With The Mighty Zim's new album release still nearly a week away, it's intriguing to find its songs streaming now on iTunes for free (here), apparently for a limited period. For several months we've been given teasers and we've been drip-fed info on what it will contain. We've known for some time that the title track is a song about the Titanic.
Slicer is only one of many obsessive fans who will scrutinise the album's lyrics for possible meanings, as Dylan fans have done ever since he burst onto the scene with rich imagery in his song-writing, and an often oblique approach to tackling subject matter (when he was actually doing that rather than just stringing words together in imaginative rhyme and metre).
So the appearance of the whole album on iTunes, in advance of its availability to actually own, creates a temptation to have a go at transcribing the lyrics, and then guess what they're actually about (if anything). It's a game that goes back to the 1960s, and provoked one of many classic responses Dylan gave to inane questions. When asked what his songs were about, he replied "Some of them are about three minutes, some of them are about five minutes, and some of them, believe it or not, are about eleven minutes." Anyone trying to be definitive about what Dylan's songs mean is likely to end up with egg on their face; and if Jakob Dylan's comments are to be believed about songwriting tips his old dad gave him, Bob actively attempts to be ambiguous or enigmatic, or both, in his writing. Still, Slicer and others will brave flying yolk and try to unscramble or probe meaning in Dylan's ordering of his syllables - not least with a song such as the one below from the new album. Here's Slicer's best effort to pick some streamed lyrics out of his ears. Hopefully he's avoided any gaffs like "The ants are my friends..."
Narrow Way
I’m gonna walk across the desert ‘til I’m in my right mind
I won’t even think about what I’ve left behind
There’s nothing back there anyway that I can call my own
Go back home, leave me alone
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
If I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day.
Ever since the British burned the White House down
There’s a bleeding wound in the heart of town
I saw you drinking from an empty cup
I saw you buried, and I saw you dug up
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day.
Look down, angel, from the skies
Help my weary soul to rise
I kissed your cheek, I dragged your plough
You broke my heart, I was your friend til now
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day.
In the courtyard of the golden
sun
You stand and fight, or you break and run
You went and lost your lovely head
For a drink of wine and a crust of bread
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
If I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day.
We looted and we plundered on distant shores
Why is my share not equal to yours?
Your father left you, your mother too
Even death has washed its hands of you
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day
This is hard country to stay alive in
Blades are everywhere and they’re breakin my skin
I’m armed to the hilt and I’m struggling hard
You won’t get out of here unscarred
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day
You got too many lovers waitin at the wall
If I had a thousand tons I couldn’t count em all
Yesterday I coulda put them all in the sea
Today even one may be too much for me
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
If I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day
Keep walkin, Baby – you can do no wrong
Put your arms around me where they belong
I won’t take you on a roller coaster ride
Lay my hands all over ya, tie ya to my side
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day
I got a heavy stacked woman with a smile on her face
And she has crowned my soul with grace
I’m still hurtin from an arrow that pierced my chest
I’m gonna have to take my head and bury it between your breasts
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
If I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day
Been dark all night, but now it’s dawn
The moving finger is movin on
You can guard me while I sleep
Kiss away the tears I weep
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day
I love women, and she loves men
We remember the West, and we’re going back again
I heard a voice at the dusk of day
Sayin “Be gentle, brother, Be gentle and pray”
It’s a long road, it’s a long and narrow way
If I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day.
It's hard to miss the recurring chorus theme of a journey which is long, and the way narrow; it's through country that's dangerous, requiring weapons or armour; the singer feels he's powerless to make it "up" to the other person - he's entirely dependent on that individual doing all the moving or travelling down toward him. The notion fits rather well with the statement that his soul has been crowned with grace. Then there's the mention of bread and wine, a cup that's being drunk from, a kiss on the cheek, washing of hands, the witnessing of a burial, and of it being reversed; of death having nothing more to do with the individual; a reference to having put hands to the plough (if Slicer has heard that lyric correctly), and encouragment to keep walking, to the West, toward intimate relationship, to where you belong, to security. Now Slicer's not saying he knows what ideas are behind this song; he's just listing a selection of elements in it which sound familiar, and related...
And that title and the journey sounds like something in another song:
"When you walk through the garden
you gotta watch your back
well I beg your pardon
walk the straight and narrow track
if you walk with Jesus
he's gonna save your soul
you gotta keep the devil
way down in the hole."
OK.. first correction, since hearing the album 'in the flesh':
If I had ten thousand tongues...
Posted by: The Slicer | 09/09/2012 at 08:54 AM