Comments on: Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts – Layers of Meaning

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:10:45 +0000

If Lily’s burying her dress away, maybe she is the Jack of Hearts. That’s why Big Jim’s seen her/him before.

By: ttucker23

ttucker23 — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:38:38 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone. And thanks to Scott Miller for posting this on the excellent Expecting Rain website: http://expectingrain.com/

By: J.D.

J.D. — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:29:34 +0000

I think Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts is every bit as complex as a number of the most frequently anthologized short stories of literature. It’s form is that of a short story, too–as Hemingway said, it’s what you leave out that counts.

The song is like Shakespeare in miniature–complete with the entertainment within the entertainment (ala Hamlet), the royalty, the double meanings, the tragedy, and the symbolism.

Because of the music and phrasing, I think it even rises above many of those short stories mentioned above as a work of art.

By: eddy collins

eddy collins — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:49:42 +0000

big jim was killed with a penknife in the back[the harder they come the bigger they crack].could actually be made into a movie along with all the songs on desire

By: WestLAfadeaway

WestLAfadeaway — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:22:40 +0000

Ya I’m down with Tim on this one. If you want to call this atmosphere Tom then you may as well expand that to say all art, music, lit etc is atmosphere. As is this comment.

By: WaltK

WaltK — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:44:05 +0000

I chuckle that everyone is looking for the meaning of life, the universe, and everything in the lyrics of a song. He had just played a supporting role in the 1973 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Two years later he released Blood on the Tracks. He was just in a western mood – the wind blew west so he went with it. Doesn’t diminish that it’s a great ballad.

By: 50 Reasons To Love Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks « The Culture Club

50 Reasons To Love Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks « The Culture Club — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:54:53 +0000

[...] Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts – Layers of Meaning [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:57:49 +0000

Aside from the words, there’s the music. The guitar, drums, harmonica, and bass all lilt along in a sort of western hoedown beat.

Then, completely out of place in the background, is an ominous sounding church organ droning out sustained chords.

The church organ points to something higher, some higher power, orchestrating events in the background. God? Or just fate?

Dylan used organs substantially throughout his records, but the instrumentation on “Blood on the Tracks” is overwhelmingly acoustic-based. The inclusion of the organ on this track is to make a point.

The organ stops for merely one line; “Staring at the butterfly,” and then resumes.

In the context of the plot, this seems to imply that there is a brief window of opportunity for us to make our own decisions, then fate steps back in and unfolds our future for us.

And we must not forget the initial track on the album, the one that sets the tone for all that follow, is; “A Simple Twist of Fate.”

By: Palmyrah

Palmyrah — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:16:31 +0000

Unless the meaning of ‘atmosphere’ is different in Tom’s lexicon from the word has in common speech, it’s difficult to see how a detailed Western tale combining a love triangle with a bank robbery, with all the loose ends of the plot neatly tied at the conclusion, can be described as ‘just atmosphere’. Perhaps Tom would like a plot summary?

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:20:01 +0000

I think we’re playing with semantics again here. I would argue that the fact that this song has a clearly outlined plot, distinct characters, a fully worked symbolic language and allusions to overarching themes, makes it rise above a mere exercise in creating atmosphere. As to what this ‘means’, well many of the works we’ve looked at are difficult to define in those terms, and quite rightly. ‘Meaning’ with regards to a work of art is often much more complex than a clear single statement that sums it up. After all, what does The Seagull or Uncle Vanya mean? Or for that matter Hamlet or David Copperfield? It’s my fault – I should have avoided the term ‘meaning’ when engaging in this debate, as it opens a can of worms. I don’t think art has to ‘mean’ anything actually – as I discussed in an earlier post on TS Eliot and ‘meaning in poetry’. This is as bigger subject, which we should discuss at length at a future gathering, but in the meantime I still strongly contend that this Dylan song has more substance, and more to offer to the attentive listener/reader, than you’re suggesting.