NP nor Pandemic. We can all talk about this new song and why Bob released it now?

[Laura Kelber]

Thomas E: Also, I find some of the lyrics awful. The clumsy opening or "I'm
just a
patsy like Patsy Cline" -- this is not very good, is it?

Agreed. Dylan is at his best when he's obscure and at his worst when he's
overt.

Laura
(recovered from what was probably coronavirus, and waiting for two of my
adult kids to make it through)


On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 2:58 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Here is my admittedly fanlike hearing of the patsy line....
>
> Since THE Patsy is a person worth being like, the first patsy is
> an up usage of it, so to spin.
>
> I read it with some resonances, one being one of her most famous song is
> Nelson's
> "Crazy' so the narrator is a patsy for love---or America, JFK, the soul of
> America.
>
> And, since I also like TRP, some of his song lyrics get bashed......
>
> On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 5:31 AM Thomas Eckhardt <
> thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de>
> wrote:
>
> > I am not saying you're wrong, just that the first thing one notes surely
> > is that Bob Dylan is a conspiracy theorist.
> >
> > As for the archetypes... The song comes across as an elegy for a country
> > or world gone wrong because of the most foul murder of the "king". If
> > this is true, the ailing Fisher King of Arthurian legend does not work
> > as a frame of reference, and neither does Frazer's sacrifice of a dying
> > king for the good of the kingdom. Yes, the assassination is depicted as
> > a "human sacrifice", a ritual slaughter performed on "the altar of the
> > rising sun", but the killing of the king does not lead to the
> > restoration of a barren wasteland but to strife and civil unrest.  The
> > allusions to Shakespeare therefore seem more apt, even though I wonder
> > why, besides "Hamlet", "The Merchant of Venice" and Lady Macbeth are
> > singled out for reference.
> >
> > Apart from the references to the murder itself, the most peculiar aspect
> > of the lyrics is the interlocking of motifs from assassination lore and
> > from popular culture. Is this just free-wheelin' association, or is
> > there more to it?
> >
> > Also, I find some of the lyrics awful. The clumsy opening or "I'm just a
> > patsy like Patsy Cline" -- this is not very good, is it?
> >
> > Related listening:
> >
> > https://www.themetimeradio.com/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>