Union Sundown

Capitalism
Kills jobs here and makes slaves there.
So much for unions.

Capitalism kills American jobs. That's the message of "Union Sundown" from the 1983 album "Infidels."

Where Bob's stuff comes from now that globalization is happening:
Flashlight - Singapore
Tablecloth - Malaysia
Belt buckle - the Amazon
Shirt- the Philippines
Chevrolet - Argentina
Silk dress - Hong Kong
Pearls - Japan
Dog collar - India
Flower pot - Pakistan
Furniture - Brazil

Chorus:

Well, it’s sundown on the union
And what’s made in the U.S.A.
Sure was a good idea
’Til greed got in the way

USA:
"They don't make nothin' here no more."

Capitalism: 
Above the law
"When it costs too much to build it at home, you just build it cheaper someplace else."

Jobs:
They're in El Salvador now. 

Unions:
"The unions are big business, friend, and they’re goin’ out like a dinosaur."

Food: 
"They used to grow food in Kansas, now they want to grow it on the moon and eat it raw. I can see the day coming when even your home garden is gonna be against the law."

Democracy:
"Democracy don’t rule the world, you’d better get that in your head. This world is ruled by violence."

Sweetheart Like You

Sweetheart in a dump
Should be at home with her man
Instead of with Bob.

I've never quite understood what's going on in this song from "Infidels," Bob Dylan's politically charged 1983 album. I like the music, the band is hot, and the atmosphere works, but who is the singer to tell a woman where she should be rather than where she is? (Refrain: "What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?") After all, if it's such a dump, what's he doing there, wherever there is? It reminds me of the great moment in Mel Brooks's 1968 movie "The Producers" when the great conman and faded Broadway producer Max Bialystok tries to lighten up the uptight accountant Leo Bloom. Max takes Leo out for a day in Manhattan, and they end up in the boat pond in Central Park, sitting on a row boat with their pant legs rolled up and dangling their feet in the water. Leo is nervous, and says, "What if someone from the office should see me?" Max replies: "And they'd see you. And you'd see them. And what are THEY NOT DOING IN THE OFFICE?"

Or maybe it's not sexism. I read on Wikipedia that some people have claimed that Dylan is addressing the church, but I would discount that as the amount of attention that hardcore fans put into each lyric, often deciding that there's 20% more in a song than the writer likely intended. I submit that the "dump," if anything, is planet earth. Evidence:

"You know, news of you has come down the line even before you came in the door. They say in your father's house, there's many mansions, each one of them got a fireproof floor."

"Got to be an important person to be in here, honey, got to have done some evil deed."

That line plays on the theme of reincarnation. I was going to say that perhaps the sweetheart in question was Jesus, and that Dylan was singing slyly to a savior with flaws, but I think this sweetheart is some more ethereal figure who is supposed to remain deliberately obscure.

Unrelated to anything, I love the working title of this song when they were rehearsing in the studio: "By the Way, That's a Cute Hat."

- The "boss" left after sundown and went north, the victim of his own vanity. I have no idea what this means, but to me the boss is God. And I risk falling prey to the same armchair analysis of Dylan's work that I was referring to above. Meanwhile, Bob appreciates her hat and her smile, but wonders what she's doing in a place like this.
- He knew a woman like you when he was younger. She called him "sweet daddy." He offers her a tip on how to play a card trick, and says she needs it to survive in this game (life).
- She should be at home where she belongs... "Watching out for someone who loves you true, who would never do you wrong. Just how much abuse will you be able to take? Well, there's n o way to tell by that first kiss."
- She could, if she decided she had the ambition, make a name for herself and be known as "the most beautiful woman who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal." Again, I'm at sea with this.
- People are jealous of her, and compliment her to her face while "hissing" behind her back.
- Bob refers to quotes about patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel, as well as to petty thieves (criminals) and big thieves (the capitalist financial/political establishment), and before asking her one more time what she's doing in this dump, he notes that the next step down from this life is the "land of permanent bliss."

Neighborhood Bully

They call Israel
A neighborhood bully, but
It's not the bad guy.

Bob Dylan wrote "Neighborhood Bully" for the 1983 album "Infidels." After his period of Christian music, it was interesting to see him embrace, to some extent, his Jewish origins, particularly with this song about Israel's attempts to defend itself against hostile neighbors while being labeled the bad guy. The shot of Dylan in Jerusalem on the album's inner sleeve reinforces the notion that Dylan was looking elsewhere besides the cross for inspiration.

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
’Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully

He got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully

Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully

What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin’, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He’s the neighborhood bully

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully

Man of Peace

Want to spot Satan?
Look for the best guy around.
It's probably him.

This can't be news to you by now, but as Bob Dylan said, sometimes Satan comes as a "Man of Peace." That's the name of this song from the 1983 album "Infidels." There's not much more to it than that, making this a masterpiece of brevity.

Attributes and avatars of Satan:
- The Fuhrer
- Local priest
- Man of peace
- Gift of gab
- Harmonious tongue
- Knows all the love songs
- Hands full of grease
- First he's in the background, then he's in the front
- He always looks like he's on a rabbit hunt
- The chief of police can't see through him
- He always shows up when you're looking for sunlight and a solution to your troubles
- You'd never suspect it was Satan standing next to you in a crowd
- Fascinating
- Dull
- Rides down Niagara Falls in a barrel made of your skull
- He's a cook
- He's a humanitarian
- He's a philanthropist
- He knows how to touch you and kiss you
- He has the tender touch of the beast
- He howls like a wolf and crawls like a snake
- He uproots old trees
- He specializes in coming after single people, so you had better get married.

Here he is with the Grateful Dead in 1987.

Here is the studio version.

License to Kill

Mankind hurts the earth.
Space travel, lies and deceit
Will destroy us all.

"License to Kill" is one of those songs that shows off Bob Dylan in his cranky old man outfit, though he was in his early 40s when he released this song on the album "Infidels." He inveighs against the space race, general human mistreatment of well meaning people, world distruction, lies and the usual assortment of things that were on his mind at the time.

1. Oh, man has invented his doom
First step was touching the moon

2. Now, they take him and they teach him and they groom him for life
And they set him on a path where he’s bound to get ill
Then they bury him with stars
Sell his body like they do used cars

3. His brain has been mismanaged with great skill
All he believes are his eyes
And his eyes, they just tell him lies

4. Oh, man is opposed to fair play
He wants it all and he wants it his way

All the while there's this woman who lives on Bob's block and who appears in the chorus. She keeps asking who will take away the license to kill that belongs to this man who's been lied to and acts the way he has been groomed. I would if I could.

Here's a version that Dylan performed on the David Letterman show:

And the studio version, which is nothing like it:

Jokerman

Man of influence
And power doesn't know how
To fix the world.

I've written 15 haiku to "Jokerman" if I've written a single one. I can't figure out this song, and every interpretation I've read by others sounds overdone and silly. My impressions don't even form a conclusion, so ethereal is this song, which opened the 1983 album "Infidels." The haiku I finally settled on is subject to scorn and derision for how off base it probably is. Help me out, friends. I'm more than happy to rewrite this.

Standing on the waters casting your bread
While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing
Distant ships sailing into the mist
You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing
Freedom just around the corner for you
But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?

- Feels like a Jesus thing here. Casting bread, walking on water. Sermon on the Mount, Galilee and so on and on.
- Idol: Satan, pagan, etc.
- Ships in the mist and freedom just around the corner but useless: pretty, melancholy images. Something ideal close, but too far away to touch.
- Snakes/hurricane: Snake like the Old Testament? Jesus triumphs over evil? Dunno.

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune
Bird fly high by the light of the moon
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

So swiftly the sun sets in the sky
You rise up and say goodbye to no one
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Both of their futures, so full of dread, you don’t show one
Shedding off one more layer of skin
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within

- No idea. Thieves travel by night. Three days in the tomb. Resurrection.
- Fools rush in/angels, yes, no explanation needed.
- Shedding off skin - like a snake again. Is this even the same person from the first verse? Or is it some more dubious Messiah or would-be Messiah? Is this Messiah a deceiver? See next verse regarding the manipulator of crowds and the dream twister.

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune
Bird fly high by the light of the moon
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

You’re a man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds
Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister
You’re going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care? Ain’t nobody there would want to marry your sister
Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame
You look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name

- Feels more like a Christ/Antichrist remix. Manipulator AND friend to martyrs, sodomites and whores, just like Jesus (not sure about the gay part).

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune
Bird fly high by the light of the moon
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

Well, the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy
The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers
In the smoke of the twilight on a milk-white steed
Michelangelo indeed could’ve carved out your features
Resting in the fields, far from the turbulent space
Half asleep near the stars with a small dog licking your face (I always thought this was small, dark look on your face, but what do I know)

- Old Testament + street smarts + the law of the sea.


Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune
Bird fly high by the light of the moon
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

Well, the rifleman’s stalking the sick and the lame
Preacherman seeks the same, who’ll get there first is uncertain
Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas, padlocks
Molotov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain
False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin
Only a matter of time ’til night comes steppin’ in

- Governments, religions and wars fought in the name of the people. It's no surprise on this verse when you listen and think about the headlines of the time. The Intifadah, the rise of modern Islamist terrorist attacks, etc. It's no surprise that the image on the "Infidels" back cover and on the "Jokerman" single features Dylan with Jerusalem in the background.

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune
Bird fly high by the light of the moon
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

It’s a shadowy world, skies are slippery grey
A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet
He’ll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat
Take the motherless children off the street
And place them at the feet of a harlot
Oh, Jokerman, you know what he wants
Oh, Jokerman, you don’t show any response

- Another admixture of Jesus and something darker and more worldly. Not like I really understand though...

I and I

Bob leaves girl sleeping,
Doesn't want talk, takes a walk,
Ponders truth, justice.

"I and I" comes from the 1983 album "Infidels," and features, perhaps not coincidentally to the song's title, reggae and dub masters Sly & Robbie on drum and bass. The term is Rastafarian, referring to the oneness of God and humans, and how each is in the other. Here's a look at how Dylan deploys this in his song:

1. Bob finally gets a new woman to spend the night with him. It's been a while. She's pretty cool, and must have been married to a king in her previous life. Maybe a Biblical king.
2. He goes for a walk and leaves her sleeping because she'll just want to talk and he feels like being quiet.
3. Once Bob took a path less traveled, where the slow win. It's path for people who know the truth. He needed a stranger to show this to him, as well as how to look at the Hammurabi code of "eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" that is inherent to the concept of justice.
4. Two men sit on a train platform. He walks by them. He remembers the woman sleeping in his bed. He thinks the world could end right now.
5. The next day: He's still walking, this time through a particularly dark stretch of road (I take this to be a metaphor, given that it's noontime, as in "Darkness at...") He notes that someone else is speaking with his mouth while he listens to his heart, and that "I've made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot."

The chorus, meanwhile is this:

I and I
In creation where one’s nature neither honors nor forgives
I and I
One says to the other, no man sees my face and lives

You might assume that he's talking about God and his true face, which in the Greek myths is what Zeus isn't supposed to show people because it's too much for them to take.

Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight

"Don't leave me yet," he says.
"We can work things out. Just keep
Your shit together."

Dylan brings a great title and great music from a great band to the closer of the 1983 album "Infidels." Mark Knopfler and Alan Clark from Dire Straits? Sly and Robbie? Mick Taylor from the Rolling Stones? The sound is smooth and warm, and the melody leaps around, aided by some kind of compressed harmonica sound (Music people, please tell me how they make it sound that way) and the light-as-bread Knopfler guitar sound. The lyrics are where things get dicey. The song comes from that time in the 80s when Dylan was finding strange new ways to lecture women instead of the old way of ruing their departure and pouring scorn on them. In "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight," he makes a plea to keep her from going, but you can hear the beginnings of the cranky old man start to emerge from the first years of middle age:

- Questioning motives: What is it that you're trying to achieve girl?
- Better in here than out there: The streets are filled with vipers, even the Vatican is unsafe.
- Can your friends tell you what's wrong from right?

Then he points out that she shouldn't fall apart on him because HE doesn't think he could handle it. You have to think of No. 1.

The self loathing, as a result of all this lecturing, is more effective than at other times. At least he sees the fault in himself:

"I wish I'd have been a doctor
Maybe I'd have saved some life that had been lost
Maybe I'd have done some good in the world
Instead of burning every bridge I crossed."

I've never figured out, meanwhile, who the millionaire with the drumsticks in his pants is, but I love the line about how "He looked so baffled when he played and we didn't dance."

Then there's the total mystery of what are the "mudcake creatures" that are lying in her arms. It sounds like a relationship make-up session conducted in the pages of "Naked Lunch."

Good live studio recording here, though filmed through some weird distorted mirror effect:

The album track is here:

Blind Willie McTell

Blues singer frames

Stories of the South's decline:

Magnolias and slaves.

This haiku is a failure, and someday I'm going to fix that. I've written this one about a dozen times, and I can't get it right. Maybe that's because the lyrics aim at defining an atmosphere more than telling a story.

1. Bob sees an "arrow on the doorpost" saying the land is condemned from New Orleans to Jerusalem, and wanders through east Texas where martyrs fell. And then the non-sequitur end of every verse: "And I know no one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell."

2. Owl sings to stars above barren trees and "charcoal gypsy maidens" "strut their feathers well" as someone, presumably a circus, takes down tents.

3. Plantations burn, slave masters crack whips, magnolia blooms, the ghosts of slavery ships sail. Tribes moan, undertaker's bell.

4. Woman and man and a bottle of bootleg whiskey by the river. Chain gang on the highway. Rebels yell.

5. All that's left of God's presence on earth is power, greed and "corruptible seed." Bob, meanwhile, is in the St. James Hotel, looking out the windows, and thinking about how nobody can sing the blues like...

An earlier version of this haiku, the only one that I'm not overly embarrassed to publish, went like this:

Deep South, magnolias,

Slaves, plantations, blues singers --

Chicken-fried music.

The last line is trite and silly. If you have suggestions, I'll take them.

Two versions of the song are here. The first is the 1983 take that was released on the first edition of the Bootleg Series (volumes 1-3). The second take comes from the same period, during the rehearsals and recordings for the "Infidels" album, and features Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits on guitar.

Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground

Touched by angel:

She makes a guy fall in love,

Then she flies away.

Willie Nelson wrote this. Dylan performed it during the sessions for the 1983 album "Infidels," then released it as the B-side to "Jokerman" and, I think, one or two other songs from that album, but only in international editions. I have a 45-rpm single of this that comes from Brazil. This one is a precursor of sorts to "In Spite of Me," by Morphine, at least the way I hear it. Angel falls to the ground, guy heals her, she flies away again, being an angel, he provides the gentlest of guilt trips:

I knew someday that you would fly away For love's the greatest healer to be found So leave me if you need to, I will still remember Angel flying too close to the ground

Blind Willie McTell

Deep south, magnolias,
Slaves, plantations, blues singers...
Chicken-fried music.

Foot of Pride

Belief don't mean you're
A sheep. Bob shows how to pray,
Yet be cynical.

Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground

Getting ditched is bad.
Write a hit song about it
And then feel better.