What's that? Is that the sound of Dylan laughing at us all trying to make sense of the absurdity of the song and its lyrics? This is Dylan laughing not just at that but at his critics and people who have put words in his mouth or tried to make him into something he isn't. A few years ago, the press went gaga over Alicia Keys, declaring her, like Dylan, Springsteen and Prince, lo so many years ago, the great saviour of pop music. This of course, is dumb - you shouldn't look for saviours in pop music. Of course all those critics are obsessing over the references to Alicia here (lol). Of course, she didn't turn out to be anything like that. Dylan makes allusions to his past and the things he has done to confound the critics, fans and so forth - his turn towards Christianity, his (and likewise Alicia Keys) "sell-out", his critics obsession with his divorce (likewise his own) and so forth. As he says "she aint no angel and neither am I" - and he goes on to condemn everyone and says he "doesn't give a damn about your dreams" - Part of the song is sung in the voice of these critics, fans and people who looked towards him as their saviour - their false bravado, piety - secular and otherwise. In the end, their yammering and blather amounts only to "Thunder on the Mountain" -- he even takes it further and relates the critical blather to the mass of offensive punditry so prevalent on cable TV and in politics ("all the ladies of Washington scrambling to get out of town"). Dylan sums it up in the last line - "for the love of God, you ought to take pity on yourself"
What's that? Is that the sound of Dylan laughing at us all trying to make sense of the absurdity of the song and its lyrics? This is Dylan laughing not just at that but at his critics and people who have put words in his mouth or tried to make him into something he isn't. A few years ago, the press went gaga over Alicia Keys, declaring her, like Dylan, Springsteen and Prince, lo so many years ago, the great saviour of pop music. This of course, is dumb - you shouldn't look for saviours in pop music. Of course all those critics are obsessing over the references to Alicia here (lol). Of course, she didn't turn out to be anything like that. Dylan makes allusions to his past and the things he has done to confound the critics, fans and so forth - his turn towards Christianity, his (and likewise Alicia Keys) "sell-out", his critics obsession with his divorce (likewise his own) and so forth. As he says "she aint no angel and neither am I" - and he goes on to condemn everyone and says he "doesn't give a damn about your dreams" - Part of the song is sung in the voice of these critics, fans and people who looked towards him as their saviour - their false bravado, piety - secular and otherwise. In the end, their yammering and blather amounts only to "Thunder on the Mountain" -- he even takes it further and relates the critical blather to the mass of offensive punditry so prevalent on cable TV and in politics ("all the ladies of Washington scrambling to get out of town"). Dylan sums it up in the last line - "for the love of God, you ought to take pity on yourself"