Bob Dylan's 'Pay in Blood' - an analysis - Part 2

In our first article we discussed the refrain of the song: ‘I pay in blood but not my own’, in this article we start examining the verses of the song. On the internet some have argued that the verses of the song represent a dialogue between a slave and his master; the slave is meant in those verses which speak of pain, suffering and hardship and the master is meant in those verses which speak of revenge, retribution, punishment and violence. Implicitly the whole institution of slavery is tackled and the western nations, including America, are ‘accused of murder’ for so long having kept up a system of human repression, just for financial gain. Although, as we will see, not all verses deal with this issue and the perspective shifts continuously, yet I think there is a lot of truth in the notion that a large part of this song deals with slavery and its horrible consequences. That the song for a large part is about slavery may be backed up by Dylan’s recent RS interview. In this interview Bob Dylan says that stigma of slavery ruined America and he has a hard time believing the country can get rid of this shame because it was ‘founded on the backs of slaves.’ Dylan goes on to say that in America “people are at each other’s throats just because they are of a different color; it will hold any nation back.” Dylan also said:  “If slavery had been given up in a more peaceful way, America would be far ahead today.”

At the same time, Dylan would not be Dylan if he would not take the issue of slavery to a deeper and more spiritual level. The poet has the intention to cut to the core of slavery – of human bondage - and in such a situation harsh words cannot be avoided to picture the dark reality of this slavery. Only when we come to understanding what is at the core of human bondage we start coming aware of its terrible consequences and of the only way to get out of it and that is through redemption – payment in blood.
Actually, slavery, human bondage, started at the beginning of mankind when as Dylan says metaphorically ‘Someone slipped a drug in your wine, and when you gulped it down and crossed the line’. This is another way, a poetic way, of expressing what went wrong with man in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. Wine symbolizes the ultimate communion between God and man. One day this communion will be restored (Mat 26:29). In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, man deliberately broke this communion and willingly gulped down the treacherous words of Satan and by doing so crossed a fatal line. From that day on mankind became enslaved to Satan. His enemy became his master. Through all ages, in an ill attempt to free mankind from the yoke of slavery we have seen that, in turns, slaves have become masters and masters have become slaves.  Only redemption, interference, from above is capable of breaking this morbid chain of events, this deadly cycle.  But it goes even further than that. Human sin is the mother of all slavery. Redemption from slavery, initially brought out by the exodus of Israel from the slave house of Egypt, was only the beginning; it was fully materialized when Jesus – through his payment in blood - bought mankind free from the slave house of sin .But it did not stop there. Those bought free are subsequently transformed through the Holy Spirit. This transformation is described i.e. in 2 Corinthians 3:17, 18: ‘For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image’ . By the way, this is quite something else Dylan spoke about in his recent Rolling Stone interview. Dylan did not speak about ‘Transformation’ but he spoke about ‘Transfiguration’ a process which he said he had undergone in the sixties. ‘Transfiguration’ however, is usually reserved to Christ only (see e.g. Mat. 17:2).So when a ‘normal’ human being – no matter who he or she is – assumes that some kind of a ‘Transfiguration’ has happened to him or herself, a lot of alarm bells have to start ringing. When you hear people talk about a ‘Transfiguration’ experience you’d better watch out. ‘Transfiguration’’ imaginations may easily lead to misplaced ‘delusions of grandeur ‘which may ultimately lead to ‘the disease of conceit’.
Transformation – or inward renewal through the Holy Spirit – has two main aspects and we can recognize at least one these aspects in ‘Pay in blood’. The first thing Transformation causes is: pain and suffering. Transformation changes the heart. That is never an easy process. Dylan – in the context of talking about slavery in his RS interview- : “You have to change your heart if you want to change.” The second aspect of Transformation is joy and gratitude but we do not find this in this song. Having said this, we take a look at the first verse:
‘Well I’m grinding my life out, steady and sure, nothing more wretched than what I must endure’ seems partly inspired by the poet Ovid. The Poems of Exile: ‘Tristia and the Black Sea Letters’ Book V says:
‘You write that I should divert these mournful days with writing, stop my wits rotting from neglect. That’s hard advice, my friend: poems emerge as the product of happiness- need peace of mind- but my fate’s shaken by adverse gales, there could be nothing more wretched than what I endure’.
Dylan’s words Well I’m grinding my life out, steady and sure, nothing more wretched than what I must endure’ immediately takes our mind into the realm of slavery. One thinks of hard, strenuous and monotonous slavery work over an indefinite period of time without any prospect of relief and in violation of all basic human rights. Your life is grinded out as if you are in some prison where you are stuck under a millstone, the friction of which pulverizes your life, steady but sure, or like the poet Milton once wrote: ‘send thee into the common prison, there to grind’. ‘Nothing more wretched than what I must endure’ is as it says in Proverbs 15:15: ‘All the days of the oppressed are wretched”. It recalls not only the wretched days of the poet’s ancestors the, the Hebrews, who were enslaved in Egypt as Exodus 3: 7 says:  “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering” but it is also a bitter complaint of all slaves and oppressed of all ages.
As said, the concept of slavery has not only a social aspect but also a personal, spiritual aspect. Man must be redeemed from his enslavement to sin and set free. It involves the changing of his heart and this is likewise a very painful process. No matter how beautiful the outcome in the end may be, this learning process feels like grinding your life out, and what you come across in this process of renewal, what you endure feels very wretched indeed. The apostle Paul – and any other person going through a process chastening for that matter – is aware of this inner conflict this process evokes and like Paul sometimes has to confess: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).
“I’m drenched in the light that shines from the sun” whereby ‘sun’ may also be understood as ‘Son’ as ‘Christ’. When one is drenched in the light that comes from the ‘Son’, from Jesus, it may mean that one is so enlightened that one becomes the gift of discernment, the trait of judging wisely and objectively in all circumstances. Strictly speaking only God, including the Son, owns this gift to perfection and has the authority to use it. When an adulterous woman was brought to Jesus (John 8:5), Jesus had the perfect right to say “I could stone you to death for the wrongs that you done” but He voluntarily refrained from His right to take up the first stone and to stone her to death and decided to let her go.  But in the hands of sinners, oppressors and slave-drivers, this gift of discernment turns into an arbitrary, despotic, illegal means of retaliation and revenge from which there is no escape. ‘Sooner or later you make a mistake, I’ll put you in a chain that you never will break, legs and arms and body and bone” emphasizes once again that there is no escape once innocent people are in the hands of oppressors who have no other objective but to exploit other people for their own gain.  The inclination towards revenge and abuse of power is deeply rooted in the human condition, is at the bottom of all our hearts, and is always after complete submission of any opponent, to tie him in unbreakable chains, ‘legs and arms and body and bone’. This chain of events can only be broken if payment in blood is made, but – as outlined in our first article - it cannot be the blood of the human condition itself, that is why it says: ‘I pay in blood, but not my own’.

We move on to the second verse of the song:
‘Night after night, day after day, they strip your useless hopes away,
the more I take, the more I give, the more I die, the more I live.
I got something in my pocket make your eyeballs swim,
I got dogs could tear you limb from limb,
 I’m circling around the Southern Zone,
I pay in blood, but not my own”.

In ‘Night after night, day after day, they strip your useless hopes away” we see again that once you’re in the slave-driver’s hands, any hopes of a livable future are reduced to zero. On a deeper, spiritual level, these words refer to the healing power of the Holy Spirit, in a continuous process of inner renewal, the Spirit dashes, strips, any hope the human condition may have to redeem itself from the cycle of death under its own power. Apart from this, also this line seems  partly inspired by Ovid Book III of The Black Sea Letters which has: “When I return to this place, gods and heaven are left behind me: the Pontic shore is close – too close to Styx. And if my fight goes against Fate’s prohibitions, then strip me, Maximus, of my useless hopes”.
In “The more I take, the more I give, the more I die, the more I live” the poet alludes to the teachings of Jesus and Paul. There seems to be something paradoxical in these words. These words seem contrary to received opinion and common sense; something which in appearance is absurd, but yet may be true in fact. It all has to do with the process of inward renewal by the Spirit, which is a precondition to get rid of all slavery in its deepest sense. If you surrender to this process, it looks as if you are a loser (confirmed further on in the song by: ‘Low cards are what I’ve got’) when in fact you have a winning hand. When you give more than you take, you end up with nothing. Ending up with nothing because you chose to give instead of take is only absurd when you do not reckon with the blessing of God which ultimately is behind everything, just as it says in  Acts 20:35”: “You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’.
The words “the more I die, the more I live” seem equally paradoxical and absurd. These words allude to what Jesus says in Mat. 10:39: ‘If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it’. The process of change, of inward renewal is a painful process and feels like dying but in the end it leads to life in abundance. In this respect Hebrew 12:, 11 rings true: “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way”.
When we hear the words: “I got something in my pocket make your eyeballs swim, I got dogs could tear you limb from limb, I’m circlin’ around the Southern Zone” the swing apparently has moved to the highest point if its opposite direction, but it all happens within the same personality. The slave and the slave-driver are one and the same person. On the one hand, the process of change has softened and humiliated his heart –‘the more I take the more I give’-  but on the other hand,  the alter ego representing revenge, retaliation, the slave driver’s attitude,  is still very much present within himself, lingers at the bottom of his heart, and is ready to lash out mercilessly. But the good news is that the poet is aware of the fact that this dark craving for bloody revenge still lingers at the bottom of his heart. Awareness of these dark feelings is the first precondition to combat those feelings of hatred and revenge, and that is exactly what the Spirit wants to bring about in a man. If you want to combat those feelings it is necessary to look into the mirror, and to become conscious of those feelings. The worst thing that could happen to a man is when he deceives himself and when he thinks that he does not have those kinds of morbid feelings and that he is a better person than anyone else. “I got something in my pocket make your eyeballs swim, I got dogs could tear you limb from limb” proves that he has the weaponry and the means available to strike his opponents a mortal blow and that he is ready to use these weapons in such a way that his enemies will never get up again. The dogs are ready and will tear you apart limb from limb, in the same way as dogs tear apart an escaping slave or prisoner.
” I’m circlin’ around the Southern Zone” at first glance reminds you of the so-called ‘Southern Zone’ which stretches from the South African Cape to the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, formed by the Zambezi River. It is more likely however, that this is an allusion to the Southern part of America. The South of America held on much longer to slavery than the North. So when it says” I’m circlin’ around the Southern Zone” it may give you the idea of some sort of vulture, a vampire maybe, circling around in the Southern States of America to find new blood, new victims to enslave. For all these ugly things, payment in blood is necessary, but once again we say: it cannot be his own blood, redemptive blood from elsewhere is necessary.

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Bob Dylan's 'Pay in Blood' - Part 1 - Introduction-

Introduction.

‘Pay in Blood’ is another intriguing and fascinating song from the album ‘Tempest’. At first glance the lyrics of this song seem to dripping in blood, are full of hatred, violence and vengeance of a battered, spiteful, poet who apparently has a hard believing whether he will make it back home alive and who is ready- without showing any mercy whatsoever - to have his enemies pay in full for all the wrongs they have done.
In some sort of a sense, the song breathes the same atmosphere as some songs on Dylan’s album ‘Modern Times’. On that album and on ‘Tempest’ as well, and in particular in this song, we see some of the violent struggle, abundantly present in the Old Testament where the resistance against the promised road, which will ultimately lead to the promised Savior, the Messiah – Yeshua- Jesus, is so strong and violent that there is no alternative left but to combat this resistance with equally violent weapons. In this respect the New Testament has taken a new and decisive turn and we will also find this back in the song - as we will see later on.  
The key to understanding the song is hidden in the refrain: ‘I pay in blood, but not my own’.  Raised in the Jewish tradition and faith, Dylan is fully aware of what ‘to pay in blood’ means. The Thora makes it clear that life itself – the soul of man, in Hebrew ‘Nefesh’ – is in the blood of a man.  This principle of the life being in the blood is made clear in Leviticus 17:11: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life”. Reconciliation between God and man has to be made and can only be achieved through payment in blood. In the Thora, in the Old Testament, animals took the place of man and were sacrificed on the altar and the blood of these animals brought about reconciliation between God and man. This was all done in anticipation of the real Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who came and sacrificed himself by shedding his precious blood and by doing so  ransomed the world ( I Peter 1:19).Jesus Christ paid in full by his blood for the sins of the whole world. So when the poet says: ‘I pay in blood’ it is as if he were saying: “I’m no better a man than anyone else in this fallen world. I fully participate in the human condition. The human condition is in itself full of evil, of hatred, of violence, of vengeance and retribution, I see this when I look around this world, and when I’m honest, I find it also in myself. This world is hopelessly forlorn and so am I. To set things right there is only one way out. Reconciliation – redemption- payment –atonement - has to be made. There is only one sacrifice that God will accept to reconcile himself with this world and with me personally and that is through payment in blood. That is why I can only pay in blood. This blood is nothing else than myself, not only my soul but also ‘legs and arms and body and bone’. At the same time I find that I’m a sinner and because I am a sinner I cannot pay with my own blood. I need somebody else to pay for me, somebody who takes my place and who is not a sinner. There is only one person who is not a sinner and whose sacrifice of his blood will be accepted by God, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ, He will pay with His blood instead of mine and that is why I say: ‘I pay in blood, but not my own’”.
This concept is called ‘substitution’ and there can hardly be any doubt that this is what Dylan has had in mind here.  It is all about redemption, whether we like it or not.
On the other hand, when we compare the core of this song with some of the songs of his so-called Christian trilogy – ‘’Slow Train coming”, “Saved” and “Shot of Love” – something important has changed. In songs like ‘I believe in you’ it is “them” – non believers, infidels - against Dylan and his newly found faith: ‘they like to drive me from this town, they show me to the door and say don’t come back no more’ and also in one of the most controversial of all Dylan songs Dylan ever made ‘Property of Jesus’, it is again “them” against Dylan. ‘Resent him (Dylan) to the bone’ followed by the Dylan’s bitter retort: ‘You got something better; you’ve got a heart of stone’.
But in this song he confesses: ‘My head’s so hard, must be made of stone’. It is no longer only just “them” against me. He confesses that he has an equal part in the mess we all created. The point he wants to make is that no man or woman on this earth, whether he or she is a Christian or not, or no matter what other faith he or she practices, has the power within himself or herself to rise above the wicked condition of the human condition we are all in. Redemptive power has to come from elsewhere and can never be found in the human condition itself. Humanity makes matters only worse. It is exactly the reason why he says: ‘I pay in blood, but not my own’.
It is striking that the universal necessity to pay in somebody else’s blood is implicitly expressed in Dylan’s recent Rolling Stone interview with Mikal Gilmore. It is true, that here and there we have to take some of the statements in this interview with a pinch of salt and we have to take into account that Dylan likes to fool around and to play tricks with the press but let’s take it for what it is worth. In this interview Dylan complains about being called “Judas” for playing an electric guitar, and then says: “These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you’ve been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified’. (By the way, you don’t refer to Jesus as “our Lord” and speak in such a manner about him unless you yourself believe in Jesus as “your” Lord, but that is not the point we intend to discuss in detail here – for more information on this issue, we refer to my article What does Bob Dylan really believe?. ).
What is notable, however, is that Dylan follows the RS interview up with a very nasty statement which may be called anything but Christian: “All those evil motherf**kers can rot in hell.”  At first glance such a nasty statement would fit in very well with lyrics of ‘Pay in Blood’ where passages like ‘I could stone you to death for the wrongs that you done’
‘I got something in my pocket make your eyeballs swim’, ‘I got dogs could tear you limb from limb’ etc. seem equally denunciatory and equally full of revenge and spite. Whether the statement “All those evil motherf**kers can rot in hell” is on the same level as some of the violent passages in ‘Pay in Blood’- and in other songs on this album for that matter - remains to be seen. More light will be shed on this as when we will discuss the lyrics of ‘Pay in Blood’ in more detail in the upcoming articles on this song.
Finally, denunciations like “All those evil motherf**kers can rot in hell” are in sharp contrast with the teachings of Jesus. When our Lord Jesus was crucified he said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Jesus says in Matt. 7:1 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged’. No man has the right to wish other people in hell, no matter how justified Dylan’s remarks about the Judas accusations may be. At the end of times, on Judgment Day, the final judgment will be made but we have to bear in mind that this will be a divine privilege. This nasty remark proves the more so that Dylan is a sinner and needs cleansing through blood, in the same way as we are all sinners and need cleansing.  At the same time utterances like this stress the need for continuous payment in blood. There is a well spring of blood is available for everybody. The good news is that in the song ‘Pay in Blood’ the poet is amongst the ones who pay in blood, but fortunately it is not his own blood.
In our next article we are going to look at the lyrics in more detail and we’ll see if we can piece this all together. As always your comments on this article will be appreciated. Please press the button ‘’reacties’ below.

Bob Dylan's 'Duquesne Whistle' - an analysis-

‘Duquesne Whistle’ – lyric analysis – by Kees de Graaf

‘Duquesne Whistle’ the first song on Dylan’s new album ‘Tempest’- a co-write with Robert Hunter - is yet another masterpiece. This song is really amazing; there are many thoughtful layers in it.  When you listen for the first time, the feel the lyrics of the song may evoke comes close to the song ‘Highlands’ from ‘Time out of Mind’. But there is a difference.  ‘Highlands’ was a metaphor for heaven. Highlands portrays the mental attitude of the poet towards those Highlands. His heart is in the Highlands. At the same time it is a journey to the Highlands. It is a learning process.  At the end of the song it is as if he already reached his destination: ‘I’m already there in my mind’. In this song the poet waits for and focusses on the final whistle which can be blown at any minute; this whistle when it comes proclaims that the end of times has begun and that there is no turning back. This whistle has a warning for us in store, like in the song ‘Sugar Baby’:  ‘Look up, look up—seek your Maker—’fore Gabriel blows his horn’ or in this case his whistle.  There can be no doubt: death is calling at the poet’s door, he is about to cross the borderline. Sometimes it looks as if he is already on the other side; he is in and out of the train bound for glory. It is a song depicting human mortality and vulnerability, yet hope is close by. Let’s take a more detailed look at the song to see how this works out.
‘Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it’s gonna sweep my world away
I’m gonna stop at Carbondale, keep on going
That Duquesne train gonna ride me night and day’.
There is a place called Duquesne and Carbondale in Pennsylvania (PA), but the problem is that Dylan speaks of a ‘Duquesne train’ but these two towns appear not to have a train station. There is however a place called Carbondale in the south of Illinois which does have a train station. Carbondale is on the "City of New Orleans" train route which also passes through and stops in a town called DU QUOIN, IL, which is just north of Carbondale. This also raises a question. Dylan spells ‘Duquesne’ instead of ‘Du Quoin’ which is what one might expect here. But there appears to be no Duquesne in the state of Illinois. Although a press report in the New York Times  of November 1921 reported from Duquesne (IL) that a train was hit by lightning just south of Pinckneyville, we found no evidence that there is Duquesne in Illinois and certainly not a Duquesne where there is a train station. Therefore, the question why Dylan chose to spell ‘Duquesne’ instead of Du Quoin is still open. Some resolve this issue by stating that ‘Duquesne’’ in Pennsylvania is meant here. The song is supposed to deal with the “Duquesne Works” steel mill, home to “Dorothy Six”, the largest blast furnace in the world. The Works, located in the Pennsylvania steel town of Duquesne, was once part of the Carnegie Steel Company. Dylan seems to have been inspired for this song by an article, “Business & Finance: Whistle”, TIME Magazine (Monday, June 26, 1933):– “Pennsylvania steel town, twelve miles up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh. For two years its 21,000 inhabitants watched the tires die in the blast furnaces one by one. Then for two more years the furnaces were cold. Duquesne called it Depression. One day last week, Duquesne whistles shrieked, Duquesne bells clanged...” 
The poet invites you to ‘Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing’. When you are on a train station, a few seconds before the train starts moving, the station master blows a whistle. Of course there are more occasions and rules for a train whistle to blow. You can find these on: http://www.sdrm.org/faqs/rulebook/signals.html. In this whistle the poet hears that something important and irreversible is about to happen. A whistle is ‘blown’ – air is blown through the whistle and you hear a sound. When you think about air, about wind, your attention is drawn to the Hebrew word ‘ruach’ or the Greek word ‘pneuma’, which means ‘air’ ‘wind’.  The Holy Spirit is like a wind, a ‘ruach’ or a ‘pneuma’, a sort of inspiration that pervades everything. In this Duquesne whistle the poet hears a voice from high, the Holy Spirit, calling, blowing, that the end is near, the poet has reached the end of the trail. The Spirit is ‘Blowing like it’s gonna sweep my world away’, when the poet dies, his world will suddenly come to an end, the present world is swept away and the poet is now going to enter an entirely new world.
When the poet says:  ‘I’m gonna stop at Carbondale’, this may refer to a story told by an old record store owner who used to live in Carbondale. This record store owner is said to have said that the train which was struck by lightning in 1921 (see the reference to the New York Times above) would have gone through Carbondale, and that train would have brought many great blues and jazz musicians up from the south, who were on their way to Chicago. The train accident and the delay it apparently caused may be the reason why so many great musicians played in Carbondale.
Since the poet is a musician he’s gonna stop at Carbondale, but when at the same time he says ‘ keep on going, that Duquesne train gonna ride me night and day’, in some sort of a way he wants to make it clear that he is already on that train bound for glory, he is not going to leave that slow train which is picking up speed now, he is already on the other side of the fence.
‘You say I’m a gambler, you say I’m a pimp
But I ain’t neither one
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Sound like it's on a final run’.
‘You say I’m a gambler, you say I’m a pimp, but I ain’t neither one’. A gambler is a person who wagers money on the outcome of games or sporting events or someone who risks loss or injury in the hope of gain or excitement. A pimp is someone who procures customers for whores or arranges sexual partners for others. When the poet refutes these accusations by saying that he is neither a gambler nor a pimp, he wants to make it clear that – no matter how evasive he has been at times in expressing how he exactly feels about ‘God and man and law’ - he is not a person who ‘gambles for support’, a person who runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds, who makes the best of both worlds, ‘all those who have eyes and have ears’ mightknow exactly how he feels. He is not a gambler or a pimp, always ready for a sellout of faith, ideas or convictions. On the contrary, when he urges his audience to ‘Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing, sounds like it's on a final run’, he feels that this time the whistle sounds as if it blows for the very last time. The train will leave and is on a final fun and will not come back; it is high time to get on board and although on other occasions he made it clear that even when you are in that train he ‘has a hard time believing if some people will ever arrive’, he is determined to get on board and to safely reach his destination and the whistle warns you’d better listen to that last whistle blowing before it’s too late.   
‘Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she never blowed before
Blue light blinking, red light glowing
Blowing like she's at my chamber door’.
When he goes on to say ‘Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing, blowing like she never blowed before’ he dwells on the same subject. This time he hears a different way of blowing, a way of blowing he never heard before, as if the whistle says: ‘I know your name, I know who you are,’ I’m gonna call you home to the place where you belong, to heaven’. ‘Blue light blinking’, in railway language a blue signal signifies that workmen are on, under, or between rolling equipment. The cover of the album ‘Slow Train Coming’ may give you a clue as to what this means. Although the train may be on the final run and the work is almost done, the railroad is at the same time still under construction. Time, on the other hand, is running out, because a ‘red light is glowing’, a red light means: STOP your way of living and think about it before it’s too late, all signals are on red, there is not much time left. This is intensified by the words: ‘Blowing like she's at my chamber door’. A chamber is a retired room, esp. an upper room used for sleeping. When the whistle is at his chamber’s door, it means that death will come soon and the poet is ready to meet God and may be called home any minute now.
‘You’re smiling through the fence at me
Just like you always smiled before
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she ain't gon' blow no more’
The poet is just about to enter the place ‘that’s only one step down from here, it’s called the land of permanent  bliss’. ‘You’re smiling through the fence at me just like you always smiled before’ may be God or Jesus welcoming him from the other side of the fence. In this smile there is heavenly peace, serenity and complacency as if God knows who he is and has always known him and that is why it says:’ just like you always smiled before’. Finally he is ready, just like he wrote in ‘Ain’t Talking’, to meet ‘All his loyal and much-loved companions, they approve of me and share my code’. ‘Blowing like she ain't gon' blow no more’  may mean that  deep down inside he feels that this is the last time you can hear this whistle blow and he is just about to be called home.
‘Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing?
Blowing like the sky's gonna blow apart
you’re the only thing alive that keeps me going
you’re like a time bomb in my heart’
This stanza takes us again to what will happen on the Latter Day. ‘Blowing like the sky's gonna blow apart’ makes you think of what Dylan wrote in ‘Things have changed’: ‘If the Bible is right the world will explode’. It reflects what is written in 2 Peter 3: 10: ‘But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up’. ‘You’re the only thing alive that keeps me going’ is basically the same thought as expressed in 'This dream of You' from the album ‘Together through Life’:  ‘All I have and all I know is this dream of you which keeps me living on’. He knows that when the final whistle blows, Someone will be there to care for him. ‘You’re like a time bomb in my heart’ is a metaphor describing the fact that God has planted His seed in his heart. This time bomb in his heart waits for the final whistle to blow and will suddenly come to an explosion, a sudden change, in the twinkling of an eye.  When this time bomb explodes at the set time – when the world explodes, it will be like Dylan wrote in the song: ‘Ye shall be changed’, ‘ye shall be changed, in a twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet blows, the dead will arise and burst out of their clothes’
‘I can hear a sweet voice gently calling
Must be the mother of our LORD
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like my woman's on board’.
‘‘I can hear a sweet voice gently calling’ echoes ‘A Voice From On High’ which Bob used to sing with the Larry/Charlie band. "I hear a voice calling; it must be the Lord...."
The poet hears a voice gently or ‘steadily’ calling, welcoming him home and he feels and knows for sure that it cannot be anybody else but the mother of our LORD. The mother of our LORD Jesus is called Mary. The sweet voice of holy Virgin Mary, on behalf of Jesus, calls him home like he said in ‘Saving Grace’: ‘Wherever I’m welcome is where I’ll be’. This looks like a trait of Roman Catholicism. In the Roman Catholic tradition, Mary, the mother of our LORD Jesus acts like some sort of a mediatrix, a woman mediator between Jesus, God, and man. Although Dylan is not known to be associated to any church or denomination, we find this same Roman Catholic trait also in ‘Ain’t Talking’ from the album ‘Modern Times’ where it says: “They say prayer has the power to heal, so pray from the mother”. For a more details on this we refer to the analysis of 'Ain't Talking' - the Old Testament revisited' .
‘Blowing like my woman's on board’ seems to express that he has now come to terms with another feature in his works: his ambiguous attitude towards women. The woman, on the one hand the object of his desire and lust, distracting him from the road bound for glory, and on the other hand there is his quest for finding true love and partnership of a god fearing woman. Here on earth this tears him apart, but in eternity this ambiguity is straightened out. At the same time Dylan may use the word 'woman' here in the sense of a biblical metaphor. In the Bible the 'woman' or the 'bride' represents the church and Christ loves and cherishes the church just like a man loves a woman. Jesus speaks through the mouth of the poet and it is as if Jesus says: 'The struggle is over because my woman, the church, my bride is on board of the train, everything is ready for the eternal wedding which will be held very soon'.   
‘Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gonna blow my blues away
You old rascal, I know exactly where you're going
I'll lead you there myself at the break of day’
As he hears the Duquesne whistle blowing, hope is  glimmering through: ‘Blowing like it's gonna blow my blues away’, ‘the blues’ his sad melancholy mood is lifted like he expresses in ‘Highlands’’: ‘The sun is beginning to shine on me, but it’s not like the sun that used to be’. This time it is different, ‘the blues’, his sad, melancholy mood will not come back but will be blown away for good. ‘You old rascal, I know exactly where you're going’ seems inspired by an old song, at the intersection of Louis Armstrong and Bob Wills, the Hot Five with Earl Hines ( who was by the way born in Duquesne) and the Texas Playboys, where Louis Armstrong's ‘rascal’ is addressed directly: ‘I know exactly where you're going’. Dylan – as so often - gives the quote a different turn, and uses it for his own purposes in the song. ‘You old rascal’ looks like some sort of self-irony. It may be a sinner’s prayer, as if he is fully aware that his is still a sinner and that he is still in need of ‘saving grace’. It is as if he hears again ‘A Voice From On High’, it must be the voice of our Lord Jesus who addresses him directly:  ‘You old rascal, I know exactly where you're going, I'll lead you there myself at the break of day’.The words ‘ I'll lead you there myself at the break of day’ are literally taken from  Robert Fagles’ translation of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’  – page 137.  It is as if Jesus says: ‘I know you are a sinner, I know that you’re an old rascal, but I paid in blood for you, this time my own blood, and that is why ‘I know exactly where you’re going’, you’re my property and I’ll lead you there at the break of day, you’ll be with me forever when the dawn is breaking and the night is disappearing, when the deal goes down’’.
‘I wake up every morning with that woman in my bed
Everybody telling me she's gone to my head
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gonna kill me dead’.
After the heavenly reflections of the previous verse, it looks like he is suddenly thrown back to the harsh earthly monotonous reality of everyday life.’ ‘I wake up every morning with that woman in my bed, everybody telling me she's gone to my head’ sounds condescendingly and shows the ambiguous attitude towards women we outlined earlier in this article. The feeling comes close to what Dylan wrote in ‘Rolling and Tumbling’: ‘Well, I did all I know just to keep you off my mind, well, I paid and I paid and my suffering heart is always on the line.  I'm flat-out spent, this woman she been driving me to tears’ and shows the wretchedness of his earthly existence which is full of tears and strain, a burden which often seems heavier than he can bear and which sometimes goes to his head. ‘Blowing like it's gonna kill me dead’ is reminiscent of a line in another song on the album ‘Tempest’: ‘Pay in Blood’ where Dylan writes: ‘the more I die, the more I live’. On the one hand he hears in this whistle the agony and the pain of his earthly existence, this feels like ‘it’s gonna kill me dead’, on the other hand, the pain and the agony is at the same time a learning process which will lead to life in abundance.
‘Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing through another no-good town
The lights of my native land are glowing
I wonder if they'll know me next time round’.
This verse connects the past with the future. The running of the train in some sort of a way becomes timeless, covering both the present, the past and the future. In the wheels of time the train now runs through another ‘no good town’ while a  whistle is blowing. Somebody pointed out to me that this verse and also the final verse should rather be spiritually understood as referring to Christ returning to his native land – Jerusalem in the land of Israel. For Jesus, such a ‘no good town’  may have been Jerusalem. Jesus now speaks through the mouth of the poet and it is clear that when Jesus was on earth that the city of Jerusalem did not do Him any good.( Somehow I feel an allusion here to ‘Things have changed’. Jesus is in the wrong town: ‘This place ain’t do me any good’. If Jesus would have had the ‘Hollywood’ mindset, they might have accepted and not have crucified Him). Israel and in particular Jerusalem was the place where He was rejected and ultimately crucified, that’s why it says: ‘Blowing through another no-good town’ .
At first glance it looks as if ‘The lights of my native land are glowing’ refers to the lights of the land where the poet was physically born, to his native town and  to the sweet memories of his native land. In the same way ‘I wonder if they'll know me next time round’  would then refer to the fact that during his lifetime Dylan was never accepted the way that he was and he now expresses the wish that in the world to come his art will finally be recognized in its unique and true value. It reminds us of the 2004 CBS interview when Bradley said to Dylan: ‘It's ironic, that the way that people viewed you was just the polar opposite of the way you viewed yourself’. However, someone pointed out to me that such an interpretation  makes no sense and lacks some kind of other underlying spiritual reality. Therefore, also here we have to consider that it looks as if  Dylan has Jesus talk through his mouth saying: ‘The lights of my native land are glowing’ . Jesus ‘native land is of course the land of Israel and as the train passes by, it is as if Jesus sees the lights of this beautiful land flicker and Jesus wonders:  ‘will they know me next time round’ .  When Jesus says ‘I wonder if they'll know me next time round’  this should be seen from a human perspective as if Jesus wonders if they – the people of Jerusalem – will accept and acknowledge Him when He will come back and that will be on the Latter Day. We have to remember that Dylan may have had Jesus in mind when he wrote in ‘If you ever go to Houston’: ‘The same way that I leave here will be the way that I came’. Jesus incarnated and came from heaven to live in the land of Israel and went back to heaven from the land of Israel and will come back from heaven on the Latter Day. The only difference is that when he will return on the Latter day, every eye will see him,  like it says in Revelation 1: 7: ‘Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, everyone who pierced him’. So even if they do not want to recognize Him, they will be forced to recognize Him on that day.   
‘I wonder if that old oak tree's still standing
That old oak tree, the one we used to climb
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she's blowing right on time’.
On the face of it, also these final words dwell on the same thought. Sweet memories of the poet’s youth, of his boyhood, are connected to the Promised Land in the future. This passage is reminiscent of an old song called: ‘The green green grass of home’:
‘The old home town looks the same as I step down from the train,
The old house is still standing, though the paint is cracked and dry,
and there's that old oak tree that I used to play on’.
However, also in this verse there may be a much deeper layer. On the internet I read an interesting interpretation that the ‘tree’  which is mentioned here may be a metaphor for the cross on which Jesus was nailed. Although the Bible makes it clear that Jesus died on a cross made of  wood, there is some biblical  foundation for this metaphor because Galatians 3:13 says: ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.". So when it says: ‘I wonder if that old oak tree's still standing, that old oak tree, the one we used to climb’  this may be a reference to the cross at Cavalry and in this metaphor ‘to climb a tree’ would mean ‘to be nailed on the cross’. Now it is as if Jesus wonders if the cross on which he once died  will still be there when He returns, in other words will they crucify me again when I return or will they finally accept me as Messiah. The ‘we’ in ‘the one we used to climb’ would refer to the thief on the cross  and it is as if Jesus talks again to the thief on the cross, in the same way as the conversation between Jesus and the thief in Dylan’s classic work ‘All along the Watchtower’’.
This final scene heralds the end of time, when everything is said and done  the final whistle is blown right on time. There is a time for everything, the whistle is ‘blowing like she’s blowing right on time '.

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Bob Dylan's 'Jokerman' - an analysis - Part 4

In this article we take a closer look at the third stanza of this song and we try to solve the ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ issue.

“You're a man of the mountain, you can walk on the clouds, manipulator of crowds, you're a dream twister. You're going to Sodom and Gomorrah, but what do you care?  Ain't nobody there would want marry your sister, friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame, you look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name”.

When Dylan says: “You’re a man of the mountain, you can walk on the clouds” he seems to portray the Biblical person of Moses, the man of God, who may in fact be called the man of the mountains. To the Biblical writers ‘mountains’ are symbols of eternity, they are strong and steadfast, but they too are the creation of God, and they manifest His power. The scene Dylan describes here comes close to what can be found in the Book of Exodus, Chapter 24 verse 15-18 where it says:
“Then Moses climbed up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. And the glory of the Lord settled down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from inside the cloud to the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, the glory of the Lord appeared at the summit like a consuming fire. Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights”. Moses walked on the clouds and received the Ten Commandments from God when he was up on the mountain.
In the lyrics of Dylan’s masterpiece ‘Dignity’ Dylan speaks of ‘the sons of darkness and the sons of light’ whom he met in the border towns of despair. Also, that he ‘Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men’ and it wasn’t any difference to him. In ‘Jokerman’ Dylan basically dwells on the same subject. From a ‘son of light’ like Moses, who ‘walks on the clouds’ Dylan in one breath shifts to a ‘son of darkness’ who is portrayed as ‘a manipulator of crowds’ and a ‘dream twister’. ‘Who is who’ is not easy to detect by the naked eye. It all adds up to the ambiguity of the song. ‘A manipulator of crowds’ takes us to the world of usurpers, oppressors, dictators and demagogues like Pilate, Nero or Hitler. You’d better watch out when these manipulators enter the scene, like Dylan warns us in the song ‘Political World’ because – as Dylan writes in this song - these manipulators of crowds ‘Climb into the frame and shout God’s name but you’re never sure what it is’.
‘A dream twister’ again takes us to the world of deception. A ‘Twister’ is a localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land and characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground. Somebody wrote that ‘Twister dreams can be a type of intuitive warning that conditions exist in either the inner or outer world that must be addressed and quelled before devastation results’. Here, however, when it says here that the Jokerman is ‘a dream twister’ the Jokerman again wears the cloak of the devil, who is the ultimate dream twister. In his manipulative work the devil had access to the throne of God where he continually falsely accused the children of God, twisting words and questioning their integrity and their commitment to God, - like e.g. the devil did to poor Job. Ever since the devil was defeated at the cross, he lost access to the heavens and the throne of God and was flung on the earth where he has continued his manipulative work as a dream twister. The work the Holy Spirit does is quite the opposite to that of the devil. Whereas the devil as a dream twister works had on the downfall of God’s children, the Holy Spirit pleads for them at the throne of God, (Romans 8:26,27), making sure that all prayers and dreams are heard in heaven and become effective.
The line ‘You're going to Sodom and Gomorrah, but what do you care?  Ain't nobody there would want marry your sister’ focusses on the two Biblical towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Book of Genesis, chapter 18 and 19, says that the inhabitants of these towns were so defiled and their sins so grave that these towns were destroyed by brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven (Gen. 19:24). From these chapters we also learn that it was Abraham’s nephew Lot who lived in Sodom. Therefore, it seems obvious that Lot is addressed here. Lot was the one who went to Sodom. The problem however is that the lyrics say: ‘Ain’t nobody there would want marry your SISTER’, this is odd because Lot is not known to have a sister in Sodom. Lot does have two daughters and to protect his guests he decides to hand them over to the men of Sodom to have them abused, rather than have his guests abused. (Gen 19:8).So it would have made perfect sense if the lyrics had read: Ain't nobody there would want marry your DAUGHTER’. There must be an explanation why Dylan deliberately says ‘sister’’ where one would have expected ‘daughter’. We feel there is a good explanation available. It shows that Dylan has a very detailed knowledge of the Bible and he uses this in the song.
The fact is that not Lot is addressed here but Abraham himself. The Jokerman disguises himself as Abraham. This needs some clarification. To plead to God for these two towns, in an attempt to prevent their total destruction, also Abraham went to Sodom and Gomorrah – that is to say he went to the vicinity of Sodom and Gomorrah, to a place where he could overlook the two towns (Genesis 18: 16 and 19: 28) - . ‘What do you care?’, seems to suggest that it was not that difficult for Abraham to go to Sodom and Gomorrah, personally Abraham  had nothing to fear there. When Abraham went to Egypt (Gen 12:10) and to Gerar (20:2) he had to fear for his life, but not in Sodom. Why not? Well, it all has to do with Abraham’s beautiful wife Sara, who was at the same time his half-sister.  The Bible states this on two occasions (Genesis 12:3 and 20:2). On these two occasions Abraham feared that his wife –because she was so attractive and beautiful - would be dishonored by the Egyptians and the Canaanites and Abraham subsequently killed. To save his own neck, Abraham attempted to prevent the Egyptians and the Canaanites from dishonoring Sara by stating that Sara was his sister, he passed Sara off as a sibling, which was half the truth and a half truth is a lie..
To save his life in Egypt and Gerar Abraham said: ‘She (Sara) is my sister’ but when Abraham went to Sodom and Gomorrah there was no need to take refuge to such an excuse and he needed not to worry about his wife being proposed or being sexually assaulted. That is the reason why the lyrics say: ‘What do you care?’. Why should Abraham no longer care? Well, because Genesis 19:4-6 seems to suggest that the entire male population of Sodom was gay. So in going to Sodom and Gomorrah and in its vicinity Abraham had nothing to fear, because the gay population (contrary to Egypt and Gerar) was not at all interested in his wife and half-sister Sara; in Sodom – because all men were gay – there was nobody there who wanted to marry his (half) sister Sara, who was at the same time his wife.
In later years (2003) Dylan may have felt a little uncomfortable about these lyrics because these words may be interpreted as a bit homophobic. It may have been a reason why Dylan changed the lyrics in concert to read now: ‘You've been to Sodom and Gomorrah, way out west, looking for somebody who will love you the best and call you Mister’. This is quite striking because this line is taken from a lyric of a song called ‘Go away from my window’; by John Jacob Niles (this song at least partly inspired Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe”). The lyric in Niles' song reads "Go on your way be happy, go on your way out west, remember dear that you’re the one I really did love best, I really did love best". The question is, if and how Dylan made these alternative lyrics match with the Sodom and Gomorrah words. If he did, the following explanation may make some sense.
Abraham and his nephew Lot originated from a place called Ur in Chaldea. Seen from the position of Ur, Sodom and Gomorrah was ‘way out west’. The towns of Sodom and Gomorrah were situated in a valley just south of the Dead Sea. Because there was strife between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham, Abraham and Lot decided to separate. We can read this in Genesis 13. Abraham modestly let Lot the first choice which way to go. Lot selfishly chose and took the best and most fertile part of the land, the valley south of the Dead Sea and eventually settled down in Sodom. ‘Looking for somebody who will love you the best’ is just another way of expressing that Lot took the best part, the part which would yield him the highest profit. It was supposed to make Lot even wealthier than Abraham, and a good reason to call him Mister. Later on it appeared that Lot made a huge mistake. Settling down in Sodom may have brought him a lot of wealth and luxury but at the same time his settling down was nearly at the cost of his own life.
The line ‘friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame’, marks another change in position and personage of the Jokerman. It is Jesus who may be called a friend both to the martyr and the woman of shame. This martyr and friend of Jesus’ is John the Baptist, who was imprisoned by the evil king Herod (Luke 3:20) and subsequently beheaded at Herod’s birthday party (Mat. 14:11). It was John the Baptist himself who called himself ‘the friend of the bridegroom Jesus Christ (John 3:29). Jesus is also called ‘a friend to the woman of shame’. By his opponents Jesus was accused of being a ‘glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’(Mat. 11:19). In John 8 we see Jesus stand up for a woman of shame who had been caught in adultery. Jesus refuses to condemn her and let her go but at the same time warns her not to sin again (John 8:11). Jesus is a sinner’s friend and at the same time he hates sin.
The Jokerman is now challenged and rebuked when Dylan goes on to say: ‘you look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name’. It looks as if Dylan says: ‘You Jokerman, who doesn’t care or worry about anything, mockingly and arrogantly dancing to the nightingale tune, aloof like a bird that flies high to the light of the moon, look up Jokerman and see how it will all end up, look into that fiery furnace and see how the rich man without any name ends up in the flames of fire’.  Undoubtedly this passage is inspired by the parable of the poor Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31). The heart of the matter of this parable is the need to do justice here on earth, before it’s too late, and to feed the hungry who lay at your doorstep. The rich man refused to help poor Lazarus who lay at his gate. Both poor Lazarus and the rich man died. Lazarus ended up in heaven in Abraham’s bosom but the rich man ended up in hell, in the fiery furnace. Lazarus was a poor man on earth, but he had a name: ‘Lazarus’ which means ‘The Lord helps’. Lazarus’s name will stay on forever, because God knows him. The rich man made a name for himself on this earth, but he ended up without a name in the hereafter, he became a ‘masked and anonymous’, his name deleted from the Book of Life because he refused to do justice here on earth. ‘Jokerman, life is not a joke, please come to your senses while you still can!’
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Bob Dylan's 'Jokerman' - an analysis - Part 3

In this article we take a closer look at the second stanza of this song.

‘So swiftly the sun sets in the sky
You rise up and say goodbye to no one
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Both of their futures, so full of dread, you don't show one
Shedding off one more layer of skin
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within’.

‘So swiftly the sun sets in the sky, you rise up and say goodbye to no one’. These words seem rather obscure and hard to unravel. The setting sun is of religious significance within Judaism. Sunset is the time for the evening prayers to start; sunset marks the transition to, or from, the Sabbath or any other holiday. Sunset is the time for a Jewish ritual called ‘Havdalah’ which takes place at the end of Shabbat. Some analysts see the Jokerman mocking this ritual by not taking part in it and breaking up the community of this ritual without even saying goodbye. This explanation however, seems a little farfetched. There is more likelihood in assuming that the Jokerman again wears the cloak of Jesus. Although his coming to the earth was predicted by the prophets, Jesus suddenly appeared in public life and only after a few years he was crucified at the age of 33 but he rose from the dead. Prior to his crucifixion he was abandoned by everyone, even by his closest disciples. (Mat. 26:56). ‘So swiftly the sun sets in the sky’ may also be a vague reference to the ‘darkness at the break of noon’, the three hours of darkness which fell all over the land during the crucifixion of Jesus and which is described in Matthew 27:45. But the best explanation of the words ‘you rise up and say goodbye to no one’ seems to be found in the story of the ascension of Jesus into heaven as pictured in the book of Acts, Chapter 1:9-11: “After saying this, he (Jesus) was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” From these words we learn that Jesus did not really say goodbye to his disciples, nor to the world for that matter, in fact the disciples were quite taken by surprise by the scene of the ascension which took place before their very eyes. Jesus just rose up and disappeared on a cloud.
‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, both of their futures so full of dread, you don't show one’ 'Fools rush in...' is a precise quote from the English poet Alexander Pope's ‘An essay on criticism’, 1709, where it reads: “No Place so Sacred from such Fops is barr'd, nor is Paul's Church more safe than Paul's Church-yard: Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead; for Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread’. A number of writers like Edmund Burke, Thomas Hardy, E.M. Forster and James Joyce have repeated this quotation in their literary works. The expression also has some Biblical connotation and Alexander Pope may well have been inspired by this. The book of Jude first speaks of wicked angels ‘who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great Day of Judgment. (verse 6).But there are also good angels like Michael, the archangel and his companions, who act in a very prudent way. Michael has fear to judge and fears to tread in field of Judgment which only belongs to God. We read: ‘Michael did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (This took place when Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses’ body.) No matter how prudent and full of fear Michael the angel is, in the book of Jude we see ‘Fools rush in’ ready to ‘scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction’ (verse 10).
Now Dylan goes on to say that ‘both of their futures so full of dread’ indicating that not only the future of the ‘fools’ but also the future of the ‘angels’ is full of dread, both the fools and the wicked angels are in great fear of impending evil, in the same way as Shakespeare wrote: ‘The dread of something after death’. However, the word ‘dread’ has also a more positive meaning. ‘Dread’ may also mean: reverential or respectful fear, awe. We see both meanings of the word reflected in the book of Jude and also incorporated the Jokerman. On one hand we see the wicked angels, chained in the prisons of darkness, waiting for the great Day of Judgment, and they are full of dread for this day. We also see the fools and the book of Jude says of the fools and the scoffers: ‘Woe to them!’’ (verse11).  The fools and the wicked angels have every reason to be full of dread for the future. But on the other hand, there is Michael, the good angel, he is also full of dread, but he is dreadful in a positive way, he is full of respect and awe for God.
The Jokerman is an ambiguous character, therefore it now says: ‘You don’t show one’, the Jokerman does not show which kind of dread he inhabits. He does not show his evil intentions. He looks like an angel of light, in the same way as Satan does (2 Corinthians 11:14: ‘even Satan disguises himself as an angel if light’’).  
‘Shedding off one more layer of skin’ makes the Jokerman hard to detect. The Jokerman looks like a chameleon which changes color all the time, the Jokerman is a person who changes opinions, ideas, or behavior to suit the prevailing social climate; an opportunist.
Reptiles, like snakes, shed off their skins. The snake, the serpent, is in the Bible the equivalent of the devil, the Satan. The devil, in the shape of a serpent, stealthily comes to Adam in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam to disobey God’s commandment. Therefore, when it says ‘Shedding off one more layer of skin’ Dylan once again deposits the Jokerman in the realm of Satan and of all evil but the Jokerman does so in a disguised way with the purpose of ‘keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within’. Kevin Bloom applies this couplet to Dylan personally as if Dylan were the Jokerman himself and writes: “And if there’s any couplet to quote back at him, any piece of rhyming verse that could conceivably be inscribed as an epitaph on his tombstone, it’s from the biblical track “Jokerman,” specifically the last two lines of the second verse: “Shedding off one more layer of skin/ Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within.”. Somehow Kevin Bloom’s interpretation just does not feel right. His interpretation is too negative; it does not fit in with Dylan. Although over his career Dylan has had a wide variety of styles, he has often been the opposite of a chameleon. As said a chameleon changes opinions, ideas or behavior to suit the prevailing social climate. But Dylan has always ventured to act against popular culture and public opinion, making turns where nobody would expect him to do so. In many ways Dylan is the opposite of an opportunist.
‘A persecutor’   is someone who torments other people, he is a tormentor. When this persecutor is ‘within’ you, it means that your own body and your own mind is torn apart by this persecutor .No matter how defiled demons can be, and no matter how much relish demons take in doing evil and setting up wicked schemes, there is always a persecutor inside these devils and demons which tells their conscience that what they are doing is wrong and this voice torments and destructs them as long as they exist.   Satan himself has this self-destructive power, this tormentor, within him. This self- destructive power is, however, restrained by his will to do as much evil as he can, till at last, at the Latter Day, the game is finally over. Through metamorphoses – shedding off layers of skin - Satan is able to avoid not only detection but also avoid total destruction and annihilation and to start all over again in a new deceptive body. In this way Satan always keeps one step ahead of the persecutor, the destructive power, within him. We see these satanic metamorphoses throughout the Bible and specifically in the Book of Revelation. In chapter 12 the devil is first pictured as a great red dragon (verse 3) and next as a serpent (verse 15) and in chapter 13 as a beast with ten horns and seven heads. But in the end the devil – the Jokerman – will not be able to keep one step ahead. We see the devil – and his incarnations the Beast and the false prophet – thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur were they will be forever tormented. The persecutor, the tormentor, will end up being persecuted and tormented (Rev. 20:10).Justice will get the better of him in the end.     

Bob Dylan's 'Jokerman' - an analysis - Part 2.

Bob Dylan’s “Jokerman” – an analysis- Part 2- by Kees de Graaf.

In the first article  on Jokerman we wrote some introductory remarks on this song. In this article we will deal with the lyrics of the first stanza and the chorus.

‘Standing on the water, casting your bread’ combines two Biblical notions .First of all, one would expect the lyrics to read ‘standing at the water, casting your bread’ but the lyrics deliberately say: ‘standing on the water.’ By saying ‘on’ the water, the poet immediately draws attention to Jesus of whom the Scriptures say that he walked ‘on’ the sea. (Matthew 14:25, 26). At the same time, by saying ‘standing on the water, casting your bread Dylan connects Jesus’s walking on the water with the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes (11:1) where it says: ‘Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days’.  Later on in 2003, Dylan has the actor John Goodman say in the movie “Masked and Anonymous”: ‘Does Jesus have to walk on water twice to make a point?". By walking on the water Jesus wanted to make a point, a statement. The same point as in Ecclesiastes 11:1 The point Jesus wants to make is: have faith in God, trust in God and anything is possible, even walking on water. As long as Peter trusted in God and Jesus, he too could walk on water. But when his faith started to waver, Peter began to sink (Matthew 14:30) and he cried out to the Lord to save him. The same idea is expressed in Ecclesiastes 11:1.The New Living Translation translates Ecclesiastes 11:1 as follows: ‘Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you’. The idea is the same as in Matthew 14: trust in God, have trust in the future and invest in other people by helping them out and sharing and casting them your bread and in due course the Lord will bless you for your attitude. But no matter how faithful and sincere one may be in doing this, Dylan warns that idolatry may be near and is always more on the lurk than you realize. Things are often not what they seem and that is why he adds: ‘While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing’. Jesus could do miracles and walk on water but likewise Pharaoh’s magicians could do miracles by turning a rod into a serpent (Exodus 7:11, 12). And what about the idol, the Beast coming out of the earth as pictured in the book of Revelation 13:11?  We read that this beast ‘had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon’. He looks like a ‘lamb’ – like Jesus – but speaks like the devil. Things are not what they seem. This beast ‘does great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and he deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles’.  When miracles do no glorify God, miracles turn into jugglery and self-glorifying idolatry. Likewise, when you are casting your bread with the purpose not to help your neighbor but to get richer and more prosperous than you already are, you are entering the territory of and paying tribute to ‘idol with the iron head’. The idol has an ‘iron’ head. ‘Iron’ in the Bible stands for brutal strength: the idol ‘will crush you with wealth and power’ (as Dylan wrote in ‘Ain’t Talking).
’The eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing’ means that the eyes of the idol are on fire, the idol is ready to lash out, there is just no escaping once the idol has seen you and once you have felt the ‘tender touch of the beast’ . Once the idol has grasped you it will ‘bury you from your head to your feet, from the disease of conceit’ which it will inflict on you.

‘Distant ships sailing into the mist’ might have been inspired by the fact that this song was written on a boat down in the Caribbean. Dylan said in 1984: ‘Me and another guy have a boat down there. ‘Jokerman’’ kinda came to me in the islands. It’s very mystical. The shapes there, and the shadows, seem to be so ancient. The song was sorta inspired by these spirits they call jumbis’. In the song ‘Caribbean Wind’ Dylan also deals with distant ships and writes: ‘And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free, bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire’ where he seems to suggest that these distant ships carry everything that is near to him, what is of great moral value to him, to the fire of judgment.

‘You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing’. This is an ancient mythological image. The ‘You’ obviously is the Jokerman which is portrayed later on in the chorus of the song. The image reminds us of the little baby Hercules. Hercules strangled two snakes which were sent to kill him by Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus. ’While a hurricane was blowing’ may draw our attention to the Greek God Poseidon who could not only create hurricanes and thunderstorms, but he could also calm the seas to glass-like placidity. He could also raise islands out of the sea as he pleased. In Greek mythology the Hekatonkheires were three giant gods of violent storms and hurricanes. They had a hundred hands and fifty heads, for handling the destructive power of storm.
Whereas in the first line ‘standing on the water, casting your bread’ the Jokerman is identified with Jesus, reciting the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes, we now see ambiguity for the first time burst upon the scene because the Jokerman is now identified with the territory of the snake, the serpent, behind which we see the devil who is a personification of all evil powers. The next line in the song: ‘Freedom just around the corner for you, but with truth so far off, what good will it do’, shows that this ambiguity of the Jokerman is nothing new. We find this ambiguity in the attitude of some of the Jews towards Jesus as described in the book of John, chapter 8:30-59. I would not be surprised if Dylan had this chapter of the gospel of John in the back of his mind when he wrote this line. In John 8:32 Jesus says that the ‘truth shall make you free’, truth and freedom are inseparably intertwined. Freedom without truth will lead to decadence and truth without freedom will lead to oppression. There was this ambiguous attitude of the Jews when they were confronted with Jesus’s claim on truth. In 8:29 we read: ‘Then many who heard him say these things believed in him’. But others said: Didn’t we say all along that you (Jesus) were possessed by a demon?”(8:48). This whole passage of John 8 is about the question of truth. Jesus had claimed: ‘I am the way, and the truth and the life’ (John 14.6) and if in John 8 Jesus had spoken these words ‘Freedom just around the corner for you, but with truth so far off, what good will it do’, it would have fitted in very well, because in other words this is exactly what Jesus is saying there. It is as if Jesus were saying: ‘Freedom, that is me!, I will set you free. I am not far away, in fact I’m standing right in front of you, or haven’t you looked? Freedom is close by, just around the corner for everybody here in this town of Jerusalem. But near as I may be, to find me you have to accept that I speak the truth, that I am the truth,  but you are not willing to accept the truth about me and with truth so far off, what good will it do?.

Within the context of the lyrics of the song, it now seems obvious that the ‘Jokerman’ in the chorus: ‘Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune, bird fly high by the light of the moon’ is a highly controversial, deceptive, ambiguous personality, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, who sometimes looks like a savior, as the Savior, but who in reality belongs to the satanic realm of darkness. The ‘Jokerman’ may have some connotation with the Joker card in card playing. In card playing the Joker card is often some sort of a wild card which may represent other existing cards in the game. The Joker card may be very beneficial or it may be very harmful and one does not know beforehand how it will work out. No wonder that the ‘Jokerman’’ is portrayed here as a very deceptive and ambiguous personality.
Another aspect of the ’Jokerman’ is mockery. It is a main feature of human existence that when times are strenuous, people may do two quite different things. They either start joking, mocking or slandering or they start praying.  An example of the first is the joking, mocking thief who was crucified next to Jesus. For more details on this subject please go to my analysis of "All along the Watchtower" . But in times of strain and crisis, people also may act in the opposite way. Instead of mocking and joking they start praying. Dylan gives us an example of this in the song ‘Shooting Star’. Amidst the crisis of the Last Account Dylan writes: ‘As the last fire truck from hell goes rolling by, all good people are praying’.
The attitude of the Jokerman is: the show must go on, just like when the Titanic was going down, the band played on. Likewise the Jokerman keeps on dancing on the ruins of Babylon: “Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune”. A nightingale used to be a symbol for a poet or a singer. When the Jokerman dances, it seems the Jokerman is much more focused on the nightingale’s tune, on the poet, the sing and dance man, than on anything else. In times of crisis, when people are crazy, entertainment has always been a way of distracting attention and moving away into the land of oblivion. By seeking entertainment the Jokerman secludes himself from all the serious things, from all the hardships, that go on all around him. At a time when it really matters, the Jokerman is unwilling to take any responsibility and ‘laughs in the face of what sorrow brings’ (as Dylan wrote in “What Good am I?”).
Like a bird that flies high in the sky, the Jokerman tries to get away as far as he can from all crazy sorrow in this world, that is why he now adds:. “Bird fly high by the light of the moon”
High up in the sky the Jokerman shuts himself off. The moon in Dylan’s work – an also in the Bible - is often an omen of approaching apocalyptic disaster, but the Jokerman does not care.
Maybe I got it all wrong. Therefore, give us your thoughts on this analysis on how we should see it. To that please push the button 'reacties' below and give us your response to this article.

Bob Dylan's 'Jokerman' - an analysis - Part 1 - Introduction

Introduction
The album ‘Infidels’ – of which ‘Jokerman’ is the opening song –is usually not regarded as part of Dylan’s legacy of specific Christian albums. Although the album is littered with numerous Biblical allusions, it is, unlike its predecessors ‘Slow Train Coming’, ‘Saved’ and ‘Shot of Love’, which are generally labeled as Dylan’s Christian trilogy, not seen as outspoken Christian.  By some the album is seen as some sort of departure from confessed Christianity and even a tentative rapprochement to Judaism. In my opinion this is not the case .One may argue that Dylan – when he wrote these songs for this album sometime in 1983- had gone through a mental process of change which started ever since he converted to Christianity in 1978. The process of conversion to Christianity is marked by various stages which may be regarded as natural stages and all these phases constitute an integral part of Christian conversion.
Actually, the first stage on this road was the album ‘Street Legal’ (1978 which) may well be regarded as a prelude to his upcoming conversion to Christianity which became evident later on that year. The next stage was the album ‘Slow Train Coming’ (1979) which already showed on the cover of the album that Dylan had a works under construction and that it was now time to exactly pinpoint where he stood at that stage of his conversion. The album represents the phase of dogmatism and antitheses Dylan was going through: “Ya either got faith, or ye got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground” (Precious Angel) or “He who is not for Me is against me” (Gonna change my way of thinking’). ‘Slow Train Coming’ was followed by the album ‘Saved’ (1980). ‘Saved’ representing the next phase in Dylan’s conversion process, expresses joy and gratitude for Dylan’s personal salvation: ‘I’m so glad, I want to thank you Lord, I just want to thank you. ‘You have given me everything’’ ‘What can I do for You?.
‘Saved’ was followed by ‘Shot of Love’ (1981). ‘Shot of Love’ marks an entirely new phase. First of all, Dylan returned to what one may describe as a more secular way of writing songs. Secular themes often touched upon - like disaffected love - returned and were integrated in notions of apocalyptic deceit and formed a sort of synthesis with it. Although Dylan’s new songs written for the album ‘Shot of Love’ were no longer overtly Christian gospel songs or even blue grassy, yet the message was undoubted still the same but one had to make an effort to read between the lines to find it. In the first phase of conversion to the Christian faith there is certainty and this is expressed in overtly Christian lyrics but in the next stages there is also room for the expression of vulnerability, weakness, disappointment and self-doubt. In abundance we find this on ‘Shot of Love’, particularly in one of the greatest songs Dylan ever wrote: ‘Every Grain of Sand’.
The next phase, which at the same time is the most critical part in the process of conversion, is best described by the word ‘deception’. Seen from a religious point of view, conversion to Jesus evokes a spiritual war – as Dylan wrote in ‘Solid Rock’: ‘It is the ways of the flesh to war against the spirit, twenty-four hours a day you can feel it and you can hear it, using all devices under the sun. And He never gives up till the battle is lost or won’. Like in so many real wars it is deceit and deception that turns the balance. The devil is skilled in deception and addicted to deceit. The devil deploys these deceptive weapons in an ultimate attempt to turn the balance in his favor of those converts who ‘are hanging in the balance of the reality of man’.
It seems obvious that the album ‘Infidels’ is marked by this concept of deception and ambiguity. One of the best example of this is the lyrics of ‘Man of Peace’: ‘You know sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace’ which is quite clearly inspired by 2 Corinthians 11:14:‘and no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light’. We find the same phenomenon in ‘Jokerman’.  Sometimes it is as if the Jokerman is Jesus or Moses speaking, the next time it is as if the devil himself is speaking. To recognize the devil, you have to read carefully and you must know exactly what the Scriptures tell you, otherwise you will be deceived and you will end up joking like the Jokerman.  It was W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) the famous British dramatist and librettist who wrote: “Everything is a source of fun. Nobody's safe, for we care for none! Life is a joke that's just begun! That is exactly what the Jokerman wants to achieve through his deceit. In our next article we will take a closer look at some of the lyrics of this enigmatic song.

Het mysterie van de vervloeking van de vijgenboom

Het mysterie van de vervloeking van de vijgenboom.

Deze geschiedenis lezen we in Marcus 11. Jezus kreeg honger en zag in de verte een  vijgenboom. Hij ging naar de boom in de hoop iets eetbaars te vinden. Toen Hij bij de boom kwam vond Hij geen vruchten. Het was namelijk nog niet de tijd voor de vruchten. Jezus vervloekt de vijgenboom:"Nooit oftenimmer zal er nog iemand vruchten van je eten". De vervloeking kwam uit. Toen ze de volgende morgen langs de vijgenboom kwamen was de boom totaal verdord.

Een opmerkelijk verhaal. Jezus die praat tegen een vijgenboom alsof het een mens is. Nog opmerkelijker is het feit dat Hij kennelijk iets eetbaars verwacht te vinden aan de vijgenboom op een moment dat je dat van die vijgenboom helemaal niet mag verwachten. Je zou zeggen: Daar kan die vijgenboom toch niets aan doen!. Is die vervloeking niet zinloos?.

Het doet me denken aan vraag 9 van de Heidelbergse Catechismus. Daar wordt gevraagd: "Doet God de mens dan geen onrecht, dat Hij in zijn wet van hem eist wat hij niet doen kan"?. Het antwoord is: "Nee, want God heeft de mens zo geschapen, dat hij dit doen kon. Maar de mens heeft zichzelf en al zijn nakomelingen, op ingeving van de duivel en door moedwillige ongehoorzaamheid van deze gaven beroofd".

Dat gebeurde in de Hof van Eden. Er waren daar allerlei bomen met heerlijke vruchten (Gen.2:9) waar de mens op elk moment volop van genieten kon.Maar de mens viel in zonde door zijn moedwillige
ongehoorzaamheid. Hij trok de hele schepping mee in zijn val. Er volgde een vloek: voortaan zullen er dorens en distels groeien (Gen. 3:18).Het is niet meer een vanzelfsprekende zaak dat er vruchten aan een boom groeien. Die vloek kwam niet alleen over de planten wereld maar net zo goed over de dieren wereld. Een leeuw die je eerst kon aaien wordt na de zondeval een verscheurend dier dat je opeet. De eerste mens verloor zijn positie als onder- koning en nu wil de schepping hem niet langer gehoorzamen.

Jezus zegt: "Door het geloof zullen jullie een vijgenboom kunnen laten verdorren en zelfs bergen kunnen verplaatsen naar de zee" (Mat. 21:21).De eerste mens Adam doorstond de proef niet en kwam ten val en met hem viel de hele schepping. De tweede mens, Jezus Christus doorstond de proef wel  en daarom kon hij temidden van wilde dieren verblijven zonder dat ze hem verscheurden (Marc. 1:13).Maar zo kon het niet blijven. Voor Jezus geldt dat Hij nu de weg van de vernedering moet gaan. Hij die als Koning mag eisen,voor Hem zijn er nu geen vijgen om Zijn honger te stillen. Omdat Jezus volmaakt is doet de vijgenboom als schepsel Hem onrecht en daarom moet de boom vervloekt worden. Maar gelukkig zal het zo niet blijven. Door Zijn gehoorzaamheid zal de paradijs toestand weer hersteld gaan worden. Straks zullen er elke maand vruchten te plukken zijn. Ja zelfs de bladeren van de bomen brengen de volken genezing. Er zal niets meer zijn waarop een vloek rust. (Openb. 22: 2,3)