I think this is a morality tale, which is about redemption and sin. The beginning has "lost in the rain" and "it's Easter time too" (the story of the resurrection - redemption from sin) and ends with "I'm going back to New York city, I do believe I've had enough". It is like the story of the prodigal son, he comes to his senses and returns to his father after wasting all his money on prostitutes. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you." New York (Big Apple) is a metaphor for the garden of Eden (Greenwich Village?)- the place before the fall, a return to innocence.
All the verses are detailing the archetypal temptations/sins that a person can succumb to: despair =gravity fails/negativity, Pride = Don't put on any airs, greed/lust=hungry women, lethargy=I cannot move/My fingers are all in a knot/don't have the strength, superstition=[the gypsy soothsayer in her room] the peasants call her the goddess of gloom, lack of faith=steals your voice (Zechariah lost his voice when he refused to believe), paganism/lust=howling at the moon, It's either fortune or fame=Satan's temptations of Jesus, idleness=just stand around, pride/vanity=boast, corruption=blackmail, and addiction=I started out on burgundy But soon hit the harder stuff. Salvation is found by becoming true to oneself (the truth will set you free): no one there to call my bluff, which is a poker reference. When no one is around to ask you to reveal your hand, you can still see your own cards, you can't fool yourself. It ends with faith "I do believe I've had enough".
Why is being lost being played off against it being Easter time too? Easter time is about being found/saved. Also, Juarez is across from El Paso, the boundary between Mexico and the US - it an image of not knowing one's borders/boundaries and descending into the valley in between. The song is about forgetting about one's limits and suffering the consequences (lost in the rain/you're down/really make a mess out of you/I cannot move/leaves you howling at the moon (insane?)/the joke was on me There was nobody even there to call my bluff (losing one's real friends).
Of course, it may have been primarily influenced by other stories, that were in turn influenced by these concepts.
What you're reading into it was not put there by Dylan. In 1965 the man was recording, touring and writing 18 hours a day apart from getting smashed and laid. To deliberately put all those references in would take months. It's more likely that the whole thing was improvised and tidied up when time was available. It's a testament to Dylan's wit and erudition that so many references can be pulled out of it - though if you're asking what it's 'about', it's about the feeling of being fed up, far from home, in a place full of wicked temptations....
What you're reading into it was not put there by Dylan. In 1965 the man was recording, touring and writing 18 hours a day apart from getting smashed and laid. To deliberately put all those references in would take months. It's more likely that the whole thing was improvised and tidied up when time was available. It's a testament to Dylan's wit and erudition that so many references can be pulled out of it - though if you're asking what it's 'about', it's about the feeling of being fed up, far from home, in a place full of wicked temptations. And the rainfall in Juarez at Eastertime is the lowest for the area, about 0.2 inches in the month of April.
I think it is possible by Bob to put all those references in eventhough he didnt have much time to write since he wrote so many songs in between everything else. Many people tend to over-analyze Bobs songs but I think they all have a meaning and purpose for Bob at the time. He is a poet and writes as a poet. Not every word in a song has a deeper meaning but all words fit in the song. I always see him as an observing poet in the sence that he writes what he sees with a poets eyes....
I think it is possible by Bob to put all those references in eventhough he didnt have much time to write since he wrote so many songs in between everything else. Many people tend to over-analyze Bobs songs but I think they all have a meaning and purpose for Bob at the time. He is a poet and writes as a poet. Not every word in a song has a deeper meaning but all words fit in the song. I always see him as an observing poet in the sence that he writes what he sees with a poets eyes. I agree with Bolgwrad that its a song about feeling fed up and I think it is Bobs view of his life at that time, that moment. But he describes it in a way that people can dig out lots of references because Bob is an educated man and, i believe, have read or heard stories that he just puts in the song because it fits.
For me the "clue" to the meaning could easily be in the title. It is called just like Tom Thumbs blues and so it could be a reminder for Bob about Tom Thumb that he applies to himself and his sorrundings
I think this is a morality tale, which is about redemption and sin. The beginning has "lost in the rain" and "it's Easter time too" (the story of the resurrection - redemption from sin) and ends with "I'm going back to New York city, I do believe I've had enough". It is like the story of the prodigal son, he comes to his senses and returns to his father after wasting all his money on prostitutes. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you." New York (Big Apple) is a metaphor for the garden of Eden (Greenwich Village?)- the place before the fall, a return to innocence.
All the verses are detailing the archetypal temptations/sins that a person can succumb to: despair =gravity fails/negativity, Pride = Don't put on any airs, greed/lust=hungry women, lethargy=I cannot move/My fingers are all in a knot/don't have the strength, superstition=[the gypsy soothsayer in her room] the peasants call her the goddess of gloom, lack of faith=steals your voice (Zechariah lost his voice when he refused to believe), paganism/lust=howling at the moon, It's either fortune or fame=Satan's temptations of Jesus, idleness=just stand around, pride/vanity=boast, corruption=blackmail, and addiction=I started out on burgundy But soon hit the harder stuff. Salvation is found by becoming true to oneself (the truth will set you free): no one there to call my bluff, which is a poker reference. When no one is around to ask you to reveal your hand, you can still see your own cards, you can't fool yourself. It ends with faith "I do believe I've had enough".
Why is being lost being played off against it being Easter time too? Easter time is about being found/saved. Also, Juarez is across from El Paso, the boundary between Mexico and the US - it an image of not knowing one's borders/boundaries and descending into the valley in between. The song is about forgetting about one's limits and suffering the consequences (lost in the rain/you're down/really make a mess out of you/I cannot move/leaves you howling at the moon (insane?)/the joke was on me There was nobody even there to call my bluff (losing one's real friends).
Of course, it may have been primarily influenced by other stories, that were in turn influenced by these concepts.
Good thinking there! You got much further along than I did in trying to unpack it.
Good thinking there! You got much further along than I did in trying to unpack it.
What you're reading into it was not put there by Dylan. In 1965 the man was recording, touring and writing 18 hours a day apart from getting smashed and laid. To deliberately put all those references in would take months. It's more likely that the whole thing was improvised and tidied up when time was available. It's a testament to Dylan's wit and erudition that so many references can be pulled out of it - though if you're asking what it's 'about', it's about the feeling of being fed up, far from home, in a place full of wicked temptations....
What you're reading into it was not put there by Dylan. In 1965 the man was recording, touring and writing 18 hours a day apart from getting smashed and laid. To deliberately put all those references in would take months. It's more likely that the whole thing was improvised and tidied up when time was available. It's a testament to Dylan's wit and erudition that so many references can be pulled out of it - though if you're asking what it's 'about', it's about the feeling of being fed up, far from home, in a place full of wicked temptations. And the rainfall in Juarez at Eastertime is the lowest for the area, about 0.2 inches in the month of April.
I think it is possible by Bob to put all those references in eventhough he didnt have much time to write since he wrote so many songs in between everything else. Many people tend to over-analyze Bobs songs but I think they all have a meaning and purpose for Bob at the time. He is a poet and writes as a poet. Not every word in a song has a deeper meaning but all words fit in the song. I always see him as an observing poet in the sence that he writes what he sees with a poets eyes....
I think it is possible by Bob to put all those references in eventhough he didnt have much time to write since he wrote so many songs in between everything else. Many people tend to over-analyze Bobs songs but I think they all have a meaning and purpose for Bob at the time. He is a poet and writes as a poet. Not every word in a song has a deeper meaning but all words fit in the song. I always see him as an observing poet in the sence that he writes what he sees with a poets eyes. I agree with Bolgwrad that its a song about feeling fed up and I think it is Bobs view of his life at that time, that moment. But he describes it in a way that people can dig out lots of references because Bob is an educated man and, i believe, have read or heard stories that he just puts in the song because it fits. For me the "clue" to the meaning could easily be in the title. It is called just like Tom Thumbs blues and so it could be a reminder for Bob about Tom Thumb that he applies to himself and his sorrundings