Lily, Rosemary and The Jack Of Hearts
There's been so much written about this song over the years and about it's relationship to Shakespeare's Hamlet, and about the roles and relationships of the characters that you could spend days, maybe evenweeks, trying to read all of the interpretations out there.
There's also been a lot written about the obvious relationship between romance and the criminal element in almost every line, and then there's the card game references and questions about whether there is a relationship with the playing cards and the tarot. You can find comments on the biological backgrounds of the characters questioning if both Lily and Jack were Rosemary's children, and of course the idea that Big Jim is the symbol of Big Business, and what the heck do the bankrobbers have to do with anything, and on and on and on.
So, anyway, I'm not going there because it could take forever and it's really been done and done very well. I've been listening to this song since it was released and a couple of thoughts I had about it early on have lingered, and retained their significance to me since the first time I heard it, well, maybe the tenth time since there's so much to pick up in it. And when you consider all the subtlety and nuance in this song you have to agree that it leaves itself open for many different interpretations, even from just one person. Once again, the talent of the writer explodes in a multifaceted set of lyrics that still keeps me wondering about them. My thoughts on it may have changed a bit over the years, particularlywith the input of all of the discussion about this song, but these two reactions seem to have remained.
The first one is the way the song shows how a very fleeting influence can create a tidal wave of reaction, and that all the events and characters are pulled along with it (people just float) without control once the flow begins. Some would call it karma, I suppose, and in Big Jim's case it's pretty easy to see. He's taken over the town and "laid all to waste", using up and abusing everything and everyone in his path. From the tone I could tell that he hadn't exactly been following the ten commandments in his quest for control. It's a bit tougher to see the justice in Rosemary's case although from the very first I knew that she was the wild card in the tale from the reference to her being a queen without a crown. But then came the verse about the bad things she's done and her obvious guilt (one good deed before she died), and the reference to her "playing Big Jim's wife" coupled with her arriving in a carriage suggested that she was a part of the waste layin gand that she playedthe role in order to reap the benefits that Jim and his diamond mine could provide.
All very complicated with layer after layer to get through.Then all of a sudden there's the Jack of Hearts "standin' in the doorway", a stranger who comes in and orders a round for the house,and that's enough to get some attention from the patrons, but only for a moment, although we see that Jim's picking up some rather ominous vibes from his presence, perhaps sensing the wave that's about to occur. The lines about Jack are loaded with an aura ofmystery surrounding the stranger, but also a purpose in his being there, and I spent a great deal of the rest of the song trying to determine what that purpose was.
And then there's the whole thing with Lily and the suggestions that there is some sort of past history between her and Jack, which opened way too many doors for me and multiplied the mystery surrounding the stranger and his reason for being there. When I considered the momentous results of Jack's arrival, I found myself thinking that he was some sort of powerful shaman sent to bring justice to the criminals who ruined the town.
Then came the verse that revealed what the drilling in the wall was, and it occurred to me that all the mystery surrounding this guy wasn't really there after all and he was just another criminal there to scout for and back up his cohorts trying to blow up the safe. It appeared that Jack could have arrived, provided a diversion, got a little "diversion" himself in the meantime, and left without any ideaof the devastating results of his presence. The mystery is there,that's for sure, but it lies in the reactions to the stranger from the other complicated characters and that wave of events that resulted from those reactions. It seemed like a very Dylan type twist and left me thinking about how a relatively minor eventi nvolving one set of circumstances set off in one direction can cause a major chain reaction in another direction entirely, with the wave sand the ripples affecting layers and layers of very different circumstances.
Which leads me to the second thing that I think of when I hear this song. I think that the Jack of Hearts character may be somewhat autobiographical when you consider the momentous effect that Jack had on all the characters, and the possibility that he wasn't trying to effect anything, just get in, get the job done, and get out. The air of mystery that surrounds him in this song happens because of the reactions of others, not because of anything that Jack did,although, as I said earlier, the song suggests that Jack's presence actually caused the turn of events. I think in one layer of the song Dylan is describing himself and the fact that he is not trying to be a major influence, or even a small one, and that he has no control over the complications created by what people perceive him to be.
Well, that's a couple of my first impressions and only 2 cents worth of a thousand dollar song. The song is so many stories in one and onso many levels that I wonder if even Dylan has seen all of them. Now for the tag - PSB, step up to the plate and tell us about the real Down the Highway. (BTW, don't bother with the oracle, he just doesn't seem to take these things seriously and I'm pretty sure you'll get some crap about Sears, too)
Jackie
There's also been a lot written about the obvious relationship between romance and the criminal element in almost every line, and then there's the card game references and questions about whether there is a relationship with the playing cards and the tarot. You can find comments on the biological backgrounds of the characters questioning if both Lily and Jack were Rosemary's children, and of course the idea that Big Jim is the symbol of Big Business, and what the heck do the bankrobbers have to do with anything, and on and on and on.
So, anyway, I'm not going there because it could take forever and it's really been done and done very well. I've been listening to this song since it was released and a couple of thoughts I had about it early on have lingered, and retained their significance to me since the first time I heard it, well, maybe the tenth time since there's so much to pick up in it. And when you consider all the subtlety and nuance in this song you have to agree that it leaves itself open for many different interpretations, even from just one person. Once again, the talent of the writer explodes in a multifaceted set of lyrics that still keeps me wondering about them. My thoughts on it may have changed a bit over the years, particularlywith the input of all of the discussion about this song, but these two reactions seem to have remained.
The first one is the way the song shows how a very fleeting influence can create a tidal wave of reaction, and that all the events and characters are pulled along with it (people just float) without control once the flow begins. Some would call it karma, I suppose, and in Big Jim's case it's pretty easy to see. He's taken over the town and "laid all to waste", using up and abusing everything and everyone in his path. From the tone I could tell that he hadn't exactly been following the ten commandments in his quest for control. It's a bit tougher to see the justice in Rosemary's case although from the very first I knew that she was the wild card in the tale from the reference to her being a queen without a crown. But then came the verse about the bad things she's done and her obvious guilt (one good deed before she died), and the reference to her "playing Big Jim's wife" coupled with her arriving in a carriage suggested that she was a part of the waste layin gand that she playedthe role in order to reap the benefits that Jim and his diamond mine could provide.
All very complicated with layer after layer to get through.Then all of a sudden there's the Jack of Hearts "standin' in the doorway", a stranger who comes in and orders a round for the house,and that's enough to get some attention from the patrons, but only for a moment, although we see that Jim's picking up some rather ominous vibes from his presence, perhaps sensing the wave that's about to occur. The lines about Jack are loaded with an aura ofmystery surrounding the stranger, but also a purpose in his being there, and I spent a great deal of the rest of the song trying to determine what that purpose was.
And then there's the whole thing with Lily and the suggestions that there is some sort of past history between her and Jack, which opened way too many doors for me and multiplied the mystery surrounding the stranger and his reason for being there. When I considered the momentous results of Jack's arrival, I found myself thinking that he was some sort of powerful shaman sent to bring justice to the criminals who ruined the town.
Then came the verse that revealed what the drilling in the wall was, and it occurred to me that all the mystery surrounding this guy wasn't really there after all and he was just another criminal there to scout for and back up his cohorts trying to blow up the safe. It appeared that Jack could have arrived, provided a diversion, got a little "diversion" himself in the meantime, and left without any ideaof the devastating results of his presence. The mystery is there,that's for sure, but it lies in the reactions to the stranger from the other complicated characters and that wave of events that resulted from those reactions. It seemed like a very Dylan type twist and left me thinking about how a relatively minor eventi nvolving one set of circumstances set off in one direction can cause a major chain reaction in another direction entirely, with the wave sand the ripples affecting layers and layers of very different circumstances.
Which leads me to the second thing that I think of when I hear this song. I think that the Jack of Hearts character may be somewhat autobiographical when you consider the momentous effect that Jack had on all the characters, and the possibility that he wasn't trying to effect anything, just get in, get the job done, and get out. The air of mystery that surrounds him in this song happens because of the reactions of others, not because of anything that Jack did,although, as I said earlier, the song suggests that Jack's presence actually caused the turn of events. I think in one layer of the song Dylan is describing himself and the fact that he is not trying to be a major influence, or even a small one, and that he has no control over the complications created by what people perceive him to be.
Well, that's a couple of my first impressions and only 2 cents worth of a thousand dollar song. The song is so many stories in one and onso many levels that I wonder if even Dylan has seen all of them. Now for the tag - PSB, step up to the plate and tell us about the real Down the Highway. (BTW, don't bother with the oracle, he just doesn't seem to take these things seriously and I'm pretty sure you'll get some crap about Sears, too)
Jackie
posted by Julia D | 10:29 PM
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