The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block
I'd ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don't talk
And the ladies treat me kindly
And they furnish me with tape
But deep inside my heart
I know I can't escape
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the
Memphis blues again
Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says she knows me well
And I would send a message
To find out if she's talked
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine
An' I said, "Oh, I didn't know that
But then again, there's only one I've met
An' he just smoked my eyelids
An' punched my cigarette"
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Grandpa died last week
And now he's buried in the rocks
But everybody still talks about how
Badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen
I knew he'd lost control
When I speed built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the senator came down here
Showing ev'ryone his gun
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son
An' me, I nearly got busted
An' wouldn't it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck
Oh, Mama, is this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the tea preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest
But he cursed me when I proved it to him
Then I whispered and said, "Not even you can hide
You see, you're just like me
I hope you're satisfied"
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, "Jump right in"
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
And when Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'neath her Panamanian moon
An' I say, "Aw come on now
You know you knew about my debutante"
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want"
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb
They all fall there so perfectly
It all seems so well timed
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Up and down the block
I'd ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don't talk
And the ladies treat me kindly
And they furnish me with tape
But deep inside my heart
I know I can't escape
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the
Memphis blues again
Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says she knows me well
And I would send a message
To find out if she's talked
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine
An' I said, "Oh, I didn't know that
But then again, there's only one I've met
An' he just smoked my eyelids
An' punched my cigarette"
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Grandpa died last week
And now he's buried in the rocks
But everybody still talks about how
Badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen
I knew he'd lost control
When I speed built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the senator came down here
Showing ev'ryone his gun
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son
An' me, I nearly got busted
An' wouldn't it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck
Oh, Mama, is this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the tea preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest
But he cursed me when I proved it to him
Then I whispered and said, "Not even you can hide
You see, you're just like me
I hope you're satisfied"
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, "Jump right in"
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
And when Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'neath her Panamanian moon
An' I say, "Aw come on now
You know you knew about my debutante"
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want"
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb
They all fall there so perfectly
It all seems so well timed
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Lyrics submitted by roger wilco, edited by Mellow_Harsher, Roxy24
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again Lyrics as written by Bob Dylan
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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listen you guys, this song is about the circus his world turned into once he went electric. All chaotic and surreal. Around this era many songs are about the same thing, so don't let them trick you into any other b.s. Anyway, Mobile is a southern town, I think in Alabama,i.e. folk music Memphis, i.e. Elvis, i.e. rock n' roll So he's stuck in the middle of both tendencies Great concept, great song
When I followed the lyrics I succesfully interpreted them following your idea!!! But...after all...that's the best thing about Dylan: you can't fully understand him!!!
How about this--a "mobile" is a sound truck used to record live music. They are better able to control the sound by recording it outside of the venue. Anyway, maybe "mobile" is the symbol of playing live, and the memphis blues is a symbol for he is simply homesick. He did say at the end of Scorcese's film that he was burnt out and just wanted to go home. Just a theory. The other theory, is he was smoking alot of weed, or taking alot of acid. Really the imagery is absurd. Maybe his life had just become a living hell, a joke, w/ a bunch of lemmings and sycophants in a carnival world where he had just become too big. Like "I am a Walrus", it is really just nonsense. "Texas medicine and railroad gin" is what, peyote and cheap liquor, w/ a bad trip combined w/ a bad hangover where "everyone just gets uglier." Grampa went nuts by "building a fire on main st. and then shot it full of holes." Sometimes it is just fun to listen to the imagery w/ out caring what it is about, like Come Together. Who cares what Lennon really meant, just enjoy the cool sounding lyrics. "Hold you in his objay you can feel his disease." (I think that is the line). Unlike Positively 4t ST, which begs the listener to wonder who he is so pissed off at, this song is just silly, and if you listen to him sing, he is almost giddy. The guy is a genius for sure, but I wonder if he was/is bi-polar? He could be so angry, and other times almost like a happy little kid. This is a happy song in my view. It definitely puts me in a good mood. BTW, the drums are killer, as are the guitar fills, both done my Nashville aces. Sometimes it is fun to just focus on just that. Like all great tunes, there is something new everytime you listen!
@cavern Everyone here refuses to look at these songs in context. One must look at this one in relation to the entire album, and to his previous work, especially the album before it, Highway 61 Revisited. Although I agree there might be some influence of his weariness with his "following" here, if it were a response to what you say it would be prominent on Highway 61 which it isn't. The only reference is very specific in the last verse of Desolation Row where Dylan remarks on the letter printed in Sing Out magazine that ripped him for betraying the folk music movement. ("I received you letter yesterday.") I will generally comment on the album's overall despair and weariness but I do not think at all this is an album dedicated to the issues around going electric. Dylan was not that prosaic an artist. You lose a point.