Blind Willie McTell

Well, God is in heaven And we all want what's his But power and greed and corruptible seed Seem to be all that there is I'm gazing out the window Of the St. James Hotel And I know no one can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell

I'd comment, but there's nothing I can say that would add anything to this. In fact whatever I'd say would only take away from it, even this.

the last stanza is probably the best thing ive ever read

The song tells the story of the life of Blind Willie McTell. His struggles and the world he was born in. It also clearly speculates on the fact that Blind Willie McTell never again sung the blues after his convertion. He became a Baptist preacher and started singing gospel music (never recorded)

Mind the fact that Dylan has changed the lyrics of the first stanza at live concerts into: All the way from New Orleans to New Jerusalem This part seams to deal with the hard times of a black blues singer whos struggles will go on tillkingdom come. In the same verse he tells the story of many slaves who died by the hand of the KKK for their believes in Eastern Texas.

The second verse probably is somewhat more autobiographical since its telling the story of people who work at a carnival. Dylan used to work at a gypsy circus in his younger years (listen to the gaslight tapes)

The third verse then again tells the story of the slaves who came in oproar against their opressors. This part is written in beautifull imagery. For example: The magnolia starts to bloom as soon as it gets the possibility to do so. Many magnolias die because they bloom to soon.

I Truly dont know what the fourth verse means. It might be the immage of love for woman and booze in Blind Willies early career.

The last verse is pretty clear as it deals with the preaching of blind willi mctell. He told people that no matter how hard live is only God will care for you. We should never give up the struggle even though there is so much pain in this world. the second part of this verse seams pretty clear to me now thanks to this qoute of geranium kisses:

the St james was a real place that opened as a hotel in New Orleans in 1859 but during the civil War was converted by occupying Union troops into a military hospital.

well that about wraps it up for today.

St James is a hotel in London that Bob Dylan was staying in. It's on the site of an old hospital. There was a song first collected in the 18th century about a man dying of syphillus there, That song travelled around England and became a song about a dying sailor and a soldier. It travelled across to the USA and became a song about a destitute woman - Lament of a Bad Girl. It went westwards and became a song about cowboys. It went to the southeast and was taken up by Blind Willie McTell who made intot the Dying Crapshooter's Blues. Dylan knew the history of this song and it was this that he was capturing in the lyrics while he stayed on the site where the song first started

If I can confess, I'm a big-time Dylan fan but first heard this song while at the movie's watching I'm Not There, instantly it struck a chord with me and I can remember driving home and downloading the song instantly. And being a dylan fan like many others I listened over and over and each timne getting a new pesrpective. Before I give my opinion I think its pretty sad that this song only gets 7 replies when it is in EVERY SENSE, A MASTERPIECE. Every stanza, every line, every change of tone and inflection in his voice, every thing you can pick apart in this song is perfect, to me. And I think how Dylan truly transcends time, because despite maybe "bootlegged whiskey" this song means as much today as it did when he wrote it. For me the most amazing part is the irony, how a blind man can sing/see the blues better than anyone who truly witnesses all the dissaray. Like I said I am big fan but this song did something as it did when the first time I heard "Visions Of Johana", or the first time I bought "Highway 61 Revisited". I think Dylan is 68 or something close to that but its so sad how everyone in the music industry totally pales in comparison to him STILL, and I'm a 30 year old guy who does have a wide array of musicians I like but Nobody can hold a candle to Dylan, Yesterday or today. But Go on, go buy your nickelback or Justin Timberlake bull shit, or better yet anything hip hop, go get your generic poetry while we bathe in the light of the master.

I created a profile just so I could comment about this song, one of my favourites. I see Bob Dylan writing this almost as an antithesis to the American Dream, taking quick snippets of the nation's less than glorious moments in history and presenting them in a lament, or perhaps even an elegy, for a land that "is condemned".

After the first verse sets the tone, the second paints a tableau of charcoal gypsy maidens (or is that "chaco"? I love Dylan's use of descriptive words!) below a hoot owl in barren trees. I see the moment depicted as one before the discovery of the New World, a time when the Americas where sparsely populated, "barren". Trees are barren of course in winter, at the start of the the year, so it also refers to the start of America's story.

Then the white men arrive in the next verse with slaves in tow. It's powerful and mostly self-explanatory, but when Dylan sings of "tribes moaning" - is it the tribes of Africa torn apart by slave traders, or the tribes of Native Americans overran by Manifest Destiny, or both? The tolling of the undertaker's bell signifies the end of the old way of life.

The next scene could at first be a moment from anywhere and anytime, but a young man "dressed up like a squire / Bootlegged whisky in his hand" can only be found in the 1920s and 30s, a point backed up with the chain gang on the highway image that immediately follows. By the way, when he hears "them rebels yell" are we still in the 1930s or have we jumped forward to the 1940s and the greatest generation fighting in WWII, rebelling against the evil Nazis? Of course, a lot of the chain gangs of the 1930s would have been conscripted into the armies of the following decade!

The last verse I see as Dylan's condemnation of modern America, greedy and grasping and so busy trying to be the greatest without stopping to think that maybe it's the little moments that count, that make life worth living in the first place. As other posters have commented, the St James Hotel was a real hotel in New Orleans, tying the story back to the opening verse, but for St James Hotel, even though I'm not religious I read also St James Bible. Is Dylan saying that we've lost our way and should look to the Bible to find ourselves again?

That's my interpretation anyway and I'm sure everyone has their own. As far as I'm concerned, this just beats Mr Tambourine Man as my favourite Dylan song.

I see comments.. this song is about slavery, or American dream or whatever. Bob hasn’t really had such matters in mind in decades. His best songs are mostly about (particularly in his latter career) the nature of man, his relationship with God, his responsibility in that relationship and the specter of that confrontation as it hangs over us. Bob isn’t like us. The last verse is one of his best. The line “nobody sings the blues like Blind Willie Mctell, isn’t really important as content but it acts as a gong, or exclamatory tool for the verses dealing man’s sin nature and God’s absolute authority

im just posting for the sake of it--Due to the fact this being possiably my favourite Dylan song-and what a cracker it is- I think hes basically saying ppl are never happy with what they got"Well, God is in heaven And we all want what's his" and the fact that we should all think about the thing s we take for granted such as the amazing gift of sight "I'm gazing out the window Of the St. James Hotel And I know no one can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell" Regardless of which this is an amazing song

What a spectacular song. Probably my favourite Dylan track. I think it's about suffering in the world, and how we should try to move on from our past ["ghosts of slavery ships", "where martyrs fell"] bringing it all back to this character Willie McTell, who despite being blind, manages to get on with his life and be the best blues singer (Bob Dylan) knows, a trait he obviously admires. Beautiful, beautiful song.

so i just heard this song for the first time and im addicted to it. its amazing. im thinking that blind willie mctell is more of a metophor than a person. he's the representation of how someone always has it worse off than you, and therefore your blues are no where near what someone else's may be. i agree w/ the idea that we take things for granted, frankly b/c we do.