A friend to the martyr
Friday, June 12, 2009
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A political blog from Dartmouth, Massachusetts. I encourage debate of the issues facing our town on this blog.
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3 comments:
This is my favorite Dylan song and I spent many days studying this song.
Jokerman is God and it is written in the perspective of Jesus upon his death.
"You were born with a snake in both of your fists as a hurricane was blowing" The snake alludes to the nails used to hang Jesus on the cross and as you might recall a huge storm hit as Jesus was on the cross for just a few hours. The soldiers ran away as they did not want to be hit by lightning. One soldier was sent back to pierce His side with a lance.
"Friend to the martyr" (John the Baptist) "Friend to the woman of shame." (Mary Magdelaine)
"You stare into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name." (Hell)
"Muscleman seeks the sick and the lame,
Preacherman seeks the same, who'll get there first is uncertain.
"Matchsticks, watercannons, teargas, and headlights.
Molatov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain."
WOW, if there is a better line in music or literature evoking more images of human strife, conflict, courage and fear, all in a few lines I cannot think of it.
The question is are you behind every curtain on the inside or outside?
I think that Bob Dylan is saying in this song that he doesn't believe Jesus was divine in the Magical or mystical sense but was human. And because He faced such violence and persecution and still had the grace to love
His fellow man that it doesn't matter if He was divine or not but a man worthy of following His example.
God is Jokerman and the Joke is often on us, now handle it with some grace, and don't think you have been handed such a cruel fate.
I think that is what Bob was saying.
I haven't thought about this song much, certainly not as much as James has, but I like it a lot. Dylan really seems to be enjoying himself here. Bill, I hope you get Dylan's new CD, Together Through Life. The voice is gone, but the lyrics and the spirit are still there. Take listen to "It's All Good".
If you like some of these Dylan song, please go to www.bobdylan.com. You can listen to excerpts from ALL of Bob's stuff and read the lyrics, too. It's an amazingly rich body of work.
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