Bob Dylan has often been a seemingly reluctant interviewee. And from the early days when he achieved public notice, he has been asked about the "meaning" of his songs. Sometimes the questions have been inane, sometimes pertinent. He rarely gives a straight answer when asked about the meaning of lyrics. He famously responded to the question "What's your real message?" with the answer "Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb."
The meaning of some songs has been self-evident (think Hurricane, Ballad of Hollis Brown, Only a Pawn in Their Game, and whole albums of his overtly Christian-themed songs), some fairly transparent (think Masters of War, and many of the songs on Blood on the Tracks), and some downright obscure (Jokerman, and several of his stream-of-consciousness era songs). Some likely have no "meaning" to be discerned but are works of artistic merit, playing with language and imagery. Regardless, his fans often engage enthusiastically with attempts to analyse every release. I am no different. No doubt he (and others) laugh at many of our failed attempts.
NME has published an analysis of False Prophet and I reckon that it's way off the mark:
"Some unknowable, dark-eyed devil stalking the land serves as an allegory for an age that puts industry before humanity, commerce before life." The author, Mark Beaumont, reads the current situation on lockdown into the song as enthusiastically as some deluded apocalyptic nuts are currently claiming "track and trace" efforts to limit the impact of COVID-19 as a "deep state Luciferian/Illuminati/UN/WHO/Bill Gates-led New World Order" and reading that notion into the Book of Revelation... It is a dark song, like much of Dylan's latter day songwriting, and no doubt the death imagery fits with societal fears at the moment so of course it, and the skeleton graphic, resonate. Still, I think Beaumont's interpretative effort is half-baked, at best.
Beamont calls the main character in the song "Dylan's Devil." I imagine Bob having a little chuckle to himself over that. The devil in the song is the “enemy of the meaningless life” who delivers vengeance/justice; as Beaumont puts it, this devil is "choking the greedy with gold, shackling poisonous rulers and generally delivering retribution to the wicked." I'm puzzled by this. I haven't come across this as the function/role of a devil before. I'm more used to the notion of a devil tempting us to reach for what isn't ours, to pursue greed, to use power selfishly, and the devil ultimately being on the receiving end of retribution/justice rather than delivering it. Beaumont also suggests an autobiographical element in the song, with Dylan declaring himself "first among equals, second to none / Last of the best, you can bury the rest." This would be more than a little boastful, and doesn't sit particularly easily with Dylan's more obvious referral to himself elsewhere in his canon, for example in "What Good Am I?" and where he chides against hubris in "Foot of Pride."
The best interpretation Beaumont comes up with for “I sing songs of love, I sing songs of betrayal... can’t remember when I was born and I forget when I died” is that Dylan is referring to himself. It seems to me that the lack of a memorable beginning and end might refer to another. That would also sit better with "Not Dark Yet", a song which is certainly getting dark lyrically and which many have seen as Dylan musing on his age, but the light hasn't gone out yet. It certainly seems odd to me to conclude with Beaumont that, all in the same song, Dylan is boasting about his songwriting prowess and at the same time noting that he had died (in some sense - clearly it can't refer to his actual death) at some point in the past. I can agree with Beaumont on his final sentence "Something darkly wonderful this way comes."
Are there lenses we can use to help to see what inspires and motivates Dylan? To use a metaphor from "Visions of Johanna" is there a skeleton key which helps unlock common motivations in his song-writing? I believe there is one tool which, if not a skeleton key, frequently helps us unpick the lock. I also believe he sometimes deliberately leaves locks easy to pick. Many observers concluded that he ditched Christian motivation and lyrical content after his 3 so-called "God-awful" albums between '79 & '81. My initial (but very temporary) conclusion regarding his subsequent album "Infidels" was the same, with perhaps a "return" to Judaism. It wasn't long before, I think, the scales fell off. Looking back it's hard to imagine how I reached that conclusion, given the content eg Man of Peace. Maybe some of us were so distracted but the apparent Zionism of "Neighbourhood Bully" that we missed the 'God incarnate' theme central to "I and I," with its reference to a mysterious woman who in another lifetime must have owned the world or have been faithfully wed; or the possibility of autobiography in
"Somewhere Mama’s weeping for her blue-eyed boy
She’s holding them little white shoes and that little broken toy
And he’s following a star
The same one them three men followed from the East..."
It is notable that Bob has continued to sing songs like In the Garden and I Believe In You long after his so-called "Christian phase" was claimed by the critics to be over. He's also repeatedly covered other Christian songs live in concert, like "I am the man, Thomas" and "Glory, Glory, Glory, Somebody Touched Me."
Whilst Dylan has always meticulously controlled his privacy, and we can't possibly know what's in his mind at any particular time - his apparently autobiographical book Chronicles seems filled with false trails, and truly remarkable omissions such as the huge contribution of Victor Maymudes - there is no doubt that many of his original songs from the nineties to the present have contained strong Biblical allusions (as did songs from his pre-"born-again phase", demonstrating his familiarity with Biblical text - he's reported to have used the King James Version to aid his songwriting). When asked on tips he's received on songwriting from his father, Jakob Dylan said something to the effect of the benefit of ambiguity, of layers of meaning, of a 'keep-em-guessing' approach. I take that as a bit of a licence to keep guessing...
I have presented on this blog in the past a suggested interpretation of one of his more popular songs in recent decades (albeit popularised by another artist). Many will have thought that interpretation merely the product of my vivid imagination, or wishful thinking. I am not so sure. Dylan knows many of the lenses we use to view his songs through, and I doubt he wouldn't be aware of them when writing. Whether I'm right or wrong on this, if you're interested in the possibility of what I'm inferring being correct, read on.
There are lots of others but here I offer 2 main pieces of evidence for my suggested skeleton key:
(a) his True Confessions tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1986, when he played a rocked-up version of "In The Garden" from his Saved album, introducing it with the comment that this was a song about his "Hero." In his 2017 interview with Bill Flanagan (reproduced on bob dylan.com), Flanagan asks "Which one of your songs do you think did not get the attention it deserved?" Dylan's response? “Brownsville Girl, or maybe In the Garden.” Maybe Bob was just referring to the tune... but being a guy whose meticulous lyrical crafting has earned him a Nobel prize, I don't think so.
(b) for a man often reluctant to be interviewed, the "60 minutes" interview he agreed to do with Ed Bradley (EB) in 2004. Here are a couple of excerpts:
"I realized at the time that the press, the media, they’re not the judge – God’s the judge. The only person you have to think about lying twice to is either yourself or to God. The press isn’t either of them."
EB: it’s lasted a long time for you. I mean you’re still out here doing these songs, you know. You’re still on tour.
BD: I do, but I don’t take it for granted.
EB: Why do you still do it? Why are you still out here?
BD: Well, it goes back to that destiny thing. I made a bargain with it, you know, long time ago. And I’m holding up my end…
EB: What was your bargain?
BD: …to get where I am now.
EB: Should I ask who you made that bargain with?
BD: [laughs] With the chief commander.
EB: On this earth?
BD: [laughs] In this earth and in the world we can’t see."
With the above in mind, let's see what happens if we try to use that skeleton key to unlock or unpick "False Prophet." Obviously the term itself has Old and New Testament connotations, although by no means confined to that collection of books. The first thing to note is that the song's title derives from its character's recurring statement, 3 times, "I ain't no false prophet". Now a devil would claim that anyway, of course... so maybe Bob's playing with us...
Nonetheless, let's stick on a Christian lens and see what jumps out.
(Lyrics and verse sequence are sourced from bobdylan.com, but on the released recording verses 6 and 7 are swapped). My suggestions for the first few verses may seem a stretch but stick with me, they may seem more probable by the time you get to the end and come back again and look at them after that. The song becomes more transparent as it progresses.
Verse 1
Another day without end - another ship going out
Another day of anger - bitterness and doubt
I know how it happened - I saw it begin
I opened my heart to the world and the world came in
This introductory verse is hard to pin down. Another day without end sounds like eternity but it also is how many of us feel when things aren't going well. I speculate that there may be Creation references in this. There at the start of things, seeing not only how things came to be in the first place, but also what went wrong. God spoke, in order to bring a world and humankind into existence and into communion with him. He opened his heart to the world and events followed, not "all good" (as cited ironically by Dylan on the condition of the world in the song of that name on Together Through Life, in fact ultimately deteriorating to a point where "Everything is Broken"), and where death stalks us all.
Verse 2
Hello Mary Lou - Hello Miss Pearl
My fleet footed guides from the underworld
No stars in the sky shine brighter than you
You girls mean business and I do too
Perhaps the "guides from the underworld" reference is where the devil notion first begins to take root. I think there is deliberate ambiguity here. This can be read either as Mary Lou and Pearl are guides who are from the underworld OR that they lead the way from the underworld i.e. from death to life. I wonder if this is a Trinitarian reference (which would follow on nicely from a creation one in verse 1). I think Dylan has used relationship with a woman in the past in his songs to signify a relationship with God. I figure "What's a Sweetheart like You Doin' in a Dump Like This" is a reference to the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. Dylan certainly has muddied the waters back even as far as Shelter From the Storm, when he suggests a woman was born around the same time as God ("If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born") and that, following crucifixion of the innocent Christ, the woman took his crown of thorns and gave him shelter:
"In a little hilltop village, they gambled for my clothes
I bargained for salvation an’ they gave me a lethal dose
I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”.
So if Mary Lou and Pearl are references to the other persons of the Trinity, that leaves the main character in the song none other than Jesus himself. According to Christian creed, following his death, Jesus descended to the underworld/place of the dead, and "led captivity captive". Ultimately, He was resurrected by the Spirit, was the firstborn of the dead, after whom those who trust in him are led from death to life. "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you." (Romans 8 v 12).
It's important to note that this lyrical idiom of "fleet-footed guides" is strongly classical in origin - Hermes was the fleet-footed son of Zeus, messenger of the gods (whose name has been adopted by a modern day courier company), and the guide of travellers, particularly those journeying to the underworld. Dylan seems to have cleverly inverted the notion here. These fleet-footed guides lead in the opposite direction. There is a similar classical parallel with the "daystar", Venus, the bringer of light or dawn - so bright as to be visible when other 'stars' aren't. The same notion is referenced in Job 3 and in 2 Peter 1, although Jesus the Son is presented as the morning star in Revelation. Interestingly the Latin name for Venus is Lucifer... although this name was originally used in the King James Version (KJV) Bible and Vulgate (Isaiah 14) in reference to the tyrannical King of Babylon as the morning star brought low, rather than to the later tradition of attributing it to the Devil. Of course Dylan may be referencing entirely different bright stars. Mind you in classical mythology, Venus was considered a god...
The last line of this verse suggests a unity of purpose and resolve between the main character, Mary Lou and Pearl. It may recall Jesus' statement (as phrased in the KJV) of "being about my Father's business."
I think Verse 3 is where things start to get a little more transparent in meaning, though seemingly this has been missed by the NME article:
I’m the enemy of treason - the enemy of strife
I’m the enemy of the unlived meaningless life
I ain’t no false prophet - I just know what I know
I go where only the lonely can go
Treason is an act of disloyalty to King or country/governing authority. The enemy of treason is therefore someone who works against that notion, in favour of re-establishing loyalty or obedience to the King/ruler (or maybe "Chief Commander"). The enemy of strife must be one who acts as a mediator, a peacemaker; someone engaged in the business of reconciliation. The enemy of the unlived meaningless life must be one who restores life to be lived, full of meaning and value. Jesus Christ meets these descriptors, the sole person to live a life fully obedient to God the Father, who was foretold as the Prince of Peace, who came to restore relationships between God and man and between man and man (and woman), and who said (John 10 v 10) "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Jesus was accused by the religious leaders of the day of being a false prophet, and asserted that He wasn't and that He had knowledge from the Father. Note however the form of words here (and later in the song). I know what I know has a strong echo of the form of words "I Am Who I Am" (Exodus 3 v 14 and John 13 v 19). Jesus was also known for identifying with the outcast.
Verse 4
I’m first among equals - second to none
I’m last of the best - you can bury the rest
Bury ’em naked with their silver and gold
Put ’em six feet under and then pray for their souls
Yet again we have a reference which has a classical origin (Primus inter pares). With a Christian lens this could potentially refer to Christ with regard to his pre-eminence (second to none) as per Colossians 1 v 18, and also that through him those who trust in him are "adopted sons" (treated as equals) - Ephesians 1 v 5, where the Greek for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture. The last of the best could refer to Christ being the last of the prophetic line. There's a contrast here between the character being the first and best, and others dying and being buried. Then again this could merely be a verse of bluesy idioms with rough justice being meted out. It has the feel of a Clint Eastwood Western movie.
Verse 5
What are you lookin’ at - there’s nothing to see
Just a cool breeze encircling me
Let’s walk in the garden - so far and so wide
We can sit in the shade by the fountain side
For me this is reminiscent of the angels at the Garden tomb, speaking to the women who had come to prepare Jesus' body for burial, and saying pretty much "Move along, nothing to see here..." ("Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here..." Luke 24 v 5), and an encounter with "the gardener" (John 20) at the same spot. If that's so, the cool breeze could be a reference to the work of the resurrecting Spirit (Greek πνεῦμα =wind), and the fountain being the fountain of the waters of life, linking the Garden of Eden, the Gospels, and Revelation.
Verse 6
You don’t know me darlin’ - you never would guess
I’m nothing like my ghostly appearance would suggest
I ain’t no False Prophet - I just said what I said
I’m here to bring vengeance on somebody’s head
My reading of this verse is that it relates to the fact that, post-resurrection, Mary, and other disciples did not always recognise Jesus (Luke 24 vv 15-16). There was something different about his resurrected body. When they did recognise him, they thought He was a ghost (Luke 24 vv 37-39), and he reassured them that He wasn't. "I just said what I said" - there's that form of words again. And the final line brings to mind Genesis 3 v 15 (the seed of the woman who would ultimately come and crush the serpent's head).
Verse 7
I’ve searched the world over for the Holy Grail
I sing songs of love - I sing songs of betrayal
Don’t care what I drink - don’t care what I eat
I climbed a mountain of swords on my bare feet
I concede that Mark Beaumont may be correct that Dylan is referring to himself in the first half of this verse at least. Yet love and betrayal is common to many, not least Jesus, who arguably also "crawled across cut glass to make a deal", or climbed a mountain of swords in his bare feet. I and I contained the sacrificial line "I’ve made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot."
Verse 8
Put out your hand - there’s nothin’ to hold
Open your mouth - I’ll stuff it with gold
Oh you poor Devil - look up if you will
The City of God is there on the hill
There's definitely a sense of justice, a notion that the instructions are being made to someone concerned with greed, who is now not going to benefit from that greed. I'm reminded a little of Hans Gruber in Die Hard, as he falls to his death from the Nakatomi Plaza tower, reaching out for something to grasp but there's nothing to hold onto. There are echoes of storing up treasure on earth versus treasure in heaven (Matthew 6 vv 19-20), you can't take it with you when you go. What follows this is, I suggest, the unveiling of what the song is ultimately about - Christ's victory over death and Satan, and the validation that He ain't no False Prophet. There is no doubt whatsoever that the City of God on a hill is the picture from Hebrews (Hebrews 11 vv 13-16 & Hebrews 12 v 22) and from Revelation (Revelation 21 vv 1-7) of the heavenly city on Mount Zion, God's Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, God's original plan to live with man restored, the time when justice has been meted out, treason excluded, wrongs righted, and no more suffering:
"Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’... I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children."
And in the midst of that very passage, there's that fountain ("spring of the water of life"), and the wedding metaphor...
The chapter immediately preceding this (Revelation 20) has the Devil being bound, thrown into the abyss (a bit like Hans Gruber), meeting his ultimate fate, and Hades (the underworld) giving up its dead. "Oh you poor Devil, look up if you will, the City of God is there on the hill."
Verse 9
Hello stranger - Hello and goodbye
You rule the land but so do I
You lusty old mule - you got a poisoned brain
I’m gonna’ marry you to a ball and chain
In Revelation 20, the Devil gets released for a short time before being "sent down" - could that be a "Hello and goodbye"? The book of Revelation also suggests (eg chapter 13) that the Devil and his minions were given temporary authority over every tribe people language and nation. And the Gospel according to Luke (4 vv 5-6) states that one of the Devil's temptations of Jesus in the wilderness was as follows:
"The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.’
The Devil in Revelation is presented as stubborn and deceitful, leading the nations astray - poisoning the minds of mankind with the poison in his own. Subsequently in Revelation, as we've seen, the Devil is subdued and bound. A ball and chain seem to be a suitable metaphor. I think Dylan has mirrored the positive marriage metaphor between Christ and his Church in Revelation with a marriage of the Devil to a ball and chain.
I said earlier that I think these later verses point to what the song is all about. If the above isn't enough evidence, how about the name for one of the Devil's partners that Revelation 20 passage (v 10, and also Revelation 16 v 13 & 18 v 20)? None other than the False Prophet..
Verse 10
You know darlin’ the kind of life that I live
When your smile meets my smile - somethings got to give
I ain’t no false prophet - I’m nobody’s bride
Can’t remember when I was born and I forgot when I died
This verse wraps up the song. If the main character is, as I've suggested, Christ, we do know the kind of life he lives. He lived it amongst us. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Truth not falsehood. The Church, Christ's darling, with its smile meeting his. I mentioned Sweetheart Like You above. The coming of the Spirit to the Church was marked by the appearance of tongues of fire coming to rest on the Apostles' heads. "By the way that's a cute hat, and that smile's so hard to resist..." Christ is the groom not the bride. Christianity has it that He's God, "eternally begotten" - no memorable birth, but a relationship of Son to the Father within the Trinity. He did die but his death is eclipsed by resurrection, such that none of us need focus on death again.
Finally the graphics posted along with the song - there's that cross sign (featured on previous album covers) appearing again on the package the skeleton is carrying... the skeleton whose shadow is an executed man...
One question remains, what's in the syringe?
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Posted by: Eduardo Ricardo | 05/14/2020 at 09:02 PM
This is an excellent dissection of "False Prophet". And I share your opinion that just because Bob is beyond his Gospel phase don't mean he's beyond the Gospel. My initial take on the song was that the speaker is Satan, but I hear what you're saying about it being Christ. Sure could be both. And isn't that so Dylan? Keep 'em guessing, as you say. Certainly, Christ as the speaker in Dylan's songs comes up again and again. "Make You Feel My Love" comes to mind, as does "If You Belonged To Me" from the second Wilbury's album. I'm actually of the opinion that the entirety of the album, "Together Through Life" addresses the relationship of Christ to the church. "My Wife's Hometown" is an example - whose wife's home town is Hell?
Anyway, love your insights!
Posted by: Deborah Fackler Muller | 05/14/2020 at 10:28 PM
And, as to the syringe: the medicine of immortality, perhaps?
Posted by: Deborah Fackler Muller | 05/14/2020 at 10:30 PM
Eduardo, thanks for the repost. I learned some fascinating things on Edlis Cafe!
Posted by: The Slicer | 05/15/2020 at 12:00 AM
Deborah
thank you so much. I must take a look again at those songs you mention from that perspective. The only one of them I had read that way in the past was Make You Feel My Love. I put a link to my previous musings on it in the blog post above. In case you missed it, or didn't notice need to click on the link in the previous blog, here's the direct link to my slideshow put to the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHkrbVArXlg
Posted by: The Slicer | 05/15/2020 at 12:05 AM