Your thoughts on 'Absolutely Sweet Marie'

What is it about this song that just never gets old? Typical ridiculous Dylan lyrics... what the hell? Great speaking-only Dylan delivery... maybe the greatest harmonica solo in rock history... locomotive pace...

Just so thankful there was a brain capable of creating something like this. Care to express an idea, factoid and/or opinion on this Blonde On Blonde beauty?

 

Great song! I like George Harrison's cover of it at Bobfest:

 

Great song

 

Writing about Absolutely Sweet Marie is a bit like dancing about architecture, but what the hell.

In an album where - unusually for Dylan - every other song has a 'middle eight', Absolutely Sweet Marie has two. It suggests he wasn't taking himself too seriously... as if we didn't already know.

Love them both.

 

These guys jumped the railroad gate. Check out Hillary Clinton at the 1:55 mark.

 

I have witnessed some fantastic live versions over the years. Great song!

 

Love this version. Love this band. One of the most underrated, rockinest bands ever.

And Dylan's original is mighty fine also.

 

Well, your railroad gate, you know I just can't jump it
Sometimes it gets so hard, you see
I'm just sitting here beating on my trumpet
With all these promises you left for me
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie ?

Some scholars have suggested the lyrics might be referring to something other than railroad gates and trumpets.

Jeff

 

And of course it's part of that select group of Dylan Songs That Start Or End (More Or Less) With An Adverb:

Queen Jane Approximately
Positively 4th Street
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
Absolutely Sweet Marie
Obviously 5 Believers

with an honorable mention given to Temporary Like Achilles, which almost makes it.

A great track for lovers of adverbs everywhere. They know who they are.

 

Funny, just listened to The Deep Dark Woods version on Daytrotter that was recorded today. Love the song. They do a great job with it.

 

Emotionally Yours

 

Well, I was going to add "That Dylan Doesn't Actually Sing", but that excludes Obviously Five Believers.

So how about Dylan Songs That Start Or End (More Or Less) With An Adverb And Where The Title Never Actually Gets Sung?

 

I saw him play it in Atlantic City in 1998- blew me away

 

The Beatles cover the song!!! This is funny!!!

 

This song strikes me as uncoverable. The Harrison versions are travesties. The Scorchers is a sloppy mess, but it's got spirit, I guess.

 

I love the sloppy mess version.

 

In the playful and clever side of Dylan, which certainly encompasses a nice chunk of the album, and other tracks before, this is the tops. You can feel the desperation in his tone. Marie is as unreachable a muse as Johanna, and he is just as obsession. Yet, this is done in a far more comical tone. The sexually suggestive lyrics are almost not immediately recognizable, giving them all the more credence. Musically, it has all the muscle of the later BoB songs, with the middle eights 'n all. And yes, there are TWO!! The song is so short, it certainly doesn't require two. Heck, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands doesn't even have one. But having two makes the passage of time feel so long. It feels like a movie, the middle eights fast-forwarding over the boring bits.

This is one of my favorites off of BoB, but then again, I've given the distinction to more than half of them.

 

One of the best songs off one of the best rock albums of all time. When Dylan is good, he's freaking inhumanly, eternally, unimaginably SCARY good.

 

The Groovies' version is pretty good:

 

One of the things that makes "Marie" such a great track is the musicians playing on it. The drumming (Kenny Buttrey) is perfect!

 

Contains my all-time favorite one-line lyric: "To live outside the law you must be honest."

 

Me, too. Jason and the boys kill on that cover.

Jeff

 

Hmm...could this have anything to do with strummin' on the old banjo?

Fee, fie, fiddly-i-o, indeed!

 

In my book, everything from "Blonde on Blonde" is a home run.

 

This one is a Grand Slam.