Bob Dylan - "Dark Eyes" (Lyric Interpretation)

In an interview (or webchat) not long before his death, George joked that he was going to call his then-forthcoming new solo album "Your Planet Is Doomed, Vol. 1." Typical dry humour from George, but in the context of this discussion the fact that he calls it "your" planet (and not "our planet") is significant, I think.

 

Echoes of Dylan's line in "When You Gonna Wake Up?" - "YOUR insane asylums are filled".

 

Judy Davis sings Dark Eyes from High Tide 1987

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzqaon_dark-eyes-high-tide-1987_shortfilms

 

She's so right!

 

...and now for something completely different....
This song relates to Dylan's trip to Israel, where he felt judged by religious Jews and judged the animosity between the people there, all or most of whom have dark eyes. The images evoked speak of Dylan's immediate connection to the people and place and his sensitivity to thr conflict there.

 

That is certainly different. I can see why you'd feel many of the details of the song falling into that particular place once you think of this as a context for what the singer sings, but is there really anything in the lyric itself, or for that matter anything clear in Dylan's biography, that suggests this is indeed an appropriate context for understanding the lyric?

L.

 

I think this is Dylan's greatest lyric since Visions of Johanna. It is not meant to be read linearly - like Visions we feel Bob is moving ("time to slide") and he's intepreting scenes that he sees along the way that invoke the central theme. Which is, so many people are just plain lost, wandering with their dark eyes. Is Bob lost? Is his girlfriend, or the girl in the hall? Does that really matter? The genius of the tune is how easily we can apply these templates to our own lives, and think yeh, I know exactly what lost souls he's talking about. Look at the power of Patti Smith's duet rendition - she undoubtedly connects to it as a sort of feminist anthem. One could easily interpret it that way.

A brilliant, brilliant lyric, made all the more powerful by the restraint of its arrangement.

 

Unfortunately this sounds about as good as there Live Aid performance, but I still like the bit where Keith says he loves the tune.

I love "Dark Eyes" and love "Empire Burlesque."