I've decided to tackle one of my all-time hero's of music, the master poet and king of lyrics: Mr. Bob Dylan. To top it all off I decided on of his longest songs: "Idiot Wind". This song is off of the 1975 album Blood on Tracks. Blood on The Tracks my all-time favorite Bob Dylan album, which is saying quite a lot. This album was written in the beginning stages of Bob's divorce from his wife Sara. The two had been married for twelve years. Bob's son, Jakob Dylan, had said that the album is "his parents talking." a
"Idiot Wind" is one of Bob Dylan's most spiteful songs yet also one of his more melancholy songs.
It is a song that took a little while to grow on me but once it did it become one of my favorites. If you've ever felt the emotions or experienced the circumstances behind this song, then you'll know exactly what he is saying. The lyrics from Blood on The Tracks are as follows:
Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.
Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at,
I couldn't believe after all these years, you didn't know me better than that
Sweet lady.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,
Blowing down the backroads headin' south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I ran into the fortune-teller, who said beware of lightning that might strike
I haven't known peace and quiet for so long I can't remember what it's like.
There's a lone soldier on the cross, smoke pourin' out of a boxcar door,
You didn't know it, you didn't think it could be done, in the final end he won the wars
After losin' every battle.
I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin' 'bout the way things sometimes are
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin' me see stars.
You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies.
One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzin' around your eyes,
Blood on your saddle.
Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb,
Blowing through the curtains in your room.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart.
Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,
What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom.
I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed, your eyes
don't look into mine.
The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the building
burned.
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime
turned Slowly into autumn.
Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read
Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin' I was somebody else instead.
Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy,
I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory
And all your ragin' glory.
I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free,
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.
You'll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above,
And I'll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love,
And it makes me feel so sorry.
Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,
Blowing through the letters that we wrote.
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,
We're idiots, babe.
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves
And of course here is the link to the song. This version is from the New York Sessions, which was an early version of the song. I couldn't find the album version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEKafa_viAM
All right. Now time for the parsing down.
The First Verse is rather interesting in context to the rest of the song. It contains a bit of a different mood than the rest. It starts out like a story: people are accusing him of killing a man to get the money that would come to her when her husband dies, but he is vehemently denying it.
The Second Verse is a continuation of the first but it goes to a bit more general feeling. The song develops as he writes it. He starts with a specific idea and then his emotions swell up the whole song changes. In this verse, people have their minds made up about him due to some stupid rumor and they treat him differently due to this. This rumor has even penetrated his wife or his companion (the you in the song) and she has to ask him where the money is. It causes him outrage that the person he has known for years doesn't know him well enough to know better.
Chorus:
This is where the spite and the rage starts to be released. He calls her very clearly an idiot, saying its a wonder that she still knows how to breathe. That's a rather harsh insult. He also tells her that everything she says is stupid, nothing she has every said really meant anything at all. All of his pent up rage at all the stupid things she has done or said, starts to come out and he just gets angrier.
Verse III:
This is one of my favorite verses in the song. "Beware of lightning that might strike," an apt warning for us all; be careful what you do or say, because you can never be sure of the results of your actions. "I haven't known peace and quiet for so long I can't remember what it's like." Haven't we all felt that? It's such a mind-numbing, body-ripping feeling. He then compares his suffering to that of Jesus "lone soldier on the cross" and is even spiteful in his telling her that she didn't have enough faith to think that even if he lost all the battles, he could still win the war.
Verse IV:
He now starts to recall some of their past "daydreaming." However, he awakes from these daydreams and realizes the way things are now and how far they've fallen and he turns to his most spiteful, invoking some of the harshest imagery: " One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzin' around your eyes, blood on your saddle." He very blatantly says one day you're ways (hurt the ones I love best) will catch up with you and it'll kill you.
Chorus:
The chorus has changed slightly to incorporate her funeral.
Verse V:
He now tries to find some outside reason why they didn't work out blaming it on "gravity" and "destiny" but he returns to blaming her, saying she tried to change him and was able to tame the "lion" (his demons and animal characteristics) but she couldn't really change who he was. He then says that the pain she's caused him has led to his whole world being screwed up, that when he should feel like he's on top of the world, he feels like he's on the bottom.
Verse VI:
He still has more blame and spite to pour out at this woman. Everything she has done has made her a different person, to the point that she can't even look into his eyes. He said he waited for her, most likely to realize the error of her ways, but she never did.
Chorus:
Now the idiot wind is blowing in his skull, not the road or her tomb, but inside of his head. All the pain and rage is starting to actually affect him.
Verse VII:
He has completely lost who she really is and can't even read or touch anything that has ever been associated with her. Whenever he goes anywhere near a place associated with her, he wants to be a completely different person because the pain kills him. He says he followed her everywhere she went and I think that still follows through to the present. Even though she has caused him immense pain and caused him to hate her, he still has to see where she is.
Verse VIII:
He feels that all of the double-crossing is finally through with, that all the pain and misery has finally set him to a point where he can be free of her. Throughout the entire song, he rages against her and pours spite upon her, but his tone changes. He says she'll never know everything he felt because of her and about her, but he realizes that he won't ever know the same about her. He will never get to really know her love and who she is, never really get through to that genuine person and it makes him feel terrible. That is one of the worst feelings in the world. Having someone you care about and just want to be happy, but you'll never be able to really know them and it just caused this immense emptiness inside.
Chorus:
Now it has all come full circle. Throughout the entire song he lashes out in pain and anger, blaming the entire situation upon her, but now as his self-pity is at the highest just before (Verse VIII) he comes to realize the truth. He realizes that he has to take responsibility for what happened. He can't blame the entire thing upon her even if he wants to. This is seen through his saying they were both idiots.
Conclusion:
This song is quite amazing to see the emotions take shape. He starts out angry due to all the shit she has put him through and all the pain she has caused him. He starts to pour out all of his anger and spite upon her. He lashes out against her to the point where he hopes she will die. As he pours venom upon her and the world, he starts to come to term with things. He realizes that hate isn't what is driving him but rather pain. he realized it can't possibly be completely her fault, even though he wants to blame all upon her, it was a relationship after all and he must take a bit of the blame.
This song is incredibly moving because we have all felt that horrible spite and anger, but I doubt many of us have ever come to the ending point of acceptance and really knowing who and what to blame.
No comments:
Post a Comment