Tin Angel

Man steals woman.
Husband tracks them down. Then they
Slaughter each other.

They all die in the end. That’s your spoiler for “Tin Angel,” which is a variation on the “Gypsy Davey” or “Blackjack Davey” ballad, which Bob Dylan performed in 1992 on the “Good As I Been to You” album. Because “Tin Angel” appears on “Tempt,” released in 2012, it has more of that album’s tendency toward violence and murder. In this version of the song:

Wife runs off with younger lover.
Husband pursues, predictably upset.
Husband confronts the lovers. Passionate words ensue.
Lover shoots husband dead.
Wife stabs lover to death, noting that just because she was unfaithful didn’t give her lover the right to kill the husband.
Lover learns too late the real price of commitment.
Wife kills herself to return the favor she just did her lover.

Tempest

Titanic goes down,
An unscheduled appointment
For sixteen hundred.

This is the title track and anchor to Bob Dylan's 2012 album. It's a real epic, but for a tragedy, it has a kind of somber humor. The most obvious evidence are the references to Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the stars of the James Cameron film about the sinking of what the Onion called "the world's biggest metaphor." There also is a kind of destiny detachment in the words, noting that this terrible event was like any other distraction, only on a very big scale. The refrain in the song that makes it most interesting is the watchman dreaming that the Titanic is sinking, almost a desire for it to be nothing more than a bad dream. But of course it really happened, and at the time it spawned all sorts of songs, particularly among blues singers doing their version of journalism. As Dylan noted, he wanted to record his version too.

Some flotsam and jetsam from the wreckage:
- Bob calls the sinking "the promised hour."
- "All the lords and ladies heading for their eternal home."
- Watchman dream #1: Titanic sinking into the underworld.
- Leo's on board with his sketchbook.
- Cupid breaks his bosom and falls into a woman's lap.
- Leo thinks there's a problem on board.
- Leo walks into the whirlwind.
- The universe opens for the passengers. "The roll was called up yonder. The angels turned aside."
- Dead bodies.
- Exploding engines, dead propellers, overloaded boilers. Bow splits.
- Passengers weary as they try to escape death.
- "The veil was torn asunder 'tween the hours of twelve and one."
- Watchman dream #2: The Titanic is dropping to her knees.
- Wellington puts on his pistols.
- His men wait for "time and space to intervene."
- Alarm bells ring to hold back the water, just like King Canute.
- Love and pity send prayers to mothers and daughters in the icy ocean.
- Some gamblers remain behind in a friendly game as they sink.
- Fights and murder.
- Lifeboats: too few. Murder, betraryal, lies.
- Bishop reminds God: "The poor are yours to feed."
- Davey the pimp dismisses his girls. "Saw the water getting deeper, saw the changing of his world."
- Jim Backus, who can't swim, gives his lifeboat seat to a child. (I suppose that he ended up surviving and cast away on "Gilligan's Island" where he played Thurston Howell III)
- As he dies, he sees rampaging death, but his heart is at peace.
- Leo tries to hold back the water.
- Watchman dream #3: He tries to warn people that the Titanic is sinking.
- Captain sees the compass needle pointing down down down: "He knew he lost the race."
- Captain reads the Book of Revelations.
- Ship sinks. The loveliest and the best die. "Those whom the gods love..."
- "They waited at the landing, and they tried to understand, but there is no understanding for the judgment of God's hand."
- The newswires report: "The love had lost its fires. All things had run their course."
- Watchman dream #4: The Titanic is now part of the deep blue sea.

Soon After Midnight

Bob's on the night shift.
He's singing your praises and
Wants no one but you.

"Soon After Midnight" rests on a doo-wop premise, and it sounds like a love song. It is, but like many of the songs on the 2012 album "Tempest," it contains its share of violence. It even has a body count. 

1. It's just after midnight, and Bob's day has begun. He's looking for phrases that can help sing your praises.
2. A young women took his money while it was soon after midnight and the moon was in his eye.
3. He's not afraid of her. His hear is cheerful and unafraid, and he's been to the killing floors so he has little to fear from you.
4. Bob has a date with the fairy queen, while Charlotte the harlot dresses in scarlet and Mary dresses in mink.
5. These ladies chatter and chirp, while Bob promises to drag the corpse of Two-Time Slim through the mud.
6. When I first met you, I didn't think that I would fall in love with you. Now, I don't want anybody else.

Scarlet Town

It's bad times in town.
The end is near, good's in fear,
Bob's vision is clear.

The roots of "Scarlet Town" are easy to see. It's the setting of the old English ballad of grim, grim death and love (but I repeat myself), "Barbara Allen," known to some as the tale of the red rose and the briar. It's where a young man falls for Barbara who scoffs at his love. Then he takes sick and dies, and she, realizing too late what she has thrown away, dies too. Out of their graves come the rose and the briar, forever entwined with the beauty and fragrance of the petals inseparable from the harm of the thorn. Romance...

Bob Dylan's song "Scarlet Town" takes off in different directions from there. This song is from the 2012 album "Tempest," and Dylan has become a more masterful songwriter here in many ways, as well as on his last few albums, laying on thick homages and quotes lifted from other songs and poems, weaving together all sorts of knowledge stored in his experienced, acquisitive mind. You can see that here:

In Scarlet Town:
1. There's ivy and thorn, streets with names you can't pronounce, gold whose value has fallen on the currency market. It's full of people dancing and asking if you're going their way. Uncle Tom still works for Uncle Bill, or as you would say more plainly, the whites still control the blacks.
2. Sweet William Holme is dying as Mary lies by his side and prays for him. Bob would weep for Sweet William as Sweet William would for him. Little Boy Blue comes to blow his horn.
3. Scarlet Town is under the shadows of palm trees during the hot day. There are beggars and there is too little help for everyone, too late. They pray in the graveyards there. Bob touched the garment, which I take to mean the garment of Jesus, but found that the hem was torn.
4. The signs of apocalypse -- as seven wonders -- manifest in Scarlet Town. Evil and good are neighbors. If you wear your heart on your sleeve -- or place it on the platter -- someone will take a bite out of it. Nobody will hold you and kiss you goodnight. Crying won't do you any good, as the blues song goes.
5. In Scarlet Town, children fight their father's battles, with whiskey, morphine and gin if necessary. There is a woman there, incidentally, with legs that could drive a man mad. Through all this, you would wish you had stayed in Scarlet Town if you had left.
6. And in spite of all the ills that plague Scarlet Town, people still have a good time at night, and heaven comes a little closer to the ground. "All things are beautiful in their time, The black and the white, the yellow and the brown, It's all right there in front of you in Scarlet Town."

Roll on, John

Hear the sad story
Of John Lennon, Bob's old friend
And tragic hero.

This eulogy to John Lennon 32 years after his murder really has a way of bringing it all back. Dylan and Lennon had an interesting relationship, and to hear the way Dylan looks back on it now is quite affecting. The song "Roll on, John" finishes the 2012 album "Tempest" on a deep emotional note, even as Dylan reserves his feelings and sings the song straight and clearly. There are multiple references to Lennon's life, the Beatles and songs from his solo career as well as the ones credited to him and Paul McCartney. The cumulative effect? It's a weeper. You can read comprehensive keys to the song elsewhere, particularly on Genius.

Pay in Blood

Bob plans his revenge

Against those who did him wrong,

And there will be blood.

This song from the 2012 album "Tempest" could have been called the Cranky Bastard Blues. "Pay in Blood" is six verses of Bob Dylan nearly losing his temper as he counts the ways that he's going to make somebody sorry for hurting him. Instead of bitterness, he's out for revenge, but not before he lists the wrongs that this unnamed villain has committed against him as well as the ways that he has transcended all of them, though not enough to forgive.

1. I'm grinding away each day through this life of toil and pain. I've been through a lot and survived it all, but "I could stone you to death for the wrongs that you done. Sooner or later you make a mistake, I'll put you in a chain that you never will break."

2. Every new day strips away a few more of your hopes. All that dying just makes me live on more, mainly because "I got dogs could tear you limb from limb."

3. Life dealt me a bad hand, but I'm going to play it anyway. I might obey God's laws, but if I do wrong in my quest for satisfaction, then by all means put me in front of a firing squad.

4. "You got the same eyes that your mother does. If only you could prove who your father was."

5. I've been through hell, but I survived. "What good did it do? You bastard! I'm supposed to respect you? I'll give you justice, I'll fatten your purse. Show me your moral virtue first."

6. "You get your lover in the bed. Come here, I'll break your lousy head." And of course, a Shakespeare twist: "I came to bury, not to praise."

And the end of each verse? "I pay in blood, but not my own."

Narrow Way

Heaven's a hard climb,
So if I get tired, Jesus,
Come down and see me.

I didn't realize quite how Biblical this song was until the Genius website helpfully pointed it out. I got the impression that "Narrow Way," which appears on the 2012 album "Tempest," was an old codger telling a younger woman that she'll need to slow down a bit and give some of herself if she wants to put up with him and his old codger ways. Maybe that's so, but these 11 verses contain a ton more besides. Here's what I more or less lifted from Genius:

I'm gonna walk across the desert 'til I'm in my right mind (Exodus of the Jews)
I won't even think about what I left behind (Sodom and Gomorrah)
Nothing back there anyway that I can call my own
Go back home, leave me alone
It's a long road, it's a long and narrow way (Book of Matthew - Walk the straight and narrow)
If I can't work up to you, you'll surely have to work down to me someday (God meets you halfway if you meet him halfway)

I saw you drinking from an empty cup (Last Supper)
I saw you buried and I saw you dug up (This one's obvious)

You went and lost your lovely head
For a drink of wine and a crust of bread (Last Supper again)

Your father left you, your mother too
Even death has washed its hands of you (Resurrection)

You got too many lovers wailing at the wall (Wailing wall)
About a thousand tongues, I couldn't count them all (Martin Luther hymn: Oh dass ich tausend Zungen haette: If I had a thousand tongues)
Yesterday I could've thrown them all in the sea
Today, even one, may be too much for me

Been dark all night but now it's dawn
The moving finger is moving on (Apparently from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam)

The old haiku that I wrote was this:

I'm tired and old.
If you want to be with me,
You'll have to slow down.

Clearly it was time to change it. (Interestingly, the song from which Dylan borrows his chorus is "You'll Work Down to Me Someday" by the Mississippi Sheiks, and in that case, he singer DEFINITELY is addressing a woman.)

Long and Wasted Years

Couple stays married
For years after they break up.
Wasted tears and years.

I don't think that "Long and Wasted Years," from Bob Dylan's 2013 album "Tempest," is all that easy to follow, but it is a heartfelt song. Whether these two were married or whether Dylan is getting at something else in this song, I don't know. I more or less made up an impression than a summary or interpretation in this haiku. It's a great song, by the way.

It's been such a long, long time
Since we loved each other and our hearts were true
One time, for one brief day, I was the man for you

Last night I heard you talkin' in your sleep
Saying things you shouldn't say, oh baby
You just might have to go to jail someday

Is there a place we can go,
Is there anybody we can see? Maybe
It's the same for you as it is for me

I ain't seen my family in twenty years
That ain't easy to understand, they may be dead by now
I lost track of 'em after they lost their land

Shake it up baby, twist and shout
You know what it's all about
What are you doing out there in the sun anyway?
Don't you know, the sun can burn your brains right out

My enemy crashed into the dust
Stopped dead in his tracks and he lost his lust
He was run down hard and he broke apart
He died in shame, he had an iron heart

I wear dark glasses to cover my eyes
There are secrets in 'em that I can't disguise
Come back baby
If I hurt your feelings, I apologize

Two trains running side by side, forty miles wide
Down the eastern line
You don't have to go, I just came to you because you're a friend of mine

I think that when my back was turned,
The whole world behind me burned
It's been a while,
Since we walked down that long, long aisle

We cried on a cold and frosty morn,
We cried because our souls were torn
So much for tears
So much for these long and wasted years

Early Roman Kings

I might be old,
But I'm a tough gangster type
Like those Roman Kings.

The early Roman kings to whom Bob seems to refer are the street gang as well as the actual early Roman kings. In Rome. This song appears on "Tempest," which came out in 2012. It's a combination of allusions to both groups of kings, and a comparison between Bob's physical (particularly amatory) skills and the toughness of the gangs, even though he's going on 200 or 300 years old.

Here's a verse-by-verse breakdown by a user of the Dylan fan forum Expecting Rain. It's funnier and more on point than anything I could have come up with:

Verse 1: Roman Kings were an early gang, probably in New York, tough S.O.B.'s who ruled the place. Don't mess with them.

Verse 2: The actual Early Roman Kings, and the Romans in general, took care of business. They even put a pretty major dude to death on a Friday.

Verse 3: Continuation of the second verse, but more of a mythical combination of ancient and modern. They're legendary, these dudes.

Verse 4: Classic blues singer bragging. Don't mess with me baby, I'm like an Early Roman King, and I'm tricky.

Verse 5: Oh, by the way, when I said "I," I was talking about myself, the devil. Satan. Beelzebub. Death. Whatever it is you fear, that's me. I'm evil.

Verse 6: The apocalypse is coming, and I'm going to enjoy it. You people, all of you, are going down, and I'm going to enjoy it. 

And here are your early Roman Kings:

Romulus (mythical): 753-715 BC. Rape of the Sabine women.

Numa Pompilius: 715-673 BC. His adviser was a nymph. Peaceful reign.

Tullius Hositilius: 673-642 BC. Destroyed the Alba Longa.

Ancus Marcius: 642-617 BC. Expander of Rome, founder of Ostia.

Tarquinius Priscus: 617-579 BC. Not Roman, but Etruscan. Built the Cloaca Maxima, laid out the Circus Maximus. Conquered stuff.

Servius Tullius: 579-535 BC. Set up the class system based on wealth. Built a wall around the city.

Tarquinius Superbus: 534 BC-510 BC. He irritated the people. His son Sextus outraged Lucretia, who was married. 

Duquesne Whistle

Hear that whistle blow?
That's the train I'm waiting for,
Coming right on time.

I can't decide if "Duquesne Whistle" is a song about death. There's no doubt that that train is blowing loud and fast into town, its little red light blinking. It's Bob Dylan's version of the little engine that could. I just suspect that it's going to bear Bob away just like it blows his blues away. Judging by the lyrics, it's a train that can't be ignored. And it makes me think of those old blues songs where the train takes away dead lovers -- funeral trains, and so on. The song appears on "Tempest," Dylan's latest album of studio originals, from 2012.

1. Blows like it's going to sweep his world away.
2. Blows like she never blowed before.
3. Blows like she's at my chamber door.
4. Blows like she isn't going to blow anymore.
5. Blows like the sky's going to blow apart.
6. Blows like his woman's on board.
7. Blows like it's going to blow his blues away.
8. Blows like it's going to kill him.
9. Blows like she's blowing right on time.

See what I mean?

Here's the video, which I find nasty and disturbing: