Moshe

This song was from Dylans' absurd "hipster" period. While the song is at time brilliantly written with strong imagery, it portrays Dylan at a time when to him what was "hip" was everything to be be "unhip" meant you were nothing & worthless. This was Dylan at his hipster worset, who seem ed to gain self esteem by denigrating humiliating & sneering at others

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you ?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
This sets the scene but was in fact Dylans' fantasy. The lady who is the target of his diatribe came from a swealthy family & went back to them & was very comfortably settled

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?

In the chorous we see Dylans' idea at the time that it was a fate worse than death to be "unknown". The most damning line is where calls the woman a "complete unknown"
To him at that time to be "hip" & famous was EVERYTHING.
I must stress that the motorcycle crash would not only break Dylans leg but would bring him back down to earth to a better apreciation of what really matters in life
But at this time there was no Maturity to Dylan. In another song he would even scoff at his previous self
"oh, but I was so much older then
I'm you nger than that now". Dylan celebrated his return to infantalism, rediculing his previous more mature concern at social issues & peoples well fare
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but know you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
Here we see Dylan reacting against this posh girls priveledged background, & berates her for not beiung grounded in reality exactly at a time when Dylan himself had lost sight of what is really important in life & was seperated from real life by drugs

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
All I have to say about this verse is it is Dylans' writting at its best. Great phrasing, full of imagery & highly evocative. Dylan was at the top of his powers. A pity he wasted it in tirades against former friends

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe

Now the above half verse again excels with brilliant writing. Clever obserevation.
But the rest of the verse sees Dylan so imersed in his tiny world that he loses sight of reality

You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags (Napoleon wore a french army uniform, not rags) and the language that he used(He spoke French)
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse (Napoleon was LONG dead by the 1960's)
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose(Nothing to lose? She was a rich girl who simply went back to her bourgoise life)
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.(Here again Dylan reveals his obsession with fame and "hipdom"
"You're invisible" being another form of "complete unknown"
Oooh, Shudder!!

Any comments?

Electrophonic Tonic

Analised?



I had to do something similar to this with American Pie for a History of Rock and Roll class I took. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the song was about the story of some girl trying to get to San Francisco and her life as a hippie and how it wasn't as great as she thought...?

I would also recommend formatting this a little bit different. It's have to make out your thoughts and the lyrics. Maybe bold the lyrics and italicize your thought. That should help.

Moshe

Cheers. I did think that after I posted
I'd be interested to read your thesis on American Pie. A fascinating song & so many references in there. How about his references to jagger, the beatles, Bob Dylan...
Any chance of you posting something on the song?

Electrophonic Tonic

Pretty much this is what I had to do and the way I interpreted them. In no way fact.

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

This talks about how rock and roll influenced Don McLean.

But february made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

This talks about his reaction to the news of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper's deaths. The widowed bride was Buddy Holly's fiancee.

So bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."

Miss American Pie was a Miss America and pie, which are two very American things. And Don is equating that to rock and roll being just as American. Chevy to the levee was a reference to an old Chevy commercial.

Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock ’n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Don McLean is a very christian man and he included that into his song.

Well, I know that you’re in love with him
`cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.

Not much here. Probably a reference to school dances and childhood.

I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.

References to being young, again. Probably in some way relating to how young Buddy Holly and company were when they died.

Now for ten years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the jester sang for the king and queen,
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me,

Ten years is roughly the time between Holly's death and the release of American Pie. Moss on a rolling stone may be a reference to rock music moving, but still be stagnant at the same time. The jester is Bob Dylan, the king is Elvis and the queen might be Connie Francis. Or the king and queen could be the Kennedy family. The jacket is what Dylan wore. The voice line is a reference to Dylan's folk music and it's common man popularity.

Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while lennon read a book of marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died.

The first line is either Dylan surpassed Elvis in popularity. Or the crown of thorns could be relating Jesus' death to the Kennedy assassination and Dylan becoming a Jesus-like figure in America. Lennon read a book of Marx is either about John Lennon being a fan of the Marx bros, or Lennon/Lenin reading Karl Marx. The quartet could be the Beatles and dirges are sung at funerals and that could be Kennedy, MLK, ect...

Helter skelter in a summer swelter.
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter,
Eight miles high and falling fast.
It landed foul on the grass.
The players tried for a forward pass,
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.

Helter Skelter is obviously back to the White Album and Charles Manson. The birds (Byrds) and their song Eight Miles High are mentioned. Fallout shelters are a reference to cold war tension. The jester is still Dylan and he actually broke his leg on his motorcycle. Trying for a forward pass is how music became stagnant other than Bob Dylan.

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?

This passage is all about the Beatles. Sergeants are now the Beatles (Sgt. Pepper), evolving from a quartet. Ever having the chance to dance was how music was moving away from a danceable music. The band refused to yield is about how the Beatles took over all music and no one else could compete with them.

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.

References to the show 'Lost in Space'/space exploration and about how this generation separated themselves from the previous one. Jack flash gets back to the Rolling Stone's song "Jumpin Jack Flash". The devil can go back to the Rolling Stones again (Sympathy for the Devil).

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

The first four lines are about the reaction to the Rolling Stones hiring Hell's Angels as security for their Altamont concert. Satan laughing is likely to how Altamont ended the peace, love, freedom attitude of the 60's. And Satan would be happy with that, according to McLean.

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before,
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.

The girl who sang the blues is likely Janis Joplin and her death at 27 was just another nail in the 60's coffin. Sacred stores could be record stores, and they're the churches to the music and McLean's religious application. The music wouldn't play is likely a mourning period for all the death surrounding the late 60's.

And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.

Screaming children could be Vietnam and that infamous picture of the naked girl running down the road. But I think it goes to Kent State, another 60's nail in the coffin. Lovers and poets are hippies. Again, references to mourning with church bells and no words spoken. More christian imagery and going to the coast is leaving and saying 'goodbye'.


Overall, lots of references to loss and the end of the 60's, and relating it back to the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.

Moshe

Nice one, Tonic.
A line that had puzzled me was The jester on the sidelines in a cast. Natch, Dylans leg in a cast
Nice one

Lisnaholic

A reason to discuss Dylan`s lyrics is always welcome, and I read the analysis of Like A Rolling Stone with great interest. As you say, it`s one of Dylan`s rather unkind put-down songs, but he does it with such relentless scorn and style that his anger is always convincing.
In contrast, from the same album, Ballad Of A Thin Man sounds to me like a very ill-judged exercise in bragging; "we`re cool and you`re not, Mr.Jones". What`s this song about, apart from revelling in the recently created Generation Gap ? Maybe David Bowie had this song in mind when he wrote, "You turned a few more people on but put the fear in a whole lot more."

Thanks to your analysis I can now see some things in the lyrics that I hadn`t noticed before, like the importance of the line "Like a complete unknown". Also, I had no idea that the song was about a specific girl.
However, I think you come down a bit hard on Dylan in this section :

Firstly, when he talks about Napoleon, I imagine he could be talking about someone who just reminds him of Napoleon in some way, and not the actual historical figure. If he is talking about the real Napoleon, I`m sure Dylan, like the rest of us, is well aware that he`s dead. When Dylan sings, "Now Shakespeare he`s in the alley", does he imagine that Shakespeare is alive ?
"Napoleon in rags" is a tremendous phrase. Once he thought of it, I bet Dylan couldn`t bear to let it go! Perhaps he uses it to conjure up Napoleon`s period of exile on the island of Elba.
"When you ain`t got nothing, you got nothing to lose" is one of Dylan`s greatest epigrams. If you take it out of the context of the song he seems to be saying, " People without a lot of material possessions can be more adventurous in their lives", so I prefer to go with that interpretation.

To sum up, though, it`s a really great analysis. Any chance of more of the same ?
In the meantime, instead of analysis, here`s a little quiz question :
Besides Napoleon and Shakespeare, how many other famous people does Dylan mention by name in his songs ?

Howard the Duck

i've read someone it's actually about Edie Sedgwick, an aspiring actress in Andy Warhol's Factory (the company creating art and movies)

Edie gave Dylan the finger when he came on to her or something, then she fell on bad times, and Dylan was literally pissing all over her with this song

"Napoleon in Rags" actually is referring to Warhol

__________________


Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Moshe

I was being deliberately obtuse. I had thought "Napoleon in rags" refered to some street charechter, but Il Duces' casting him as Andy warhole is interesting

Moshe

Interesting theory re "Napoleon in Rags" being Warhol.
What i don't like about Dylans' songs from that period was the visciousness with which he tore into friends & aquaintances

Lisnaholic

Sorry ! I missed that.