Relocating To A New Quadrant In Cyberspace
Welcome Blog Buddies to our new and weirder blog space! I appreciate all of you following me over here from Redding.com.
I think we'll all feel more comfortable here, out from under the auspices of The Corporation. And we don't have to adhere to the codified restraints of accepted public behavior and appropriate social norms. The Redding.com arbiters of good taste are otherwise occupied monitoring the comments of some of the most deranged and frightening people I've ever encountered. We're much safer here. Better the loons you know Aunt Eyrewacks used to say. I agree.
Now, I plan to continue to post the work I do for the paper on the "old" blog while the more adventurous subject matter will appear here. I hope you will tell your friends and neighbors to check things out here. It could be interesting (but it probably won't be, really.)
Dylanology 101 (for Candace)
Well, right out of the gate, let's disprove the notion that the content here will be "more adventurous." Today we're going to listen to me pontificate on the literary and musical attributes of the song, "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" from Bob Dylan's classic 1975 album, "Blood on the Tracks." We're undertaking this exercise on behalf of a friend who is completely befuddled by the drooling, sloppy hero worship exhibited by her husband and his friend toward The Shakespeare of Rock & Roll. Let us try to shine a light into the skull cavities of the bozos and hopefully enlighten our friend in the appreciation of The Bard Known As Bob.
"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" (LRATJOH) falls into the category of "epic" Dylan songs. Cinematic in its scope, it clocks in at nearly 9 minutes. As with the earlier "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Desolation Row" and "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," it's as if his muse latched on and just couldn't seem to let go. The stanzas just seem to spill and spill until the singer simply runs out of breath (perhaps before he runs out of story.) You get the sense that had he wanted to, he could have expanded on the theme until the wheels fell off and the seat covers fade. The cinematic treatment of story and characters would be a form he would explore in much greater depth with collaborator Jacques Levy in the following year's "Desire."
The long list of characters as well as the complex plot in the song lent itself to two attempts at an actual screenplay, neither of which ever saw the light of day. Probably just as well since the story as ballad lends itself so well to varied interpretations and a full, rich listening experience.
The Cast:
The Jack of Hearts: Dylan has used references to playing cards in several songs (his wife, Sara, whose estrangement from Dylan provided the basic emotional theme for "Blood on the Tracks," was very interested in Tarot cards during this period as well.) The figure of the Jack of Hearts occupies the same space in Dylan's iconography as "The Outlaw" and "The Poet" and in my mind is probably a stand-in for Dylan himself. The Jack of Hearts is the protagonist of the song and the characters all seem to drift in and out of each other's lives but on several occasions they, "couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts."
Lily: One of two central female characters, both who appear to be some type of exiled royalty (a queen without a crown) while Rosemary is referred to as a "princess." Lily appears to be the older and the wiser of the two and it would be easy to see them as mother and daughter. I think given the status of Dylan's marriage at the time they could also be viewed as different aspects of the same woman. Female duplicity was not a foreign element in Dylan's work, especially during this period. Add to this that Lily was married to Big Jim (the owner of the town's ONLY diamond mine, as if town's usually feature more than one diamond mine anyway, and "diamond" may have added symbolism in this play) and that later she has grown tired of being Big Jim's wife we see a curious relationship ebbing and flowing with the Jack of Hearts.
The song is a study of romance entwined with criminal intent (or criminal intent with a facade of romanticism.) The sad fate of many players as well as the Jack of Heart's escape is in keeping with best English folk song tradition. The setting in what seems to be a cabaret or saloon in America's Old West is an appropriate place for the type of justice being dealt. Speaking of Justice, it is meted out by The Hanging Judge, who is drunk, which appears to be a common Dylan view of conventional American justice.
One of the curious notions of the song is how so much wheeling, dealing, hole-drilling and bank robbing is going on while the REAL crimes of the heart prove to be most costly. Big Jim's fate (killed by a pen-knife to the back) seems somehow appropriate for a character imbued with (likely ill-gotten) wealth. A powerful figure brought down by a seemingly innocuous weapon and set of circumstances. Again, quite in keeping with the folk tradition of the high and mighty being destroyed by their own greed or unsavory morality. In this case, clearing the way for Lily and the Jack of Hearts to carry out their surreptitious plans.
Taken as a whole, LRATJOH is a complex and compelling exercise in traditional folk storytelling. Getting a sense of the relationship between the characters, particularly between Lily and the Jack of Hearts, reflects the complexities inherent to most male/female relationships. Again, when put in context with the rest of "Blood on the Tracks", we see Dylan standing outside his situation and watching a cowboy movie play out his own soap opera. Perhaps an attempt to disassociate his broken/breaking heart from stark, white reality and wrap it in an easier to digest allegory. A story just as compelling to us today as it was to Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts in their time.
Hey, just my take, it may mean something far different to other listeners. Another testament to its power as art.
"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" (LRATJOH) falls into the category of "epic" Dylan songs. Cinematic in its scope, it clocks in at nearly 9 minutes. As with the earlier "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Desolation Row" and "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," it's as if his muse latched on and just couldn't seem to let go. The stanzas just seem to spill and spill until the singer simply runs out of breath (perhaps before he runs out of story.) You get the sense that had he wanted to, he could have expanded on the theme until the wheels fell off and the seat covers fade. The cinematic treatment of story and characters would be a form he would explore in much greater depth with collaborator Jacques Levy in the following year's "Desire."
The long list of characters as well as the complex plot in the song lent itself to two attempts at an actual screenplay, neither of which ever saw the light of day. Probably just as well since the story as ballad lends itself so well to varied interpretations and a full, rich listening experience.
The Cast:
The Jack of Hearts: Dylan has used references to playing cards in several songs (his wife, Sara, whose estrangement from Dylan provided the basic emotional theme for "Blood on the Tracks," was very interested in Tarot cards during this period as well.) The figure of the Jack of Hearts occupies the same space in Dylan's iconography as "The Outlaw" and "The Poet" and in my mind is probably a stand-in for Dylan himself. The Jack of Hearts is the protagonist of the song and the characters all seem to drift in and out of each other's lives but on several occasions they, "couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts."
Lily: One of two central female characters, both who appear to be some type of exiled royalty (a queen without a crown) while Rosemary is referred to as a "princess." Lily appears to be the older and the wiser of the two and it would be easy to see them as mother and daughter. I think given the status of Dylan's marriage at the time they could also be viewed as different aspects of the same woman. Female duplicity was not a foreign element in Dylan's work, especially during this period. Add to this that Lily was married to Big Jim (the owner of the town's ONLY diamond mine, as if town's usually feature more than one diamond mine anyway, and "diamond" may have added symbolism in this play) and that later she has grown tired of being Big Jim's wife we see a curious relationship ebbing and flowing with the Jack of Hearts.
The song is a study of romance entwined with criminal intent (or criminal intent with a facade of romanticism.) The sad fate of many players as well as the Jack of Heart's escape is in keeping with best English folk song tradition. The setting in what seems to be a cabaret or saloon in America's Old West is an appropriate place for the type of justice being dealt. Speaking of Justice, it is meted out by The Hanging Judge, who is drunk, which appears to be a common Dylan view of conventional American justice.
One of the curious notions of the song is how so much wheeling, dealing, hole-drilling and bank robbing is going on while the REAL crimes of the heart prove to be most costly. Big Jim's fate (killed by a pen-knife to the back) seems somehow appropriate for a character imbued with (likely ill-gotten) wealth. A powerful figure brought down by a seemingly innocuous weapon and set of circumstances. Again, quite in keeping with the folk tradition of the high and mighty being destroyed by their own greed or unsavory morality. In this case, clearing the way for Lily and the Jack of Hearts to carry out their surreptitious plans.
Taken as a whole, LRATJOH is a complex and compelling exercise in traditional folk storytelling. Getting a sense of the relationship between the characters, particularly between Lily and the Jack of Hearts, reflects the complexities inherent to most male/female relationships. Again, when put in context with the rest of "Blood on the Tracks", we see Dylan standing outside his situation and watching a cowboy movie play out his own soap opera. Perhaps an attempt to disassociate his broken/breaking heart from stark, white reality and wrap it in an easier to digest allegory. A story just as compelling to us today as it was to Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts in their time.
Hey, just my take, it may mean something far different to other listeners. Another testament to its power as art.
1 comment:
Ah, Phil, thank you for this thoughtful breakdown of the "Jack of Hearts" song.
Here's my beef with it: I was trying, very hard, to really "listen" to Dylan (which for me means ignoring a voice that sounds like a car engine revving over and over), and I got completely captivated by the poetry of this story. Totally immersed in the characters and the drama -- my expectations built up for almost NINE MINUTES.
And then, poof. After all the buildup, all the poetry, all the romantic tension and hint of physical danger, there's a rush to the end, some folks are dead, Jack's gone....and that's it.
I might have uttered something like, "No, no, you can't jerk me around like that!" If you're gonna make us listen to a song that lasts that long, you've got to deliver the goods, baby. You can't run out of steam before you reach the end of your story.
There is no doubt the muse was with him when he wrote this, but it didn't stick with him long enough. Bottom line, I felt cheated. A cop-out ending. Like he just got tired of writing the song and hurried it to a conclusion. Sigh.
Same kind of feeling (for me) as when a great book or movie falls off at the end and leaves you feeling empty and dissatisfied. Shouldn't great art strive to remain so to the very end?
Just my two cents. I enjoyed your analysis of the meanings behind the characters. Interesting that the song inspired two attempts at a screenplay.
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