In the late 1970s, Bob Dylan went full-blown born-again, an intense period but it didn’t last. When he leaned rather hard into his producer, the guy said, “Bob, you’re dealing with a 60-year-old Jewish atheist. Let’s just make a record.” They made a fine record, with one song, “Gotta Serve Somebody” winning a Grammy.
Now, Dylan at no time has struck me as a person who, when a scientist says “Jump!” responds “How high?” Can one spot a foregleam of his religious temperament in Desolation Row, written 15 years earlier? That song contains ten verses and run over eleven minutes. For verse eight, call it Evolution Row and try this interpretation on for size:
At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
Anyone familiar with the Bible, as Dylan is, will know who is “all the agents and the superhuman crew.” At the darkest time, they round up everyone “who knows more than they do.” Well, nobody knows more than does the “superhuman crew,” so it must be a reference to those who think that they they know more than others, who think that are very smart indeed and that take great pleasure in parading their knowledge before everyone else, who do not hesitate to talk down to the masses should the need arise, which it often does.
Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
Despite their self-heralded knowledge, they are “rounded up” and processed, as though in a “factory.” The knowledge that they take such pride in is nevertheless death-dealing, like a “heart attack machine strapped across their shoulders,” with “kerosene” thrown in for good measure.
Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row.
Despite their knowledge being death-dealing—settling for a few dozen years lifespan at best and then eternal nothingness—nobody must escape this stuff. “Insurance men” see to it, descending from institutional “castles” for that purpose. Nobody escapes from Evolution Row.
Naw, I don’t really think Dylan had that in mind. Other verses don’t so readily lend themselves to that interpretation. But it’s not a bad interpretation all the same. Dylan often writes in a stream of consciousness and doesn’t necessarily have any underlying message. It’s like decrypting Kafka. The tone is distinct, but the underlying words can be taken any number of ways. He is not inclined to pose as a great man cryptically recording deep truths for all humanity if they can but prove worthy by unraveling the message. Instead, he presents himself more like a modern Aaron, who throws stuff into the fire and “out came this calf.” (Exodus 32:24)
****** The bookstore
Leave a Reply