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Bob Dylan's 49th Beard Lyrics
You'll be happier when I'm gone
I'm much too busy to worry
I'll be sad and you'll feel bad
But I know you won't be sorry
And as I turn to go
Please don't wave goodbye
I refuse to cry
On roads that are paved
With men who behave
Like they know where they're goin'
And I'll stop along the way
And it's then I'll think of you
And I'll wonder if you knew
When I got blue
And things got weird
And I started growing
Bob Dylan's beard
I'm much too busy to worry
I'll be sad and you'll feel bad
But I know you won't be sorry
Please don't wave goodbye
I refuse to cry
On roads that are paved
With men who behave
Like they know where they're goin'
And it's then I'll think of you
And I'll wonder if you knew
When I got blue
And I started growing
Bob Dylan's beard
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Tweedy uses Dylan's beard as a defense mechcanism in order to escape the pain of separating from his love. From the assumption at the beginning, "you'll be happier when I'm gone" to "please don't wave goodbye," Tweedy hides behind the aged generalization that beards bring wisdom, especially Bob Dylan's. Instead, our protagonist tells himself that he's grown wiser instead of facing the pain and sorrow of departing from who he loves.
Much like Bob Dylan, Jeff Tweedy cannot grow a beard to save a life.
But when you're a genius, patchy facial hair is forgivable.
Amen. I hate it when Tweedy tries to grow beards.
Amen. I hate it when Tweedy tries to grow beards.
I just want to add a bit of context on the title of the song and the previous comments:
Dylan wrote songs with titles like “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” and “I Shall Be Free #10”, which is why it’s called “Bob Dylan’s ‘49TH’ Beard”...the “49TH” is a nod to those song titles...
The syntax suggests his growing the beard was part of his depression - shaving and other hygiene/self-care stuff can go out the window with it. Jeff did often have a scraggly one at this time (see lots of footage in I am trying to break your heart), sorta like Dylan's in the early 70s. The consciously folky melody and guitar part and number bit in the title add to the reference.
s**t ey. thats an incredibly good analysis. i love this song.
That could be. But I also know from personal experience that, whenever my life starts to go through a big change, I do something like cut my hair differently or I grow a beard or something like that. I see it less like a defense mechanism and more like a tangible symbol of change.
I see the protagonist as deciding to grow the beard kind of as a sign that he's moving on, and starting a new chapter in his life.
Shit. I think that first homie fucking nailed it. Spot on.
favorite
yeah augurus. fuckin' spot on.
I agree with Agurus except for one point. Everything is future or present tense ("you'll be happier when I'm gone" and "as I turn to go" as examples) until the final verse. It then shifts to past tense; "wonder if you knew when I got blue, and things got weird, I started growing Bob Dylan's beard".
I think that the singer's attempt to "grow Bob Dylan's beard" is what led to the breakup of the relationship, not his way of coping with it.
But the last stanza contains sequential events. The protagonist got blue and things got weird before he started growing Bob Dylan's beard. Regardless of whether or not the beard leads to the breakup, the beard continues to defend our narrator as the narrator continues to use modal and future tenses to suggest solutions to ease the difficulty.
But the last stanza contains sequential events. The protagonist got blue and things got weird before he started growing Bob Dylan's beard. Regardless of whether or not the beard leads to the breakup, the beard continues to defend our narrator as the narrator continues to use modal and future tenses to suggest solutions to ease the difficulty.
On a humorous side note, I can't fathom why growing a beard would lead to a breakup unless this is the most picky, fickle, and casual relationship in the history of Wilco's repoitoire.
On a humorous side note, I can't fathom why growing a beard would lead to a breakup unless this is the most picky, fickle, and casual relationship in the history of Wilco's repoitoire.
I see where you're coming from. It seems both positions are valid; things "getting weird" between the couple, the breakup, then the "beard" being grown as a metaphor for wisdom, and things "getting weird", the man "growing the beard" by trying to come to terms with it in a way that just creates an even bigger barrier and the breakup stemming from that.
I see where you're coming from. It seems both positions are valid; things "getting weird" between the couple, the breakup, then the "beard" being grown as a metaphor for wisdom, and things "getting weird", the man "growing the beard" by trying to come to terms with it in a way that just creates an even bigger barrier and the breakup stemming from that.