Up to Me

This song is undoubtedly cool. It seems like such an interesting story, but so often when it comes to Bob Dylan's songs... I don't quite get it. Anybody have any ideas on the actual plot of this song?

I like trying to piece it together. It seems like she's on the run, a lawbreaker. He decides to help her, thinking the laws are ridiculous and he can aide her getaway, or something. (The whole enforced insanity bit.)

But eventually they're seperated. Te tries to resume a normal life while she keeps hiding out, but he can't stop thinking about her. Even when he meets someone else who SHOULD be perfect for him ("everything I need in love, but I can't be swayed by that") he can't get her picture out of his mind.

So maybe after that, after doing some thinking... the Sermon on the Mount, maybe?... and deciding the whole thing is too complex, he chooses to just try to find her, despite the complications that may ensue. And he goes around the old kinda places where she'd hang out, the seedy bars like the Thunderbird Cafe, and observes the old crowd, or something.

And then maybe he sees her, but she's just another floozy in the bar. She doesn't even recognize him; he has to look the other way. He tries to pass a message to her, but decides there "isn't that much to tell," since she's not his property.

Then he's gone, knowing they'll probably never cross paths again, imploring her to remember the sacrifices he made.

Haha. That's an extremely hazy, sketchy interpretation of this song... quite a poor analysis, I know. But that's the general feeling I get from it.

so beautiful, definately should've been on blood on the tracks (although since it isnt it's kind of like a personal, staggering dylan gem that not everyone knows about, so i like that too)

One of Dylan's famously brilliantly songs that got left of his albums for much inferior work. This is one of the finest songs he ever wrote, so sad, so sweet. 'I met somebody face to face/I had to remove my hat/She's everything I need in love/But I can't be swayed by that/It frightens me, the awful truth/Of how sweet life can be' is just one of his best lyrics ever. Lyrical, haunting, beautiful.

to me, this is definately an autobiographical song. This second stanza encapsulates this perfectly;

If I'd thought about it I never would've done it, I guess I would've let it slide, If I'd lived my life by what others were thinkin', the heart inside me would've died. I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity, Someone had to reach for the risin' star, I guess it was up to me.

Dylan's switch from folk revivalist, 'voice of a generation', protest song figurehead, to his decision of going electric and arguably the first 'punk rocker' is summed up in this verse. Dylan couldn't allow himself to be "ever be governed by enforced insanity" or living his life by what others were thinking - being pinned down to just being a folk, and more specifically, socialist singer and hence, "someone had to reach for the risin' star, I guess it was up to me" - his break from folk to electric. Not was it just the musical gulf Dylan tried to expand, but also the political one. Dylan felt he was being used by left-wingers as a form of propaganda for the youth, 'hip to be left'. Overall, Dylan has jokingly always referred to himself as a 'song and dance man' - never to be used as a 'pawn in their game', (in this instance he concedes, "When you bite off more than you can chew you gotta pay the penalty"; another reference to him being mixed up in socialist affairs, and having a bigger impact that intended or expected). The song is essentially about him looking back on what he was once percieved as and how wrong the people making these interpretations really got it, he looks back on his past from an out of body experience referring to himself as 'friend' -

"Was I a fool or not to try to protect your identity? You looked a little burned out, my friend, I thought it might be up to me."

and finally concludes that after all this it is up to himself to interpret these things he has said, not any one else.

Easily my favourite Dylan song.

ALLEGORY: An extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning. Often an allegory's meaning is religious, moral, or historical in nature. ALLUSIONs are generally regarded as brief but purposeful references, within a literary text, to a person, place, event, or to another work of literature. A SYMBOL is a person, object, place, event, or action that suggests more than its literal meaning. difference between a SIGN and a SYMBOL? Signs and symbols are pictures that represent something and have a meaning. Signs always have a clear meaning often giving information or an instruction. Symbols also represent something but you need some knowledge to understand what the symbol represents.

THIs work of ART incorporates some, perhaps ALL these means to impart less than obvious meaning. Not unlike the BIBLE! "Bad to Worse"= way of the world DEATH = SIN (Satan)
BLUEBIRDs are considered messengers of love and joy. In CHRISTIANITY, the bluebird meaning in the bible is that these birds are angels in disguise. They act as messengers from the realm of the Gods, sent by our guardian angels to deliver an important message to people on Earth. These lyrics are that MESSAGE! "Show their Hand"= true belief. "You're long Gone= JESUS CHRIST= Heart /SOUL "Enforced Insanity"=human HUBRIS (the CHURCH) "Rising Star"=In this context to be understood as the morning star, the light whose rising signifies Christ's birth, however can be interpreted as "Light Bringer" a la LUCIFER. "Union Central"= Mass miss-interpretations leaving. "Orchids now in bloom"= the perfect bloom to celebrate all of life's precious moments (Birth of Christ). "Find your trail"= the WAY! I hafta rest before continuing, but I'll be back!