submissions
| Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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The song is a panorama of human history in the manner of medieval paintings showing the past present and future, which often used the symbol of a road, for example Breughel's "Hay Wain". Dylan also connects it to his own history and American musical history for those in the know, as his father was Abraham and Highway 61 is the road that runs from Dylan's home state of Minnesota down to the deep south where much of his music comes from. Highway 61 is the land outside quotidien society where man encounters God as in the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham - our "father in faith" and the father of Israel and thus an appropriate place wherefrom to start the story. Mack the Finger, Louis the King and "forty red white and blue shoe strings" seem to suggest the French and American revolutions which were in large part against traditional religion. "The first father" and "the second mother" suggest Adam and Eve. The "roving gambler" to me always suggests Satan, as in the Book of Job, "From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it". Thus, again as in medieval allegory, the stage is set for a climactic confrontation ("a next world war") with Satan at the end of the world. |
submissions
| The Rolling Stones – Torn and Frayed Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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The song is about Jesus Christ. "Though his coat is torn and frayed, it's seen much better days" - Jesus wore an expensive seamless garment that was cut up and stolen by the soldiers following his Crucifixion. "But as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away" - faith in God, leading to the Resurrection. |
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