Sunday, August 2, 2015

No Time to Think

You go through troubles,
All meaning is doubled, and
Thinking is rubbled.

"No Time to Think" could have been subtitled "Dylan: in the Bunker." This 1978 song from the album "Street-Legal" spreads its 18 verses over more than eight minutes. Each describes his travails in the midst of danger, fear, paranoia, alcohol, depression and anger, while a few contain strings of words with similar endings and rhymes. Ultimately, it's a pity party, brimming with self indulgence, suspicion of others and shaded portraits of self martyrdom. I confess that I tune out the words when I listen to this song because they're so damned dreary. I don't know what the "concept noun" rhymes are doing here other than to overstuff this already stuffed narrative. Here they are, along with the other parts of this airplane engine of a song, which I have taken apart piece by piece and presented here (though I left out any summary of each verse because they don't reflect much unless they're put together. I also left out some remark about the "Federal City" which pops up in the song, never to return).

Strings of unrelated nouns:
Loneliness/tenderness
High society/notoriety
Memory/ecstasy/tyranny/hypocrisy
China doll/alcohol
Duality/morality
Paradise/sacrifice
Mortality/reality
Equality/liberty/humility/simplicity
Mercury/gravity/nobility/humility (he must have run out of ities)
Socialism/hypnotism/patriotism/materialism
Loyalty/unity/epitome/rigidity

Words in the song that rhyme with "think," as in "No time to think":
Sink
Link
Wink
Ink
Drink
Brink
Clink
Pink
Blink

Characters in the song:
You
Child
Wife
Empress
Judges
Country priestess
China doll
Destiny
Tyrant
Lion
Lamb
Traitor
Magician
Madmen
Warlords of sorrow
Queens of tomorrow
Her
Lovers
Fools
Babylon girl with rose in hair
Camille 
Death 

Things you are:
Soldier of mercy

Things you do or are done to you:
Face life while in death
Fight for the throne
Travel alone
You're unknown as you sink
You're cold and you curse
Been blown and shown pity for pieces of change (Judas)
Attracted by empress
Distracted by oppression
Feel violent and strange
Betrayed by a kiss (Jesus)
Haunted by judge
Wanted by country priestess
See decoys
Feel depressed
Betrayed by your conscience
Waylaid by tyrant
Can't find salvation
Have no expectations
Murder your vanity
Bury your sanity
Resist something for pleasure
Lovers obey you
You aren't swayed by lovers
Lovers aren't sure you exist
Released upon seeing starlight in the east
Harmed by bullets
Disarmed by death
Deceived by no one
Stripped of virtue
Crawl in the dirt
Give
Not receive
Don't choose, lose, say goodbye, prepare for the victim, suffer, blink, think

Tarot card references:
"Mercury rules you"
Empress
Death



No comments:

Post a Comment