Dylan plays with word connotations here. Yellow's most obvious connotation is the color. However, it can also mean "cowardly" or "scared. However, it can also mean the same thing as the second connotation of yellow -- scared You're chicken! So, no matter which way you look at this statement, one of the words will screw up the sentence's meaning. For instance, the sun definitely can't be chicken, but something that's yellow can be. What an awesome pun. This song is amazing.
The lyrics are great, and Michael Bloomfield's guitar work is exceptional. MagiDrakee on February 04, Link. MagiDrakee Take a couple steps back and look try to look at the whole picture. I think the "sun" reference is the commander-in-chief's bloated, egotistical delusions of grandeur and purpose.
Like the rest of the song I find it a scathing critique of the upper crust "educated" class and their elitist, disdainful attitude toward the general public particularly the underprivileged. Donald trump for president! Derek 0 on February 23, Derek 0 you do realise that Trump is the epitome of upper class, elitist etc. The sun and the chicken are both yellow. So this phrase could mean that "even the sun was not afraid to join the army.
General Comment I've read that this song is an attempt to render musically the same kind of crazy randomness that surrealist artists in the 's put in their paintings and movies. This song is full of one liners and verses that are almost by definition non sequitors.
From what I understand, surrealists were trying to get people to look at the world differently by placing normal, run of the mill images in unexpected, and sometimes unsettling, contexts. By the way, "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken," may just be one of my favorite lines ever.
General Comment It's hard to tell how all the allusions fit together. Who are Gypsy Davey and Ma Raney? The Biblical references are a bit easier. Jezebel corrupt queen of Israel shows up in the first verse, John the Baptist in the second, but Samson though unnamed is the big allusion. He killed Philistines with a donkey's jawbone see third verse , married and was betrayed by Delilah fourth verse , and finally killed his captors by tearing down the pillars of the great house of the Philistines fourth verse; note the reference to Cecil B.
It had Denzel Washington in it. Written for soon-to-be Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico about the relationship with her child, Ari. As a reaction to this, Dylan tackles this theme of men in power and takes them to task for not taking responsibility for the personal cost of their actions. Although it was recorded during his Born Again period, this song of spirituality seemed to dig deeper than many of his other evangelical numbers.
Is it Dylan and Elvis? Is it Jesus and Satan? Lower and upper class? His relationship with her was a cause of some friction however, creating an emotional tug of war between Dylan and the Warhol camp in which she was heavily entrenched both emotionally and chemically. I can understand maybe Paul Revere himself, but his horse? Like many Dylan songs from this period, the tone and point of view are very much those of the outsider.
Many commentators on rec. Mike Marqusee, author of Bob Dylan: Chimes of Freedom, believes this song is the closest Dylan comes to making a statement about Vietnam.
Although these ideas are interesting, the protest movement against the war did not really begin in any substantial way until , well after the song was written. Of course, Dylan has often been ahead of the pack, so I guess these ideas could have some merit. Or not. Dylan plays Tombstone on a fairly regular basis.
He played it on the MTV Unplugged show. The soundtrack for the Scorsese film No Direction Home contains an alternative take. Some background vocals are added to the chorus and the song ends prematurely as Dylan breaks out in laughter. The booklet included with No Direction Home mentions that an unreleased version contains background vocals by, of all things, the staid folk group The Chamber Brothers.
The ghost of Belle Starr she hands down her wits To Jezebel the nun she violently knits A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits At the head of the chamber of commerce. The king of the Philistines his soldiers to save Puts jawbones on their tombstones and flatters their graves Puts the pied pipers in prison and fattens the slaves Then sends them out to the jungle.
Gypsy Davey with a blowtorch he burns out their camps With his faithful slave Pedro behind him he tramps With a fantastic collection of stamps To win friends and influence his uncle.
DeMille He could die happily ever after. Are you familiar with the Georgia Guidestones? When someone first mentioned it to me I thought it both interesting and strange. At the Beacon Theater, Curses, Foiled Again. The origin of the line "Curses, foiled again! Madison Square Garden, For Dylan fans it was one of his rare public appearances between the Woodstock motorcycle incident and th At the time I remember trying to decipher it, and like most
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