Tombstone Blues

Yeah, I tend to agree with rider of waves, these are mostly little images of abuse of power.

The city father's first ridiculously trying to legislate the reincarnation of a horse. He then characterizes them "the chamber of commerce": Belle Starr (a famous criminal), Jezebell the nun (hypocrit), Jack the Ripper (famous killer.)

The chorus just puts it in perspective, real, everyday people are just trying to survive.

Who would John the Baptists commander and chief be, has to be Jesus Christ. After torturing a thief, putting judgement to a sinner, feels sick with guuilt. He looks to the commander in chief wondering, is this really what we should be doing? Christ is portrayed as so freaking tough that he is pumping a barbell, saying death to all those who don't have the stomach for this, and challenging the sun directly (its a cool play on words, but also conveys the insane conviction.) Anyway, the abuse of power by christianity is the theme of these verses.

The king of the philistines puts jawbones on the tombstones of his soldiers. Then heaps them with honors. Samson killed the philistines with a jawbone. Its the same as putting a rifle on the grave of a soldier (the impliment of their death!) and honoring them. The hypocrisy of probably the president in particular, but the US governemt in general, blithely sending soldiers off to die, and honoring their deaths so shallowly, at the same time, jailing pied pipers (those who would lead the youth presumably to protest the war). Fattening the slaves before sending them out tio the jungle, is the same hypocracy of honoring the soldiers deaths.. If you had so much honor for them, you'd not send them off to die!.

Gypsy davy, is the soldier in the army. He's burning down camps, ie burning villages, the fantastic collection of stamps means, enjoying travelling around the world, to win friends and influence his Uncle (Sam), that is to gain favor in the military. He's saying, the avergae Joe soldier burning down villages, isn't thinking about what he's doing, he's thrilled to be travelling the world, and not looking at the bigger picture.

Brother Bill is probably Billy Graham, or some one like him, a reactionary judgemental rightwing christian type, and he's ironically saying, that he wishes he could give him his greatest wish and let him die a martyr in cecil b. demill cinemagraphic glory.

Ma Raney was a famous Blues-Woman, he is equating her to bethoven as a true musical originator, they've now been replaced by tuba players saluting the flag, its a humorous image of crappy music that serves the mainstream purpose. And any one trying to save your soul is making a profit, preying off the old and naieve.

Theres more here, its all in that vein i think.

more about "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken": the roman sun god is apollo and the spanish word for chicken is "pollo". chew on that for a while

smeared -- basically, that line is a purposely ambiguous and awesome pun. Dylan plays with word connotations here.

Yellow's most obvious connotation is the color.
However, it can also mean "cowardly" or "scared."

Chicken's most obvious connotation is the food. However, it can also mean the same thing as the second connotation of yellow -- scared (You're chicken!)

So, no matter which way you look at this statement, one of the words will screw up the sentence's meaning.

For instance, the sun definitely can't be chicken, but something that's yellow can be.

What an awesome pun. This song is amazing. The lyrics are great, and Michael Bloomfield's guitar work is exceptional.

I've read that this song is an attempt to render musically the same kind of crazy randomness that surrealist artists in the 1920's put in their paintings and movies. This song is full of one liners and verses that are almost by definition non sequitors. From what I understand, surrealists were trying to get people to look at the world differently by placing normal, run of the mill images in unexpected, and sometimes unsettling, contexts.

By the way, "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken," may just be one of my favorite lines ever.

It's hard to tell how all the allusions fit together. Who are Gypsy Davey and Ma Raney?

The Biblical references are a bit easier. Jezebel (corrupt queen of Israel) shows up in the first verse, John the Baptist in the second, but Samson (though unnamed) is the big allusion.

He killed 1000 Philistines with a donkey's jawbone (see third verse), married and was betrayed by Delilah (fourth verse), and finally killed his captors by tearing down the pillars of the great house of the Philistines (fourth verse; note the reference to Cecil B. DeMille, who directed several major Biblical epics in the 1950s).

As far as how Samson and the others fit into the larger context of the song, I have no idea. Any thoughts?

ok i just signed up after seeing the lack of commentary on this song. i have always felt that it is talking about the way people with power or who recieve power go a little nuts. first few verses about the city counsel trying to bring back a dead horse. and in latter parts it talks about how people try to keep their power through flattery or making people feel important the king of the phillistines for instance. but i must say that the drugged period of dylan is a very unique and abstract form of conveying messages. honestly some probably mean nothing and he is laughing at fools like us trying to analyize everything

As soon as I read the lyric I thought of Vietnam in particular and war and capitalism in general. To me, verses 1&2 say that the gangsters are now running the country, using patriotism as a cover. The chorus notes that capitalism is tough and that here Dylan is singing about it from a relatively comfortable position.Verses 3&4 are about being made to shut up and accept a brutally exploitative system. In 5&6 we see a sarcastic incarnation of Christian icons as military figures. 7&8 are self-explanatory - think My Lai. 9&10 use a biblical allusion to suggest LBJ ought to kill himself rather than sending others off to war. 11 says the military-industrial complex has usurped education and culture and 12 says that even if you realise all this, you can't change it. I'd see it as a picture of Dylan's disillusion and bitterness at the time he moved from his 'protest' period to his electric period.

Just a first impression, you understand. I'm sure there are broader and deeper interpretations, but mine certainly fits the anger of the song and the death motif.

I love the way this song sounds like it's perpetually about to go off the rails, but manages to stay just balanced.

more about "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken": the roman sun god is apollo and the spanish word for chicken is "pollo". chew on that for a while

I think the ultimate aim is tell us that the upper crust sucks and the people are starving to death. I think that's why he wrote the chorus the way he did. I think's that also the point of the second to last stanza. "The National Bank sells at a profit road maps for the soul to the old folks home and the college." Only the priveleged have a shot at getting into college and the old folks home, and if your underpriveleged, then you have to sell your soul for a promissary note. You'll never escape the debt of this life with those bills. Dylan's the best songwriter of the 1960's.