High Command

It's pretty straightforward that this song is about the Nazi regime under Hitler - it sounds to me like Dylan is putting himself in the place of someone who can't stand the atrocities that he is committing simply by associating with his high-ups.

I'd almost like to say that it's written from the point of view of Hitler himself, had Hitler actually thought like this, but the third verse throws me off because it's in reference to Hess' solo flight to Scotland to negotiate peace talks - some people have a conspiracy theory that the person flying the plane wasn't actually Rudolph. It certainly wouldn't be Hitler, cuz the guy that flew the plane got arrested by the man whose property he parachuted onto after he bailed out of the plane.

In any case, good damn song.

I actually feel some "after too many drugs" vibes from the music and lyrics. It feels like a metaphor, "living with the high command" (which is said at the end of the song), rolling with all these powerful people, being at their party in a way, being part of their destruction and command and their whole trip in general, so lost in it you don't know what you're actually doing, its like getting so fucked up night after night that you don't know what you're doing, and then you "come down" and you see the destruction after it's done, and that you fucked yourself over in the process. The 'High Command' (which could be a pun) offers a power trip in their presence, but really they're just murderous psychopaths and their power trip was an illusion that got you high.

Does that make sense to anyone else?

i've just listened the live version and carlson introduced it as "a song about needles and history channel", what made me think it is about taking heroine while tv is on the history channel..

kinda makes a better sense than "he was among the third reichs people"

someone know the meaningh??