Workingman's Blues #2

Finding work is hard.
Finding love is harder still.
I hope we can work.

This tip of the hat to Merle Haggard and his "Workingman's Blues" is a wonderful song. "Workingman's Blues #2" appears on the 2006 album "Modern Times," and despite my enthusiasm for it, I find it a hard one to analyze. I put it down to love and work, the things that we spend most of our time doing.

1. Dusk. Starlight by the creek. The proletariat has less buying power every day, currency is inflating, low wages are here to stay if we want to be competitive. The place I love best is gone.
2. "My cruel weapons have been put on the shelf." I assume that he means his biting words. Come over and sit on my knee. I love you. Listening to the railroad tracks, eyes closed, trying to ignore my hunger.
3. Chorus: "Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind, Bring me my boots and shoes. You can hang back or fight your best on the front line. Sing a little bit of these workingman's blues."
4. Sailing, ready for the storm-tossed deep. I'll take my enemies to hell and sell them to THEIR enemies. Think I'll sleep the rest of the day and sustain myself on thoughts. "Sometimes no one wants what we got. Sometimes you can't give it away."
5. Enemies are everywhere, some deaf and dumb. When will sorrow come? Outside: the night birds. Inside: lover. Sleeping in the kitchen, feet in the hall. This must be what death is like.
6. Barn burned, horse stolen, no money. Must resist life of crime. I wish you were here. Have you forgotten me?
7. People worry all the time. I don't think of them at all. I just think of you. You hurt me with your words, but that won't last.
8. "No one can ever claim that I took up arms against you."
9. Bruised and down on my luck. I will give you another chance. Please come and dance me away. I have a new suit, a new wife and I can live on rice and beans. "Some people never worked a day in their life, don't know what work even means."

When the Deal Goes Down

Life is short, death long.
He'll be with you when you go
Because he loves you.

"When the Deal Goes Down" means "when you die." It's a compassionate, quite touching song from the 2006 album "Modern Times," a promise to be with someone when they die.

1. Life is mysterious, gaining wisdom is hard. You see glimpses and then you don't, "In the still of the night, in the world's ancient light."
2. Prayers = just clouds in the air. "We live and we die, we know not why, but I'll be with you when the deal goes down."
3. Eat, drink, feel, think, stray, laugh, cry, and "I'm haunted by things I never meant nor wished to say." Everybody has trouble. "Soul to soul, our shadows roll, and I'll be with you when the deal goes down."
4. "We learn to live and then we forgive, o'er the road we're bound to go. More frailer than the flowers, these precious hours, that keep us so tightly bound." "You come to my eyes like a vision from the skies, and I'll be with you when the deal goes down."
5. Rose/briar - the rose pokes through his clothes. "I felt transient joys, I know they're not what they seem. In this earthly domain, full of disappointment and pain, you'll never see me frown. I owe my heart to you, and that's sayin' it true. And I'll be with you when the deal goes down."

Thunder on the Mountain

His soul's expanding:
Bob thinks of Alicia Keys,
Love, mercy and work.

This opening track from the 2006 album "Modern Times" is a great, luxurious pistol shot of expectation. It feels like Dylan is ready for act five of his life, and it's beginning with a fine period of renewal, humor and drive. It feels like nothing has happened for ages, and finally something is about to. It's a great opener for an album. 

1. Thunder on the mountain, fire on the moon, fights in the alley, it's nearly dawn. Hot stuff everywhere I go.
2. Alicia Keys makes me cry. Where on earth can she be? I'm so much older than she is.
3. "I feel like my soul is beginning to expand. Look into my heart and you will sort of understand." You made me fall in love with you and now you're done with me? Just study the writing on the wall.
4. I don't need a guide. I know the way to the music. "Remember this, I'm your servant both night and day."
5. "Gonna forget about myself for a while, gonna go out and see what others need."
6. "I've been sitting down, studying the art of love. I think it will fit me like a glove." "I want some real good woman to do just what I say. Everybody got to wonder what's the matter with this cruel world today."
7. I don't mind walking the hard road because some day I'll reap my heavenly reward. I also wouldn't betray your love.
8. I'm going to raise a tough army from the orphanages. I've made my religious vows. "I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows."
9. "I got the pork chops, she got the pie. She ain't no angel and neither am I. Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes. I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams."
10. Twister's coming. The ladies of Washington are trying to evacuate.
11. I'm gonna try farming up north. "The hammer's on the table, the pitchfork's on the shelf. For the love of God, you ought to take pity on yourself."

This a radio edit. I can't find the full version...

Spirit on the Water

She's the one for Bob.
He might be over the hill,
But that's no problem.

This is a lovely, loping song from the 2006 album "Modern Times," one that fills itself out as elegantly and expressively as the song just before it, "Thunder on the Mountain." They're long songs, but never boring. This one has perhaps more verses than it needs to get to the point, which is that there's a woman he's in love with, in spite of some of the ways she tries him, and he's ready to tolerate a number of her transgressions as long as she sticks around. The title, and the first few words, "Darkness on the face of the deep" refer to the world just after the account in the Bible of how God created it. Before anything else, there was nothing but God's face moving over the deep water, it says in the book of Genesis. It's a powerful image.

Here are a few more details in the song that helped me think up the haiku:
- He can't sleep for thinking of you.
- You're on his mind wherever he travels.
- We were meant to be more than friends, he says, even in the days when he forgot about you.
- He's wild about you. Ideally, you should be a fool about him.
- You burned your way into his heart and you have the key to his brain.
- He's sweating blood and wandering through mud and noting that your face begs for love.
- Life is nothing without you.
- You do good all day and you do bad all night.
- You make him so happy that he's tolerant of you and your wicked ways.
- People say you spoon out your sugar all over town, but maybe just once spoon some sugar out back home.
- Sometimes he feels like a ghost.
- You blind him, but he takes good care of you all the same.
- He hopes your love won't fade from your mind.
- He could live with you forever.
- He wants to be with you any way that he can.
- You have numbed his will.
- He wants to be with you in paradise, but he can't go to paradise because he killed a man there.
- You think he's over the hill, but he guarantees you that you could have a good time together.

Someday Baby

You worry me now,
But you won't worry me long.
I'm making you leave.

"Someday Baby," which appeared on the 2006 album "Modern Times," is based on a number of older songs done by Muddy Waters, Sleepy John Estes and others. It netted Dylan a Grammy award. The essence of the song is a description of a troublesome lover who sooner or later won't worry him anymore. See below:

- Do what you want, say what you want, go away as long as you want. 
- You took my money, you leave me full of doubt.
- I used to like to drive, but now you drive me crazy.
- I'm dwelling on the same thoughts, and felling uptight. 
- I overlooked the good things in life for the sake of you, and I'm hooked.
- I'll wring your neck as a matter of self respect.
- Pack your clothes and take off. Don't come back.
- I tried to be nice, but now I'm kicking you out.
- "Living this way ain't a natural thing to do. Why was I born to love you? Someday, baby, you ain't gonna worry po' me anymore."

Rollin' and Tumblin'

"Slut" charms Bob. He dreads
Early sorrow and pines for
His long-gone lover.

The original "Rollin' and Tumblin'" was first recorded by Hambone Willie Newbern in 1929, though the ones that most contemporary audiences know are by Muddy Waters and Cream. Bob Dylan recorded his own variation for the 2006 album "Modern Times." I notice that in the past few years, he's referred to various "bitches," "hags" and "sluts" on his albums. I do wish he wouldn't, but he's the artist. One such "slut" appears here:

1. I rolled and tumbled all night long.
2. I have troubles. "Some lazy slut has charmed away my brains."
3. The landscape is glowing in the day's golden light. I'm going to say whatever I want from now on.
4. I tried to keep from thinking about you. I paid my dues, but my heart still suffers.
5. I get up every morning and go lie down outside. I can do whatever I want.
6. This latest girlfriend of mine was such a troublesome woman that "I swear I ain't gonna touch another one for years."
7. It's getting warm and the buds are beginning to bloom (I think I know what's going on here.). I continue to try to satisfy the woman I already have.
8. The sun came up again, as always. Oh, you're going to burn in hell one of these days.
9. Shadows and doom: I'm raising the souls of the dead from their decaying tombs.
10. Let's settle our past differences, baby.
11. I rolled and tumbled all night long.

Nettie Moore

Nettie Moore is gone,
Bob's getting along somehow
In his lonely hours.

"Oh, I miss you Nettie Moore
And my happiness is o'er
Winter's gone, the river's on the rise
I loved you then and ever shall
But there's no one here that's left to tell
The world has gone black before my eyes."

"Nettie Moore" is 12 verses and a chorus (see above -- it's taken from an old song, which I've included below). It's a tangled, deep but spare song that appears on "Modern Times," Bob Dylan's expansive 2006 album that builds itself on a pastiche of blues song references and a variety of other literary sources. Some say there's active plagiarism at work. I see a mix and match of inspiration. For every obscure line from someone's book or song or folk tale that ends up in here, there are explicit references to source material, from the Robert Johnson "blues falling down like hail" line in this song and the further adventures of Frankie and Albert, to a hat tip to Merle Haggard on "Workingman's Blues #2." The song doesn't tell a linear story, though Dylan keeps returning to missing Nettie Moore and having no one with whom he can share his feelings. He sings the song gently, slowly, with minimal drumming that almost suggests a funeral, though the tone is light and wistful instead of muffled and dark.

Here is the rest. None of it, regrettably, made it into the haiku. I open each couplet with a clue since I don't know what he's after here:

The state of things:
Lost John sitting on a railroad track
Something's out of wack

Robert Johnson and what comes after:
Blues this morning falling down like hail
Gonna leave a greasy trail

Dylan on perpetual tour:
Gonna travel the world is what I'm gonna do
Then come back and see you

Trying his best:
All I ever do is struggle and strive
If I don't do anybody any harm, I might make it back home alive

I don't know about the crazy part, but the band part is true:
I'm the oldest son of a crazy man
I'm in a cowboy band

Redemption song:
Got a pile of sins to pay for and I ain't got time to hide
I'd walk through a blazing fire, baby, if I knew you was on the other side

Dylanlogists?
The world of research has gone berserk
Too much paperwork

Justice:
Albert's in the graveyard, Frankie's raising hell
I'm beginning to believe what the scriptures tell

This I can't interpret:
I'm going where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog
Get away from these demagogues

Nor this:
And these bad luck women stick like glue
It's either one or the other or neither of the two

Watch out:
She says, "look out daddy, don't want you to tear your pants.
You can get wrecked in this dance."

Refers to Dylan songs "Minstrel Boy" and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and whatever the origin is of "top of the hill."
They say whiskey will kill ya, but I don't think it will
I'm riding with you to the top of the hill

Resolution:
Don't know why my baby never looked so good before
I don't have to wonder no more

Could be that food is just food, or maybe it's a sexy thing:
She been cooking all day and it's gonna take me all night
I can't eat all that stuff in a single bite

Redemption #2:
The Judge is coming in, everybody rise
Lift up your eyes

I'm just a singer/songwriter:
You can do what you please, you don't need my advice
Before you call me any dirty names you better think twice

It's about time:
Getting light outside, the temperature dropped
I think the rain has stopped

Who's he talking to?
I'm going to make you come to grips with fate
When I'm through with you, you'll learn to keep your business straight

On stage:
The bright spark of the steady lights
Has dimmed my sights

Love note:
When you're around all my grief gives 'way
A lifetime with you is like some heavenly day

Tangled up in Blue:
Everything I've ever known to be right has proven wrong
I'll be drifting along

Love note #2:
The woman I'm lovin', she rules my heart
No knife could ever cut our love apart

Belief:
Today I'll stand in faith and raise
The voice of praise

Life is hard:
The sun is strong, I'm standing in the light
I wish to God that it were night

The title comes from the folk song "Gentle Nettie Moore," which I have included here. And here are those lyrics:

In a little white cottage.
Where the trees are ever green,
And the climbing roses blossom at the door,
I've often sat and listen'd
To the music of the birds,
And the gentle voice of charming Nettie Moore.

Chorus.
Oh, I miss you Nettie Moore,
And my happiness is o'er,
While a spirit sad around my heart his come;
And the busy days are long,
And the nights are lonely now,
For you're gone from our little cottage home.

Below us in the valley,
On the river's dancing tide,
Of a Summer eve I'd launch my open boat;
And when the moon was rising,
And the stars began to shine,
Down the river we so merrily would float.-Chorus.

And often in the Autumn,
Ere the dew had left the lawn,
We would wander o'er the fields far away;
But those moments have departed,
Gentle Nettie, too, is gone,
And no longer sweetly with her can I stray.-Chorus.

Since the time that you departed,
I have long'd from earth to rise,
And join the happy angels gone before;
I can not now be merry.
For my heart is full of woe,
Ever pining for my gentle Nettie Moore.-Chorus.

You are gone, darling Nettie;
I have mouru'd you many a day;
But I'll wipe all the tears from my eyes;
For as soon as life is past,
I shall meet you once again,
In heaven, darling, up above the skies.-Chorus.

The Levee's Gonna Break

Forget the levee.
Blocking floods isn't my job,
But loving you is.

Two things are happening here. One is that Bob Dylan's favorite metaphor, the flood, is threatening to overwhelm the levee. Regarding this, we have the following support:

- The levee, the rain and the state of human affairs: "God's work," "people are greedy," "people are desperate," "people are opportunistic."

- If it keep on rainin' the levee gonna break
Everybody saying this is a day only the Lord could make

- Some of these people gonna strip you of all they can take

- Some of these people don't know which road to take

- Some people on the road carrying everything that they own
Some people got barely enough skin to cover their bones

- Plenty of cheap stuff out there still around that you take

The state of Bob's love life: It's a combination of "you're hearthless," "I love you," "you're sexy," "you don't love me," "you make love with me" and "come back to me."

- I picked you up from the gutter and this is the thanks I get
You say you want me to quit ya, I told you no, not just yet

- I look in your eyes, I see nobody other than me
I see all that I am and all I hope to be

- When I'm with you I forget I was ever blue
Without you there's no meaning in anything I do

- Put on your cat clothes, Mama, put on your evening dress
A few more years of hard work then there'll be a thousand years of happiness

- I tried to get you to love me, but I won't repeat that mistake

- I woke up this morning, butter and eggs in my bed
I ain't got enough room to even raise my head

- Come back, baby, say we never more will part
Don't be a stranger without a brain or heart

The state of Bob's heart: "I worked hard," "I gave away everything I owned," "I paid my dues and am reborn," "I'm still hoping for a better tomorrow" and "Other people might be sleeping, but I am awake, and I see everything for what it is."

- Well I worked on the levee Mama, both night and day
I got to the river and I threw my clothes away

- I paid my time and now I'm as good as new
They can't take me back, not unless I want them to

- I can't stop here, I ain't ready to unload
Riches and salvation can be waiting behind the next bend in the road

- Some people still sleepin', some people are wide awake

The song is available on the 2006 album "Modern Times."

Beyond the Horizon

Love you till we die,

And once we are dead and gone,

We'll still be in love.

Another one in the series of "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad" ruminations, as Bono might have put it, from Dylan's more recent albums. This, from "Modern Times," is one of those pre-rock-n'-rollers that Dylan has been performing lately as well, taking its structure from "Red Sails in the Sunset." He works in notes about meeting someone just in time and yet being blue.

Contrast this:

Beyond the horizon o'er the treacherous sea I still can't believe that you've set aside your love for me Beyond the horizon, 'neath crimson skies In the soft light of morning I'll follow you with my eyes Through countries and kingdoms and temples of stone Beyond the horizon right down to the bone Beyond the horizon the sky is so blue I've got more than a lifetime to live lovin' you With this: It's dark and it's dreary I ponder in vain I'm weakened, I'm weary My repentance is plain

Nobody ever said he didn't bring a lot to the party.

(PS: for some reason, perhaps because of the "horizon" mention in the title, it makes me think of those aviation films of the old days, Chuck Yeager and the test pilots of "The Right Stuff," and those silly romance books like "The Crowded Sky" by Hank Searls, but this is purely my problem)

Ain't Talkin'

You see Bob walkin’,

Silent, resistant, vengeful.

Love lost, primed to fight.

Many Bob Dylan songs beginning with the 1997 album "Time Out of Mind," wind like those old rivers of the plains states. They're sidewinders, long and meandering, and you can't tell where they're shallow or where they're deep. "Ain't Talkin'," from the 2006 album "Modern Times," is nearly nine minutes. Like many of his songs in the last 18 years, they rely on simple riffs or melodies, often taken from much older country-and-western or blues songs, played dozens of times in a row and sometimes without a chorus or a bridge.The words are where the variety lies, and Dylan packs each verse with seemingly unrelated stories, at least in the narrative. It's the feeling in the words that links each verse to the next, and the feeling is usually downcast. "Ain't Talkin'" is just such a song, and rather than trying to condense every event into 17 syllables or sounds, I tried to look at it as a picture. You can judge by the lyrics whether I sketched it properly. What you don't get in this second period of Dylan verbosity (and I mean that in a positive way, despite the connotation of the word) is the Rimbaud-style surrealism of his work in the mid-1960s. It's more of a combination of references from 2,000 years of history provided in a manner that is simple, yet as I said about the river, you'd be hard pressed to get accurate soundings as you sail. It's better to just let the river flow.

Beyond the Horizon

You can love someone
And see all your dreams come true,
So why stop loving?

Ain't Talkin'

Is it ironic?
Bob has logorrhea, but
This time cops the Fifth.