Dylan's Visions of Sin

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Dylan's Visions of Sin Page 54

by Christopher Ricks

When I Paint My Masterpiece ref 1, ref 2

  When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky ref 1, ref 2, ref 3

  When the Ship Comes In ref 1

  When You Gonna Wake Up? ref 1, ref 2, ref 3

  Where Are you Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heart) ref 1, ref 2

  Who Killed Davey Moore? ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4

  Wigwam ref 1

  Winterlude ref 1

  Witmark demo tape ref 1, ref 2

  World Gone Wrong liner-notes ref 1

  Ye Shall Be Changed ref 1

  Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread ref 1

  Yonder Comes Sin ref 1, ref 2

  You Angel You ref 1

  You Changed My Life ref 1

  You’re a Big Girl Now ref 1

  You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go ref 1, ref 2

  Which Album a Song is on

  Abandoned Love: Biograph

  Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One: not on an official album

  All Along the Watchtower: John Wesley Harding

  All I Really Want to Do: Another Side of Bob Dylan

  All the Tired Horses: Self Portrait

  Angelina: the bootleg series, volume 3

  Apple Suckling Tree: The Basement Tapes

  Are You Ready?: Saved

  Baby, I’m in the Mood for You: Biograph

  Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: Bob Dylan

  Baby, Stop Crying: Street-Legal

  Ballad in Plain D: Another Side of Bob Dylan

  Ballad of a Thin Man: Highway 61 Revisited

  Blind Willie McTell: the bootleg series, volume 3, and The Essential Bob Dylan (UK issue only, which has six more songs than the US)

  Blowin’ in the Wind: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Bob Dylan’s Dream: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Rag: not on an official album

  Boots of Spanish Leather: The Times They Are A-Changin’

  Brownsville Girl: Knocked Out Loaded

  Bye and Bye: “Love And Theft”

  Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?: Biograph, and The Essential Bob Dylan (UK issue only)

  Cat’s in the Well: Under the Red Sky

  Catfish: the bootleg series, volume 3

  City of Gold: Masked and Anonymous, soundtrack

  Clean-Cut Kid: Empire Burlesque

  Clothes Line Saga: The Basement Tapes

  Country Pie: Nashville Skyline

  ’Cross the Green Mountain: Gods and Generals, soundtrack

  Cry A While: “Love And Theft”

  Dark Eyes: Empire Burlesque

  Day of the Locusts: New Morning

  Dead Man, Dead Man: Shot of Love

  Dear Landlord: John Wesley Harding

  Death is Not the End: Down in the Groove

  Desolation Row: Highway 61 Revisited

  Dirge: Planet Waves

  Disease of Conceit: Oh Mercy

  Do Right to Me Baby (Do Unto Others): Slow Train Coming

  Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight: Infidels

  Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Emotionally Yours: Empire Burlesque

  Eternal Circle: the bootleg series, volume 2

  Farewell: not on an official album

  Farewell, Angelina: the bootleg series, volume 2

  Foot of Pride: the bootleg series, volume 3

  Forever Young: Planet Waves

  Fourth Time Around: Blonde on Blonde

  From a Buick 6: Highway 61 Revisited

  Gates of Eden: Bringing It All Back Home

  Girl of the North Country: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Goin’ to Acapulco: The Basement Tapes

  Going, Going, Gone: Planet Waves

  Gotta Serve Somebody: Slow Train Coming

  Handy Dandy: Under the Red Sky

  A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Hero Blues: not on an official album

  Highlands: Time Out of Mind

  Highway 61 Revisited: Highway 61 Revisited

  Hurricane: Desire

  I and I: Infidels

  I Believe in You: Slow Train Coming

  I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met): Another Side of Bob Dylan

  I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine: John Wesley Harding

  I Shall Be Free: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  I Shall Be Free No. 10: Another Side of Bob Dylan

  I Shall Be Released: the bootleg series, volume 2

  I Wanna Be Your Lover: Biograph

  I Want You: Blonde on Blonde

  Idiot Wind: Blood on the Tracks

  If Dogs Run Free: New Morning

  If Not For You: New Morning

  If You Gotta Go, Go Now: the bootleg series, volume 2

  I’ll Keep It with Mine: Biograph

  In the Summertime: Shot of Love

  Isis: Desire

  It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue: Bringing It All Back Home

  Jokerman: Infidels

  Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues: Highway 61 Revisited

  Lay Down Your Weary Tune: Biograph

  Lay, Lady, Lay: Nashville Skyline

  Let’s Keep It Between Us: not on an official album

  License to Kill: Infidels

  Like a Rolling Stone: Highway 61 Revisited

  The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll: The Times They Are A-Changin’

  Long Ago, Far Away: not on an official album

  Love Minus Zero / No Limit: Bringing It All Back Home

  Maggie’s Farm: Bringing It All Back Home

  Mama, You Been on My Mind: the bootleg series, volume 2

  Masters of War: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Maybe Someday: Knocked Out Loaded

  Million Dollar Bash: The Basement Tapes

  Mr. Tambourine Man: Bringing It All Back Home

  Moonlight: “Love And Theft”

  Most of the Time: Oh Mercy

  Mozambique: Desire

  My Back Pages: Another Side of Bob Dylan

  Neighborhood Bully: Infidels

  New Pony: Street-Legal

  No Time to Think: Street-Legal

  North Country Blues: The Times They Are A-Changin’

  Not Dark Yet: Time Out of Mind

  Odds and Ends: The Basement Tapes

  On a Night Like This: Planet Waves

  On the Road Again: Bringing It All Back Home

  One More Weekend: New Morning

  One Too Many Mornings: The Times They Are A-Changin’

  Only a Pawn in Their Game: The Times They Are A-Changin’

  Oxford Town: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Percy’s Song: Biograph

  Please, Mrs. Henry: The Basement Tapes

  Pledging My Time: Blonde on Blonde

  Positively 4th Street: Greatest Hits [1], Biograph, and The Essential Bob Dylan

  Precious Angel: Slow Train Coming

  Pressing On: Saved

  Quit Your Low Down Ways: the bootleg series, volume 1

  Ring Them Bells: Oh Mercy

  Rita May: single (A-side), and Masterpieces

  Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands: Blonde on Blonde

  Sara: Desire

  Saved: Saved

  Saving Grace: Saved

  Señor (Tales of Yankee Power): Street-Legal

  Seven Curses: the bootleg series, volume 2

  7 Deadly Sins: Traveling Wilburys, volume 3

  Shooting Star: Oh Mercy

  Shot of Love: Shot of Love

  Sign Language: duet with Eric Clapton on his No Reason to Cry

  Sign on the Window: New Morning

  Silvio: Down in the Groove

  Simple Twist of Fate: Blood on the Tracks

  Slow Train: Slow Train Coming

  Solid Rock: Saved

  Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart: the bootleg series, volume 3

  Something’s Burning, Baby: Empire Burlesque

  Song to Woody: Bob Dylan

 
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again: Blonde on Blonde

  Subterranean Homesick Blues: Bringing It All Back Home

  Sugar Baby: “Love And Theft”

  T. V. Talkin’ Song: Under the Red Sky

  Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues: the bootleg series, volume 1

  Talkin’ World War III Blues: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

  Talking New York: Bob Dylan

  Temporary Like Achilles: Blonde on Blonde

  Things Have Changed: The Essential Bob Dylan

  Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love): Empire Burlesque

  Time Passes Slowly: New Morning

  The Times They Are A-Changin’: The Times They Are A-Changin’

  Tomorrow Is a Long Time: More Greatest Hits

  Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You: Nashville Skyline

  Trouble in Mind: single (B-side)

  True Love Tends to Forget: Street-Legal

  Trust Yourself: Empire Burlesque

  Under the Red Sky: Under the Red Sky

  Union Sundown: Infidels

  Up to Me: Biograph

  Visions of Johanna: Blonde on Blonde

  Waitin’ for You: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, soundtrack

  Walkin’ Down the Line: the bootleg series, volume 1

  Watching the River Flow: More Greatest Hits

  Watered-Down Love: Shot of Love

  We Better Talk This Over: Street-Legal

  Went to See the Gypsy: New Morning

  What Can I Do For You?: Saved

  What Was It You Wanted?: Oh Mercy

  When He Returns: Slow Train Coming

  When I Paint My Masterpiece: More Greatest Hits

  When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky: Empire Burlesque

  When the Ship Comes In: The Times They Are A-Changin’

  When You Gonna Wake Up?: Slow Train Coming

  Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat): Street-Legal

  Who Killed Davey Moore?: the bootleg series, volume 1

  Winterlude: New Morning

  Yonder Comes Sin: not on an official album

  You Angel You: Planet Waves

  You’re a Big Girl Now: Blood on the Tracks

  You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go: Blood on the Tracks

  Endnotes

  1 He says as much, and more, on Biograph, the anthology of his work that came with a commentary by him.

  2 Interview with Jonathan Cott, Rolling Stone (16 November 1978).

  3 A verse translation, by Robert Mannyng, of a manual of the sins, by William of Wadington.

  4 In the Summertime. Proverbs 14:9: “Fools make a mock at sin.”

  5 Interview with Scott Cohen, Spin (December 1985).

  6 Interview with Neil Spencer, New Musical Express (15 August 1981).

  7 Simple Twist of Fate, Pressing On, Gates of Eden, Dirge, Something’s Burning, Baby, Ballad in Plain D, Who Killed Davey Moore?, Bye and Bye, Foot of Pride, and Quit Your Low Down Ways.

  8 Coincidence is one of the few pleasures left in life. So: Dylan, “fortunes . . . the red dawn” / Empson, “for the Red Dawn” (Note on Local Flora). Dylan, “flood control” / Empson, “Glut me with floods” (Aubade). And Dylan, “the privileged elite . . . not bothering to dress” / Empson, “In evening dress in rafts upon the main” (Your Teeth are Ivory Towers). But it is time for flood control.

  9 Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930, second edition 1947), p. x.

  10 Seven Types of Ambiguity, p. xiii.

  11 Empson, Obscurity and Annotation (1930), in Argufying, ed. John Haffenden (1987), see this page.

  12 USA Today (15 February 1995).

  13 The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933, second edition 1964), see this page, see this page.

  14 By Graham Ashton and / or John Bauldie.

  15 Later in Hiding in Plain Sight, ed. Wendy Lesser (1993).

  16 Ginsberg’s sleeve-notes to Desire.

  17 Interview with Ron Rosenbaum (November 1977), Playboy (March 1978).

  18 To Robert Shelton, Melody Maker (29 July 1978).

  19 Anthony Scaduto, Bob Dylan (1971, revised edition 1973), see this page.

  20 New York City (January 1968); Newsweek (February 1968); Bob Dylan in His Own Words, compiled by Miles (1978), see this page.

  21 USA Today (15 February 1995).

  22 Press conference / interview with Ralph J. Gleason (1965), Rolling Stone (14 December 1967, 20 January 1968).

  23 Probably Chicago (November 1965); Bob Dylan in His Own Words, see this page.

  24 Los Angeles (16 December 1965); Bob Dylan in His Own Words, see this page.

  25 Press conference / interview with Ralph J. Gleason (1965), Rolling Stone (14 December 1967, 20 January 1968).

  26 Paris Review interview (1982); Required Writing (1983), see this page.

  27 On the Origin of Beauty: A Platonic Dialogue (1865); The Note-Books and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. Humphry House (1937), see this page.

  28 Interview with Robert Shelton, Melody Maker (29 July 1978).

  29 A talk published in the Threepenny Review (1990) and then in Hiding in Plain Sight, ed. Wendy Lesser (1993).

  30 New Yorker (10 May 1999).

  31 Whaaat? (the 1965 interview with Nat Hentoff, in full, differing from Playboy, March 1966), see this page.

  32 Essay, Supplementary to the Preface (1815).

  33 Introduction to Samuel Johnson’s London and The Vanity of Human Wishes (1930).

  34 Alan Brownjohn, in Agenda (Winter 1991), see this page.

  35 TLS (27 September 1928).

  36 Playboy (March 1978).

  37 All What Jazz (1970, 1985), see this page.

  38 I draw here on a piece I wrote for the Sunday Times (7 January 1968).

  39 Whaaat?,

  40 Tarantula (1966, 1971), see this page.

  41 With Sam Shepard, of stage and screen.

  42 The Liner Notes that Sank, in the Telegraph (Winter 1994).

  43 The excellent mock-raking magazine the Onion, in its collection Our Dumb Century (“100 Years of Headlines from America’s Finest News Source”), excelled itself with its front page for the Titanic:

  44 For Dave Glover, programme for Newport Folk Festival (July 1963); bootleg reprinting in Bob Dylan in His Own Write, compiled by John Tuttle, see this page.

  45 Playboy (March 1966).

  46 Los Angeles (16 December 1965); Bob Dylan in His Own Words, see this page.

  47 The Note-Books and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins, see this page.

  48 Cheetah (1967).

  49 Observer (11 June 1978).

  50 15 January 1976. Ginsberg wrote in his sleeve-notes for Desire: “By the time Dylan made the great disillusioned national rhyme Idiot Wind – ‘. . . Blowing like a circle round your skull / From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol . . .’ – he must’ve been ready for another great surge of unafraid prophetic feeling.”

  51 Dylan in 1991; Paul Zollo, Songwriters on Songwriting (1997), see this page.

  52 Dylan rhymes cents / fence in Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence.

  53 A Chat with Jacques Levy (Isis, April / May 2000). And Ginsberg, sleeve-notes to Desire: “Half-month was spent solitary on Long Island with theatrist Jacques Levy working on song facts phrases & rhymes.”

  54 Jacques Levy: “We had a great time coming up with ideas though; we were laughing a lot and we were enjoying coming up with these rhymes like ‘contagious’ and ‘outrageous’.”

  55 For instance, in Day of the Locusts there is diploma / Dakota, and in When I Paint My Masterpiece, Brussels / muscles. In Union Sundown there is a bravura performance: “El Salvador” rhyming with “dinosaur”, “raw”, and “law”, but with a line tucked in among them: “They used to grow food in Kansas”. Now if it had been Arkansas . . .

  56 The Influence of Italian Upon English Literature; The Writings of Arthur Hallam, ed. T. H. Vail Motter (1943), see this page.

  57 Fe
w, not none. Thomas Campion, Dylan’s great predecessor as the creator of the music and the words, has some exquisite instances. Pre-eminent is Rose-cheekt Laura, come.

  58 As a brief reminder of the variety that the rhyme on “free” may manifest: Donne, The Apparition: “When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead / And that thou think’st thee free / From all solicitation from me, / Then shall my ghost come to thy bed . . .”. Crabbe, The Hall: “Those who believed they never could be free, / Except when fighting for their liberty.” Edward Thomas, Words: “Let me sometimes dance / With you, / Or climb / Or stand perchance / In ecstasy, / Fixed and free / In a rhyme, / As poets do.” Rhyming on “rhyme”, too.

  59 To Criticize the Critic (1965), see this page.

  60 Here are some more words that in various ways relate metaphorically to the nature of rhyme, and that occur in Dylan as rhymes: “again”, “chains”, “coincidence”, “complete”, “control”, “correct”, “cure”, “empty”, “escape”, “fit”, “follow”, “happen”, “knot”, “loyalty”, “next”, “place”, “plenty”, “reach”, “reflection”, “relief ”, “remain”, “revealed”, “reward”, “same”, “satellite”, “satisfied”, “timed”, “tomorrow”, “unresolved”.

  61 Is Keats to be heard in Dylan’s “And I’m just like that bird”? Keats’s “stream” might enter “in midstream”, later in You’re a Big Girl Now.

  62 Press conference / interview with Ralph J. Gleason (1965), Rolling Stone (14 December 1967, 20 January 1968).

  63 Isaac Barrow at the foreign shores of death in 1670. John Aubrey (1626–97) began to compile his Brief Lives in 1680.

  64 Jim McCue gave me this.

  65 Zollo, Songwriters on Songwriting, see this page.

  66 11 Outlined Epitaphs, in Lyrics 1962–1985 (1985),see this page.

  67 Interview, USA Today (15 February 1995). See also see this page.

  68 Zollo, Songwriters on Songwriting, see this page.

  69 Aphorisms, tr. R. J. Hollingdale (1990), see this page.

  70 Rolling Stone (21 June 1984).

  71 Andrew Marvell, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland.

  72 “Now a very great man once said / That some people rob you with a fountain pen”.

  73 See this page.

  74 D. W. Harding: “Her books are, as she meant them to be, read and enjoyed by precisely the sort of people whom she disliked; she is a literary classic of the society which attitudes like hers, held widely enough, would undermine.” Some of this would go for Dylan and his subterranean underminings, of glassy self-confidence, for instance, in Like a Rolling Stone, or of sales-talk in Clean-Cut Kid. Likewise, perhaps, with Harding’s closing words in 1939: “I have tried to underline one or two features of her work that claim the sort of readers who sometimes miss her – those who would turn to her not for relief and escape but as a formidable ally against things and people which were to her, and still are, hateful.” (Regulated Hatred and Other Essays on Jane Austen, ed. Monica Lawlor, 1998, see this page.)

 

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