Lyrics for Tombstone Blues as interpreted by roger wilco

Tombstone Blues Lyrics
The sweet pretty things are in bed now of course
The city fathers they're trying to endorse
The reincarnation of Paul Revere's horse
But the town has no need to be nervous

The ghost of Belle Starr she hands down her wits
To Jezebel the nun she violently knits
A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits
At the head of the chamber of commerce

Mama's in the factory
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues

The hysterical bride in the penny arcade
Screaming she moans, "I've just been made"
Then sends out for the doctor who pulls down the shade
Says, "My advice is to not let the boys in"

Now the medicine man comes and he shuffles inside
He walks with a swagger and he says to the bride
"Stop all this weeping, swallow your pride
You will not die, it's not poison"

Mama's in the factory
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues

Well, John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, "Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?"

The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, "Death to all those who would whimper and cry"
And dropping a bar bell he points to the sky
Saving, "The sun's not yellow it's chicken"

Mama's in the factory
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues

The king of the Philistines his soldiers to save
Puts jawbones on their tombstones and flatters their graves
Puts the pied pipers in prison and fattens the slaves
Then sends them out to the jungle

Gypsy Davey with a blowtorch he burns out their camps
With his faithful slave Pedro behind him he tramps
With a fantastic collection of stamps
To win friends and influence his uncle

Mama's in the factory
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues

The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone
Causes Galileo's math book to get thrown
At Delilah who sits worthlessly alone
But the tears on her cheeks are from laughter

Now I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
He could die happily ever after

Mama's in the factory
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues

Where Ma Raney and Beethoven once unwrapped their bed roll
Tuba players now rehearse around the flagpole
And the National Bank at a profit sells road maps for the soul
To the old folks home and the college

Now I wish I could write you a melody so plain
That could hold you dear lady from going insane
That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain
Of your useless and pointless knowledge

Mama's in the factory
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues



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queenjane
09-26-2004

 Rated  +1 
What? No comments?! an outrage! This is a masterpiece, and if u can't even listen to it then why should I explain what its about?

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suckmykiss
11-05-2004

 Rated  0 
The attitude with which he sings makes this one of my favorite songs. I think it's about being poor or something.

Why are the lyrics different? The version I have says "Daddy's in the alley, he's looking for food ... I'm in the kitchen with the tombstone blues"

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jcarter
11-06-2004

 Rated  0 
Any actual comments? This is one of my favorite songs by Dylan, and I have no clue what it means.

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1 Reply  · 
alberts179
11-28-2004

 Rated  0 
"The sweet pretty things are in bed now of course" has some meanings: They're too pretty to be out late at night because they'll get harassed by the opposite sex or they're so pretty they're inside having sex. Or I guess it could be a parent talking about they're kids being asleep. I just like that line because it starts the song in an open-ended way. The rest of the song expands on that open-endedness.

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distopiandreamguy
12-04-2004

 Rated  +2 
I've read that this song is an attempt to render musically the same kind of crazy randomness that surrealist artists in the 1920's put in their paintings and movies. This song is full of one liners and verses that are almost by definition non sequitors. From what I understand, surrealists were trying to get people to look at the world differently by placing normal, run of the mill images in unexpected, and sometimes unsettling, contexts.

By the way, "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken," may just be one of my favorite lines ever.

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smeared
01-01-2005

 Rated  0 
And what does that line mean?
(Talking 'bout "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken")

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1 Reply  · 
MagiDrakee
02-03-2005

 Rated  +2 
smeared -- basically, that line is a purposely ambiguous and awesome pun. Dylan plays with word connotations here.

Yellow's most obvious connotation is the color.
However, it can also mean "cowardly" or "scared."

Chicken's most obvious connotation is the food.
However, it can also mean the same thing as the second connotation of yellow -- scared (You're chicken!)

So, no matter which way you look at this statement, one of the words will screw up the sentence's meaning.

For instance, the sun definitely can't be chicken, but something that's yellow can be.

What an awesome pun. This song is amazing. The lyrics are great, and Michael Bloomfield's guitar work is exceptional.

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Yondering
04-13-2005

 Rated  0 
For some reason this song strikes me as being about the great depression. The part where he talks about Jack the Ripper being at the head of the Chamber of Commerce seems like there is economic trouble.

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1 Reply  · 
OpinionHead
07-10-2005

 Rated  0 
This has to be some sprawling diatribe about something...

"The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone" could be talking about a set of values that every female is supposed to be chaste and virtuous until the day she is married. From there, we find that set of values makes as much sense as a stack of pennies does. Great stuff, this is a classic song.

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Michial
09-06-2005

 Rated  +1 
I love the way this song sounds like it's perpetually about to go off the rails, but manages to stay just balanced.

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ronwoman
09-16-2005

 Rated  +4 
more about "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken": the roman sun god is apollo and the spanish word for chicken is "pollo". chew on that for a while

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ronwoman
09-16-2005

 Rated  +1 
more about "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken": the roman sun god is apollo and the spanish word for chicken is "pollo". chew on that for a while

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OpinionHead
10-12-2005

 Rated  +1 
I think the ultimate aim is tell us that the upper crust sucks and the people are starving to death. I think that's why he wrote the chorus the way he did. I think's that also the point of the second to last stanza. "The National Bank sells at a profit road maps for the soul to the old folks home and the college." Only the priveleged have a shot at getting into college and the old folks home, and if your underpriveleged, then you have to sell your soul for a promissary note. You'll never escape the debt of this life with those bills. Dylan's the best songwriter of the 1960's.

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1 Reply  · 
orthonormal
12-13-2005

 Rated  +2 
It's hard to tell how all the allusions fit together. Who are Gypsy Davey and Ma Raney?

The Biblical references are a bit easier. Jezebel (corrupt queen of Israel) shows up in the first verse, John the Baptist in the second, but Samson (though unnamed) is the big allusion.

He killed 1000 Philistines with a donkey's jawbone (see third verse), married and was betrayed by Delilah (fourth verse), and finally killed his captors by tearing down the pillars of the great house of the Philistines (fourth verse; note the reference to Cecil B. DeMille, who directed several major Biblical epics in the 1950s).

As far as how Samson and the others fit into the larger context of the song, I have no idea. Any thoughts?

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1 Reply  · 
bobdylaniscool
01-28-2006

 Rated  0 
"The sun's not yellow, it's chicken," was one of the only lines that i could really comprehend. I can't get this song out of my head...

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last_days
01-29-2006

 Rated  0 
EVERYONE!! READ CAT'S CRADLE BY KURT VONNEGUT. BOB DYLAN QUOTED HIM WHEN HE SAID, "THE SUN'S NOT YELLOW, IT'S CHICKEN." (i used to think Vonnegut quoted Bob Dylan but his book came out 1963, it's very very good post-modern black humor literature."

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1 Reply  · 
riderofwaves
01-31-2006

 Rated  +1 
ok i just signed up after seeing the lack of commentary on this song. i have always felt that it is talking about the way people with power or who recieve power go a little nuts. first few verses about the city counsel trying to bring back a dead horse. and in latter parts it talks about how people try to keep their power through flattery or making people feel important the king of the phillistines for instance. but i must say that the drugged period of dylan is a very unique and abstract form of conveying messages. honestly some probably mean nothing and he is laughing at fools like us trying to analyize everything

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shockandawe
03-07-2006

 Rated  +3 
Yeah, I tend to agree with rider of waves, these are mostly little images of abuse of power.

The city father's first ridiculously trying to legislate the reincarnation of a horse. He then characterizes them "the chamber of commerce": Belle Starr (a famous criminal), Jezebell the nun (hypocrit), Jack the Ripper (famous killer.)

The chorus just puts it in perspective, real, everyday people are just trying to survive.

Who would John the Baptists commander and chief be, has to be Jesus Christ. After torturing a thief, putting judgement to a sinner, feels sick with guuilt. He looks to the commander in chief wondering, is this really what we should be doing? Christ is portrayed as so freaking tough that he is pumping a barbell, saying death to all those who don't have the stomach for this, and challenging the sun directly (its a cool play on words, but also conveys the insane conviction.) Anyway, the abuse of power by christianity is the theme of these verses.

The king of the philistines puts jawbones on the tombstones of his soldiers. Then heaps them with honors. Samson killed the philistines with a jawbone. Its the same as putting a rifle on the grave of a soldier (the impliment of their death!) and honoring them. The hypocrisy of probably the president in particular, but the US governemt in general, blithely sending soldiers off to die, and honoring their deaths so shallowly, at the same time, jailing pied pipers (those who would lead the youth presumably to protest the war). Fattening the slaves before sending them out tio the jungle, is the same hypocracy of honoring the soldiers deaths.. If you had so much honor for them, you'd not send them off to die!.

Gypsy davy, is the soldier in the army. He's burning down camps, ie burning villages, the fantastic collection of stamps means, enjoying travelling around the world, to win friends and influence his Uncle (Sam), that is to gain favor in the military. He's saying, the avergae Joe soldier burning down villages, isn't thinking about what he's doing, he's thrilled to be travelling the world, and not looking at the bigger picture.

Brother Bill is probably Billy Graham, or some one like him, a reactionary judgemental rightwing christian type, and he's ironically saying, that he wishes he could give him his greatest wish and let him die a martyr in cecil b. demill cinemagraphic glory.


Ma Raney was a famous Blues-Woman, he is equating her to bethoven as a true musical originator, they've now been replaced by tuba players saluting the flag, its a humorous image of crappy music that serves the mainstream purpose. And any one trying to save your soul is making a profit, preying off the old and naieve.

Theres more here, its all in that vein i think.

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shadowpeoplearereal
07-20-2006

 Rated  0 
AMPHETAMINES!

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1 Reply  · 
F33bs
09-11-2006

 Rated  0 
This song is absolutely scathing.

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.Three.Lefts.
11-09-2006

 Rated  0 
Stephen King quotes this song at the tail end of his first novel, "Carrie":

"Now I wish I could write you a melody so plain
That could hold you dear lady from going insane
That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain
Of your useless and pointless knowledge"

If you've read the book, it's actually quite an appropriate song lyric to inject.

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Sander_vn
01-03-2007

 Rated  0 
I'm probably wrong about this, but seeing the surrealistic character of the song, what about this line:
"And the National Bank at a profit sells road maps for the soul. To the old folks home and the college"?
The roadmaps for the soul seems to me a reference to LSD.

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wake up shiny
04-14-2007

 Rated  0 
I'm pretty sure this is just about what all that "useless and pointless knowledge" gets you: men who constantly chase windmills looking for the big dream, and uslessly over-educated women who obsess over their sexuality cause that's their only value to those who 'matter' (Even Jezebel poses as a nun). Those wrapped up in the system of "city fathers" and "philistines" spend all thier time on pointless crusades, looking for their soul or the key to it, when all they really have to do is swallow the poison and take the ride. Everyone is implicated in trying to force the lie to be real. Sex, drugs, and sharp honesty to awaken the mind to what is really worth our thoughts. Delilah, Galileo, and the singer all the know the truth, but don't know how to sell it. Meanwhile, those on the bottom have no food, no shoes, and don't see the point of all the games.

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Lt. Salt
06-08-2007

 Rated  0 
what does 'The hysterical bride in the penny arcade' mean

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1 Reply  · 
anotherjoshua
06-10-2007

 Rated  0 
keep in mind this song was written during the vietnam war. violence was being broadcast on the tv daily. so here's bob every day reading the obits (tombstone) and street violence and he's wondering our f'n leaders are obsessed with killing and dissing everyone who's demonstrating. meanwhile mama and papa are tryin to scrape together enough money to eat -- remember this was during lyndon johnson's great society -- his effort to wipe out poverty that was growing.

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2 Replies  · 




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