EXTRACTS (full version here)
More Love Songs From Desire
The basic joke behind the song is that the singer claims that, rather than admiring her physical attributes, he is interested only in her mind. This is of course a reversal of the usual approach of highly sexualised post-Elvis rockabilly material. He tells her that…You got your body in the way… The song relies on its cleverly humorous rhyming for much of its effect, especially when Dylan sings …You’re so damn nonchalant/ It’s your mind that I want… and later …I don’t have to go to college ‘cos you are the book of knowledge… He also claims that …You got me huffin’ and a puffin’/ Next to you I feel like nothin’ and …You got me burnin’ and I’m turnin’/ But I know I must be learnin’… Throughout the song the singer maintains that it is the girl’s intellect that attracts him. But this may well be just a ruse that he is using to make a physical connection with her – a comically exaggerated ‘chat up line’ that he is using to try to attract this intellectual (and presumably feminist) female. This is made more obvious in the bridge section, when the singer po-facedly tells us that …All my friends keep telling me that if I hang around with you I’ll go blind… This refers to the ‘old wives’ tale’ that masturbation causes blindness, suggesting that he really is sexually obsessed with her. Or perhaps he has never really met her, but ‘admires’ her photos from afar.
Rita May is an amusing parody of contemporary sexual mores, while the more straightforward Mozambique, which provides some light relief on the album, is a whimsical pastiche of Hollywood musical songs of the 1940s and 50s. The song has a light ‘Latin’ feel reminiscent of performers like Carmen Miranda (especially her song Chica Chica Boom Chic). The name ‘Mozambique’ appears to have been picked at random, more for its sound than anything else. It has been rumoured that Dylan and Levy chose the name as part of an exercise in seeing how many rhymes they could follow ‘ique’ with. Here we get cheek’, ‘unique’, ‘week’ and ‘peek’. It is arguable that the choice of the name was unfortunate, as the real country of Mozambique in Africa had spent most of the previous decade engaged in a bitter and bloody war of liberation against its colonial oppressors the Portuguese. Some listeners – desperate, perhaps, for Dylan to return to political songwriting – interpreted the song as a sarcastic comment on this war and perhaps the state of the world in general. But this is largely wishful thinking. In fact the song is a light confection, which was played on most of the gigs in the second Rolling Thunder tour of 1976, where it provides the band and audience with some fun and light relief from the wordier, more serious material.
The tragic love song Romance in Durango also contains strong elements of pastiche. It is almost as if Dylan and Levy have tried to cram in as many stereotypical references to Mexico as possible. We get scenes in a cantina, a fiesta, the desert and a corrida and references to the fandango, tequila, a ‘padre’, golden earrings, ancient Aztec ruins and the Mexican revolution. This is not so much a song about Mexico as a song about a movie set in Mexico, possibly a ‘spaghetti western’ with an ambivalent anti-hero. Clint Eastwood would be a shoe-in for the part of the nameless narrator – a ‘man with no name’. The elements of gun fighting, outlaws, lovers on the run with lawmen on their trail are also reminiscent of aspects of the revisionist Western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Yet this is no lighthearted ditty like Mozambique. The song’s stirring melody, its resonant imagery, its pacing and dramatic flourishes and its narrative economy all contribute to the creation of a genuinely tragic and moving story, even if those elements are dictated by cinematic conventions. It was part of the standard set list in the first Rolling Thunder tour, although was played less often in 1976. Since then it has been played only once, to a surprised but highly delighted audience at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in 2003. The live versions of the song tend to be slightly faster and harder edged than the studio recording.
…Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun, dust on my face and my cape… is one of Dylan’s most resonant opening lines, setting the tone of the song – with its elements of ‘hot passion’ – perfectly. By relating the story in the present tense Dylan gives great immediacy to the narrative. Up until the tragic ending, the narrator sounds optimistic; although we may soon suspect that this feeling is misplaced. He addresses the song to his lover Magdalena, with whom he is trying to escape from the forces of law and order, continually trying to reassure her that they will escape. He confesses that has …sold my guitar to the baker’s son… but promises to buy another one so he can play for her when they reach freedom. The song has a rousing chorus, some of which is in Spanish: …No llores, mi querida/ Dios nos vigila (Don’t cry, my dear God is watching over us)/Soon the horse will take us to Durango/ Agarrame, mi vida (Hold me, my love, my life)/ Soon the desert will be gone/ Soon you will be dancing the fandango… Durango is the area of Mexico where Pat Garrett was filmed. The narrator seems to believe that he and Magdalena will be free when they get there.
Oh Sister, which is the only Dylan/Levy song lacking in strong cinematic or theatrical elements. It is a sad, wistful song, delivered at a sonorous pace, with a number of extended vocal effects. The interplay between violin and harmonica is especially effective here in tugging the heart strings. There are only three short verses and a bridge but the song usually lasts for at least four minutes. On Desire Emmylou Harris’ contribution is mixed up high so the track is virtually a duet. Having both male and female voices together adds an interesting dynamic, given the fact that the song is a direct address to a woman, or perhaps to women in general. The use of the word ‘sister’ seems to be a nod to feminists. Dylan appears to be lamenting the tragic misunderstandings between men and women that can occur with regard to sexual politics. At the same time, the song is also apparently directed at an individual woman with whom the narrator has had a relationship. He delivers various warnings and admonitions to her, but these are almost certainly futile.
The language of the song is fairly simple and lacking in concrete images. Dylan plays with religious and social concepts in a rather disarming way. The opening …Oh sister when I come to lie in your arms/ You should not treat me like a stranger… strongly suggests a sexual connection. We can presume that the woman is not the narrator’s actual sister but that he is addressing her in this way as a term of respect. The ‘family’ analogy is continued with …Our father would not like the way that you act… There is a strong implication that he is referring to a ‘heavenly father’ here. He appears to be implying that men and women are ‘brothers and sisters under God’. But his tone is oddly didactic, even dictatorial. The first verse ends with a warning to the woman that …You must realise the danger…. In this case the ‘danger’ appears to be that she will reject him. This is rather contradictory, given the respectful way he addresses her. It is as if he is invoking some kind of divine judgement to persuade her to stay with him.
The short bridge section is perhaps the most puzzling in the song, beginning with the slightly odd expression …We grew up together from the cradle to the grave… which again positions the woman as his ‘sister’. He then suggests that they have been through some kind of religious experience together: …We died and were reborn and yet mysteriously saved… Finally he implores her not to turn him away when he calls on her. In his final desperate plea, the highly evocative if somewhat abstract…Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore/ You may not see me tomorrow… he may be trying to appeal to her by pointing out how short life is. But he may also be delivering an implied threat to walk away from her if she does not respond in time. We can be pretty certain, however, that all his efforts will be in vain.
In the post-Blood on the Tracks songs that centre around love, romance and commitment, Dylan tries a range of different approaches to matters that, for him, are clearly unresolved. As ever, he uses various personas, historical settings and dramatic devices to approach an area that he once dealt with in such a self-assured way but which now seems to have morphed into many different dimensions – delightful, nostalgic, comical, sad and often darkly confusion. Over the next few years this uncertainty and insecurity will lead him towards adopting the ‘safety blanket’ of a ’born again’ religious experience in the midst of perhaps the most turbulent phase of his creative life.
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