I can't figure out the references to Darktown, but overall this song seems to be about a man trying to get on with his life after having his heart broken by a Sugar Baby.
She's probably younger than the narrator (as suggested by him calling her a "baby"), and thus has less experience dealing with people with whom she's intimately involved. The narrator was blinded by her charms at first, but then he possibly had to turn "his back to the sun" because she just became too much to handle. Now that he's regained his sight and that his sense has returned, he can see what "everyone in the world is up against" in terms of resisting Sugar Baby's come ons.
I think before he reached the state of mind this song represents, he had "tr[ied] to make things better for someone," but he ended up "just making it a thousand times worse", perhaps by "pushing too far". He now realized there's nothing more he can do, so he's telling her to move on as well, but not without getting in some jabs and trying to get her to "see what she's done" -- that she's "got a way of tearing the world apart". The stanza about bootleggers hiding their stash and whether or not people can live with their memories may refer to some past event in Sugar Baby's that she has not confronted. He predicts that if she doesn't start doing something to change her ways possibly by "Look[ing] up, look[ing] up" and "Seek[ing her] Maker", she's gonna go through some personally apocalyptic experiences.
I think an older man narrates this due to his peacefully resigned attitude towards love. Even though he calls existence "a dirty trick" and laments that "happiness..can leave just [so] quick", he ultimately believes that "love's not an evil thing". However, you gotta appreciate the fact that Dylan didn't make the narrator so wise and settled that he couldn't resist telling her she ain't got no sense or brains.
I can't figure out the references to Darktown, but overall this song seems to be about a man trying to get on with his life after having his heart broken by a Sugar Baby.
She's probably younger than the narrator (as suggested by him calling her a "baby"), and thus has less experience dealing with people with whom she's intimately involved. The narrator was blinded by her charms at first, but then he possibly had to turn "his back to the sun" because she just became too much to handle. Now that he's regained his sight and that his sense has returned, he can see what "everyone in the world is up against" in terms of resisting Sugar Baby's come ons.
I think before he reached the state of mind this song represents, he had "tr[ied] to make things better for someone," but he ended up "just making it a thousand times worse", perhaps by "pushing too far". He now realized there's nothing more he can do, so he's telling her to move on as well, but not without getting in some jabs and trying to get her to "see what she's done" -- that she's "got a way of tearing the world apart". The stanza about bootleggers hiding their stash and whether or not people can live with their memories may refer to some past event in Sugar Baby's that she has not confronted. He predicts that if she doesn't start doing something to change her ways possibly by "Look[ing] up, look[ing] up" and "Seek[ing her] Maker", she's gonna go through some personally apocalyptic experiences.
I think an older man narrates this due to his peacefully resigned attitude towards love. Even though he calls existence "a dirty trick" and laments that "happiness..can leave just [so] quick", he ultimately believes that "love's not an evil thing". However, you gotta appreciate the fact that Dylan didn't make the narrator so wise and settled that he couldn't resist telling her she ain't got no sense or brains.