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Well, your railroad gauge, you know I just can't jump it
Sometimes it gets so hard, you see
I'm just sitting here beating on my trumpet
With all these promises you left for me
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, I waited for you when I was half sick
Yes, I waited for you when you hated me
Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic
When you knew I had some other place to be
Now, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously
But then, now again, not too many can be like you, fortunately.
Well, six white horses that you did promise
Were fin'lly delivered down to the penitentiary
But to live outside the law, you must be honest
I know you always say that you agree
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, I don't know how it happened
But the river-boat captain, he knows my fate
But ev'rybody else, even yourself
They're just gonna have to wait.
Well, I got the fever down in my pockets
The Persian drunkard, he follows me
Yes, I can take him to your house but I can't unlock it
You see, you forgot to leave me with the key
Oh, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Now, I been in jail when all my mail showed
That a man can't give his address out to bad company
And now I stand here lookin' at your yellow railroad
In the ruins of your balcony
Wond'ring where you are tonight, sweet Marie.
Sometimes it gets so hard, you see
I'm just sitting here beating on my trumpet
With all these promises you left for me
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, I waited for you when I was half sick
Yes, I waited for you when you hated me
Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic
When you knew I had some other place to be
Now, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously
But then, now again, not too many can be like you, fortunately.
Well, six white horses that you did promise
Were fin'lly delivered down to the penitentiary
But to live outside the law, you must be honest
I know you always say that you agree
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, I don't know how it happened
But the river-boat captain, he knows my fate
But ev'rybody else, even yourself
They're just gonna have to wait.
Well, I got the fever down in my pockets
The Persian drunkard, he follows me
Yes, I can take him to your house but I can't unlock it
You see, you forgot to leave me with the key
Oh, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Now, I been in jail when all my mail showed
That a man can't give his address out to bad company
And now I stand here lookin' at your yellow railroad
In the ruins of your balcony
Wond'ring where you are tonight, sweet Marie.
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"Well, your railroad GAUGE, you know I just can't jump it."
This makes sense as a railroad gauge is the measure of the distance between the rails - standard gauge is 4ft 8 1/2 inches; narrow guage is often used on mountain railways and there are also broader gauges - the GWR used 7ft in the 19th century.... whereas 'railroad gate' doesn't refer to anything.
What I take it to mean is that he can't overcome the distance that she has created between them. There is also the later reference to her 'yellow railroad'.
I will amend it to this effect.
But ev'rybody else, even yourself
They're just gonna have to wait."
Perhaps the "river-boat captain" refers to God. Only God knows his fate. Everybody else, even Marie - even perhaps the singer himself - is just going to have to wait and see what happens.
Well, your railroad gate, you know I just can't jump it
Sometimes it gets so hard, you see
This railroad gate is a symbol that represents some kind of obstacle that stands in the way of a love interest. And despite trying, Dylan is not able to overcome this obstacle.
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I'm just sitting here beating on my trumpet
Since he can not be with her he is masturbating.
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Well, I waited for you when I was half sick
Yes, I waited for you when you hated me
Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic
When you knew I had some other place to be
This suggests that Dylan is waiting to be with this woman. Perhaps the obstacle was that she wasn't ready for a relationship, or she was in a relationship with another person, and so he is waiting.
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Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously
But then, now again, not too many can be like you, fortunately
The first line suggests that this woman has passed over Dylan, and has chosen to go out with many other men. Therefore he is saying that in he is obviously not so special in her eyes. In the second line Dylan is saying that he is glad that not every woman is as hard as she is, since this unrequited love causes him misery.
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Well, six white horses that you did promise
Were fin'lly delivered down to the penitentiary
This line suggests that his love interest is now interested/ready to go out with him. However Dylan is in the "penitentiary".
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But to live outside the law, you must be honest
I know you always say that you agree
This is where the "jail" and "penitentiary" gain their meaning. Dylan was not honest to himself or to his love interest. He thought he was in love, but he has since moved on, and is seeing someone else.
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Well, I don't know how it happened
But the river-boat captain, he knows my fate
But ev'rybody else, even yourself
They're just gonna have to wait.
I have no idea what this means.
------------------------------------------
Well, I got the fever down in my pockets
The Persian drunkard, he follows me
Yes, I can take him to your house but I can't unlock it
You see, you forgot to leave me with the key
Oh, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
The "fever" in his pockets means he is sexually aroused. The Persian drunkard following him is just a fancy way of saying he's drunk. While he is drunk, his feelings for this girl return and he wants to sleep with her, but he does not know how to contact her.
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Now, I been in jail when all my mail showed
That a man can't give his address out to bad company
Continuing with my interpretation of the symbolism of the law, his being in "jail" means that he has moved on and has been with many other women since then. The mail might be from his old love interest trying to contact him.
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And now I stand here lookin' at your yellow railroad
In the ruins of your balcony
This is referring back to the "railroad gate" at the beginning of the song. What Dylan is saying is that he is remembering how much he wanted to be with her and how much he and idolized her. The ruins suggests that he can no longer remember what is was about her that made her so special. In other words he has moved on, and no longer has any feelings for her.
In this case, he was locked in a room writing up songs at the studio for the album while the musicians waited. Why he didn't have all the songs ready, I don't know. I guess he waits until the last minute.
The fever is the the desire to write, the Persian drunkard is the drunkard within that calls him away from his work and that he's having a hard time locking away.
A lot of his songs are about his relationship with his art. To live outside the law you must be honest, refers (I think) to speaking the truth when you're making unconventional art. I think he was often unsure whether his more surreal songs were just nonsense or poetically truthful.
One person's opinion.
With all these promises you left for me - been there... really great lines.
I love it when Bob is that obvious and just sits there and laughs at everyone who's trying to make something more of the song.
what bob said according to wiki:
"That's about as complete as you can be. Every single letter in that line. It's all true. On a literal and on an escapist level.... Getting back to the yellow railroad, that could be from looking someplace. Being a performer, you travel the world. You're not just looking out of the same window everyday. You're not just walking down the same old street. So you must make yourself observe whatever. But most of the time it hits you. You don't have to observe. It hits you. Like, "yellow railroad" could have been a blinding day when the sun was so bright on a railroad someplace and it stayed on my mind.... These aren't contrived images. These are images which are just in there and have got to come out."
So he's thinking of her, sitting here "beating on his trumpet"