Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

One of Dylan's most cinematic songs, and somehow that last verse nails that feeling. Just love it. I actually prefer the NY version partly because of the way he sings it, it's a note-perfect narration to an imaginary final scene:

The cabaret was empty now, a sign said, “Closed for repair”
Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair
She was thinkin’ ’bout her father, who she very rarely saw
Thinkin’ ’bout Rosemary and thinkin’ about the law
But most of all she was thinkin’ ’bout the Jack of Hearts

 

The thing is, a penknife wound wouldn't result in an instant death; it's a long, slow one, if it results in death at all. Plenty of time for the wounded Jim to pull the trigger on the Jack of Hearts, if his gun was loaded.

 

I like the musical backing to Rosemary quite a bit. A jolly rollicking beat.

 

I skip the official version, but am totally endeared to the acoustic version from BOTT sessions.

 

You don't love this song, I don't love you.

 

Doesn't the fact that the verse that recounts the conversation tells us that she "washed her face, took her dress off and buried it away" suggest it must be her dressing room or in any case her room in the saloon? We're never told exactly what Lily does at the saloon, but she's one of "the girls," so she's either a performer--maybe a dancing girl--or a prostitute--or both, and the one is not all that unlike the other. In any case she'd have a room in which she could take off her dress, wash, take dye out of her hair, etc.

And I'm not sure why Lily would be trying to hide the drilling from "Jack." If she's inh on it, "Jack" would be the last person she'd need to distract from it, and if she's not she'd be paying it no more mind than anybody else.

There are several lines or parts of lines in the song that are there merely to provide concrete detail. Most of them also have some relation to either the plot or the song's themes and symbolic resonances, but some are just there for the sake of what literary critics sometimes call the "reality effect." They're there just to make it feel real. The line about the "paint" is, I think, one of those--and one that also is plainly there to set up the rhyme on "saint," which is a much more "meaningful" bit of verbal detail, since it gives us a richer sense of character. There's no equivalent reason for Lily's dressing room to have been recently painted.

I'd love to ruminate on "Black Diamond Bay," which is another terrific piece of rapid-fire storytelling!

L.

 

Maybe, but then there's also the shock of it, not to mention again the "movie logic" (or ballad logic) that infects any attempt to make realistic sense of what happens in a song like this. And then there's the fact that we're getting an account that the singer tells us is incomplete: "No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pretty quick." And that sort of disclaimer is a ballad convention, too.

For that matter, so is the pen knife. Check out "Love Henry."

L.

 

Love it.

 

In the New York version, "cold" and "steady" are rather undeniably clear.

 

I forgot that, even more to the point, the climactic verse explicitly calls it a "dressing room." Whether it's for acting/dancing or preparation for less savory activities, and wherever it actually might be in the saloon building, it is a dressing room.

L.

 

I would maintain that we still don't know how the wall of Lily's dressing room lays in relation to the wall being drilled through, but since you effectively shot holes in my other two ideas I can't see it as relevant any longer. (Oh, yea she was talking to Jack. Rats!!)

Is a hell of a song though isn't it?

 

Yes it is!

L.

 

The bank job is two doors down, we know that much, so the drilling can't be directly next door to Lily's dressing room.

 

I believe that Bob himself has only performed the song live on just one occasion, with Joan Baez in Salt Lake City, in May 1976

 

Yes! I'd forgotten that detail. It makes a problem for my assumption that the repair sign in the last verse refers to the hole the boys made in getting into the bank vault. They must have been in whatever is next door to the saloon/cabaret, which makes sense, since the drilling would have been noticed if it were happening in the cabaret itself. Not as funny, but I guess Jim must have opened that door rather hard.....

I suspect there's a bit of nodding going on around the detail of the sign. The rest seems perfectly consistent.

L.

 

Thanks for that. I'll give you "steady in her eyes" but not "cold revolver". (around about 6:20)

 

I hear "cold," but it's too close to tell for sure. Either reading works.

L.

 

I don't know if this is really true, but I read somewhere that the May 25, 1976 show was recorded by someone in the audience but the taper felt guilty and turned the tape in.

When bobdylan.com featured unreleased live performances I suggested the live performance of "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" from 1976 and the webmaster said that was a good suggestion, which could possibly mean they have a recording of it.

Here's a quote from Joel Bernstein about the May 25, 1976 live performance, from:
http://www.edlis.org/twice/threads/live_lily_rosemary.html

Subject: Re: Dylan classics never performed live? [Was: Re: Sad-eyed]
From: Joel Bernstein
Date: Fri, 20 May 94

"... Regarding the performance of "Lily..." at Salt Lake: I recall it well. It was sung by Bob and Joan, each on guitar, on one vocal mike. Bob had written the first word or two of each verse on his shirt cuff, I believe, though it might have been his wrist (I'm pretty sure it was on the cuff, so to speak). They each sang the lead vocal on some verses, and Joan joined Bob in harmony for others. In a recent edition of the Telegraph (interview with Mike Evans, security chief for the tour), you will find a copy that I sent John Bauldie of the lyrics to the song with notations "B", "J", and "B&J" in the margin, which was a previously worked-out arrangement of the singing, although I doubt whether they stuck to that strictly. I recall my amazement that there were _no_ lyric mistakes, and I believe that the verses were sung in the correct order. Perhaps if one day a tape surfaces of the show that will be confirmed. There may have been minor variations in the lyrics, in the sense of substituting "the" for "a", or other things of that type, but no actual "mistakes". I remember wishing that that show had been videotaped and properly recorded instead of the show before at Fort Collins... it was far superior in spirit and performance.

This is certainly the most long-winded reply you will receive from me on this subject or any other!

Best, Joel

P.S.: I should mention that the "Lily..." lyric sheet published in the Telegraph is from the first page only; the margin notations continue in a similar way for the song's entirety."


About the song being made into a film--supposedly there was talk of Dylan playing the part of The Jack of Hearts.

Here's something about a couple of screen plays--
from: http://www.edlis.org/twice/threads/lily_rosemary_screenplay.html

Dylan approached scriptwriter (when?) John Kaye (who later wrote the 1980 film of Hunter S. Thompson's chaotic "Where The Buffalo Roam") to turn the nine minute song into a feature film. Kaye duly delivered a script but nothing more came of the project.

The song influenced "The Jack Of Hearts" screenplay, 1981 July 16 (3rd draft) by James Byron. A manuscript of this draft is kept at the Theater Research Institute, Ohio State University

(There's more at the link)


Also, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily,_Rosemary_and_the_Jack_of_Hearts
Joan Baez included a performance of "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" on her 1976 live album From Every Stage. This includes the extra verse from Dylan's first recording.


I also read (I can't remember where though) that dissatisfaction with the New York version of this song in particular led to the Minneapolis Blood on the Tracks sessions.

 

Watch 'Under the Dome.' All your questions will be answered...

 

BOTT is IMO one of the two best albums Dylan ever released. Furthermore, Rosemary is IMO one of the best songs on that album.
I find it hard to believe that others dislike it to the degree mentioned in this thread. It make me wonder what songs they DO like.

 

"Cold" is very clear in the early take.

 

Not to me. But you seem to have company: RayS says it's "undeniably clear" and lschwart says "too close to call".

My point is that "and a cold revolver clicks" makes absolutely no sense. Those lyric websites all copy from some original source; I don't now where it comes from - but the progenitor make oodles of mistakes and it just propagates across the Web. If those lyric sites were not there to guide, who would come up with the idea that Dylan is singing "and a cold revolver clicks"?

Dylan would not have missed the opportunity to reference Samuel Colt. We all know what a Peacemaker was. Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wild "Bill" Hickock. And the movies - Gary Cooper in "High Noon"; any movie set post 1873. A 6 shooter, but normally only 5 bullets are loaded with the hammer dropped down on the empty chamber. You have to cock the hammer back to make the chamber turn to get the live round into position.

Click.

It's simply too iconic to pass it by.

 

I don't follow why you think "cold" makes "absolutely no sense", but since explanations for it have already been provided upthread I won't repeat them here. It makes sense to me, and it is what I actually HEAR in both takes of the song. I am not referencing a lyrics website - I'm listening.

 

The readings, "cold" and "Colt," each make their own kind of perfectly good sense. The difference is down to whether or not it's possible to hear the difference between a vocalized dental stop ("d") and a non-vocalized one ("t"). All a matter of whether or not Dylan's vocal chords were vibrating when he pushed the little burst of air out between his tongue and his upper teeth. I do hear a "d" myself, especially on the NY version, and I like the figurative meanings that are suggested by "cold," but I can't say for sure that it's not a "t" both times. On the Minneapolis version, at least, it's possible that the vocalization from the "o" blurs the articulation of what Dylan meant to be an audible "t," but who knows? It all happens pretty quick!

L.

 

Not that it proves much of anything, but I never thought that Bob would give Alberta more golt than her aprons could holt. Or that the distant ships of liberty travel on iron waves that are bolt and free.

On the other hand, I could always hear Bob Weir clearly sing "A catch colt draws a coffin cart" in "Cassidy".