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
60’s music. 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 by everyone
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 arises from 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 about the feelings of the
rebellious youth of the sixties. These were expressions of
strong, often bitter, alienation from the middle class values of their
parents and society concerning the Vietnam War, racism, drugs,
feminism, environmental contamination, "Big Brother" government and
sexual mores. The sense of alienation was accompanied by
states 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 mass medium of the sixties -- music --
something everyone heard and most young people understood in the
Woodstock generation. His 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 surreal images. Frequently the
pace of the music was 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 Bringing It All 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 a manner as uninhibited 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 Dylan’s depiction of a world gone crazy. Things
are the opposite of what they appear to be or have been; a new world of
confusion, ugliness, alienation and strangeness. Two stanzas
play on the incongruous Christian support of the parade of atrocities
that was the Vietnam War. Dylan develops a ghastly, crazy
image of a 20th century Christian soldier a la Sgt. William 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
sounds prophetic with respect to President George W. Bush.
Bush considered himself to be a decider, his biggest decision being to
start a war in Iraq so he could be a war president. This
evangelical Commander-in-Chief thought he was a tough guy, seeing the
world in good-and-evil terms, with Abu Ghraib occurring on his
watch. This shallow individual prided himself on being in
good physical shaped, exercising religiously.
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
seductive, enveloping fantasy realm. 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” elements 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 our animal
nature and the deep, archetypal dimensions of 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."
Dylan appears to be referring to a lady, but the title suggests it is
only “approximately” a lady, reinforcing the
reference to marijuana. The drug state is a particular
experience of the unconscious for which Dylan uses a female
name. She seems to be an important figure as indicated by her
regal title. The song is about the disappointments in life
that 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 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 with life-or-death consequences 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 an icon 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 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 vacating 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 Biblical, 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, 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 Dylan’s genius at generating 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. 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 march 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, 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 Colin 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.
e-mail: DLMerritt@cal.berkeley.edu
Telephone: Madison: (608)
255-9330 ext. 5
Milwaukee:
(414) 332-7400
Fax:
(608)
255-7810