Some Notes on Style

Political Dylan

I’ve heard you say many times

That you’re better than no one

And no one is better than you

If you really believe that

You know you got

Nothing to win and nothing to lose

From fixtures and forces and friends

Your sorrow does stem

That hype you and type you

Making you feel

That you must be exactly like them

The last of leaves fell from the trees

And clung to a new love’s breast

The branches bare like a banjo played

To the winds that listened best

I gazed down in the river’s mirror

And watched its winding strum

The water smooth ran like a hymn

And like a harp did hum

How many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

How many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

How many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll

We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing

As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds

Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight

Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight

And for each an’ every underdog soldier in the night

And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Identification with the Vagrant

I was young when I left home

An' I been out a-ramblin' round

An' I never wrote a letter to my home

To my home, lord, to my home

An' I never wrote a letter to my home.

Does it take much of a man to see his whole life go down,

To look up on the world from a hole in the ground,

To wait for your future like a horse that's gone lame,

To lie in the gutter and die with no name?



“Only a Hobo,” Times They are a Changin'



I'm out here a thousand miles from my home

Walking a road other men have gone down

I'm seeing a new world of people and things

Hear paupers and peasants and princes and kings.



I'm leaving tomorrow but I could leave today

Somewhere down the road someday

The very last thing that I'd want to do

Is to say I've been hitting some hard traveling too.

Existential Dylan

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet?

We sit here stranded, though we're all doing our best to deny it

And Louise holds a handful of rain, tempting you to defy it

Lights flicker from the opposite loft

In this room the heat pipes just cough

The country music station plays soft

But there's nothing really nothing to turn of

Just Louise and her lover so entwined

And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind.

Praise be to Nero's Neptune

The Titanic sails at dawn

And everybody's shouting

"Which side are you on?"

And Ezra Pound and T.S. Elliott

Fighting in the captains tower

While Calypso's singers laugh at them

And fishermen hold flowers

Between the windows of the sea

Where lovely mermaids flow

And nobody has to think too much

About desolation row

Yes I believe that it's rightful

Oh I believe it in my mind

I been told like I said one night before

Carry on the grind.

And this song gypsy told her like I said carry on

I wish I was there to help her

But I'm not there I'm gone.

Maggie comes fleet foot

Face full of black soot

Talkin' that the heat put

Plants in the bed but

The phone's tapped anyway

Maggie says that many say

They must bust in early May

Orders from the DA

Look out kid

Don't matter what you did

Walk on your tip toes

Don't try, 'No Doz'

Better stay away from those

That carry around a fire hose

Keep a clean nose

Watch the plain clothes

You don't need a weather man

To know which way the wind blows.

Storyteller Dylan

No one tried to say a thing

When they took him out in jest

Except, of course, the little neighbor boy

Who carried him to rest

And he just walked along, alone

With his guilt so well concealed

And muttered underneath his breath

“Nothing is revealed”

Backstage the girls were playing five card stud by the stairs

Lily had two queens she was hoping for a third to match her pair

Outside the streets were filling up, the window was open wide

A gentle breeze was blowing, you could feel it from inside

Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.

Dylan and the Outlaw

Quick, Magdalena, take my gun

Look up in the hills that flash of light

Aim well my little one

We may not make it through the night.

The businessmen from Taos want you to go down

So they've hired mister Garrett, he'll force you to slow down

Billy, don't let it make you feel so low down

To be hunted by the man who was your friend.

It was true that in his later years he would not carry a gun

"I'm around too many children", he'd say, "they should never know of one"

Yet he walked right into the clubhouse of his lifelong deadly foe

Emptied out his register, said, "Tell 'em it was Crazy Joe".

John Wesley Harding

Was a friend to the poor

He traveled with a gun in every hand

All along this countryside

He opened many a door

But he was never known

To hurt an honest man

’Twas down in Chaynee County

A time they talk about

With his lady by his side

He took a stand

And soon the situation there

Was all but straightened out

For he was always known

To lend a helping hand

All across the telegraph

His name it did resound

But no charge held against him

Could they prove

And there was no man around

Who could track or chain him down

He was never known

To make a foolish move

"Love Songs"

There’s a hymn I used to hear

In the churches all the time

Make me feel so good inside

So peaceful, so sublime

And there’s nothing to remind me of that

Old familiar chime

’Cept you,



Used to play in the cemetery

Dance and sing and run when I was a child

Never seemed strange

But now I just pass mournfully by

That place where the bones of life are piled

I know something has changed

I’m a stranger here and no one sees me

’Cept you

I'm walkin' through streets that are dead

Walkin', walkin' with you in my head

My feet are so tired

My brain is so wired

And the clouds are weepin'.



I'm sick of love that I'm in the thick of it

This kind of love, I'm so sick of it.

It's mighty funny

The end of time has just begun

Oh, honey, after all these years you're still the one

Well, I'm strolling through the lonely graveyard of my mind

I left my life with you somewhere back there along the line

I thought somehow that I would be spared this fate

I don't know how much longer I can wait.

I can’t feel you anymore, I can’t even touch the books you’ve read

Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin’ I was somebody else instead

Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy

I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory

And all your ragin’ glory



I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I’m finally free

I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me

You’ll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above

And I’ll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love

And it makes me feel so sorry



Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats

Blowing through the letters that we wrote

Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves

We’re idiots, babe

It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves

Desire closes with "Sara", arguably Dylan's most public display of his own personal life. An ambitious tribute to his wife, Sara, is possibly Dylan's only song in which he steps out of his public persona and directly addresses a real person, with striking biographical accuracy. Tim Riley wrote that it was "a fevered cry of loss posing as sincere devotion." Dylan's marriage was in a turbulent state when he wrote the song. Dylan's estrangement from his wife had led to at least one separation in the previous year. Sara was present at the song's recording session...In March 1977, Sara Dylan filed for divorce.

Spiritual Dylan

Seen the arrow on the doorpost

Saying, “This land is condemned

All the way from New Orleans

To Jerusalem”

I traveled through East Texas

Where many martyrs fell

And I know no one can sing the blues

Like Blind Willie McTell



See them big plantations burning

Hear the cracking of the whips

Smell that sweet magnolia blooming

See the ghosts of slavery ships

I can hear them tribes a-moaning

Hear that undertaker’s bell

Nobody can sing the blues

Like Blind Willie McTell

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night

In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light

In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space

In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.



I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea

Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other time it's only me

I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man

Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.

Ring them bells Sweet Martha

For the poor man’s son

Ring them bells so the world will know

That God is one

Oh the shepherd is asleep

Where the willows weep

And the mountains are filled

With lost sheep



Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf

Ring them bells for all of us who are left

Ring them bells for the chosen few

Who will judge the many when the game is through

Ring them bells, for the time that flies

For the child that cries

When innocence dies

Somebody seen him hanging around

At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town

He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask

If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask

Somebody said from the Bible he’d quote

There was dust on the man

In the long black coat



There are no mistakes in life some people say

It is true sometimes you can see it that way

But people don't live or die, people just float

She went with the man

In the long black coat

There’s a black Mercedes rollin’ through the combat zone

Your servants are half dead, you’re down to the bone

Tell me, tall men, where would you like to be overthrown

Maybe down in Jerusalem or Argentina?

Tempest

First bullet grazed his ear

Second ball went right straight in

And he bent in the middle like a twisted pin

He crawled to the corner and he lowered his head

He gripped the chair and he grabbed the bed

It would take more than needle and thread

Bleeding from the mouth, hes as good as dead

Smokestack was leaning sideways

Heavy feet began to pound

He walked into the whirlwind

Sky splitting all around



The ship was going under

The universe had opened wide

The roll was called up yonder

The angels turned aside

They lowered down the lifeboats

From the sinking wreck

There were traitors, there were turncoats

Broken backs and broken necks



The bishop left his cabin

To help others in need

Turned his eyes up to the heavens

Said, "The poor are yours to feed"



Jim Dandy smiled

He never learned to swim

Saw the little crippled child

And he gave his seat to him



He saw the starlight shining

Streaming from the East

Death was on the rampage

But his heart was now at peace

When the Reaper's task had ended

Sixteen hundred had gone to rest

The good, the bad, the rich, the poor

The loveliest and the best



They waited at the landing

And they tried to understand

But there is no understanding

On the judgment of God's hand

The news came over the wires

And struck with deadly force

Love had lost its fires

All things had run their course

The watchman he lay dreaming

Of all the things that can be

He dreamed the Titanic was sinking

Into the deep blue sea

Crimson flames tied through my ears

Rollin’ high and mighty traps

Pounced with fire on flaming roads

Using ideas as my maps

“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I

Proud ’neath heated brow

Ah, but I was so much older then

I’m younger than that now

Lyrics are an important part of Dylan's music. His poetic ability, unpolished and unconventional vocal style and the candidness of his verses contribute to making the lyrics of his songs feel natural and sincere without sounding sentimental. Repetition is important to music in general, but is especially conspicuous in Dylan's songwriting. The recurrence of a word or a phrase at the end of every stanza where the repeated words or phrase is indicated in the song's title is a technique Dylan used consistently throughout his career. This template of song writing may be related to the wandering and independent nature of Dylan's verses and allows Dylan to write in a way that is at once disjointed and unified. Dylan's poetry centers on a singular theme or image which is repeated and refracted through varied stanzas that deal with the central idea in their own way.1962 – 1964, Dylan's “early period” of song writing is characterized by songs with a clear message or moral and a self-assured, almost pious, manner of delivery. “To Ramona” – five verses total Dylan's lyrics at this time were overtly poetic, full of panache and bordering on the pretentious. “Lay Down Your Weary Tune,” is brimming with poetic and revelatory visions of nature and music ( five verses total ):(1963),(1964) and(1964) contain songs that spoke to the political tumult of the 60s including the civil rights struggle, McCarthysim, anti-war movements and specific instances of social injustice. Dylan's songs from time time capture the sense of a young generation rebelling against the policies and ideas of the political establishment and a political landscape in flux. Songs in this vein include: “When the Ship Comes In,” “Paths of Victory,” “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” “Masters of War,” “With God on Our Side,” “Walls of Red Wing,” “Forever Young,” “The Death of Emmett Till” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” to name a few.“Blowin' in the Wind” is a moralistic song with rhetorical questions of condescension directed at the political establishment ( three verses total ):“Chimes of Freedom” combines naturalistic imagery with the theme of redemption from servitude which recurs in many songs throughout Dylan's career ( six verses total ):“The Times They are a Changin',” one of Dylan's most iconic and recognizable compositions, romanticizes youth and its role in political upheaval.Dylan often identifies with the poor, the vagrant and the homeless in his songs. “Hard Times in New York Town,” “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry,” “Freight Train Blues,” “One Too Many Mornings” and “Moonshiner,” describe with empathy the characters who are marginalized by society. “I Was Young When I Left Home” is similar in style and has the haunting quality of evoking Dylan's own early exodus to from Minnesota to New York ( eight verses total ):Throughout these songs, Dylan grapples with the idea:“Song to Woody,” one of two original songs on the album(1962), is uncharacteristically personal for a Dylan song. The song contains the sage voice of Dylan's early style, appreciation for the legends that inspired him, and a sober image of the traveling musician who lives on the road ( five verses total ):(1965),(1965) and(1966), some of Dylan's most critically acclaimed albums, contain songs driven by introspective and psychological themes and surrealistic imagery. In these songs, the intimacy of Dylan's musical style and the power of his poetry allows him to articulate a disquieted frame of mind and convey a profound sense of loneliness, longing and sincerity. There is no narrative in “Visions of Johanna” and no message or moral - only atmosphere. In this song, Dylan describes his relationship with a girl named Louise and contrasts this relationship with a haunting vision of the unattainable, unreal and perhaps spiritual Johanna. This notion of a character being haunted by a memory is pervasive throughout Dylan's work ( five verses total ): Wikipedia's article on the song offers responses from various Dylan critics.“Desolation Row,” describes a Kafkaesque parade of surrealistic imagery with varied references to literature and mythology and pop-culture. The specific characters referenced by name in this song: Cinderella, Betty Davis, Romeo, Cain and Abel, Ophelia, Einstein, Robin Hood, Casanova, the Phantom of the Opera, Nero, Ezra Pound, T. S. Elliott and Calypso ( ten verses total ).“Highway 61 Revisited,” “Queen Jane Approximately,” “From A Buick 6,” “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” and “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” are written in this style.The long and rambling lyrics of “I'm Not There” (1967) are so obtuse as to border on nonsense-verse, yet this abstract delivery seems to capture the inner voice of a mind wandering in a numb haze of drugs, stress, isolation or loneliness. Dylan's mournful sound suggests we are getting an unguarded insight into the inner workings of a tumultuous subconscious ( eight verses total ):Also new to this period is Dylan's capacity for fierce spite and anger. “Ballad of a Thin Man,” is a vicious attack on a blundering and confused “outsider” who is trying to learn about Dylan's world, and “Like a Rolling Stone” is blistering and vengeful harangue against some unnamed enemy.Nothing epitomizes Dylan's ability to channel the frantic urgency of the 60s beat generation like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” ( four verses total ):Through his music, Dylan has told expansive and wild stories. Like many of Dylan's lyrics, the details and specific intention of these stories are never fully evident but unfold artfully while ever teetering on the brink of incoherence. The narrative content of these stories is less important than the fast moving scenery and the unpredictable jumping between narrative voices and perspectives. This style is well captured by a statement from the little neighbor boy in “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest,”(1967):Different from the standard short story or novel, Dylan's storytelling encourages the listener to embrace ambiguity and to explore the boundaries between lucidity and nonsense. In these songs, Dylan is able to convey the sense of a great tale without actually making sense - a compelling and exciting narrative that isn't actually understood. Among them, “Lily, Rosemary And the Jack of Hearts,”(1975), is a long and busy song with fifteen verses and no chorus overflowing with character development and exciting plot action. Wikipedia's article on the song outlines main characters, plot, themes and possible interpretations. The recurrence of the words “Jack of Hearts” at the end of each verse embody the song's structure and source of repetition, and the intention of these words seamlessly alternates between referring to a person with the nickname “The Jack of Hearts” and the playing card ( fifteen verses total ):“Tangled Up in Blue”, “Simple Twist of Fate”, “Black Diamond Bay” and “Isis” are in this style.Many of the more linear and comprehensible stories that Dylan has told romanticize an outlaw on the run who ends up getting killed. “Romance in Durango,”(1976) tells the story of an outlaw and his lover on the run to Mexico ( nine verses total ):“Billy 4” ( nine verses total ):“Joey,” twelve verses total ):"John Wesley Harding" is a relatively short song that combines the theme of the hero outlaw with an esoteric and incomplete narrative style (full song):Similarly, the hero of “Rambling Gambling Willie,” is a charitable gambler who gets killed at the poker table.A substantial portion of Dylan's work reflects on his experiences in love and relationships. Some songs capture the experience of a broken or failed relationship (“Don't Think Twice It's Alright,” “One of Us Must Know,” “And I'll Go Mine”), others are loving and devotional (“Make You Feel my Love,” “I Want You,” “You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” “Nobody 'Cept You”)."Nobody 'Cept You" ( four verses total ):Other “love songs,” capture a despairing sense of longing for a past love (“If You See Her Say Hello,” “Girl From the North Country Fair”). Various songs in Dylan's(1997) album capture the painful loneliness of love lost:“Love Sick” - five verses total “Can't Wait” – five verses total Possibly channeling the turmoil of Dylan's rocky marriage to Sara Dylan, “Idiot Wind,”(1974), is one of the most the spiteful songs Dylan ever wrote ( eight verses total ):The song “Sara” from the album(1975) is a deeply personal and loving tribute to the same Sara Dylan. From Wikipedia's article on the album:After, Dylan entered his “born again” period of songwriting which channeled his experience of becoming a born again Christian.(1979),(1980) and(1981) are albums of gospel music and christian rock and are mostly void of secular themes. Subsequent albums abandon this genre but some of the religious imagery and language from this period recur in less didactic forms. In 1983 Dylan recorded “Blind Willie McTell” which is partially a tribute to the American blues legend, but also an abstract and rich amalgam of religious and American imagery. The verses sound like the unfiltered contents of a solitary artist haunted by images of his American cultural heritage and a sense of the divine. The character of Blind Willie McTell reflects the ineffability of music and the almost mystical power of a dead musician to communicate across generations. The juxtaposition of New Orleans with Jerusalem evokes the author's double allegiance to religious sensitives and his American artistic context ( five verses total ):“Every Grain of Sand” is an introspective song that reflects on Dylan's sense of the divine and a gnawing anxiety caused by looking back on life and trying to make sense of it (Dylan is almost forty years old at this point). The opening line of the song: “In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need” is an indication that he is laying himself bare ( six verses total ):“Ring Them Bells,” balances religious values and universalism without sounding didactic or self-righteous ( five verses total ):Foreboding apocalyptic imagery is used to set the tone of “Man in the Long Black Coat,”(1989) which describes a woman who falls in love and leaves without warning with a nameless man ( five verses total ):Also in this style and from this period, “Angelina” mixes existential and devotional poetry with Dylan's mythologized portrayal of an embattled South American country-side ( ten verses total ):Dylan's thirty-fifth and most recent studio album,, was released in September 2012 and was received with wide critical acclaim. The album contains elements which are nostalgic to earlier periods in Dylan's career as well as compositions in which Dylan's lyrical talent and innovation are impressive as ever. One of the most striking elements in this album is the way death pervades the last three tracks. “Tin Angel” describes a deadly love triangle and contains the following graphic image:The song “Tempest” is a James Cameron inspired, forty-five verse and fourteen minute epic description of the sinking RMS Titanic. The song opens with the ship sailing tranquilly and at verse nine we start getting a description of the accident and destruction:At verse eighteen, Dylan focuses on individual passengers on board and describes their varied reactions to trauma and impending death:At verse forty-two, Dylan reflects on the scope of this tragedy:Verse forty-four describes the reaction of the people back home hearing about the event:The final verse of the song returns a motif which recurs throughout the song - the dreaming watchman:The actual sinking of the ship is juxtaposed with the dream of a sleeping watchman. For me, this technique reflects on the transience of human life and how life might be just another type of dream from which we have yet to wake.The last track on the album, “Roll On John,” is a stunning and respectful tribute to the legend John Lennon and is filled with references to Lennon's life, character and specific songs. The complete lyrics with analysis of specific references can be found here: http://rock.rapgenius.com/Bob-dylan-roll-on-john-lyrics (click the yellow text to read annotations).From “My Back Pages,”