submissions
| Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[eyehop:43201] Another detail to support this theory - "Jack of Hearts" sounds a lot like "Joan of Arc". When Lily tells "Jack" that he is "looking like a saint", she is talking to her own reflection, and thinking of herself as Joan of Arc, who was sainted after her death. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[avante:43200] That's interesting. I kept thinking The Beatles must have written "Rocky Raccoon" after being inspired by this song, but then I googled to see "Rocky Raccoon" was released in 1968, and this song came out in 1975, so possibly the reverse occurred, or neither. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[eyehop:43199] I think you cracked the case, eyehop. That would explain why she "had to have that certain flash every time she smiled", and why he was "face-down like the Jack of Hearts". The personas of the two are polar opposites to throw people off the trail. I have to re-listen to the song now with your interpretation. This would also explain why every character has a real name, but JOH is a card name...just a device of Lily's, not a seperate person. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[eyehop:43198] I think you cracked the case, eyehop. That would explain why she "had to have that certain flash every time she smiled", and why he was "face-down like the Jack of Hearts". The personas of the two are polar opposites to throw people off the trail. I have to re-listen to the song now with your interpretation. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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An interesting thing about this song is that the overall structure of it is built like a game of cards. There's no chorus. Verse after verse is like the hands of a card game, and every character is suspicious of what every other character is doing, bluffing and deception throughout. Giving the appearance of one thing, then a sudden reversal or twist. Holding onto something until the right moment. The additional point to support this theory is that every character has a real name except for the "Jack of Hearts". He has a "poker face" by having a "poker name", never revealing anything but what is right on the surface. When you listen to the song with this in mind, it stands out that the monotony of the delivery of the lines is often broken up by melodic flourishes Dylan throws in especially at the end of a verse, to echo how unexpected things will happen at the end of a round of cards. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[chrispy:43193] Bob has said on song writing that there are many different methods you can use to write a song. I think with Mr.Tambourine Man, he is focused on trying to create a feeling of melancholy wonder that could be drawn from drug experiences and the freedom alternate states of mind can bring you, using whatever imagery can evoke that feeling or those experiences.
I get confused on Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts as to who Lily and Rosemary are. One is Jim's wife, one is his mistress I guess...and his mistress is also fooling around with the Jack of Hearts? Or Lily is a courtesan/ saloon girl who Big Jim pimps out...IDK. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Highlands Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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When he says "The windows were shaking all night in my dreams." he is talking about 'the windows to the soul', meaning 'the eyes', meaning his own eyeballs, rapidly shifting back and forth in REM sleep. This is an extreme way of saying that his mindset is so bereft of delusion that he is aware of his physicality even in a dream state. He confirms this with the next line "Everything was exactly the way that it seems" he is not dreaming of future or past, but only the present. The mindset he's describing is an absurdly literal one, so its a joke wrapped in a riddle, yet it still is a statement on how he is living in the moment and very self aware of how far away the past is and how bleak the future could be. Hiding meaning in drab lyrics is a reflection of how to see beauty in the world as an artist, even when it appears as though the world has passed you by. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Highlands Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[Mikesch:42939] The lines about horses and hounds come directly after he says "I walk out into the busy street, but there's no one around" How can there be no one around if the street is busy? because everyone is in their cars...isolated from each other even in busy traffic in the middle of the day. Bob is likely alienated by modern society, and imagines that in the highlands (heaven or a utopia), people still ride horses instead of drive cars. One possible interpretation. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Highlands Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[Mikesch:42940] The lines about horses and hounds come directly after he says "I walk out into the busy street, but there's no one around" How can there be no one around if the street is busy? because everyone is in their cars...isolated from each other even in busy traffic in the middle of the day. Bob is likely alienated by modern society, and imagines that in the highlands (heaven or a utopia), people still ride horses instead of drive cars. One possible interpretation. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Past The Mission Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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The basic moral of the Mary Magdalene story is in the reason for leniency Jesus gives, forgive her for she did what she did out of love, was that not it? And so this song is about the moment when love, or the holy spirit, communicates to you and transcends the law of chastity that is embedded in religious doctrine. The prison tower is the sexuality being kept locked up, but in a high place...not as something shameful but as something above the common mindspace of daily life. The line "I shut my mouth", seems to me to allude to the later line "They're closing every hour"... I think this is an oblique suggestion of the doors of possibility for romantic love for either sex closing as one gets older. This cause for concern or scarcity is part of the tension that drives people to engage in sex even when they don't "smell the roses", meaning; even when the sex is not sanctified by the spirit of love that transcends common sensualitiy. Another interpretation of the line "Hey they found a body- not sure it was his", could be that the "body" was not a dead body, but the living body of a baby...of whom the man involved in the sexual encounter in the song is possibly the father. Seeing this as a double meaning to the biblical interpretation of finding Jesus's dead body, the following lines still fit both instances "Still they're using his name" (the mother for the baby, and the apostles for Christ, and "She gave him shelter", meaning the mother raised the baby alone. Everything in the Bible can be read as an allegory or parable to illuminate situations in modern life, so I think the song is written with that spirit to be freely interpreted. |
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