image from Tempest the new album by Bob Dylan: John Hearer

Duquesne Whistle

Duquesne Whistle has already had a lot written about it, mostly about the really graphically violent video which I guess people didn't really expect from Dylan - though I'm not quite sure why not. He can be pretty seriously surly when he wants to be and pretty upset (think Masters of War). Duquesne may refer to Fort Duquesne which was actually very historically important in US history and the "whistle" Dylan talks about (which here is decidedly a train whistle) but could also refer to another kind of whistle. Fort Duquesne was a trading post and the site of a major battle (French English) and George Washington fought there. It is in what is now today Pittsburgh (where was the video shot, I wonder). It may not relate at all or it might. Either way, the name comes from somewhere and if it relates at all to that place and that time and is some hark back; Well, what on earth did you expect? It was a pretty bloody battle (read about it here).  

I like the opening, "Can you hear that…" but then of course it's the "Duquesne Whistle blowing", but I immediately hear "Can you hear that rooster crowing…" and think New Morning (I'm so happy just to be with you: Theme Time). Lyrically it's an explosion, an absolute time-bomb of a song.  A little love madness, a little slap-happy, a nod to the old oak tree that "we used to climb" ("Oh tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree…") Moonlight blinking. Lovers winking through the fence. It's gonna blow his and your blues away.  

Soon After Midnight

The first thought is, This sounds like vinyl. That's the first thing you get or I get when I listen to this song which is cut one. It is smooth and lilting and romantic the way old records used to be and sound. We have Dylan here who tells us that "soon after midnight" he has a date with a fairy queen. Of course he does. But as he goes on he tells some Other, off screen, that he don't want nobody but her. It's a beautiful song and maybe she's the fairy queen of his dreams or his wakeness - because we don't know if this is Dylan at work or Dylan with insomnia (a whole new take on "Tomorrow Is A Long Time"). Here, Time Passes Slowly, only a little differently now. And we like it.

Narrow Way

It's gonna hit you harder after the first cut and isn't that the point. It rocks right out from the start, no hesitation just booms right out. First, Dylan tells us that he isn't going to do or say anything until he has walked across the desert and is "in his right mind," an echo back to A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall and all that this entails. More, if you want to go there, Narrow Way takes you to the Bible (see: here). Whether Dylan means is that way or not, I don't know - but what I can say is that the line he uses, "til I'm in my right mind" harks back to a song that many said was prophetic - and that this passage of the Bible is cross-referenced with another passage that warns us, take heed, "Watch out for false prophets…" hasn't Dylan always warned us of such. Did we listen? Didn't he tell us he was no prophet? 

Here, he addresses an angel or his Angel once again (is it the same Angel, we wonder, from Precious Angel, or is this some other Angel (or a lowercase angel?) Or simply a classic Dylanesque term of endearment; a cheeky come hither. He tells her cockily, "If I can't work up to you, you're surely have to work down to me some day." 

It's a "narrow way" indeed and it's Dylan's way. They'll both have to bend to a certain will, whosoever's that is and meet in the middle perhaps.  There is fate and inevitability at work here. But that's so Blues, isn't it. The woman put down (why isn't she shot, I wonder… that will come later on the album. He'll jail her, but he'll stone her first. You'll see...)  

It's a pulsing song really.  It has immediacy and is vivid and graphic. Dylan doesn't shy away from anything and he never really has been timid. It's Dylan's always inner cowboy made manifest; the bad-good boy. He's so good at being bad. And that's why we love him. He'll still pray and why not: he hears a voice "at the dusk of day / saying "Be gentle brother, be gentle and pray.")  Only Dylan could talk to an angel this way. Him and maybe Robert Johnson.

Long & Wasted Years

Regret. Slow and sexy Dylan with his "Oh, Baby…" His lover has been talkin' in her sleep, saying things she shouldn't say, he tells us (since when did Dylan believe that, I wonder, that there are things we ought not say).  She just might have to go to jail someday, he says.  I want to know, What did she do or what is she saying?  It's coy and seductive and draws you in, both in sound and lyrically.

Here's a story bout his family long gone and dead etc etc (insert rest, you'll hear it). Dylan's clever toss in of Beatle covers and song titles album names (Shake It Up, Baby, Twist And Shout) abound. Dylan throwing us back our culture - as I've said before and as journalist Phil Gounis and I discussed.  Dylan even tells us why he wears his dark glasses.  His eyes give away too much (though he is careful not to tell us what). What is really interesting to me is the very last line of the song.  It all sounds so good, the "…Comeback, baby…" the sort of Awww, baby, don't go. Does he mean it?  We cried on a cold and frosty morn/We cried because our souls were torn/So much for tears."  Winterlude Revisited.

Pay In Blood

Ah rock 'n roll, softer here. This just sounds like rock 'n roll to me.  He'll pay in blood but not his own, he tells us. This guy is a little scary really, and this is the guy I was talking about earlier who'd perhaps jail his angel or Angel or anyone really because, as he tells us, he'll stone us first and then he'll jail us. Not only are we beaten first, we are jailed for something and we know nothing of it. Or maybe it's two voices and it's Dylan himself... I'm not sure. It's the law of Dylan (assuming he speaks for himself here).  Someone else said to me that they thought New Roman Kings could be a sort of take on Masters of War and I can go there: I understand what they mean. It follows.  Pay In Blood could be an echo to both songs, really; to Masters of War and to New Roman Kings - but it's Dylan's law or maybe it is Dylan's understanding of the Master's of War. I'm not sure.  

Listen to the lyrics and see what you see. As usual with Dylan, I don't think there is any one correct answer (one is perhaps more right and only he knows that).  He tells us he will play this hand whether he likes it or not, which makes me think of the great Christian writer (and author of beloved Narnia series of children's books, but who was a great Christian scholar) C.S. Lewis, who suffered a crisis of faith and wrote the books A Grief Observed and The Problem of Pain among many other tremendous works, who said of life,  "You play the hand you're dealt: in the end, I still think the game's still worthwhile…" 

Either way there is an echo to an echo. More than one voice here, classic narrative with dialogue-Dylan.  You have to understand, "He's drenched in the light that shines from the sun".  He's the Sun King. 

Scarlet Town

This is where he was born, he tells us.  A banjo begins the tale, where you think from the start as it clip-clops on, you certainly don't want to be or go. Except maybe you are already there, you fear as you listen on, only you had not quite seen it quite so dire as this. That's Dylan, isn't it. A prism and a lens on our society.   Scarlet Town is "under the hill", he tells us, which provides no clues as to whether this place is real or fictional… It's a child ballad, fictional, dated circa 1690 called "The Ballad Of Barbara Allen" (which Dylan has played before live in concert, so this is not news here - again following in blues tradition, as he has long said and we ought know by now...).

According to Wikipedia, the earliest mention of the song is in Samuel Pepy's diary - an English Member of Parliament who kept a private diary for the English Restoration period and wrote about the Great Plague, The Great Fire of London (1666), among other things.   Why Dylan chose the title he did, who knows but Dylan. Likely he knows the song's origin and of Pepys. Think Great Fire of London and you think of course red sky. And of course, it's initially Under The Red Sky.  

What's going on here, in Scarlet Town? Nothing less than the end of days. It's really very Kula Shaker: "Everybody remain calm.  Don't Panic. It's just the end of the world…." (from the song "Mystical Machine Gun").  We're told that here, good and evil exist side-by-side, gold is down to a quarter of an ounce, beggars crouch at the gate, the end is near, and The Seven Wonders of the world are in this place.  

As he tells us about his hometown, Dylan confides, "You'd wish to God that you stayed right here." How so, I wonder;  are we not already in this Scarlet Town? Haven't we always been under the red sky anyway, and didn't he Dylan always know it.

The reference to the Seven Wonders of the World is a little slippery for surely Dylan knows this is changeable and has changed throughout time (or does he mean the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, compiled by Herodotus (484 ca-425 BCE). According to Herodotus they were; The Colossus of Rhodes, The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Lighthouse of Alexandria, The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.)  

Today, lists vary depending on who is doing the marveling. If it's the American Society for Civil Engineers you'll get one story (and note this is widely accepted) or if another group, you'll find other wonders (the society for Civil Engineers left out the Taj Mahal on their list). Also, the Seven Wonders of the World have naturally changed throughout time and there is of course some disagreement on what is marvelous and what is not. Most agree the Taj Mahal is pretty marvelous. The Great Wall of China, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Stonehenge, all these and more have made lists past and present.  Which of these Dylan is speaking of we cannot know. What we can know however is that at least one Wonder of the World remains consistent and that is the Great Pyramid at Giza.  And anyway, regardless what you decide as your final list of wonderment, isn't there enough in the song to convince you that Scarlet Town is the here and now? The hic et nunc? After all,  aren't we all existing side-by-side as he tells us they do in Scarlet Town; the white and the black, the yellow and the brown.  Where else are we if not already there?  

Note, John Jacob Niles made a recording of "The Ballad of Barberry Ellen" (from the original source on which this is sort of based) You can find the lyrics here; video not working, alas: ) and you can buy the song so take a listen on iTunes as "The Ballad of Barberry Ellen" on the album by Niles,  "Child Ballads." John Travolta also did a version of the song, though I have not heard that (of the root source). Dylan's is of course his own take... and will doubtless be covered.

Early Roman Kings

It begins with Romulus, if you want to know, historically speaking. He is one of the legendary early Roman Kings (753-717).  Dylan describes the "new" Early Roman Kings for us; they are bow-tied and brassed and booted and blinged and essentially spatted. They are the guys that all the girls want to be with.  You see them coming. They are sluggers and muggers, lecherous and treacherous, he warns yet still all of us women are just still going crazy for these new early Roman Kings. Just what has come over us, I wonder.  Is it the bling, the boots, the costume, the outfit, what? Surely not the criminal element, or what sounds to be criminal (I don't want no mugger, thanks you can keep it anyway).  These guys are decked out. As to Dylan, he may or may not be one of them - I can't tell. He tells us, "I ain't dead yet. My bell still rings. I keep my fingers crossed like the early Roman kings." In other words, if you cross your fingers, you don't really mean it. Or maybe it's a finger-crossing of a promise ("I'll keep my fingers crossed and wish for the best" sort of thing). Who knows. He's either hoping or fibbing or both or hoping he doesn't get caught in a fib.

What about the real first Early Roman Kings: They were basically final arbiter in all - they could judge, legislate, officiate, they were head of state, commander in chief, owner of the law who worked with the help of two criminal detectives (back when).  These "new" Early Roman Kings about whom Dylan uses the work "muggers and sluggers" (maybe these are his hired thugs, his two detectives).  Well, he could mean that any number of ways: you can mug someone in a more civilized legal way and get away with it as anyone who has been to court well knows. It all depends on how things go. Here Dylan makes himself final arbiter. He has the power. He will decide just as the early Roman (and new) kings decide and decided.  Note, the king was also head of the national religion and so was also Chief Priest.  Here is Dylan laying down the law of the land and his own special brand of voodoo…

Tin Angel

A ballad, a love song story in three parts and of course a love triangle. There are meetings and arguments and duels and husbands shot and, in the end, a wife who shoots herself after killing her husband's murderer. It's really decidedly Celtic in a way but it could be anywhere for doesn't this happen all of the time in some way or another? We may not be so literal, but we all fall in love, we are all wounded, we all fall down … sometime.  It's very Romeo and Juliet meets Summer Lovers in terms of simple love plot line (the play meets the movie).  Of course they can't be together and co-exist. Someone one must die or they all must die. It follows. All or one have been wronged. And it fits the movement of the music and frankly mood of the song, which leads us into a wooded place that could be anywhere, anytime.  

The title Tin Angel could have come from anywhere and could reference any number of things but it happens to be the name of an Odetta album released in 1954 as "Odetta & Larry" (ref. Larry Mohr). Note there was also a Tin Angel nightclub in San Francisco, though it might be more interesting to hear the Odetta album given the play between Odetta and Dylan (if you've heard her covers of his songs you follow) and apparently Odetta was quite influential in Dylan's musical development, which I fully believe according to Yaffe  who mentions her in his book Like A Complete Unknown.   Odetta's album Tin Angel has traditional songs and original songs and is often said to be her first solo album.  The following album, "Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues" released in 1956 could well apply to this album for Dylan: Dylan Sings Ballads and Blues. Dylan always spins it a little differently, but it has the seed in it. You'll find it. 

Tempest

Dylan tells us a story - which he's done forever ("ripped straight out of the newspaper again… and nothing has been changed - except the words…").  The thing that's interesting here is that Dylan has us down for a little chat about the sinking of the Titanic, a real event, and then he moves on and references the James Cameron 1997 film Titanic (a fictionalized version, which while I am sure was well-researched, surely takes much poetic license.)  It's an interesting construct but nothing new for Dylan, just longer here. Here is BD again re-telling something us a story that we already should know only this time, we didn't read it in the newspaper like he usually does (or used to tell us) - we saw it in the theatre (or most of us did and if not this one then maybe the '53 version). But he's not talking about that. It's all about Leo (DeCaprio).  

If you don't know Leo DiCaprio or haven't seen the film then that inevitably changes your experience of this song.  It's Dylan interpreting what he saw in the film, what he read and in turn, we re-interpret what we have seen, what we know (or think we know) though Dylan. It's a meta-reality really. We know what happened or think we know - but how we actually see it and experience it will depend on who is doing the telling (re-telling as the case may be) and what we bring to the table ourselves.  

It's a long song and it has a natural movement to it. A side-to-side rocking song, but be in the mood for a long story because if you're not, this won't fly.  If you are, then it does fly. What is most interesting to me is nearing the end of the song where Dylan talks about the Reaper who comes to claim the lives of all souls. This Reaper, Dylan tells us, does not discriminate. As one crew member reads the Book of Revelations, the ship is sinks, which the Watchman knew all along (he dreamt it, Dylan says - he knew…)  It's facts and cinema: Dylan-verite.  As to the event itself, "There is no understanding G-d's judgment," Dylan sings.  Meanwhile, the Watchman is still dreaming that the ship is sinking as the ship is sinking… Nobody is talking in his watchtower. He is dreaming now and it is all too true.  According to Dylan, the Reaper comes and it is God's judgment, perhaps a reference to the word's of a Titanic deckhand who said, "God himself cannot sink this ship." It is God's judgement that these ill-fated passengers cannot escape, and there is no understanding of it, Dylan tells us.  As to the Reaper and the rest … Let us not talk falsely now. Note: After this review, Dylan said in a Rolling Stone interview (september 27, 2012 with Mikal Gilmore) that he absolutely does not make any judgment himself about the Titanic etc etc - so it's likely he's referring to the quote from the deckhand as cited above, as originally noted. Decide for yourself. Or take the man's word.... 

Roll On John

Nothing less than the shot that took John Lennon's life is how this song opens.. Nothing simple about it. This song is full of references as you would expect for a song about John Lennon. "I Heard The News Today, Oh Boy…" We all heard that news and if you weren't there you certainly know it now. And there is yet more news and we hear that as well. What news Dylan is talking about or is this a nod to John pure and simple?  Lennon's darker days and the "trade winds" Dylan sings of bring to my mind the footage from Imagine for the song "God" in which we see Lennon on a boat, seated in profile, lyrically himself of everything except for Yoko and himself. He even divests himself of "Zimmerman."  This is Dylan's sung vespers for Lennon, pure and simple. It's soft-sounding yet remains lyrically jarring. After all, it has all of the ingredients that make it jarring - a murder, the mere mention of John Lennon's name, the hard time Lennon had before he died (which we all know about), and Lennon's eventual peace that he found when all that was over and then in a flash it and he were gone. That John burned so bright, a candle a spark some thing we couldn't quite grasp, Dylan tells us but wanted to contain that was uncontainable.  That may just have been both Lennon's gift and his albatross. Note, some really interesting details/specifics about this song that you may already well know (I did not) are in the RS article (that Strawberry Fields was actually behind Lennon's childhood home, for example) - and Dylan mentions this in the song, so the Rolling Stone article is absolutely worth buying. As usual. 

Thanks for listening,

SRP