Mickvet wrote:
Magdalena wrote:
Given our political situation in the US, so many of these lines struck me as perfect commentary on the current President, and especially on his false promises. The second verse leapt out oat me. Obviously, that was not the original subject of the song, so it is not "about" that, but at the least it goes to show the genius of how Bob's music can apply to whatever is on one's mind. I cannot help but wonder, however, despite Bob's resolute avoidance of politics, if the decision to include it on this collection could be more than serendipitous.
This song is about Christ, not any mortal man. Dylan wouldn't endorse the previous POTUS when very strongly pressed a few years back, why would he voluntarily lower himself to this kind of thing now? Your type of Dylan left the scene in 1963. He has, apart from specific cases of perceived racial injustice, avoided domestic politics since apart from the general apocalyptic sense implied in such albums as Infidels (Union Sundown is an anti-globalism tirade derived from Revelation, for example) and Slow Train Coming.
There is a political section on ER if you wish to debate a man whom Dylan has expressed admiration for in interview.
Um... First, I very clearly said the song is not "about" Trump. Second, I don't think one can possibly say that the song is "about" Christ (the "you" in the song cannot be Christ), though it could certainly be about man's relationship with Christ.
I also specifically said that Bob resolutely avoids politics. That said, we also know that he is frequently indirect and sly in his allusions.
The point my post was making was simply that like any good poem, this song can be interpreted anew in light of the present day, and therefore I wondered if anyone involved in the album shared that thought when choosing the selection, or, more germanely, if anyone here had had a similar reaction. It seemed to fit in this thread because I am not interested in hypothesizing about what Bob himself thinks of Trump today, but only whether any others here shared my reaction. I apologize if you think it was not the appropriate thread.
There is a very long poetic history of blurring the lines between the sacred and the secular. In Medieval France, for example, songs to the Virgin Mary frequently adapted courtly love songs. There is equally a long poetic history of a poem gaining new resonance in light of a later event. The reason art and literature remain relevant decades or centuries after their creation is because people find new relevance in works with each generation. Nothing about the initial meaning of the song or its creation during the Gospel period excludes its applicability to a different situation now.