Dylan's 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts': a discussion

[Jophiel]

@winkosmosis

Every discussion and interpretation of this song ignores this line: “It was known all around that Lily had Jim’s ring”

Lily is Jim’s wife, not Rosemary. Rosemary plays the role of Big Jim’s wife. Also, Rosemary was “looking like a queen without a crown”. Every sign points to Jim having an affair with Rosemary.

It’s common knowledge that Jim is screwing around with Lily. Rosemary is tired of being a wife in name only as Jim cheats on her.

For the “queen without a crown” line, Lily is a “princess”; lower than Rosemary. There’s also the obvious question of the richest man in town’s wife working as a dance hall girl.

[winkosmosis]

@Baal_Houtham

Interesting, but I’m unconvinced. Lily is introduced with the lines:
Backstage the girls were playin’ five-card stud by the stairs
Lily had two queens, she was hopin’ for a third to match her pair

If Lily was married to Jim, I doubt she’d still be a showgirl in the saloon. It’s implied that Rosemary enters the saloon and joins up with Big Jim, which sounds wifey to me.

The bonus verse from the bobdylan.com website features the lines
Lily’s arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch
She forgot all about the man she couldn’t stand who hounded her so much
and that sounds like the thoughts of a mistress, not a wife.

There’s also the description of Lily:
She’d come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere
which sounds like the memories of a mistress.

The only semi-convincing line is
It was known all around that Lily had Jim’s ring
and really that sounds like a married man’s promise to a mistress. It sounds like an ill-kept secret. An affair, not a marriage.

The lines about Rosemary looking like a queen without a crown, and being tired of playing the role of Big Jim’s wife, sound like evidence of a marriage – not evidence against a marriage.

Hmm… very good points

[Voyager]

@Jophiel

It’s common knowledge that Jim is screwing around with Lily. Rosemary is tired of being a wife in name only as Jim cheats on her.

For the “queen without a crown” line, Lily is a “princess”; lower than Rosemary. There’s also the obvious question of the richest man in town’s wife working as a dance hall girl.

Plus Rosemary publicly sits with Jim, which Lily does not do. I suspect she married Big Jim for money, not love, which is why she feels like she is playing the role, not really being his wife.

While I am a tremendous Dylan fan, anyone who is a literalist needs to listen to different versions of the songs on various bootlegs and demo tapes. From Chronicles it sounds like he is an intuitive songwriter, and if you count up the number of songs on the Wittmark Demo official bootleg with the other released ones, he writes damn fast.