Sounds like a very threatening, ominous song: seems to have nothing to do with love or a romantic attachment gone bad. Sounds rather like a drug deal gone bad: someone who got burned by a dealer is now holding that dealer hostage until either his money is returned or "the goods" are delivered. Dylan had monkeyed around with heroin previously (he was quite obviously on it during at least parts of his spring '66 tour of England- see the video of him riding in the back of a limo with John Lennon early one morning, on route from Lennon's suburban house (St. John's Wood) to Dylan's hotel after a post-gig all night party featuring lots of alcohol and lots of drugs- the documentary makers stop the taping after 10-15 minutes as Dylan gets ready to vomit on the inside of the limo). My guess was that during his subsequent retreat from the public eye following his motorcycle accident (summer '66) when he was holed up for much of the time with The Band at Big Pink, he was still messing with hard drugs. Dylan reemerged at the end of '67 with "John Wesley Harding" and, a few months later, of course, came The Band's album debut ("Music From Big Pink"). The Byrds also had a version of this song during this period on their Gram Parsons-influenced hard-right turn into country music, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo."
Sounds like a very threatening, ominous song: seems to have nothing to do with love or a romantic attachment gone bad. Sounds rather like a drug deal gone bad: someone who got burned by a dealer is now holding that dealer hostage until either his money is returned or "the goods" are delivered. Dylan had monkeyed around with heroin previously (he was quite obviously on it during at least parts of his spring '66 tour of England- see the video of him riding in the back of a limo with John Lennon early one morning, on route from Lennon's suburban house (St. John's Wood) to Dylan's hotel after a post-gig all night party featuring lots of alcohol and lots of drugs- the documentary makers stop the taping after 10-15 minutes as Dylan gets ready to vomit on the inside of the limo). My guess was that during his subsequent retreat from the public eye following his motorcycle accident (summer '66) when he was holed up for much of the time with The Band at Big Pink, he was still messing with hard drugs. Dylan reemerged at the end of '67 with "John Wesley Harding" and, a few months later, of course, came The Band's album debut ("Music From Big Pink"). The Byrds also had a version of this song during this period on their Gram Parsons-influenced hard-right turn into country music, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo."