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In Bob Dylan’s song Scarlet Town, the world’s view is presented as Dylan sees it. By incorporating his thoughts in several words throughout the music, Dylan sets the song as a dancehall from the start to when he makes a request. Through intertextuality, Dylan writes the song presenting a state of the interplay between Scarlet Town and other embedded songs. The effect of the other songs embedded in Dylan’s song and how they help invoke the overall theme becomes the point of consideration throughout the analysis.
The impact Ernest Tubb’s Walking the Floor Over You and Vern Gosdin’s Set ‘Em Up Joe have on Dylan’s writing style might not mean much for specific references but greatly contributes to the theme. The references are significant in presenting pictures and hints that constantly fade in and out in the song. The impressionist piece borrows from these specific songs to enable the listener to understand the hints and parodies of Scarlet Town‘s world. The use of images and hints in the song shows that what appears in the front has a different perspective when the light fades. Through the features, the song helps to bring out the notion that everything is concocted from the personalities people have been dealt with throughout their upbrings and genes.
The town constitutes distinct features: a bar of heavy drinkers, a junky whore, a dancehall that plays rock n roll of the 1950s, and a folk club. Dylan sings, “Set ’em up Joe, play Walking The Floor Play it for my flat chested junky whore I’m staying up late and I’m making amends While the smile of heaven descends” (n.p). From this part of the song, the narrator acknowledges his negative qualities, but the qualities should not condemn them. Dylan embodies the perfect characteristic of what the town shapes people to become, and his cruel description of his lover shows the evil nature he possesses. However, despite being cruel, Dylan’s kindness becomes evident when he requests for a song to be played for her. Moreover, the narrator acknowledges his imperfections to the point of ‘making amends,’ being optimistic the heavens will descent on his act of kindness. Therefore, it is best to accept things for what they are since everything mentioned is all here in the town, and it is all good.
Repeatedly, the incorporated references in the song make the audience acknowledge that life follows through a pattern people have no control over. Escape, should it ever happen, only comes too late in life. Both the bad and the good exist as Ying and Yang, which is the truth about life. There is nothing people can do to alter their fate, and since change rarely comes, individuals keep fighting the same wars fought by their fathers. While signs of progress appear, none happens in people’s lives. Dylan sings, ”In Scarlet Town you fight your father’s foes Up on the hill a chilly wind blows You fight ‘em on high and you fight ‘em down in You fight ‘em with whisky, morphine and gin” (n.p). However, even that being the case, the narrator keeps believing that everything will be okay. Repenting and trying to do things better, no matter what stage in life, will help change one’s fate. Therefore, handling issues where Dylan is now of paramount significance since traveling is not a guaranteed way of putting things right.
Johnny Ray’s Whiskey and Gin and, more specifically, the lines ‘I got a gal who drinks whiskey and gin/Kisses me goodnight, hugs and squeezes me tight’ are also used as references in Scarlet Town. Evident in “You fight ‘em on high and you fight ‘em down in You fight ‘em with whisky, morphine and gin,” Dylan shows how relying on drugs and alcohol is the preferred way of dealing with challenges. However, the options are simple translations of giving in to the challenges. Dylan assumes he is doomed, and this shows a state of weakness in the narrator as the audience wonders why he cannot remain assertive when facing adversity.
Lastly, Scarlet Town presents a more detailed study of Barbara Allen’s folk song. While Allen’s main theme tells of a tale where a young woman spurns her lover on his deathbed and comes to regret it, Dylan brings out a world full of both bad and good. However, Dylan argues there is no way the bad in the world can prevent combining the two forms from leading to eventual good. The entire world presented in the town appears complete in several ways. The events of the characters present a global real-life significance that resonates on beauty and ugliness, wealth and poverty, cruelty and kindness, and life and death.
Conclusively, the impact of the references in the song Scarlet Town helps shape the world’s view as Dylan presents it to be significantly resonating with all manner of real life. As established, the presentation ranges from cruelty and kindness to life and death, and Dylan shows that sometimes relying on drugs and alcohol is the preferred way of dealing with challenges. However, sorting out the narrator’s issues is of paramount significance since traveling is not a guaranteed way of putting things right.
Work Cited
Dylan, Bob. Lyrics to Scarlet Town. Special Rider Music 2012. Web.
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