Landys ghost
02-01-2010, 03:48 PM
JWH is, in my opinion ,arguably Dylan's finest work. An album so deceptively simple in execution but cloaked in mystery and allusion and some illusion.
The rear cover has a parable about trying to understand the work within, now is he tempting us or is he playing with us? that depends on how far you want to go in and that's "the key" you can either accept the songs as simple parables or you can try and decipher every line and refer to each line's root source and end up tying yourself up in knots as you attempt to decopher, who is the joker, the hobo,the immigrant the messenger,like Desolation Row whose names were all changed this is an album full of characters as well as character.He'd spent the previous spring road testing characters in the basement tapes, songs like Too Much of Nothing,Lo and behold,Tears of Rage and Wheels on fire would not have been out of place in some respects.
The album drips with Biblical imagery, not necessarily a sign of faith etc but a ready and useful Thesaurus to provide the atmosphere because this album deals with examining what a man achieves and how a nation reacts ...this was the middle of the War and whereas others would write directly about the conflict Dylan. in his usual way, looks at it from another angle, one of a nations morality...but, in my opinion,the main reason for the album is to examine Bob Dylan and his self morality, we all live by a code, whatever our faith or lack of it, there again you can have a faith in other things , love too is a spiritual thing after all.
The album's songs rarely contain more than 4 chords,theres no need, the musicianship is tip top tight, the melody's are anciently wonderful.
If for the purpose of this essay we consider that the characters are, in the main , Dylan symbols [ like the ones in I'm not There] then it becomes clearer. As Dylan cold turkeyed out of whatever substance abuse he was on he possibly looked in the mirror and wasnt best pleased with what he saw.
JWH - [ dylan ] was a friend to the poor, a man who would help people who tried to open doors and light on various struggles,the gun in every hand is reminiscent of "this guitar kills fascists" , a man who used the Civil Rights movement but who wouldnt be pinned or chained down into some leadrship role even as the level of fame increased, oh no he was far to clever for that
As I went out - what a wonderful song this is. Tom PAYNE was an English pamphleteer of the late 18th C, very instrumental in both the War of Independence and the French Revolution and someone lauded by the Civil Rights movement.
Dylan uses the oldest opening gambit in Folk music, he's surveying the state of the nation, the damsel in question may well be the US constitution/political establishment that is being abused in the current political climate . Dylan speaks as one who is prepared to show the nature of these abuses but the damsel wants to ensnare him and win him over, luckily Payne is there as a sort of representative that perhaps all is not lost, however.............
St Augustine [ and it's irrelevant which one,it's the rhyming metre that counts ] drifts through a landscape of great wealth and poverty, both materially and spiritually, looking to find any leaders in this landscape he is ultimately martyred, and Dylan acknowledges that he may well have been a party in killing off this spirituality whilst obtaining fame and fortune
Dylan is both joker and thief, pointing out that while all this goes on some people are gaining at his expense even to the point where he is nearly destroyed, luckily a part of him can also see the transient nature of fame, money and women and he knows there'll be a reckoning
Dylan is Frankie Lee , Priest may well be Grossman, who is quite prepared to drive the money machine that Dylan has become, and so Dylan and Priests greed leads to spiritual death,but still Dylan cannot really accept that OH Mama is this really the end?
and so side one ends with a kangaroo court and the trial of Bob Dylan,theres no point now in trying to understand it's too late,no one can help you and all your fans are just baying and shouting "JUDAS!" but the joker/drifter/thief/hardin' is spared, just like falling off a bike really, but this is more dramatic....boy youve had a narrow escape, you almost felt the flames of a symbolic hell
"Not until some things are evened up" said Dylan just before recording JWH and in Dear Landlord he does that but being the writer he is the Landlord could be his inner self too, recognising that people have needs let me be a bit more of myelf, things arent easy, life is brief and I aint going nowhere so lets try and get along, the inner and public man
And then it's back to self flagellation, Dylan the wanderer the hip con artist who never trusted anyone, who manipulated his way through the Civil Rights Movement got to the top had it all and then ...walked away,he'd gained and lost the world but regained his soul,what was the point of it the old bob dylan has almost been erased almost time for a new incarnation , but first
The Immigrant ,he too had it all but couldnt even see it,he was ungracious and uncouth,and wasted his abilties, but if the Immigrant was unpleasant then the Messenger was downright scheming and mendacious, oh he had powers of expression so sublime,sweet harmonious tongue but it was all a front,but even he whose feet were burning had a chance to change and that change was an even younger Bob Dylan than the one in My Back Pages, he'd put his life in order, kicked out Grossman, realised that he'd become quite an unpleasant person with low morals and bent principles, the fame and fortune wasnt as one expected and desired, and he turned his back on it....time now for the wife and kids and a slice of country pie, start being a real human again...for a while
The rear cover has a parable about trying to understand the work within, now is he tempting us or is he playing with us? that depends on how far you want to go in and that's "the key" you can either accept the songs as simple parables or you can try and decipher every line and refer to each line's root source and end up tying yourself up in knots as you attempt to decopher, who is the joker, the hobo,the immigrant the messenger,like Desolation Row whose names were all changed this is an album full of characters as well as character.He'd spent the previous spring road testing characters in the basement tapes, songs like Too Much of Nothing,Lo and behold,Tears of Rage and Wheels on fire would not have been out of place in some respects.
The album drips with Biblical imagery, not necessarily a sign of faith etc but a ready and useful Thesaurus to provide the atmosphere because this album deals with examining what a man achieves and how a nation reacts ...this was the middle of the War and whereas others would write directly about the conflict Dylan. in his usual way, looks at it from another angle, one of a nations morality...but, in my opinion,the main reason for the album is to examine Bob Dylan and his self morality, we all live by a code, whatever our faith or lack of it, there again you can have a faith in other things , love too is a spiritual thing after all.
The album's songs rarely contain more than 4 chords,theres no need, the musicianship is tip top tight, the melody's are anciently wonderful.
If for the purpose of this essay we consider that the characters are, in the main , Dylan symbols [ like the ones in I'm not There] then it becomes clearer. As Dylan cold turkeyed out of whatever substance abuse he was on he possibly looked in the mirror and wasnt best pleased with what he saw.
JWH - [ dylan ] was a friend to the poor, a man who would help people who tried to open doors and light on various struggles,the gun in every hand is reminiscent of "this guitar kills fascists" , a man who used the Civil Rights movement but who wouldnt be pinned or chained down into some leadrship role even as the level of fame increased, oh no he was far to clever for that
As I went out - what a wonderful song this is. Tom PAYNE was an English pamphleteer of the late 18th C, very instrumental in both the War of Independence and the French Revolution and someone lauded by the Civil Rights movement.
Dylan uses the oldest opening gambit in Folk music, he's surveying the state of the nation, the damsel in question may well be the US constitution/political establishment that is being abused in the current political climate . Dylan speaks as one who is prepared to show the nature of these abuses but the damsel wants to ensnare him and win him over, luckily Payne is there as a sort of representative that perhaps all is not lost, however.............
St Augustine [ and it's irrelevant which one,it's the rhyming metre that counts ] drifts through a landscape of great wealth and poverty, both materially and spiritually, looking to find any leaders in this landscape he is ultimately martyred, and Dylan acknowledges that he may well have been a party in killing off this spirituality whilst obtaining fame and fortune
Dylan is both joker and thief, pointing out that while all this goes on some people are gaining at his expense even to the point where he is nearly destroyed, luckily a part of him can also see the transient nature of fame, money and women and he knows there'll be a reckoning
Dylan is Frankie Lee , Priest may well be Grossman, who is quite prepared to drive the money machine that Dylan has become, and so Dylan and Priests greed leads to spiritual death,but still Dylan cannot really accept that OH Mama is this really the end?
and so side one ends with a kangaroo court and the trial of Bob Dylan,theres no point now in trying to understand it's too late,no one can help you and all your fans are just baying and shouting "JUDAS!" but the joker/drifter/thief/hardin' is spared, just like falling off a bike really, but this is more dramatic....boy youve had a narrow escape, you almost felt the flames of a symbolic hell
"Not until some things are evened up" said Dylan just before recording JWH and in Dear Landlord he does that but being the writer he is the Landlord could be his inner self too, recognising that people have needs let me be a bit more of myelf, things arent easy, life is brief and I aint going nowhere so lets try and get along, the inner and public man
And then it's back to self flagellation, Dylan the wanderer the hip con artist who never trusted anyone, who manipulated his way through the Civil Rights Movement got to the top had it all and then ...walked away,he'd gained and lost the world but regained his soul,what was the point of it the old bob dylan has almost been erased almost time for a new incarnation , but first
The Immigrant ,he too had it all but couldnt even see it,he was ungracious and uncouth,and wasted his abilties, but if the Immigrant was unpleasant then the Messenger was downright scheming and mendacious, oh he had powers of expression so sublime,sweet harmonious tongue but it was all a front,but even he whose feet were burning had a chance to change and that change was an even younger Bob Dylan than the one in My Back Pages, he'd put his life in order, kicked out Grossman, realised that he'd become quite an unpleasant person with low morals and bent principles, the fame and fortune wasnt as one expected and desired, and he turned his back on it....time now for the wife and kids and a slice of country pie, start being a real human again...for a while