The state of our country and the world since the US response to September
11th leaves me with depressive feelings I have not
felt since the l960s.
This prompted me to modestly revise an essay I wrote
on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited written as part of
a creative project in partial fulfillment of requirements for
a Master's Degree in Humanistic Psychology in 1976 at Sonoma
State College, California.
Bob
Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited
Imagery
of Alienation in Music
Dennis
L. Merritt, Ph.D.
Bob Dylan’s album Highway 61 Revisited is a
classic piece of music from the sixties.
It speaks poignantly to the theme of alienation felt
by many during that turbulent period. This archetypal theme is relevant to the
youth of any period and everyone experiences it at other points
in their lives. Examination of the album becomes a study
of the use of the imagery of alienation in music--alienation
from our culture, ourselves and our souls--and hence a call
to rediscover our souls and revitalize our culture.
Much of the album’s appeal is due to Dylan’s skillful
use of imagery to convey his message. The impression created
by a good image via pictures, metaphors, stories, etc., transcends
the limitations of a straightforward, factual account of a situation.
Studying Dylan’s songs sharpens one’s eye for symbols
and reveals Dylan's masterful use of imagery to communicate.
Dylan made some of the most poignant statements of how
the rebellious youth of the sixties felt.
These were feelings of strong, often bitter alienation
to the middle class values of their parents and society on the
Vietnam war, racism, drugs, feminism, environmental contamination,
"Big Brother" government and sexual mores. Alienation from the culture around these
issues were accompanied by a sense of confusion, desolation,
loneliness and anxiety about how to confront the problems and
what to create in the wasteland left by discarded values.
The chaos and anxiety of Dylan’s life independent of
broader societal issues contributed a deeper personal touch
to his music (see Bob Dylan, An Intimate Biography).
Dylan communicated through the medium of the sixties
-- music -- something everyone heard and most young people understood
in the Woodstock generation. Dylan's message was simultaneously conveyed
through several modes;
the melody, the squeaky, somewhat irritating harmonica,
the feelings and attitudes felt in Dylan’s voice, and his descriptive,
often bizarre images.
The pace of the music was often fast, anxious, and chaotic
complimented by Dylan’s whining, often sarcastic tone of voice.
Dylan described his feelings and his attempt
to convey them on the album jacket notes of Bring it Back
Home. While
watching a parade, a fascist disguised as a hippy
starts screaming at me you’re the one, you’re the
one that’s been causing all them riots over in vietnam.
immediately turns t’a bunch of people an’ says if elected,
he’ll have me electrocuted publicly on the next fourth of July. i look
around an’ all these people he’s talking to are carrying
blow torches/needless t'say, i split fast & go back
t’ the nice quiet country. am standing there writing WHAAAT? on my favorite wall when
who should pass by in a jet plane but my recording engineer “i’m here t’ pick up you and
your latest works of art."
Dylan later answers, “yes.
well I could use some help in getting this wall in the
plane.” He sings
about his outrage and confusion (WHAAAT?) in as uninhibited
a manner as writing graffiti on a wall.
a poem is a naked person...some people say I am a
poet.
I accept chaos.
I am not sure whether it accepts me.
He says of his music,
"...my songs are written with the kettle drums in
mind/a touch of any anxious color.
unmentionable. obvious.”
The road hazards on Highway 61 are products of unmentionable experiences
in life.
I am about t’ sketch you a picture of what goes on
around here sometimes.
Though I don’t understand too well myself what’s really
happening.
Dylan
said his songs were written “with a melodic purring line
of descriptive hollowness”.
“Descriptive hollowness” is apropos for the theme of
the first song on the album. Like a Rolling Stone is
about a woman fallen from middle class society to that of a
street person, the likes of whom roam Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Dylan sneers in
the
chorus
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a Rolling Stone
A rolling stone suggests something dislodged from a secure
place and careening down to a lower level--an appropriate metaphor
for a fall from one’s society and value system.
Tombstone
Blues is an appropriate title for Dylan’s view
of a world gone crazy. Things are the opposite of what they appear
to be or have been; a new world of confusion, alienation and
strangeness. Two
stanzas play on the incongruous Christian support of the Vietnam
war with its parade of atrocities.
Dylan develops a ghastly, crazy image of a 20th century
Christian soldier a la Sgt. Calley with Christ as a heroic, power-mad Commander-in-Chief whose disciple
engages in acts of torture.
Well, John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, “Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?”
The Commander-in-Chief answers while chasing a fly
Saying, “Death to all those who would whimper and cry”
And dropping a barbell he points to the sky
Saying, “The sun’s not yellow it’s chicken.”
The last line suggests the blessed-are-the-meek attitude
of God as the sun or Christ as son is a cowardly, “chicken”
philosophy.
Dylan’s played with another religious motif in the first
stanza of the title song Highway 61 Revisited. Here Dylan presents a “hip” version of
the philosophical dilemma of human's freedom of choice before
their God.
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God said, “No”.
Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run.”
Well, Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, "Out on Highway 61.”
Highway 61 is one of the highways connecting
Dylan's home town of Hibbing, Minnesota, a northern mining
town, to the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolis.
The title Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues congers
up the image of one who is feeling lowly and small.
The third stanza of that song offers an example of Dylan’s
not infrequent use of anima figures in songs.
Sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English
And she invites you up into her room
And you’re so kind
And careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon.
An interpretation is that one tries to delay the escape
from unpleasant realities by falling victim to the unconscious,
here presented as neurotic gloominess.
The appeal of the unconscious is its mother-like, enveloping,
nurturing nature and realm of fantasy.
The invitation to enter one’s unconscious, often symbolized
by a woman in a man’s psyche, can be as appealing to a man as
the lure of a woman to come up to her room. The result is to be removed from consciousness
(losing your voice, your ability to speak and communicate as
a conscious human) and to be turned over to the animal, “inhuman”
instincts in the psyche.
The moon is a symbol of the feminine, and appearing at
night it symbolizes the darkness of the unconscious as well.
Animals howling at the moon suggest a connection, a communication
between animal instincts and the unconscious.
The association of the feminine with flight into the
unconscious in the face of adversity also occurs in the song
Queen Jane Approximately. "Queen Jane" refers to marijuana,
also known as "Mary Jane." It appears that Dylan is referring to a lady, but as the title
suggests it is only “approximately” a lady, more suggestive
of it being marijuana.
The drug state is a particular experience of the unconscious
for which Dylan uses a female name.
She appears to be a rather important figure as indicated
by her regal title. The song is about the disappointments in life which causes
Dylan to beg in the refrain
Won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?
Won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?
The theme in The Ballad of a Thin Man is that
strange, unsettling feeling of knowing something is wrong without
a clue as to what it is. Everyone (“Jones”) has this feeling at many points in
their lives. Things
seem unusual, illogical, and unexplainable from one’s personal
viewpoint and system of logic/reasoning/meaning.
Such is the feeling conveyed with the images in the seventh
stanza where Dylan played
with
a children's verse, “How now, brown cow?"
Now you see this one eyed midget
Shouting the word “NOW”
And you say, “For what reason?”
And he says, “How?”
And you say, “What does this mean?”
And he screams back, “You’re a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home."
Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?
The last song of the album, Desolation Row,
abounds with “descriptive hollowness”. Every line bespeaks of a world turned
upside down or people’s weak, shadowy sides. The images are not unlike dream imagery that would convey similar
feelings. The impact
of the song is overwhelming, starting with the opening line,
“They’re selling post cards of the hanging." Post cards are usually of mountain scenery
or bright spots in the city. “They’re painting the
passports brown.” Drab colors in dreams denote dreary feeling states. “The beauty parlor is filled
with sailors.” Women usually go to beauty parlors: have men lost their masculinity? “The circus is in town.” A circus
presents the bizarre extremes of life--the midgets and giants,
fat ladies and clowns. “Here comes the blind commissioner.” Commissioners
serve as executives and arbitrators. The image of a commissioner unable to
see suggests that things cannot be conducted with justice and
fairness; conscious discretion and moral values have been lost.
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight rope walker
The other is in his pants
The commissioner is under the influence of others. His precarious position
is
indicated by being attached to a tight rope walker.
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row.
The image of a restless riot squad is one of brute force
about to be unleashed, whose effects were felt by many civil
rights marchers and anti-war protestors in the '60's.
Dylan's anima ("Lady"), his soul-mate, is in
Desolation Row.
Cinderella, she seems so easy
It takes one to know one, she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
Here Dylan plays with the Cinderella story, turning Cinderella's
“good girl” image into is an “easy lay."
And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning
“You belong to me, I believe”
And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place my friend,
You better leave"
And the only sound that’s left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row
Dylan turned the symbol of the romantic, masculine lover
into an unsure, insecure man who is completely demolished (sent
to the hospital). Romeo moans and “believes,” unable to even least act like Cinderella
is his great love.
A dark, foreboding feeling is conveyed in the next few
lines:
Now the moon is almost hidden,
The stars are beginning to hide
The fortune telling lady
Has even taken all her things inside.
People who should be at ease with the strange and unusual,
such as fortunetellers, are clearing off the streets.
All except for Cain and Abel
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love
Or else expecting rain.
Killers and freaks are right at home with what’s happening. Others are diverted by sex or have gloomy expectations of a
storm.
And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing
He’s getting ready for the show
He’s going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation Row
Dylan again changes a familiar, positive image into its
dark side--the Good Samaritan is getting ready for Desolation
Row.
More desolate characters frequent Desolation Row : Hamlet's
Ophelia is an ambitious career woman “whose sin is her lifelessness”;
Einstein, the architect of modern physics, is behaving very
strangely; Dr. Filth’s nurse is
...some local loser
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
“Have Mercy on His Soul"
A meal (communion?) becomes a feast presided over by
“the Phantom of the Opera/ A perfect image of a priest”.
This is a sampling of how Dylan’s words convey strong
images and feelings that force us to view life from a different
perspective, unsightly and true as it may be.
Others who listen to the album will have different impressions
and interpretations. What is important is to realize how rich are Dylan’s images
and how his songs can stimulate the imagination and arouse one’s
feelings. The power of images in communication and
music can be clearly appreciated by revisiting Highway 61.
PS. I carried
a poster in the last big anti-war marches before the 2003 Iraq
invasion that said ""…the rovin' gambler…" Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited." This referenced the last stanza of that
song:
Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored
He was tryin' to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.
This
stanza was also referenced in my letter to the editor in September,
2001 and included on my website as "Highway
61 Revisited, Again? Is Bush leading us down the wrong path?"
The futility of the war was foretold in a hexagram I
got from the I Ching on July 28, 2002 just as Bush was beginning to bang
the war drums. I
asked for "Wisdom to guide us post September 11th." The I Ching is an ancient Chinese book of wisdom that can answer
questions put to it (see Menu).
It was vitally important to the Chinese emperors for
making political decisions and questions about starting and
conducting wars. The answer I got was hexagram 28: Preponderance
of the Great.
____ ____
_________
_________
_________
_________
____ ____
The Chinese sages imagined this as "a beam that
is thick and heavy in the middle but too weak at the ends…The
weight of the great is excessive… Extraordinary measures are
demanded. It is necessary to find a way of transition as quickly
as possible…Nothing is to be achieved by forcible measures. The problem must be solved by gentle penetration
to the meaning of the situation…then the change-over to other
conditions will be successful.
It demands real superiority; therefore the time when
the great preponderates is a momentous time." (Wilhelm
pp. 111-112) I wrote letters to Bush and Colen Powell explaining the answer
but got no reply.
LITERATURE
CITED
Dylan,
B. 1973. Writings
and Drawings by Bob Dylan. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. 315 pp. (Includes lyrics of the songs in this article)
Scaduto,
A. 1971. Bob Dylan--An Intimate Biography. Grosset
& Dunlap, New York. 280 pp.
Wilhelm,
R. (trans.). 1967. The I Ching or Book of Changes. (English translation by Cary F. Baynes) Bollingen Series
XIX, Princeton University Press: New Jersey.740 pp.
C Copyright September 26, 2003. If you use any material from this article,
please acknowledge the source and include my Internet address.
e-mail: DLMerritt@cal.berkeley.edu
Telephone:
(608) 255-9330 ext. 5
Fax: (608) 255-7810
Website: www.DennisMerrittJungianAnalyst.com
The state of our country and the world since the US response to September
11th leaves me with depressive feelings I have not
felt since the l960s.
This prompted me to modestly revise an essay I wrote
on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited written as part of
a creative project in partial fulfillment of requirements for
a Master's Degree in Humanistic Psychology in 1976 at Sonoma
State College, California.
Bob
Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited
Imagery
of Alienation in Music
Dennis
L. Merritt, Ph.D.
Bob Dylan’s album Highway 61 Revisited is a
classic piece of music from the sixties.
It speaks poignantly to the theme of alienation felt
by many during that turbulent period. This archetypal theme is relevant to the
youth of any period and everyone experiences it at other points
in their lives. Examination of the album becomes a study
of the use of the imagery of alienation in music--alienation
from our culture, ourselves and our souls--and hence a call
to rediscover our souls and revitalize our culture.
Much of the album’s appeal is due to Dylan’s skillful
use of imagery to convey his message. The impression created
by a good image via pictures, metaphors, stories, etc., transcends
the limitations of a straightforward, factual account of a situation.
Studying Dylan’s songs sharpens one’s eye for symbols
and reveals Dylan's masterful use of imagery to communicate.
Dylan made some of the most poignant statements of how
the rebellious youth of the sixties felt.
These were feelings of strong, often bitter alienation
to the middle class values of their parents and society on the
Vietnam war, racism, drugs, feminism, environmental contamination,
"Big Brother" government and sexual mores. Alienation from the culture around these
issues were accompanied by a sense of confusion, desolation,
loneliness and anxiety about how to confront the problems and
what to create in the wasteland left by discarded values.
The chaos and anxiety of Dylan’s life independent of
broader societal issues contributed a deeper personal touch
to his music (see Bob Dylan, An Intimate Biography).
Dylan communicated through the medium of the sixties
-- music -- something everyone heard and most young people understood
in the Woodstock generation. Dylan's message was simultaneously conveyed
through several modes;
the melody, the squeaky, somewhat irritating harmonica,
the feelings and attitudes felt in Dylan’s voice, and his descriptive,
often bizarre images.
The pace of the music was often fast, anxious, and chaotic
complimented by Dylan’s whining, often sarcastic tone of voice.
Dylan described his feelings and his attempt
to convey them on the album jacket notes of Bring it Back
Home. While
watching a parade, a fascist disguised as a hippy
starts screaming at me you’re the one, you’re the
one that’s been causing all them riots over in vietnam.
immediately turns t’a bunch of people an’ says if elected,
he’ll have me electrocuted publicly on the next fourth of July. i look
around an’ all these people he’s talking to are carrying
blow torches/needless t'say, i split fast & go back
t’ the nice quiet country. am standing there writing WHAAAT? on my favorite wall when
who should pass by in a jet plane but my recording engineer “i’m here t’ pick up you and
your latest works of art."
Dylan later answers, “yes.
well I could use some help in getting this wall in the
plane.” He sings
about his outrage and confusion (WHAAAT?) in as uninhibited
a manner as writing graffiti on a wall.
a poem is a naked person...some people say I am a
poet.
I accept chaos.
I am not sure whether it accepts me.
He says of his music,
"...my songs are written with the kettle drums in
mind/a touch of any anxious color.
unmentionable. obvious.”
The road hazards on Highway 61 are products of unmentionable experiences
in life.
I am about t’ sketch you a picture of what goes on
around here sometimes.
Though I don’t understand too well myself what’s really
happening.
Dylan
said his songs were written “with a melodic purring line
of descriptive hollowness”.
“Descriptive hollowness” is apropos for the theme of
the first song on the album. Like a Rolling Stone is
about a woman fallen from middle class society to that of a
street person, the likes of whom roam Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Dylan sneers in
the
chorus
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a Rolling Stone
A rolling stone suggests something dislodged from a secure
place and careening down to a lower level--an appropriate metaphor
for a fall from one’s society and value system.
Tombstone
Blues is an appropriate title for Dylan’s view
of a world gone crazy. Things are the opposite of what they appear
to be or have been; a new world of confusion, alienation and
strangeness. Two
stanzas play on the incongruous Christian support of the Vietnam
war with its parade of atrocities.
Dylan develops a ghastly, crazy image of a 20th century
Christian soldier a la Sgt. Calley with Christ as a heroic, power-mad Commander-in-Chief whose disciple
engages in acts of torture.
Well, John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, “Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?”
The Commander-in-Chief answers while chasing a fly
Saying, “Death to all those who would whimper and cry”
And dropping a barbell he points to the sky
Saying, “The sun’s not yellow it’s chicken.”
The last line suggests the blessed-are-the-meek attitude
of God as the sun or Christ as son is a cowardly, “chicken”
philosophy.
Dylan’s played with another religious motif in the first
stanza of the title song Highway 61 Revisited. Here Dylan presents a “hip” version of
the philosophical dilemma of human's freedom of choice before
their God.
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God said, “No”.
Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run.”
Well, Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, "Out on Highway 61.”
Highway 61 is one of the highways connecting
Dylan's home town of Hibbing, Minnesota, a northern mining
town, to the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolis.
The title Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues congers
up the image of one who is feeling lowly and small.
The third stanza of that song offers an example of Dylan’s
not infrequent use of anima figures in songs.
Sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English
And she invites you up into her room
And you’re so kind
And careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon.
An interpretation is that one tries to delay the escape
from unpleasant realities by falling victim to the unconscious,
here presented as neurotic gloominess.
The appeal of the unconscious is its mother-like, enveloping,
nurturing nature and realm of fantasy.
The invitation to enter one’s unconscious, often symbolized
by a woman in a man’s psyche, can be as appealing to a man as
the lure of a woman to come up to her room. The result is to be removed from consciousness
(losing your voice, your ability to speak and communicate as
a conscious human) and to be turned over to the animal, “inhuman”
instincts in the psyche.
The moon is a symbol of the feminine, and appearing at
night it symbolizes the darkness of the unconscious as well.
Animals howling at the moon suggest a connection, a communication
between animal instincts and the unconscious.
The association of the feminine with flight into the
unconscious in the face of adversity also occurs in the song
Queen Jane Approximately. "Queen Jane" refers to marijuana,
also known as "Mary Jane." It appears that Dylan is referring to a lady, but as the title
suggests it is only “approximately” a lady, more suggestive
of it being marijuana.
The drug state is a particular experience of the unconscious
for which Dylan uses a female name.
She appears to be a rather important figure as indicated
by her regal title. The song is about the disappointments in life which causes
Dylan to beg in the refrain
Won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?
Won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?
The theme in The Ballad of a Thin Man is that
strange, unsettling feeling of knowing something is wrong without
a clue as to what it is. Everyone (“Jones”) has this feeling at many points in
their lives. Things
seem unusual, illogical, and unexplainable from one’s personal
viewpoint and system of logic/reasoning/meaning.
Such is the feeling conveyed with the images in the seventh
stanza where Dylan played
with
a children's verse, “How now, brown cow?"
Now you see this one eyed midget
Shouting the word “NOW”
And you say, “For what reason?”
And he says, “How?”
And you say, “What does this mean?”
And he screams back, “You’re a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home."
Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?
The last song of the album, Desolation Row,
abounds with “descriptive hollowness”. Every line bespeaks of a world turned
upside down or people’s weak, shadowy sides. The images are not unlike dream imagery that would convey similar
feelings. The impact
of the song is overwhelming, starting with the opening line,
“They’re selling post cards of the hanging." Post cards are usually of mountain scenery
or bright spots in the city. “They’re painting the
passports brown.” Drab colors in dreams denote dreary feeling states. “The beauty parlor is filled
with sailors.” Women usually go to beauty parlors: have men lost their masculinity? “The circus is in town.” A circus
presents the bizarre extremes of life--the midgets and giants,
fat ladies and clowns. “Here comes the blind commissioner.” Commissioners
serve as executives and arbitrators. The image of a commissioner unable to
see suggests that things cannot be conducted with justice and
fairness; conscious discretion and moral values have been lost.
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight rope walker
The other is in his pants
The commissioner is under the influence of others. His precarious position
is
indicated by being attached to a tight rope walker.
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row.
The image of a restless riot squad is one of brute force
about to be unleashed, whose effects were felt by many civil
rights marchers and anti-war protestors in the '60's.
Dylan's anima ("Lady"), his soul-mate, is in
Desolation Row.
Cinderella, she seems so easy
It takes one to know one, she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
Here Dylan plays with the Cinderella story, turning Cinderella's
“good girl” image into is an “easy lay."
And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning
“You belong to me, I believe”
And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place my friend,
You better leave"
And the only sound that’s left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row
Dylan turned the symbol of the romantic, masculine lover
into an unsure, insecure man who is completely demolished (sent
to the hospital). Romeo moans and “believes,” unable to even least act like Cinderella
is his great love.
A dark, foreboding feeling |