I've actually read this part of your trilogy over a week ago, but it was late at night and I wasn't able to turn the thoughts I had into a coherent comment, so I'm revisiting these notes now.
It’s so fascinating that Dylan clarifies in his poem that he does not believe in collective guilt or collective responsibility, when he also wrote “Only A Pawn in Their Game” a song about blaming the racist structures rather than the individual shooter. Is the difference that Medgar Evers' assassination was a racially motivated hate crime? On a related note, I’m fascinated with the shift from “I see something of JFK’s killer in me” to the impersonal “they” in Murder Most Foul (especially after having just read the third part of your series). What do we make of that?
I’m sure this was intended, but I liked how your “Don’t just look at the country and bemoan how we are collectively responsible for creating the conditions that made the assassination of the president possible. Look in the mirror and see your inner Oswald.” mirrored JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.
The Tom Paine Award debacle has always me as such a pivotal moment in Dylan’s career, almost like the first and last time he made himself so vulnerable by explaining himself. It feels like his attitude towards public opinion of his person really shifted after that. Maybe it’s that after being confronted with a crowd without any hair on their heads, he made the conscious decision to grow younger: “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”.
Lastly, and I’m sure you knew this, but I just wanted to add that Dylan performed “Chimes of Freedom” during the Bill Clinton inauguration.
All three parts are excellent and insightful reads – thank you for writing them!
More excellent observations, Laura! I think you're right about the Tom Paine debacle marking a turning point in Dylan's relationship with the public. And it certainly wasn't the last time that he looked in the mirror and examined the killer inside, as you and I both know from studying Dylan's career-long fascination with murder ballads. Marcus may be right that Dylan's superpower is empathy, but he sometimes empathizes his way into the minds of some scary characters. You're right to mention "Only a Pawn in Their Game," and I would add "Ballad of Hollis Brown." Those songs were written and recorded before the Kennedy assassination and the ECLC banquet, and they prove that Dylan was already trying to get inside the heads of killers and consider what drove them to commit such desperate acts. His comments on Oswald weren't just random drunken ramblings; they're consistent with his political and artistic evolution at the time.
What you've written about Chimes of Freedom is spot on. The immediate issue with the chimes -- which should really only chime, or maybe sound -- is that they are flashing (like the cameras and the gunfire). In this Dylan turns the otherwise folky and harmless “chimes of freedom” into something far more urgent and worrisome. He also uses "gaze" (a very passive act) to pair a sense of hopelessness with this already anxious and chaotic feeling -- as you said, he has resigned.
I agree, Milo. The imagery mixes up the senses, like musical synesthesia. Or maybe it's like the willful derangement of the senses that Rimbaud called for from the visionary poet. Either way, he communicates a fog of confusion.
Thanks for this extremely fine writing Graley. Now all the Tom Paine business makes so much sense to me. And when you cites Suze Rotolo I vividly remember the sixties. All the discussions and thinking, but most important all the hopes! And I also thought of John Lennon changing the line in the Revolution song from " count me in, into count me out " the story goes. Thanks again, looking forward to chapter 3.
Brilliant as always, Graley. Dylan's deep understanding of the complex debates within leftist or anti-racist circles is under-studied. Thanks for shining a light on it.
I just couldn’t stop reading… This is an amazing piece of research and insight. Fantastic!
Thanks! I really appreciate your interest and support. It's an absorbing topic, and I'm way down the rabbit hole now.
I've actually read this part of your trilogy over a week ago, but it was late at night and I wasn't able to turn the thoughts I had into a coherent comment, so I'm revisiting these notes now.
It’s so fascinating that Dylan clarifies in his poem that he does not believe in collective guilt or collective responsibility, when he also wrote “Only A Pawn in Their Game” a song about blaming the racist structures rather than the individual shooter. Is the difference that Medgar Evers' assassination was a racially motivated hate crime? On a related note, I’m fascinated with the shift from “I see something of JFK’s killer in me” to the impersonal “they” in Murder Most Foul (especially after having just read the third part of your series). What do we make of that?
I’m sure this was intended, but I liked how your “Don’t just look at the country and bemoan how we are collectively responsible for creating the conditions that made the assassination of the president possible. Look in the mirror and see your inner Oswald.” mirrored JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.
The Tom Paine Award debacle has always me as such a pivotal moment in Dylan’s career, almost like the first and last time he made himself so vulnerable by explaining himself. It feels like his attitude towards public opinion of his person really shifted after that. Maybe it’s that after being confronted with a crowd without any hair on their heads, he made the conscious decision to grow younger: “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”.
Lastly, and I’m sure you knew this, but I just wanted to add that Dylan performed “Chimes of Freedom” during the Bill Clinton inauguration.
All three parts are excellent and insightful reads – thank you for writing them!
More excellent observations, Laura! I think you're right about the Tom Paine debacle marking a turning point in Dylan's relationship with the public. And it certainly wasn't the last time that he looked in the mirror and examined the killer inside, as you and I both know from studying Dylan's career-long fascination with murder ballads. Marcus may be right that Dylan's superpower is empathy, but he sometimes empathizes his way into the minds of some scary characters. You're right to mention "Only a Pawn in Their Game," and I would add "Ballad of Hollis Brown." Those songs were written and recorded before the Kennedy assassination and the ECLC banquet, and they prove that Dylan was already trying to get inside the heads of killers and consider what drove them to commit such desperate acts. His comments on Oswald weren't just random drunken ramblings; they're consistent with his political and artistic evolution at the time.
What you've written about Chimes of Freedom is spot on. The immediate issue with the chimes -- which should really only chime, or maybe sound -- is that they are flashing (like the cameras and the gunfire). In this Dylan turns the otherwise folky and harmless “chimes of freedom” into something far more urgent and worrisome. He also uses "gaze" (a very passive act) to pair a sense of hopelessness with this already anxious and chaotic feeling -- as you said, he has resigned.
I agree, Milo. The imagery mixes up the senses, like musical synesthesia. Or maybe it's like the willful derangement of the senses that Rimbaud called for from the visionary poet. Either way, he communicates a fog of confusion.
Thanks for this extremely fine writing Graley. Now all the Tom Paine business makes so much sense to me. And when you cites Suze Rotolo I vividly remember the sixties. All the discussions and thinking, but most important all the hopes! And I also thought of John Lennon changing the line in the Revolution song from " count me in, into count me out " the story goes. Thanks again, looking forward to chapter 3.
Brilliant as always, Graley. Dylan's deep understanding of the complex debates within leftist or anti-racist circles is under-studied. Thanks for shining a light on it.
Thank you 🇩🇰🤠
Eye opening.