“The sun’s not yellow it’s chicken” - I love that line! "with his* fan-tas-tic * collection of stamps and “My advice is to not let the boys in” are two other classics!
mm
Oh, it’s one of the crankiest songs ever. Total misanthropy. I wouldn’t have liked it at all, except that it had an unusual gender twist. Dylan has a gripe against “man,” so he uses the viewpoint of “a woman” to criticize it. Since he isn’t otherwise known for showing the least glimmer of feminism, this caught my attention.
Thanks. I always was so-so about those lines and never really knew why. It’s the horrible rhyming. The imagery is fine, otherwise, which explains my confusion.
I love the imagery in Love Minus Zero/No Limit
The cloak and dagger dangles,
Madams light the candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother,
She knows too much to argue or to judge.
“Union Sundown” and “Neighborhood Bully” are stinkers, all right, but after kicking off with the sublime “Jokerman” Zimmy could have filled up the rest of the album with seven versions of “Wiggle Wiggle” and it still would have been worth buying.
I agree! A couple years ago I said…okay, I don’t remember what, but it must have been something about the sun and my dad came back with “the sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken” and I just totally cracked up. Ever since then, whenever I hear that line, I think of my dad. So it’s good.
Umm…
will somebody please explain to me why this is so great? I can’t even figure out what the song is attempting to talk about, let alone decide if it succeeds at being good (or great) art.
Dylan is way,way over-rated. He achieved god-like status for 3 or 4 great songs and one truly great feat: being in the right place at the right time. He was a voice of change, just when American culture was ripe and ready for some serious changes. By being the first guy to appear on stage without a tie, and sing about deep subjects instead of teenage love songs, he got get taken seriously, and given credit for causing the changes, not just echoing them.
So he said the times they are a-changing, and he was right. But the times would have changed without Mr Dylan to tell us about it. He should have retired in 1970.
Bzzzzzz. Next.
“Shakespeare, he’s in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking with some French girl
Who says she knows me well.”
Maybe it’s just my reading of this, but this strikes me as the single most pretentious verse I’ve heard anywhere, ever.
Can’t you see it now?
French Girl: “Halo, Mr. Shakespeare, I am beautiful, cultured French girl. I am so happy to meet you.”
William Shakespeare, the single greatest author ever: “Oh, OK, whatever.”
French Girl: “I know the Bob Dylan.”
Shakespeare: “What??? You know Bob Dylan??? Really???”
French Girl: “Oh yes, I know Bob Dylan, yes I do.”
Shakespeare: “How well?!! How well do you know Bob Dylan?!!”
French Girl: “Oh, I know him very well, I do. Very well.”
Shakespeare: “Oh, my God!!! I must meet him!!! Can you introduce me to him???”
French Girl: “Oh I think so, yes.”
Shakespeare: “Oh, my fucking God!!!”
Another line which came up on my iPod today and reminded me of those great songs that never seem to be “fashionable” Dylan -
“C’m over here pony, I wanna climb up on top of you…”
perfect line sung in his most perfectly lecherous voice…
mm
I just remembered I know of only one other Dylan lyric where he has a woman’s voice say what he wants to say:
I had a woman down in Alabama,
She was a backwoods girl, but she sure was realistic,
She said, “Boy, without a doubt, have to quit your mess and straighten out,
You could die down here, be just another accident statistic.”
(“Slow Train”)
That was one of the aggressively, obnoxiously Christian songs… but ironically, that verse taken in isolation was pretty good.
D’ya know, since I have posted this, it’s just occured to me that for the last 28 years I have been hearing this line wrong - he actually sings “I wanna climb up one time on you”, which is conformed by bobdylan.com
I like *my * lyric better!
And another one from “Slow Train Comin”, from the even more obnoxious “When You Gonna Wake Up” -
“Do you ever wonder just what God requires?
Do you think he’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires?”
Bob then proceeds to spend the next five years telling us just what God requires. And it’s not that everybody must get stoned. Bummer.
mm
For that, I recommend Bob Marley.
Depends on what kind of “stoning” you have in mind …
My favorite line isn’t particularly poetic, but I’ve always found a beauty in its directness.
Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is
To see you
Also, the line from Mr. Tambourine Man that QtM quoted.