out of me

Well I say that you’re just young and self-tormented
But that deep down you understand
The hopes and fears and dreams of the discontented
Who threaten now to overtake your promised land
Well I say you’d not sow discord among brothers
Nor drain a man of his integrity
But you’ll remember the cries of orphans and their mothers
But you’re making a liar out of me
But you’re making a liar out of me

Well I say that, that ain’t flesh and blood you’re drinking
In the wounded empire of your fool’s paradise
With a light above your head forever blinking
Turning virgins into merchandise
That you must have been beautiful when you were living
You remind me of some old-time used-to-be
I say you can be trusted with the power you been given
But you’re making a liar out of me

So many things so hard to say as you stumble
To take refuge in your offices of shame
As the earth beneath my feet begins to rumble
And your young men die for nothing not even fame
I say that someday you’ll begin to trust us
And that your conscience not been slain by conformity
That you’ll stand up unafraid to believe in justice
But you’re making a liar out of me
You’re making a liar out of me

Well I can hear the sound of distant thunder
From an open window at the end of every hall
Now that you’re gone I got to wonder
If you ever were here at all
I say you never sacrificed my children
To some false god of infidelity
And that it’s not the Tower of Babel that you’re building
But you’re making’ a liar out of me
You’re making a liar out of me
Now you’re making a liar out of me

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

This article continues from Seven Days: An Examination of Faith Crisis And Apocalypse

 by Paul Robert Thomas

Suggesting that there is more ‘pathology’ in the obsessive need for commentators to ascribe Dylan’s ‘rebirth’ to anything but the action of God,” he asks why we cannot accept that Dylan’s conversion was an actual encounter between God and Dylan?

To those who would be willing to accept this if Jesus wasn’t involved they should examine what it is that enrages them for Dylan’s conversion marked the final dissolution of the Hippy fantasy of universal love and humanist libertarianism.

“Suddenly Dylan was telling us there was a God who had given us all a moral code and that man was free to follow it or lose his soul; not good news for the intellectually and morally stunted remnant of ‘the age of Aquarius’.

I ask as a Jew, why Dylan could not find the assurance he so needed in the Torah, Prophets and Wisdom Literature of his own faith? My own feelings about Christianity are that it shares more than we often recognize; The Old Testament Bible, many aspects of eschatology, a belief in Divine and moral law and faith in God’s ultimate promise of redemption. All of these are common ground between Jew and Christian. What Judaism doesn’t have, indeed is prohibited from having, is a concrete image or representation of God (YWL). It is my belief that in the person of Christ Bob Dylan found, at the center of his suffering and sense of alienation, the law and prophets made manifest in man, in Jesus of Nazareth.

One commentator who wishes to remain anonymous, suggests that it is not impossible to find in Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection a model of God’s servant, Israel. But I believe another reason Dylan responded as he did to Christ was the role he plays in The Revelation of John, the last and perhaps the most difficult book of The New Testament. It is purely a subjective opinion but I feel that, through his lyrics, Dylan is shown to have a temperamental bias towards an eschatology which purges the world of all evil in a final confrontation with God before establishing “a new heaven and a new …. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying “See the home of God is among mortals, He will dwell with them as their God, they will be his people, and God himself will be with them, he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev.2 1ff)

Dylan’s lifelong sense of justice and his hunger for peace coupled with an increasing disgust with a world of relative values and ‘situation ethics’ must have responded to this powerful vision to be realized with the return of Christ. But what of his loyalty to the faith of his fathers and forefathers?

I believe Dylan saw no anomaly in holding fast to his heritage whilst responding to Jesus as an embodiment of Torah and The Prophets. As a Jew, I find it difficult to answer the question which I am most concerned with. Has Dylan committed apostasy and denied God? I cannot say, God, alone knows. And everything works to His Glory.

For My plans are not your plans,
Nor are My ways your ways - declares the LORD
But as the heavens are high above the earth,
So My ways are high above your ways
And My plans above your plans.  (Isaiah 55.8-9)

I like to fancy that Dylan might have this text come to mind as he faced the conflicting and confusing feelings when they reached flood level in 1978/9. Meanwhile others use a certain delicacy in attempting to deal with the ‘problem’ of Dylan’s ‘conversion. To Rabbi Kostel, speaking in 1982, Dylan was a confused Jew…. “He’s been going in and out of a lot of things, trying to find himself. As far as we’re concerned he was a confused Jew.”

In the same year Paul Esmond of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship said diplomatically, “I don’t think he ever left his Jewish roots, I think he is one of those fortunate ones who realised that Judaism and Christianity can work very well together because Jesus is just (Jesus the Messiah). And so he doesn’t have any problems about putting on a yarmulke and going to a bar mitzvah because he can respect that.”

“l try my best to be just like l am
But everybody wants you to be just like them (?)"

Dylan has never publicly renounced Jesus but none of us can know how he sees him, responds to him. And Dylan has never renounced his roots in Judaism or his reliance on Torah on the TANAKH (the Jewish Bible) or the rich religious tradition of his people. If we want to explore the possibilities of Dylan’s religious ‘worldview’ then I suggest that the most rewarding and accessible way to do so is to explore his work.

SEVEN DAYS

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Gen 13)

It is now that I will attempt to explore what I believe Dylan was writing about, and referring to, when he wrote Seven Days with reference to his life, race and religion; and to other songs which forced themselves upon me as I wrote.

The (sacred) number seven is of great significance among religious Jews and within the mystical tradition, Kabbalah, which is a complex system of interpretation which makes use of the correspondence between the Hebrew alphabet and its numerical equivalent. In Judaism The menorah, based on the seven branched candlestick which YWH ordered Moses to make, can be found in every observant Jew’s home and, in Kabbalah, also stands for the mystical ‘tree of life’.

The occurrence and symbolism of seven and of its Kabbalistic importance is so profuse that it cannot be explored here – though it seems worth mentioning that the number 7 occurs no more, nor less than 700 times in The Old and New Testaments and 55 of those times it makes up the composite ‘Seven days’. Jewish and Christian mystical tradition has placed God in the highest part of the seventh heaven, and, universally, the number has come to symbolize perfection and completeness as well as complexity.

Its occurrence in Christian imagery can be found in Jesus’ injunction to forgive your enemies not 7 times but seventy times 7 e.g. completely. But it is in the Revelation To St John that the number 7 is used to such dramatic effect, symbolizing the final battle between Christ and Satan, the Church and the enemies of God. In this instance 7 comes to symbolize evil as much as good – perfect, complete evil perhaps?

Kabbalah warns us that “The number 7, which plays a prominent part in Biblical institutions is enveloped in deep mystery which only a few can only understand”. However, beyond Judaism and Christianity the number 7 has religious or occult significance in Islam, Tao, Sufism, Astronomy, and psychology and, finally, Freud gave each of the 6 analysts, who made up the Inner Circle of his disciples, identical rings, keeping the seventh for himself, the ‘ringmaster’. (1 thought I’d share that with you).

However, the reason for citing the above is to provide a concise backdrop to how I believe Dylan uses images and symbols from The Bible in the composition of his songs. For, while I believe that Dylan may pick up a lot of influences unconsciously, often skimming books or retaining a phrase or cliche until he can use it, I believe that he has read and continues to read The Bible with great attention and, given his nature, has been drawn to and influenced by Kabbalah. Seven Days is pregnant with biblical meaning but like the number 7 it conceals this deeper meaning in its apparent mundanity. The song is written on an apparently simple musical framework and the language of frustrated love. However, as a love song its imagery is trite:

She been gone ever since I was a child
Ever since I made her smile, I ain't forgotten her eyes.
She had a face that could outshine the sun in the skies

The rhyme is embarrassing, the imagery of the first line confusing and, with the second line, suggests the narrator is childishly dependent. The song seems to be trying to put cliche to good use but ‘fighting every inch of the way’ and losing.

Yet, in performance it’s powerful and intriguing, a crowd pleaser, when performed at its best. This has made me ask whether Dylan wants us to look deeper and beyond the apparent sense of the lyric and a literal interpretation to something much richer. The source which provides this understanding of the song is The Revelation to John from The New Testament, (New Jerusalem Translation) and through the Jewish apocalyptic literature which the author was steeped in, e.g. the books Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, and Late Isaiah. At the center of the song is the anonymous figure ‘She’. I believe this is a reference to two figures from Revelation. The first is reported in Revelation 12.1.

“Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth.”

This figure, probably inspired or adapted from Osiris/Isis mythology, might be seen as Israel awaiting its Messiah, or the early church awaiting the return of Christ or, to the author of Revelation, a combination of the two with Christ’s return being read as synonymous, with the ‘New Jerusalem’. it may also have come to refer to Mary, the mother of Christ who quickly became seen by the ordinary people of the early church as The Mother of God. Taking into account the way ‘train’ has become a figure for faith and renewal in interpreters of Dylan’s songs I believe that Dylan may have one or more of these possibilities in mind in verses one and two of the song.

Seven days, seven more days she'll be comin'
I'll be waiting at the station for her to arrive Seven more days, 
all I Seven more days, all I gotta do is survive.

This might be an allusion to ‘The New Jerusalem’ or to the ‘Bride of Christ’, that is The Church, Christ’s mystical body on Earth. Chapters 12 to 19 of Revelation deal with the great final battle between The Church and its enemies, probably the Romans and all the unrighteous. The woman’s adversary is depicted as a dragon, Satan’s emissary in chapter 12 but in chapter 17 as Babylon, the great prostitute, a woman riding a scarlet beast which had seven heads and – had blasphemous titles written all over it. Did Dylan associate this with the woman who was “telling him about Buddha, you were telling him about Mohamed in one breath

You never once mentioned the man who came and died
a criminal's death. (?)

Many of us, I suspect, would, in the grip of a crisis, bring the sacred and profane into the turmoil within. Sara, to whom it seems likely the above verse is aimed, has been spoken of as having a deep spirituality which explored the way of Tao, of oriental harmony between opposites and had played a crucial role in Dylan’s spiritual recovery after the ‘accident’ in ’66. And if she is the inspiration for Visions of Johanna or Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands  we have two penetrating studies of a deep spirituality and –

This is a song about marriage

Sara, Sara, Sweet virgin angel sweet love of my life.
 Sara, 0 Sara, Radiant Jewel, Mystical Wife

Sleepin' in the woods by a fire in the night
 where you fought for my soul and went up against the odds
I was too young to know You were doing it right
 And you did it with strength
 That belonged to the Gods

(Dylan’s emphasis in performance)

This version of Sara performed and, thank God, recorded on Dec 1 1975 at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto is, surely truer inspirit, performance and lyric than the ‘official’ version cut for Desire? And it confirms the enormous influence of Sara, as wife, lover, muse. How do you cut such love out of your life but to put a new found faith up against its inevitable flaws. How do you get to be so ruthless and vindictive? You speak from a position of fearing for your soul.

Part 3 follows shortly

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

by Jochen Markhorst

Director Sam Peckinpah is said to have had never heard of Bob Dylan and that he actually had Roger Miller (“King Of The Road”) in mind for the soundtrack of Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid.

Lead actor Kris Kristofferson, who at the time of the Blonde On Blonde recordings is still a caretaker at Columbia’s Nashville Studio, tries to plug Dylan with Peckinpah. The director is moved by Dylan’s audition with “Billy”, hires him and even grants Dylan his first real film role.

It seems quite inconceivable that an educated man like “Bloody Sam” Peckinpah has never heard of Dylan in 1973, but every now and then similar testimonies pop up. The composer John Corigliano, Oscar and Pulitzer Prize winner, also claims something like this, on the occasion of his Grammy-winning cycle Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000) and we’re not quite sure if Muhammed Ali is joking when he says he’d never heard of Bob Dylan during the benefit evening Night Of The Hurricane (December 1975). After the Nobel Prize awarding in 2016, the stories about ignorant contemporaries may tumble over each other, but there the unfamiliarity with Dylan seems to be mainly due to the generation gap.

Those ignorant could by chance be touched by Dylan’s radio show Theme Time Radio Hour (2006-2009), could listen to over a hundred episodes and still be in the dark. Radio maker Dylan never plays anything of his own oeuvre and very rarely hints that he is a musician himself.

The broadcast of 30 January 2008 contains such a rare revelation, for the attentive and understanding person, that is. The theme of the broadcast is Lock & Key. Halfway through, right after “Somebody Changed The Lock On My Door” by Wynonie Harris is played, the studio is called by a listener. One Tim Ziegler from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois points out to the radio host an error regarding the assignment to a record label; Wynonie Harris doesn’t appear on King Records, as Dylan said, but on Apollo Records. Dylan stutters a bit, but gradually loses himself in a witty, quasi-grumpy tirade against the caller.

“It’s important to remember: this isn’t a classroom here. This is music we’re playing, This is music of the field, of the pool-hall, the back-alley crap game, the bar room and the bed room. We’re not gonna make it dusty and academic. It’s full of sweat and blood, it’s like life itself. If every once in a while we get a name wrong, or we tell you it’s on the wrong label, it’s not gonna kill anybody, Tim. Just listen to the music.”

And with one last sneer at Tim, Dylan proceeds to order. “Open The Door, Richard” is waiting. The disk-jockey does seem to have a thing for this particular song; he plays (parts of) three versions of this humorous song from 1946. It is a comical monologue by a homecoming night owl who has lost his house key. Richard is inside, but is asleep, or doesn’t feel like letting the muttering boozer in. In any case he doesn’t open the door. Accompanied by a simple riff, the farcical drumming, shouting and grumbling is interrupted by an equally simple, contagious chorus: Open the door, Richard, and let me in.

The song gets incredibly popular. In the primeval version of Jack McVea it already reaches sixth place in the charts, the version of Count Basie takes the place of McVea’s in February ’47 and reaches first place, after which bizarrely three other versions (by Louis Jordan, the Three Flames and Dusty Fletcher), still in February and March ’47, will reach the top 10 of Billboard. Theme Time plays McVea’s and Dusty Fletcher’s, and reveals that at least 22 covers of the song have been recorded.

“Not only were there country, polka, pop and jiddish versions, almost twenty years later it was inspiring ska musicians. Listen to a tiny bit of this, by Clive and Naomi from 1965.

You see, that song can be done any kind of way. About time for it to come back again. Maybe I’ll even do it.”

And there we have it: one of those very rare vistas revealing to an ignorant, attentive listener that Dylan himself is a musician. The connoisseur probably smiles, though: Dylan already has an “Open The Door” to his name – the song on The Basement Tapes is called “Open The Door, Homer”, but he does sing “Open The Door, Richard” there. Well, every once in a while a name wrong… it won’t kill you, Tim.

This one line is the only similarity with the 1946 novelty song. In the second take, which can be found on The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete (2014), Dylan does give the primal form a shot (half-spoken verse, sung chorus), but he drops that within a minute.

The name change to Homer in the title could be an associative nod to the deadly crashed Richard Fariña. Fariña forms a quartet of friends with Dylan, Mimi and Joan Baez, and shortly after the publication of his novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me was killed in a motorcycle accident, April ’66. The protagonist of that picaresque novel is a modern Ulysses, plot lines are loosely based on Homer’s oeuvre, so there you have it: Homer.

Or alternatively to Homer Simpson, one of the protagonists of Nathanael West’s The Day Of The Locust (1939), a book from which impressions do twirl down in Dylan’s oeuvre. In this case perhaps a piece of dialogue from the beginning of the work:

“She doesn’t answer,” Homer said hurriedly.
“Did you knock hard enough? That slut is in there.” Before Homer could reply, she pounded on the door. “Open up!” she shouted.

…which also echoes the word combination Homer the slut from Dylan’s Tarantula.

The song itself has nothing to do with that. It has music historical value for the Dylanologists, because “Open The Door. Homer” is a bit of an intermediate, a bastard son of The Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding. Just like almost all the John Wesley Harding songs, the song has the three-couplet structure, but unlike almost all the songs on that record, it does have a chorus. The same goes for the content; it’s a crossbreed of the carefree, nonsensical language pleasure of Basement songs like “Quinn The Eskimo” and “Lo And Behold!” on the one hand, and the symbol-loaded, biblical parable quality of JWH on the other.

“To live off the fat of the land”, for example, comes from the Bible (and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land, Gen. 45:18), but the connection with the limiting condition, that you must “swim in a certain way,” if you want to eat the fat of this land, draws that stately Bible paraphrase back to the nonsense. Even more nonsensical is the rhyming pleasure of the second verse, which the poet dashes off to make blushes rhyme with flushes.

The third verse, on the other hand, does suggest depth. “Take care of all your memories, for you cannot relive them” has an aphoristic quality which is perfectly at home on John Wesley Harding. The subsequent Bible paraphrase remains completely devoid of a profane or alienating clause, repeating pure and unstained what Jesus does in Matthew 9: first, the sins of the crippled are forgiven (Matthew 9:2), only then he is healed (Matthew 9:6) – just as in almost every song on JWH Bible quotations are processed.

Cover versions are sparsely sown. Even among the renowned, loyal Dylan fans, such as Jimmy LaFave, Joan Baez, Barb Jungr, this is a song that is left on the pile. Only the devout disciple Robyn Hitchcock has Homer on his repertoire – an unusually well-groomed, dressed up version, with band, violin, second voice and all. And a funny, fitting she loves you, yeah yeah yeah coda. Fairport Convention picks up the song early, but rejects it for the masterpiece Liege & Lief (1969). Live recordings from the BBC at the time show that Richard Thompson and his band know how to turn it into a beautiful country folk miniature. A second run-up, on Red & Gold (1996), is overproduced and lacks the charm of a quarter of a century earlier.

Equally charming and about the same age are the other covers that are worth listening to. Jake & The Family Jewels, an obscure band from New York, record a very nice, cheerful jumpy version with dominant country-fiddle on their beautiful debut album from 1970.

https://youtu.be/L7q6U7pSmEk

Even more obscure is the British progrock group Titus Groan, 1970 again, whose only LP nowadays is a high priced (around € 750,-) collector’s item. Their version of “Open The Door, Homer” is on a separate single and has an attractive, propulsive drive, Roxy Music-like saxophone honking and an antiquarian charm at all.

The best Basement covers are usually on the underestimated jewel Lo And Behold! by Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint (1972), and indeed: this song the frizzy gentlemen perform perfectly as well. But in the end that version is still flat, compared to the most famous interpretation, the one by the one-hit wonder Thunderclap Newman on their only, classic album Hollywood Dream from 1970. The band, under the wings of their compassionate patron Pete Townshend, achieves immortality with the world hit “Something In The Air”, but deserves just as much appreciation for that one LP. Their “Open The Door, Homer” has a wonderful, melancholic colouring – just like that rough, beautiful original from the Big Pink.

Could have moved Bloody Sam.

—————-

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 approaching 6000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

By Tony Attwood

In this series of articles, I am looking at each year in order to get a clearer idea of what Dylan wrote about, and how his themes evolved and developed over time.

The last article was such a monumental year, in my estimation, that I chose to approach it from the idea that there was a CD called Dylan 1980, and I traced this through three articles:

•  Bob says to Tony, “Make me an album” 
• Make me an album part 2 
• The hopes and fears and dreams of the discontented

What we ended up with in terms of the simple description of each song, which I use in this series was

1. Are you ready? fundamental Christianity, second coming
2. I will love him fundamental Christianity, second coming
3. Cover Down Christianity, the grave won’t set you free
4. Ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody Christianity, I’m following Jesus
5. Property of Jesus Christianity, salvation is assured
6. Every grain of sand God made this world
7. Caribbean Wind  End of relationships, the end of time, the end of all things
8. Groom’s still waiting at the alter It’s all falling apart
9. Yonder comes sin It’s all falling apart
10. Let’s keep it between us (Love – all we need is honesty)
11. Making a liar out of me (This is me, this is where I have got to)
12. City of Gold (Revelations / gospel / Christianity)

• Christianity (7)
• Endings, falling apart (3)
• Love (1)
• Being myself (1)

In 1981 the drift away from Christianity which we saw in the three “Endings” songs (Caribbean, Grooms, Yonder) was amplified, although as I have admitted in the re-written review of the last song in 1981 Dylan was ambiguous to the end.

And 1981 was an end because at that point he stopped writing for a while.

In that year Bob wrote 23 songs most of which have long since been forgotten and it is hard to find themes that persist through this year – which clearly suggest a troubled mind, not a mind filled with the certainty of either Christianity or Judaism.  Which is interesting, considering that just two years before we had the first-ever year where Bob wrote only about one theme: Christianity.

Here is what I make of 1981

1. Shot of Love (Love)
2. You changed my life (Religion)
3. Angelina (Uncertainty, I am torn in two, is this religion the right way?)
4. Heart of Mine (Love) new revised article with videos]
5. Is it worth it?  (Love, turning my life upside down)
6. In the summertime (Lost love)
7. Need a woman  (Religious doubts, desire)
8. Almost Persuaded (I nearly got there, then I lost it, doubts)
9. Borrowed Time (Things are changing)
10. On a Rocking Boat  (I’ve got a boat, leisure)
11. Fur Slippers (Blues)
12. Give him my all. (Love – Dylan co-wrote the words, not the whole song)
13. Hallelujah (Love???)
14. High Away (Ah ah ah) (Leaving???)
15. Wind Blows on the Water (Natural environment)
16. Magic  (Love)
17. Dead Man Dead Man (in support of faith, Christianity)
18. Trouble (Everything is wrong, doubts)
19. Don’t ever take yourself away (Love)
20. Watered down love (Love)
21. Lenny Bruce (Don’t believe the wise men)
22. Jesus is the one (Christianity)
23. Thief on the Cross – the last gospel song, or a warning that Christianity has been stolen?  Changing (See the review for more details).

And so, the themes:

• Love: 9
• Religion / Christianity: 3
• Uncertainty / doubts / don’t believe: 5
• Lost love: 1
• Changing: 1
• Leisure: 1
• Blues: 1
• Nature: 1
• Leaving: 1

Just looking at that list suddenly the year makes a lot more sense.  Love has always been Bob’s main musical theme, but now in this year his feelings for Christianity vie with his doubts, and they share a similar number of songs, but the doubts are clearly winning.

All Dylan compositions by subject up to 1981. 

Where more than one number is given, the first number relates to the total number written up to 1980, the number after the + sign shows the number written in 1981, and (rather obviously) the number after the = sign adds them together to give the current total.

• Art: 3
• Be yourself: 5
• Being trapped/escaping from being trapped (being world-weary): 12
• Blues: 14 + 1 = 15
• Betrayal: 1
• Celebrating a city 1
• Change: 6 + 1 = 7
• Dance: 2
• Death: 6
• Depression: 1
• Disasters: 1
• Disdain: 9
• Environment: 17 + 1 = 18
• Eternity: 1
• Faith: 19
• Fate: 7
• Future will be fine: 2
• Gambling: 3
• Happy relationships: 1
• How we see the world: 3
• Humour, satire, talking blues: 13
• Individualism: 8
• It’s a mess: 5
• Jewish prayer: 1
• Leadership: 2
• Leisure: 0 + 1
• Look after yourself: 1
• Lost love / moving on: 48 + 1 = 49
• Love, desire: 64 + 9 = 73
• Lust: 1
• Moving on: 24 + 1
• Nothing changes: 4
• Nothing has meaning: 2
• Party freaks: 3
• Patriotism: 1
• People (including fictional people): 8
• Personal commentary: 3
• Postmodernism: 2
• Protest: 22
• Randomness (including Kafkaesque randomness): 11
• Rebellion: 1
• Rejection of labeling: 2
• Relationships 3
• Religion, second coming: 9 + 3 = 12
• Sex (country life): 1
• Social commentary / civil rights: 6
• Slang in a song: 4
• Surrealism, Dada: 15
• Traveling on, songs of leaving, songs of farewell, moving on: 16
• The tragedy of modern life: 3
• Uncertainty, doubts, disbelief: 5
• Visiting: 2
• WH Auden tribute: 1

And as usual here is the list of the top categories, this time by the end of 1981…

• Randomness (including Kafkaesque randomness): 11
• Being trapped: 12
• Religion / second coming: 12
• Humour, satire, talking blues: 14
• Blues: 15
• Surrealism, Dada, Kafka: 15
• Travelling on, songs of leaving, songs of farewell: 16
• Environment: 18
• Faith: 19
• Protest: 21
• Moving on: 25
• Lost love / moving on: 49
• Love, desire: 73

So we have been through the Christian era and come out the other side, and although Faith has entered our list of top subjects, it has not had a major impact on what has truly occupied Dylan for most of his life: love, desire, lost love, moving on.

It can of course be argued that faith and religion should be added together to make 31 songs which would make it the third largest category, but still a long way behind love.

Now Bob stopped writing – it was not the first time for he had done this before, as with 1968.  But as we of course know, he was soon to come back.

There is an index of all the articles in this series here.

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 note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with approaching 5000 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

by Larry Fyffe

Influenced by William Blake, and Emanuel Swedenborg, Bob Dylan manufactures his own mythologies – one in which the singer/songwriter reveals his unique ability to
time-travel to the ‘Old West’ of America with a dusty-cloaked fellow named Jesus, an outlaw from another time who escaped from being crucified.

Intrepid investigators at ‘Untold Dylan’ have been able to decode this secret mythology and provide it to our readers. In the mythology, masked Dylan is a singing rabbi who rides around in space and time with guitar and harp in hand; sitting in a saddle that’s strapped to his faithful horse named ‘Forest’, a white stallion he also calls ‘Sylva’ – it’s a strange upside-down world where nothing is at it seems.

Following be more bits and pieces, put together by ‘Untold’ detectives, of that previously unknown Blakean/Swedenborgian puzzle – one example, the Bible tells us of a woman who hangs around with Jesus:

And certain women which had been healed
Of evil spirits and infirmities
Mary called Magdalene
Out of whom went seven devils
(St, Luke 8:2)

In the alternate universe found in Bob Dylan’s artistic creations, the singer/songwriter transfers this biblical story into a ‘gnostic’ one; Jesus emanates into ‘Billy the Kid’, an outlaw of the Old West. In the song below, the Masked Rabbi notes that Cowboy Jesus carries on his old habits:

Hang on to your woman if you got one
Remember in El Paso, once, you shot one
Up in Santa Fe you brought one
Billy, you been running for so long
(Bob Dylan: Billy 4)

Back in His bible days, before getting arrested, we are told that Jesus shares the companionship of woman other than Mary Magdalene:

And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herold’s steward, and Susanna
And many others, which ministered unto Him their substance
(St,Luke 8:3)

In more recent times, according to the decoded mythology, Christ (speaking in the first person), tells of fond memories He has of Joanna way back then:

Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate, and seems like a mirror
But she just makes it all too concise, and too clear
That Johanna's not here
(Bob Dylan: Visions Of Johanna)

Apparently, the closest Cowboy Jesus ever comes to using His own name is when He calls Himself ‘Jessie’. Having emanated into another American outlaw, this time Southern sympathizer Jessie James, Christ’s afraid of getting shot in the back by one of his fellow gang members; his name is Robert Ford. The Lord’s paranoid. And with good reason, a long time ago, Christ escapes from being crucified after his friend Judas turns Him over to the authorities:

Ain't gonna hang no picture frame
Well, I might look like Robert Ford
But I feel like a Jessie James .....
I got a woman in Jackson
I ain't gonna say her name
She's a brown-skin woman
But I love her just the same
(Bob Dylan: Outlaw Blues)

A scan of the Holy Bible tells us who that woman in the above song be:

Look not upon me, because I am black
Because the sun hath looked upon me
My mother's children were angry with me
They made me the keeper of the vineyards
But my own vineyard have I not keep ....
I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys
(The Song Of Solomon I:6; 2:I )

In the unraveled Dylanesque mythology, Rosie appears at other times as well; in the first person (speaking as though he were the Cowboy), the Masked Rabbi tattle-tales on the antics of the time-drifting Jesus:

And every time, you know when the well breaks down
I just go pump on it some
Rose Marie, she likes to go to big places
And just set there waiting for me to come
(Jim James: Going To Acapulco ~ Bob Dylan)

In an analogical song penned by the Masked Rabbi is told the story of his traveling back in time with the Cowboy Jesus to the shores of the Nile River in ancient Egypt. Jesus, who of course is not yet born, speaks in the first person again, and it’s all about His emanation into the physical body of Moses.

But the finish of that story will have to wait for another day. As Mr. Spock of ‘Star Trek’ would say, “It’s fascinating”:

Though nothing looks familiar to me
I know I've stayed here before
Once, a thousand nights ago
With the girl from the Red River Shore
(Bob Dylan: Red River Shore)

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 note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 5500 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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

 by Paul Robert Thomas

I hope here to show how this song draws heavily upon an interpretation of the New Testament Book Of the Revelation and the Old Testament apocalyptic literature.

Working on an early draft of this article, however, I soon found that I could not stop making connections which I had never expected. I hope that they are of interest to the reader.

It’s my belief that Seven Days is in Dylan’s ‘apocalyptic tradition’ a world view which seems to go deep into him and through which, I believe, he interprets events in his own life as well as world events. But both Christian and Jewish apocalyptic is ultimately the story, or promise, of salvation:- in Judaism through the coming of the Messiah and in Christianity through the second coming of The Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe that Seven Days demonstrates a particularly Christian eschatology suggesting that Dylan was ready and willing for that ‘slow train’ to pull into his station and may have accepted the Christian gospel, with a particularly ‘fundamentalist’ (sic) view of ‘the end times’, some three years before the date given for his baptism and public acceptance of Jesus as his saviour.

If Christ hadn’t already put his hand on Dylan then, I propose that Seven Days suggests that Dylan was already troubled in mind enough to be ready and responsive when that time came. However, I believe that Dylan also blends Kabbalistic ideas with the primarily Christian symbolism. If my feelings about this song, its inspiration and subject matter, along with my speculations concerning Dylan’s spiritual health and emotional well-being are right, then I find it surprising at how little attention has been paid to the song by commentators and ‘Dylanologists’, for even those few who have made an effort to address Dylan’s conversion to Christianity seem to have overlooked the significance of this song as evidence of Dylan’s spiritual preoccupations.

To begin with I want to explore the background to this song before looking at events in Dylan’s life around the time of its composition and then, finally, to explore the song with special attention to the identity of ‘she’, the central character of this song. In fact I believe that ‘She’ stands for two opposing forces.

To allow for the validity of more than one interpretation I want to state that while Seven Days can be taken as a simple song about frustrated love, concerning perhaps Dylan ‘waiting for his true love to return’, as Clinton Heylin has suggested in Behind The Shades, it might be more profitably enjoyed by revealing it’s ‘anagogical’, (hidden, mystical) meaning which, I believe, is present beneath the song’s apparent meaning.

For although the song can be appreciated by taking it at face value it suggests more if we consider the apparent hyperbole and obscurity in Dylan’s lyric and ask why it’s there. The only way I can give Mr Heylin the benefit of a doubt is if he is willing to concede that Dylan’s ‘true love’ need not be Sara or any other woman or, that if it is, the song deals simultaneously, with both secular and sacred love.

In Precious Angel (and, perhaps, in Saving Grace) Dylan appears to address the woman he loves and, simultaneously, his Lord, a characteristic his work shares with some of the poems of John Donne, e.g. The Extasie or Self Love from Songs And Sonnets. To understand what I am moving towards in my own reading of this song, pause for a while and listen to the live version of Seven Days on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3. Something is happening here but before I present my own views as to what I think it is I want to present a brief history of this song.

Background and Context

Seven Days was copyrighted with Rams Horn Music in 1976, which doesn’t help us too much with the date of composition, but, according to Ron Wood, Dylan tried this song out in the studio some 5 months after the end of the Desire sessions, (during the Eric Clapton sessions, which produced Sign Language, at the Shangri La Studios, Malibu, in late March1976.) As Ron Wood tells it, Dylan tried out a version of Seven Days: “he played it for me and Eric in the studio and we recorded it. There’s a copy of that somewhere around” and “That’s where I got Seven Days from. Bob said to Eric, though I was there too – he said “You can have this song if you want it”. And I took him up on it and Eric didn’t”. (Clinton Heylin confirms these dates in Day By Day 1941-1995). Ron Wood goes into detail to explain how, after these sessions, Dylan retired to a tent with a girl in a plaster-cast and, if the story isn’t apocryphal, it suggests that although Desire appears to have been Dylan’s attempt at a reconciliation with Sara, it was unlikely to work!

In Lyrics 1962-1985, Seven Days is the last song of particular note shown before the material which made up the sessions for Street Legal. (Coincidentally, perhaps, it is also placed on The Bootleg Series CD immediately before a trilogy of specifically religious songs – making up a quaternity?) which began in April 1978, apparently a full two years of no musical output or known lyrics, and the finished album from those sessions I believe, heralds the emergence of a man who seems to be totally lost, alone and definitely in need of a ‘shot of love’ – but a love more enduring and powerful than the physical world could offer.

“He started to write Street Legal when we were together. He would show me some of the songs that he was writing, (it was) practically the entire album… it started when we were on the farm… He was very down. Don’t forget he was suffering when I met him. He was in a bad way. I brought him back to life. He was practically dead, this guy was shot emotionally and he had to get away from all the pressures in Malibu and the farm was really where he got back on his feet again. But then that custody case was so vile and so treacherous”

The above words by Farida McFree, who had known Dylan since 1975 and who became his woman during and after his battles with Sara are quoted by Clinton Heylin in Behind The Shades and, allowing for McFree’s lack of modesty in portraying herself as Dylan’s salvation, they have the ‘ring of truth’ to them if we consider such songs from Street Legal as the brooding desperation of Senor, the frightening loss of peace and control in the hymn of No Time To Think and the long cry of despair, surely called out to God as much as Sara, which ends the album with Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat).

FAITH & ROOTS

“I don’t really consider myself Jewish or non Jewish …I’m not a patriot to any creed. I believe in all of them and none of them. A devout Christian or Moslem can be just as effective as a devout Jew.”

Dylan 1978.

“I follow God, so if my followers are following me, indirectly they’re gonna be following God too, because I don’t sing any song which hasn’t been given to me by the Lord to sing,”

Ibid 1979.

“Jesus put his hand on me. It was a physical thing. I felt it. I felt it all over me. I felt my whole body tremble. The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked me up”, Ibid 1980.

“… the resurrected Christ. You’re not talking about some dead man who had a bunch of good ideas and was nailed to a tree.”

Ibid 1980

“Walking with Jesus is no easy trip, but it’s the only trip.” Ibid 1980.

“My so called Jewish roots are in Egypt. They went down there with Joseph, and they came back out with Moses… we’re talking about Jewish roots, you want to know more? Check up on Elijah the prophet. He could make it rain. Isaiah the prophet, even Jeremiah – see if their brethren didn’t want to bust their brains for telling it right like it is, yeah – these are my roots, I suppose … Am I looking for them? Well, I don’t know. I ain’t looking for them in synagogues with six pointed stars shining ‘down from every window, I can tell you that much.” Ibid 1981.

“I want to sing about my hero,” Dylan’s introduction to In the Garden from his Hard to Handle video 1986.

Dylan, born a Jew, was initiated into Torah and the writings of the prophets in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah, which took place on May 22 1954 in accordance with orthodox religious practice.

In 1953 he had spent the first of five summer holidays at Camp Herzl, Wisconsin. And whilst there is no proof that his family was rigorously orthodox they made up part of the small tightly knit Jewish community and so resisted assimilation and, perhaps, went to the trouble of calling in a Rabbi from outside Hibbing to instruct Dylan in Torah – something which Dylan was later to speak of as a mysterious act of providence. Dylan showed an early fascination and preoccupation with New Testament themes and imagery – and particularly with the stories concerning Christ.

It is Christ’s crucifixion which marks the climax and end of an early song, Long Ago Far Away and the figure of Christ as Judge appears in Masters of War not, as someone has suggested, ‘blasphemously’ (through Dylan’s assertion that the warmongers are beyond forgiveness) but in accordance with Christian justice and eschatology which does not teach unconditional and universal salvation – something which makes Paul Williams, for one, uneasy. (Personally I feel uneasy at the thought of the warmongers of these days, and of two world wars, surviving their deeds, in this life or the next).

“Vengeance is mine” saith the Lord. On the other hand, some of the psalms encourage us to hate the wicked and Dylan can, at times, hate with a fierce sense of righteousness. But I digress. Perhaps the most telling of Dylan’s pre-1979 songs to deal with Jesus is Sign On The Cross. Appearing to contain elements of confession, autobiography, doubt and conflict this extraordinary song seems to place Dylan before his future saviour with a mixture of fearfulness, identification and hope.

Written around 1966/7 the song is disarming to the listener.  The way the song is performed on the circulating tape makes it come over like a young Blind Willie Johnson song, intense and bluesy, the message gaining in force with each chorus.

But in the ‘break’, when Dylan sing-talks a sermon to his ‘congregation’, the listener might wonder if Dylan is fondly parodying some old black preacher or group like Brother Potter or, more accessibly, Rev Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown. The break seems spontaneous, Dylan making up the words as he goes along, but could the parodic element be an attempt to hide the truth about his feelings towards Jesus, the Christ, the Saviour? The ‘sign on the cross’ is not, in spiritual/blues tradition, the sign put up on Pilate’s orders to mock Jesus and the Jews by proclaiming Jesus King of The Jews’ but the suffering body of Christ crucified calling out in anguish, to ‘Abba God’, “Eli Eli lema sabacthani?” which is most often translated as “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” from Psalm 22.

However the literal sign, referred to above, may well have added poignancy for Dylan, for in his identification with Christ, which by this time, was conferred as much from without as from any empathy Dylan felt with the crucified ‘son of God’, had he not seemed a king, a prophet and leader? I invite speculation. What of the lines “Yes I know in my head / That we’re all so misled,” in the context of the whole song? Misled in the sense of wanting to accept Jesus as Messiah and God Incarnate or misled in the sense that some Jewish scholars have described Jesus and, subsequently his followers? St Paul wrote of Jesus that he was a “stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the gentiles.” (1 Cor 1.23-25)

Jesus as Messiah is completely contrary to Judaic belief which teaches that the Messiah is still to come and will be God’s chosen one but will be mortal. There is simply no way to accommodate a Trinitarian concept of God which allows equal divinity between a man however righteous, and YWH. But it seems as though Dylan was unable to wait for ‘The day of The Lord’ and in desperate need for spiritual direction, renewal and fulfillment. Exactly what the events were which led to Dylan’s surrender to Christ, when the final act of capitulation to the message of the gospels took place, and how, must be open to speculation or taken from Dylan’s own words, some of which head this section of my discussion.

The account of the physical effects of his encounter with Christ are unexceptional in the literature concerning religious conversion, from St. Paul to many of the studies presented by William James in his seminal study of the psychology of conversion The Varietiess Of Religious Experience. Paul Williams’ attempt to find a purely psychological reason for what he seems to infer was an emotionally charged choice of ‘Sara substitute’ reads even more implausibly now than when he first wrote it, what he might have made of it if Abraham had died 11 years later than he did’. … … … ”

Dylan’s conversion cannot be looked upon as the act of a man ignorant of his religion. In preparing for Abraham Zimmerman’s funeral David, Dylan’s brother was astonished at how much Dylan knew about Jewish religious ceremonial, ritual and practice. Likewise, he was impressed by his elder brother’s presence and demeanour which is suggested as having something of the quality of the patriarchs about it. Remember, this was in l968 and David Zimmerman describes Dylan as having the dignity and bearing of a man of fifty.

The picture which suggests itself is of a man who is certain on his own level, of a place within his own religious tradition. Psychology might talk about repression, denial and an unconscious search for a father who wouldn’t, couldn’t, desert him, but such security was available to him through the reassurance of Judaism and the promises given to the patriarchs that God would never break his covenant.

The article continues tomorrow…

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 note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

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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.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.