| Bob Dylan – All Along the Watchtower Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I like Dylan's version of this song better than Hendrix's... or anyone else for that matter. But I think that's just because the meaning changes from version to version. The way Dylan plays it, is sounds more foreboding and heavey... tends to sound lighter when Hendrix adds all the guitar to it. Anyway, I like what someone here said about it being about the music business going to pot. I also like someone's suggestion that the joker and the theif are in Purgatory, which I think you can combine with what someone else said about the line "two riders were approaching" meaning the coming of the apocalypse (which would finally the bring the joker and the theif out of Purgatory-- for better or for worse). I also liked the idea of the joker and the theif as two versions of people who think life has no meaning, or give life their own meaning. The joker who jokes around for pleasure as if nothing matters, and the theif who takes what he can for personal gain as if there were no moral judgement. It seems, though, as if they reject these views: "you and i we've been through that and this is not our fate." i dont know..... |
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| Bob Dylan – It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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this song is simply about life. (even says in the last line "its life and life only) Dylan presents a particular view of life in the song. I'll just comment on a bit of it that jumps out to me: You feel to moan but unlike before You discover That you'd just be One more person crying. So don't fear if you hear A foreign sound to your ear It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing. He wants to "moan" ie: cry out at injustice, but UNLIKE BEFORE, he thinks it would be futile-- he'd just be "one more person crying." So he sighs, giving up, feeling helpless.... which is a "foreign sound" because he used to be much more idealistic.... |
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| Bob Dylan – When the Ship Comes In Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I AGREE 100% with tommy87. This song is a beautiful anthem for those working for social/political change! Look: Oh the fishes will laugh As they swim out of the path And the seagulls they'll be smiling. And the rocks on the sands Will proudly stand, The hour that the ship comes in. This implies that the coming of the ship (the change, the reform, the new generation, etc) is a GOOD thing for all those it will effect. And the words that are used For to get the ship confused Will not be understood as they're spoken. For the chains of the sea Will have busted in the night And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean. The political attacks, lies, mudslinging, slander, etc. of the opponents of "the ship" will for once, not be effective. A song will lift As the mainsail shifts And the boat drifts on to the shoreline. And the sun will respect Every face on the deck, The hour that the ship comes in. Then the sands will roll Out a carpet of gold For your weary toes to be a-touchin' And the ship's wise men Will remind you once again That the whole wide world is watchin'. Again, this suggests that the coming of "the ship" is a beautiful and triumphant thing! I really love the line "The ship's wise men will remind you once again that the whole wide world is watching." President Kennedy had proclaimed that "the eyes of the world are upon us," and Martin Luther King + other advocates of civil rights constantly strove to remind the country that THE WHOLE WORLD WAS WATCHING! The last two stanzas are triumphant and glorious and always fill me with hope when I listen to them! But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered. And like Pharaoh's tribe, They'll be drownded in the tide, And like Goliath, they'll be conquered. Social/political change/reform and/or the "passing of the torch" to a new generation is going to happen! And those who oppress their fellow men (like Pharaoh's tribe) and those who have the establishment/the money/all odds on their side (like Goliath) will be defeated! It a beautiful, happy, triumphant, hopeful, motivating song with GREAT imagery! (Just one comment on the hotel room story... maybe the trouble getting a room set Dylan off or something, but we all know that Dylan was like a conductor that channeled all the electricity of the events and emotions of his times into his music; thus, whether consciously or subconsciously, I guarantee Dylan wrote this song about more than a hotel room.) |
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| Bob Dylan – Ballad of a Thin Man Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This song is about Mr. Jones questioning his sexuality. Just listen to it/read it again with that in mind and youll start to see it in every single line. I heard that Mr. Jones was a reporter who Dylan didnt like. But that doesnt mean the song is ABOUT the reporter; he could just be the inspiration for the NAME "Mr. Jones" in the song. |
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