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

[Becky Lindroos]

Oh gads, Laura, be careful and stay in recovery mode.  Yikes! But thank you for reminding us of recovery.

[ Some authors/artists can do overt political statements better than others - Country Joe was pretty good -  Baez was good -  Dylan’s talents lie elsewhere - imo ]

Bek


> On Mar 31, 2020, at 12:59 PM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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
>> 
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l