Wiggle Wiggle

Wiggle like a snake.
Wiggle like silk or like milk.
Wiggle till you're high.

What can I say about "Wiggle Wiggle?" It's easily Bob Dylan's dumbest song, but come the hell on, what's not to like about wiggling like a bowl of soup, a swarm of bees, a pail of milk and a big fat snake? I'd do that all day long if I could make a living from it. As it stands, I can't get this song out of my head for days after I hear it. I think about it at work. I wish I could wiggle wiggle. The song opens the album "Under the Red Sky," released in 1990. Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a gypsy queen
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle all dressed in green
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle ’til the moon is blue
Wiggle ’til the moon sees you

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle in your boots and shoes
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, you got nothing to lose
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a swarm of bees
Wiggle on your hands and knees

Wiggle to the front, wiggle to the rear
Wiggle ’til you wiggle right out of here
Wiggle ’til it opens, wiggle ’til it shuts
Wiggle ’til it bites, wiggle ’til it cuts

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle—you can raise the dead

Wiggle ’til you’re high, wiggle ’til you’re higher
Wiggle ’til you vomit fire
Wiggle ’til it whispers, wiggle ’til it hums
Wiggle ’til it answers, wiggle ’til it comes

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like satin and silk
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a pail of milk
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, rattle and shake
Wiggle like a big fat snake

Under the Red Sky

Moon man, boy and girl
Live under red sky. The kids
Get baked in a pie.

Some songs are sad even as they sound wild and soulful and free. "Under the Red Sky," from the 1990 album of the same name, is one of them. George Harrison's lead guitar adds the right melancholic note.

1. Little boy and little girl live in an alley under the red sky.
2. The old man lived on the moon. He came walking by one summer day.
3. The wind blew low, then the wind blew high. They boy and girl were baked in a pie.
4. The man in the moon went home and the river went dry.
5. Little girl, here's something to look forward to: one day everything will be new. You'll get a diamond as big as your shoe. These are the keys to the kingdom and this is the town and this is the blind horse that leads you around. I don't know what it means, but I love the atmosphere.

Unbelievable

All kinds of bad things
Happen every day despite
How odd they might seem.

Another obscure song from the 1990 album "Under the Red Sky," "Unbelievable" is a kind of righteous indignation packed into a song. What it's all about? That's up to you.

- It's unbelievable that it would get this far. (It's strange and true and could happen to you)
- It's indescribable. They said we were in the land of milk and money, but we're in the land of money. Look how rich you can get and how quick.
- With me, every urge is satisfied. Gold, silver, sweethearts... 
- Unbelievable: lead balloon. How do you even learn the tune? "Scale that wall and smoke that vine. Feed that horse and saddle up the drum. It’s unbelievable, the day would finally come."
- Once there was an eyeless man. Women told him lies. His heart bled under the silver sky.
- Everything is criticized when you are in need.
- "It’s unbelievable, it’s fancy-free. So interchangeable, so delightful to see. Turn your back, wash your hands. There’s always someone who understands. It don’t matter no more what you got to say. It’s unbelievable it would go down this way."

Here's the music video, featuring Dylan, a hot Molly Ringwald and a handsome fella. Partly shot in New Jersey, apparently. 

2x2

Various people
Seem to have a good time, but
They're actually not.

I'll be honest, I don't know what this song is about. "2x2" is from "Under the Red Sky" in 1990, and it seems like everyone distanced themselves from that album as quickly as they could. I like much of it, and I don't mind listening to this song with my mind turned off. But when I try to climb into it, I find that I can't. All I can see is that this Noah's Ark procession of people seem to start off OK, and wind up in less fortunate circumstances than those in which they started.

1. They follow the sun until there are none.
2. They fly to their lovers in the dew.
3. They dance on the sea.
4. The dance on the shore.
5. They try to survive.
6. They play with tricks.
7. They go to heaven.
8. They get to the gate.
9. They drink the wine.
10. They drink it again.
2. They step in the ark
3. They turn the key.
4. They turn it more.
2. They follow the sun to another rendezvous

How many/much:
paths did they try and fail?
of their siblings are in jail?
poison did they inhale?
black cats did they encounter?
tomorrows have they given away?
tomorrows without reward?
more tomorrows can they afford?

T.V. Talkin' Song

TV's bad for you.

Bob knows it, but still gets trapped

In channel surfing.

Here's a weird song from the 1990 album "Under the Red Sky." Bob takes a walk in Hyde Park and he comes to the Speakers' Corner. He listens to some people talk to the crowd as one does in Hyde Park. There's a religious man telling everyone that they shouldn't watch TV. The god of TV causes pain with its bright light. Better to have never seen one. Another guy starts arguing with TV preacher. The preacher says:

- children are sacrificed to it

- gossip and rhyme populate it

- don't let the TV god lay an egg in your head, because it's your temple

- Pray for peace! he says. The TV will destroy your family! It'll lead you to forbidden fruits, and will scramble up your brains. Do what Elvis did and "shoot the damned thing out." It'll make you lose your mind.

His words cause a riot with lots of pushing and shoving as the angry crowd tries to attack the man. A TV news crew gets footage of the melee. Bob goes home and watches the story of the fight on TV that night.

10,000 Men

10,000 men work.
10,000 women like Bob.
His gal brings him tea.

I find this song unfathomable. Most people just ignored it. "10,000 Men," which I'm assuming has some tip of the hat to Neil Young's "Ten Men Working," is from the 1990 album "Under the Red Sky," which bewildered most people and left them cold. It's not that bad, but you might expect a Dylan fan to say that. Here's what's going on:

1. 10,000 men on a hill. Some gonna be killed.
2. 10,000 men dressed in Oxford blue. They're drumming in the morning, and coming for you later.
3. 10,000 men on the move. And then this riddle of a line: "None of them doing nothin' that your mama wouldn't disapprove." Think about that for a second. The opposite would be: All of them doing something that your mother would approve of. Or are none of them doing something that she would approve of? 
4. 10,000 men digging for silver and gold. They're all clean shaven.
5. Who's your lover? "Let me eat off his head so you can really see."
6. 10,000 women dressed in white.
7. 10,000 men looking weak. Each has seven wives who just got out of jail.
8. 10,000 women sweeping my room. They spill his buttermilk and sweep it up with a broom (You know what he's talking about.).
9. My favorite verse: "Ooh, baby, thank you for my tea! Baby, thank you for my tea! It's so sweet of you to be so nice to me."

Handy Dandy

Handy's been around.
He likes a drink, gets things done.
What keeps him going?

I've never met anyone who likes the album "Under the Red Sky." I can understand why. As I've written in other haiku entries, it's a hard one to like. Some of the lyrics are ridiculous, and the music, given all the star power that went in to recording and producing it, is pedestrian. After the success of the previous album "Oh Mercy," itself a comeback after what many people considered several uninspired, dull misses, people probably were expecting Dylan to stay on top. That's fine. Songs like "Handy Dandy" are the reason I like it.

It was a hard one for styling as haiku go because the song is a portrait of the man and not so much of a story. And he's a hard portrait to get in focus because he seems to be made of many people, all somewhere between artist and bullshit artist. He reminds me of the people we call "larger than life." Medicine show salesman, crazy uncles who whirl in to town from time to time and amuse the kids, things like that -- but they always have some private weakness or hurt that they've papered over with boasts, words and a desire to please everyone by doing what they can, even though they might be cons:

- Controversy surrounds this world traveler, and something in the moonlight hounds him.
- He's just like sugar and candy.
- He could take a beating and would never admit that he had all his bones broken.
- He has an all-girl orchestra.
- Dialogue: You say: "what are you made of?" He: "Can you repeat that?" You: "What are you afraid of?" Him: "Nothing!"
- He has a stick and money.
- When he asks a lady how much time he has, she says he can have it all.
- He has a crystal fountain, soft skin and a fortress on a mountain.
- He says: Need a gun? She says, are you crazy?
- He likes his brandy.

The last verse of the song is one I like to repeat because it's among my favorite Dylan lines. The song is a full-on electric band fest, a proper up-tempo number. But listen to the sadness of the loser in these lines:

Handy Dandy, he got a basket of flowers and a bag full of sorrow
He finishes his drink, he gets up from the table, he says
“Okay, boys, I’ll see you tomorrow”
Handy Dandy, Handy Dandy, just like sugar and candy
Handy Dandy, just like sugar and candy

God Knows

God's got your number.
He'll see you through even if
You don't know the way.

"God knows it's a struggle," Bob Dylan sings on the song "God Knows," and I agree with God and Bob on this song. In fact, most of the songs on the 1990 album "Under the Red Sky" resist analysis and interpretation. The album also resisted sales and happy listeners. It's widely regarded as a disappointment, full of heavy-duty rock production by Don Was and a cast of thousands from Elton John to George Harrison to Slash (oh, there are more: Jimmie Vaughan, David Crosby, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bruce Hornsby, Paulinho da Costa, Al Kooper, Waddy Wachtel, David Was, Don Was) who aren't doing much but sounding like a bar band. I think the standout performer on this song is Kenny Aronoff, who knows how to stutter the drums to vary up a song that has not too much to work with.

As for the song? It resists haiku. Like some of Dylan's songs from the time, it's not textured enough. Sometimes you can rummage around in rumpled velvet carpets of his songs and find all sorts of money that someone left there. This one either hides the goods too well, or perhaps there's nothing to hide. I did my best.

What God knows:
You ain't pretty (it's true)
There's nobody who can take your place
It's a struggle
It's a crime
No more water next time, just fire
It's fragile
Everything
Everything could snap right now like scissors on a string
It's terrifying
Everything that unfolds
When you see it, you cry
The secrets of your heart
There's a river
How to make that river flow
You won't take anything with you when you go
There's a purpose
There's a chance
You can rise above the worst of anything
There's a heaven
It's invisible
We can get there from here even if we have to walk a million miles with only a candle

And just like that, the song fades out.

Cat's in the Well

While you slept, the wolf

Trapped the cat inside the well.

Hope God has mercy.

"Under the Red Sky" features some sub-par songs, but "Cat's in the Well," which closes the album, is one of the ones that I like. It doesn't have any story to speak of, merely a series of analogies that fit a rhyme scheme. I say analogies because each verse's subject completes an action, all of which seem to boil down to the final line, "Good night, my love, may the Lord have mercy on us all." It's a standard rock n' roll song, and it hops along merrily, though I find that the last line has a note of ironic apocalyptic warning. Impressions may vary.

1. Cat's in the well, wolf looks down. He has a bushy tail dragging on the ground.

2. Cat's still in the well. Lady is asleep. She can't hear anything.

3. Cat's still in the well, upset. World is being slaughtered, it's a disgrace.

4. Cat remains in the well, horse goes bumpety-bump. Back alley Sally does the American Jump.

5. Cat persists in the well, balding papa is reading the news while his daughters need shoes.

6. Cat languishes in the well, barn is full of bull, table is full.

7. Cat's in the well, as ever, servant's at the door, drinks are ready, dogs are going to war.

8. The damned cat is still in the well, it's autumn, God have mercy.

I can't load up the studio version, but here's a raggedy live version from a while back.

Born in Time

She's a dream lover,

But he can't be with her now.

They weren't born in time.

This is a difficult song from "Under the Red Sky," an album that underwhelmed many listeners. It's not hard to see why. Dylan veers between childish/childlike rhymes, songs about why TV is bad for you, and the usual assortment of enigmatic songs about enigmatic people. In "Born in Time," he sings to a woman that her vision is coming to his mind in the middle of the night, that whatever relationship they had failed in some way, and somehow she remains on his mind. He makes repeated references to how they were "born in time," but whether that means they were born on schedule, born in some more general temporal measure or whatever else he might have been thinking, the meaning goes slipping by.

You can see what I mean about ambiguity....

You're blowin' down a shaky street You're hearing my heart beat In the record breaking heat Where we were born in time Not one more night, not one more kiss And not this time babe, no more of this Takes too much skill, takes too much of will It's too revealing You came, you saw just like the law You married young just like your ma You tried and tried, you made me slide You left me reeling with this feeling

Here's a version of the song that was recorded for the album preceding "Under the Red Sky," "Oh Mercy." It was dropped and later released on the eighth volume in the Bootleg Series.

Cat's in the Well

The end of the world
Sweeps in on a haunting tune,
Rockin' and Rollin'

Born in Time

This sounds like a song
About a dream lover who
Isn't so dreamy.