Every song Bob Dylan wrote or performed can be distilled in a haiku. NOTE FOR READERS: All posts from 2010 to 2014 should be considered out of date. Please disregard them. There are, or will be, new versions of each haiku.
"Floater (Too Much to Ask)" is one of those old-fashioned songs that could have come out 80 years ago, thought he lyrics are decidedly Dylanesque and modern. The song contains 16 verses, none of which seem to relate to each other, other than a recurring reference to living like a contrarian when people try to get the singer to do one thing or another. The title comes from the last verse when Dylan observes that it's not easy to kick someone out (of your home, I guess), and that it's unpleasant task. Sometimes, he says, someone wnats you to give something up, and even if they cry about it, "it's too much to ask."
Other contrary stuff in the song:
- Sometimes old men around here get on bad terms with the young men, but age doesn't mean anything anyway.
- One of the boss's hangers-on tries to bully you and inspire you with fear, but it has the opposite effect.
- His father is like a feudal lord and has more lives than a cat. He's never argued once with his wife, and as Dylan says, "Things come alive or they fall flat."
- Romeo tells Juliet her complexion makes her look old. Juliet replies: "Shove off if it bothers you so much."
- Bob says that if you interfere with him or cross him, your life could be in danger. He's not as cool or forgiving as he sounds, he says.
There are other verses that say other things, but it feels like this is the right way to go with the haiku.
You made him cry, now it's your turn. That's the message that ends every verse of this song, though the little stories that precede the refrain are an intriguing display of the Dylan rhyme machine at work.
1. He has to visit a "nasty, dirty, double-crossin', backstabbin' phony" named Mr. Goldsmith, and he did it just for her. But all she gave him was a smile.
2. He's a union man and he's going to set you straight.
3. He feels like a fighting rooster, pretty good in fact. He goes the extra mile when he goes to church each day.
4. He heard such a loud noise through the walls across the alley. It must have been "Don Pasquale making a 2 a.m. booty call." Breaking his trusting heart was just your style. Your turn to cry a while.
5. Some people have no heart or soul. He has both. He's been crying for you, but now it's your turn.
6. He's going to buy himself some whiskey. He plans to die before he can turn senile.
7. You bet on the wrong horse. He always said you'd be sorry. He might kill you, so he'll need a good lawyer for the trial.
Tweedle Dum & Dee:
Not exactly the best of friends
As the world ends.
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum might have started off as the inhabitants of a farcical poem from the 18th century, but they became best known as the twins in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll. Bob Dylan transforms them into a sinster duo who are sicker of each other than Lewis and Clark must have been by the time they reached Wyoming. He used them as the opening song on the 2001 album "Love and Theft" in a dark and twisted rock and roll song. 1. Tweedle-dee Dum and Tweedle-dee Dee workin' hard, throwing knives in a tree. They have two big bags of a dead man's bones. 2. They're trusting their fate to God. They're silently passing by. 3. They're take the streetcar named Desire to retire. They see a pecan pie. They want it, but they wouldn't buy it. 4. “His Master’s voice is calling me,” says Tweedle Dum to Tweedle Dee. Note that this is the old RCA-Victor slogan, with the image of a dog listening to the voice of his master coming from a Victrola that's sitting on the master's casket. 5. Dum to Dee: Your presence is obnoxious to me. Like babies on their mama's knee. 6. As for me, I'm in love with you for no good end. It's raining, and I've got boiling brains in the pot, dripping with garlic and olive oil. 7. Dee to Dum: Throw me a bone, please. Dum to Dee: What's good for you is good for me. 8. They have a kind of happy harmony, even though they're short on cash. They have a permit for their parade, which includes a police escort. 9. They run a brick and tile company. 10. "Well a childish dream is a deathless need, And a noble truth is a sacred dream." (From poet Henry Timrod) 11. "Tweedle-dee Dee is a lowdown, sorry old man. Tweedle-dee Dum, he’ll stab you where you stand. 'I’ve had too much of your company,' says Tweedle-dee Dum to Tweedle-dee Dee."
Bob's rolling along.
They say he's a washed-up star.
He thinks he's feisty.
"Summer Days" is undoubtedly a fine song, though it seems to be a collage of stories that form some new shape when viewed from afar rather than one narrative. But that's OK. This is a hallmark of Bob Dylan's more recent work. This one comes from the 2001 album "Love and Theft." I failed to capture the spirit of defiance and spunk that comes through in this song, as Dylan lets us know that the summer days are gone, but he knows where there's still a party going on, but at least I mentioned its existence in the poem. Here is the rest: - He has a house on the hill and pigs in the mud. His girlfriend has royal Indian blood. - He's standing on the table, proposing a toast to the King with a capital K, like Elvis king, or maybe he's the Indian king. - A bunch of girls tell him he's a worn-out star as he drives the flats in his Cadillac. "How can you say you love someone else when you know it's me all the time?" - You can't see the land, the fog's so thick. By the way, what good are you if you let some old businessman bully you? - Wedding bells and a choir. "What looks good in the day, at night is another thing." - Is this his wedding? She's looking at him and holding his hand and saying, "You can't repeat the past." He quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald: "You can't? What do you mean you can't? Of course you can!" - Someone asks him where he's from and where he's going. He says he doesn't need to tell them. He refers to his lifelong position of living defensively, then suggests sarcastically that she "break his heart one more time, just for good luck." - He's riding his car with all eight carburetors activated, but his gas level is low and his motor is beginning to stall. - His dogs are barking. Someone must be near the house. His hammer is ringing, but his nails aren't going in. I can only assume that this is a sex thing. - Want to say something? Say it or shut up. If you want to know about him, go ask the chief of police. - Politician has his running shoes on. He must be running for something. "He's been suckin' the blood out of the genius of generosity." - He's in the presence of God, or at least near God's river. His soul is beginning to shake as a result of this. - He's leaving in the morning as soon as the dark clouds disperse. He's going to burn his house down before he goes, just as a "parting gift."
You're fine without me.
Why bother reuniting?
I don't see the point.
Another fine song in the ever-growing catalogue of Bob Dylan songs about a lost lover going down the road who probably should just keep moving because there's no sense in getting back together -- even if it's something they want. This doleful, stark song closes the 2001 album "Love and Theft." It's notable to me for being yet another song in his later catalogue that is pretty open about its misogyny. I can't tell if that's an honest feeling or a narrative device for someone who's supposed to be the "Singer" and not Dylan. It's also another in many of his recent songs in which he sings about bright sunshine and light, and how he needs to turn his back to it because it's too intense. 1. Back to the sun. Sometimes you can't come back from what you've done. Sometimes people push it too far. You'll see that someday too. 2. "You went years without me, might as well keep going now." 3. "Some of these memories you can learn to live with, and some of them you can't." 4. "There ain't no limit to the amount of trouble women bring. Love is pleasing, love is teasing, love's not an evil thing." 5. Life seems like a joke. Happiness comes and goes just like that. It could happen at any time. "Try to make things better for someone, sometimes, you just end up making it a thousand times worse." 6. He is surely not your only heartbreak. And here, a reference to a Frank Sinatra song, "You got a way of tearing the world apart. Love, see what you done. Just as sure as we're living, just as sure as you're born. Look up, look up -- seek your maker -- 'fore Gabriel blows his horn."
"Po' Boy," which appears on the 2001 album "Love and Theft," is a curious collage built from sources from the Marx Brothers to the novel "Confessions of a Yakuza" by Japanese author Junichi Saga. In between there are references to Blind Willie McTell songs and Shakespeare's "Othello," along with a "knock knock" joke to round it out. It's not a palette that I ever would have thought of, but I'm not Bob Dylan. I can't crack the nut of this song, but I was game to go along with it because its charm sells itself.
Verses:
1. Poor boy shows up. Me: who are you looking for? Him: Your wife. Me: She's in the kitchen, cooking. Don't make me tell you again.
2. I'm at the store, buying something. The guy there wants $3. I offer him $4. "Poor boy -- never say die, things will be all right by and by."
3. I'm working on the mainline, and working hard. "The game is the same -- it's just on a different level. Poor boy -- dressed in black, police at your back."
4. Poor boy's in a happening town beyond the stars, socializing and riding first-class train cars. He's in a precarious spot though, "Tryin' to keep from fallin' between the cars." This says to me that he's not there as a welcome member of the upper class, but as a thief or a fraud or a huckster trying to make his score and get out before being discovered.
5. Othello to Desdemona: I'm cold, I need a blanket, and "by the way, what happened to that poison wine?" Desdemona to Othello: "I gave it to you, you drank it." "Poor boy, layin' 'em straight -- pickin' up the cherries fallin' off the plate."
6. I've been scratched by time and love like they were animals. Just like Blind Willie McTell, I had to go to Florida to avoid prosecution in Georgia. Poor boy, meanwhile, is living in a hotel by the charming name of the Palace of Gloom. "Calls down to room service, says send up a room," like Groucho Marx did. (I also note an oblique reference to Melinda, the one the peasants call the Goddess of Gloom in the song "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues.")
7. My mother: daughter of a wealthy farmer. My father: traveling salesman. (Dylan's first traveling salesman joke in a song since 1964's "Motorpsycho Nitemare.") I didn't know my father. When Mom died, an uncle who ran a funeral parlor took me in, did lots of nice things for me, and I won't forget him. This is the Yakuza reference, so I've read.
8. Your kiss thrills me. That's all I know. As for Poor boy, he's "pickin' up sticks, build ya a house out of mortar and bricks."
9. The song started with Poor boy knocking at the door, assuming that poor boy and I (or Bob or whoever the other person in the song plays the role of the narrator) aren't the same person. This time, I'm knocking on the door. The guy says "who are you?" I say: "Freddy." He says: "Freddy who?" I say: "Freddy or not, here I come." "Poor boy, 'neath the stars that shine, washin' them dishes, feedin' them swine."
It's pretty tonight.
Man meets woman in moonlight.
They cross the river. "Moonlight" is another combination of elegy to the day and the seasons and the defiance of an old man who still has something to offer the world, not to mention a woman. It's an old-style pop song that appeared on the 2001 album "Love and Theft." Here are the events as depicted in the song: 1. Seasons turnin', heart yearnin' for the song of the bird. Won't you meet me out in the moonlight alone? 2. Dusky light, orchids, poppies, black-eyed Susan. Earth/sky like flesh/bone. 3. Air thick/heavy on levy. Geese in the countryside. 4. "Well, I’m preachin’ peace and harmony The blessings of tranquility Yet I know when the time is right to strike I’ll take you cross the river dear You’ve no need to linger here." I know the kinds of things you like." I have wondered if this is supposed to be some reference to a murder ballad, but the tone of the song is sweet enough that I would prefer to think that they're literally crossing a river and not crossying the river Styx. 5. Clouds turnin' red, leaves falling. Branch shadows on stone. 6. Cypress trees, "masquerades of birds and bees" (haha). Petals and wind. 7. Moss and mystic glow, purple blossom, Bob's tears. "It takes a thief to catch a thief." "For whom does the bell toll for, love? It tolls for you and me." Maybe it IS a murder ballad... 8. Pulse beat, hills and yellow fields with twisted, groaning oaks.
Guy makes a wrong choice,
Has no woman or future,
But he's doing fine.
This is a great song from the 2001 album "Love and Theft." "Mississippi" is one of Bob Dylan's latter-day hits, a song of regret and bad choices. It contains a bunch of great couplets, which I've included below. It also contains contrition from Dylan when it comes to broken relationships. That's pretty rare, and all the more precious for that. Here's the breakdown: 1. Our days are numbered. We muddle by, and are trapped in our own prisons. 2. Trapped in the city, raised in the country, working in the town, "I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down." 3. "Got nothin' for you, I had nothin' before. Don’t even have anything for myself anymore." You have nothing for me either. 4. I was full of thought and expression, but they never could describe you properly. Chorus: "Only one thing I did wrong, Stayed in Mississippi a day too long." 5. "I was thinkin’ 'bout the things that Rosie said. I was dreaming I was sleepin' in Rosie’s bed." 6. Feel like an invisible stranger. "So many things that we never will undo. I know you’re sorry, I’m sorry too." 7. "Some people will offer you their hand and some won’t. Last night I knew you, tonight I don’t." 8. I crossed the river JUST to be where you are. 9. My ship is sinking and I'm drowning in poison. No future, no past. Still, "my heart is not weary, it’s light and it’s free. I’ve got nothin’ but affection for all those who’ve sailed with me." 10. "Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow. Things should start to get interestin' right about now." 11. My clothes are wet and tight on me, but the corner I'm in is tighter. Marry me. 12. You can go home again, just not all the way home.
This guy's all alone
And wistful. He didn't sleep
With his hot roommate.
Musically, "Lonesome Day Blues" is a barn burner. Lyrically, it reads just how you think it would. I drew only a piece of this song for the haiku. I highly recommend buying this album and listening to it. It's "Love and Theft" and it comes from 2001. This song is meant to be played nice and loud. 1. Sad day, mind million miles away. 2. People dancing the double shuffle, sand on the floor. I left my girl while she stood in the door. 3. Dad died, brother was killed in the war. Sister got married. Never heard no more. 4. "Samantha Brown lived in my house for about four or five months. Samantha Brown lived in my house for about four or five months. Don’t know how it looked to other people. I never slept with her even once." 5. Road's washed out, it's raining. I have observed that things that are hard to part with are things you don't need. 6. I'm driving to or from the mill, listening to the radio. I wish my mother were still alive. 7. Your lover, who is rotten, a thief and a coward, is coming across the barren field. 8. I have a captain who's schooled, skilled and decorated, and not the least bit sentimental about all his buddies who have been killed. 9. I listened to the wind last night. It brought an omen of approaching something or other, but nothing ever comes. 10. I'm going to spare people whom I've defeated, and plan to hold a public address. The plan is to teach peace to the conquered and to tame proud people. 11. Rustling leaves, stuff falling off the shelf. "You gonna need my help, sweetheart, You can’t make love all by yourself."
If you knew my mind,
You'd be honest. I love you,
But I waste my time.
"You don't understand it -- my feelings for you. You'd be honest with me if only you knew." Dylan comes in like a ton of bricks on "Honest With Me," a zippy track off the 2001 album "Love and Theft." The line I used recurs through the song, and he uses it as a hook onto which he attaches a number of other short-short stories, some of which feel like excuses for rhymes and whimsy. Others seem to fit into the general plot. Too many of the lines, while they sound like throwaways, are entertaining and worth preserving. I've added them like a garnish for the haiku because they wouldn't fit in the main dish.
1. Stranded in New York City, avoiding some of the women who give him the creeps. His memories could strangle a man. 2. Came ashore in the middle of the night. Quotable line: "Lots of things can get in the way when you're trying to do what's right." 3. Not sorry. Happy to have fought. Wish he'd won. PS, the Siamese twins are coming to town. They're expecting a crowd 4. Never want to go back home. 5. My gal's face: like a teddy bear, though she's tossing a baseball bat in the air. As for the meat, you couldn't cut it with a sword. He's crashing his car. 6. Me: My eyes are pretty. Smile: nice. Available for reduced price. 7. I won't keep bothering you if you prefer that I don't. I could hop the Southern Pacific railroad at 9:45. Did you know that it's hard to believe that some people were alive? 8. Stark naked, don't care. Gonna hunt naked in the woods. 9. Why I'm on earth: to create an industrial empire/do what circumstances require. 10. My parents' advice to me: don't waste your years. Everyone since then has been giving me advice.
These flood-water blues
Don't pick and choose. Just? Unjust?
You will get rained on.
Dylan's song "High Water (For Charley Patton)" comes from his 2001 album "Love and Theft." It's a pastiche of old blues song lines (dust my broom, Bertha Mason, the cuckoo is a pretty bird and so on), and named for a song by the late blues master Patton. It's a strong, compelling song, full of the dark foreboding of storm clouds and rising flood waters. It also contains one hell of a banjo part. Like many of Dylan's more recent song, each verse feels self contained. How the high water is making things (note that each line is sung before the words "High water everywhere"): - Nothing standing there - It's tough out there - Things are breakin' up out there - It's rough out there - It's bad out there What's happening: - Gold and silver being stolen - Big Joe Turner made it to Kansas City. He's thinking dark thoughts on the corner of 12th and Vine. High water. - Shacks are falling - People leaving - Possessions lost - Bertha Mason says: "You're dancin' with whom they tell you to or you don't dance at all." - Coffins dropping in the street - Water in Vicksburg - The judge is looking for Charles Darwin trapped out on Highway 5. - The cuckoo is a pretty bird, as we know from the old folk song. - Fat Nancy isn't feeding Bob like he asked. - Bob's thinking about dusting his broom in the morning, like Robert Johnson said. - Thunder over Clarksdale, Mississippi. - Bob can't be happy if you're not happy. There's one break in the doomy spell: "I got a cravin’ love for blazing speed Got a hopped-up Mustang Ford Jump into the wagon, love, throw your panties on the board I can write you poems, make a strong man lose his mind I’m no pig without a wig I hope you treat me kind." At least someone's having fun down in the flood.
Here's a good live recording from Hoboken, New Jersey:
I recently saw an interview with Joni Mitchell on CBC in which (now-disgraced) journalist and musician Jian Ghomeshi asked her for some thoughts on Bob Dylan. In the interview, Mitchell said that Dylan told her that he hasn't written songs for 20 years, that in fact he's putting together pieces of other songs to make new ones. "Bye and Bye" off the "Love and Theft" album from 2001 is that kind of song. I referred to them earlier as blues and rockabilly versions of Marcel Duchamp readymades. The narratives wander all over the place, sometimes declining to connect from one verse to the next, while only the mood is constant. In "Bye and Bye," the band shuffles through a 1940's-style tune as Bob grabs whatever from the songbag fits his mind, and doesn't forget a few jokes here and there like, "I'm sittin' on my watch so I can be on time."
1. He's got his eye on you. Sitting on his watch, etc., singing and sighing like a lover.
2. Painting the town with his girl.
3. He's walking on briars and not acquainted with his own desires.
4. He's rolling slow and convincing himself he has a dream left.
5. The future his past, you're the first love and the last.
6. Papa's mad, momma's sad, Bob's going to baptize you in fire to prevent you from sinning, he's going to establish his rule through civil war and show you how loyal a man can be.
It adds up to not very much, but I still love the song.
