Christopher Ricks
That all songs about relationships between men and women are accusable of sexism. Every great writer or artist who’s tackled relations between the sexes, has been accused of sexism. Jane Austen is accused of sexism, absolutely. Not to be accused, means that you were a coward, basically.
In the end, “Just Like a Woman” (from Blonde on Blonde
Gray dropped that. He said, “The only way which would save it from being a terribly bad song.”
But the song is accusable of sexism, isn’t it? I think the accusation doesn’t stick, because I think it’s a song about it being a very unfortunate thing, for a woman to go along with, or to play the little girl card, as Dylan thinks it’s very bad for men to play the little boy card. After all, the same album gives you “Little Boy Lost he takes himself so seriously.”
Just like a little girl seems to me, she does not behave like a woman, and far from it being the accusation that she does behave like a woman, the accusation is that she does not, which friends of mine have said must be an accusation, it’s very difficult to take.
Sean Wilentz – I see that. I hear that song as a howl of pain, too, though; a terrible howl of pain.
Christopher Ricks – Yeah, “Nobody feels any pain,” means except me.
Sean Wilentz – He’s entered into this relationship with a girl, girl, girl, but … “fog, amphetamine and pearls”, but it’s a train wreck. It’s turning into a train wreck, and he’s just saying goodbye. I just see it as a … But he’s howling with pain, I think.
Christopher Ricks: I don’t think he’s just saying goodbye, because I think nobody ever just says goodbye. Everybody always says, “Don’t think twice, it’s alright.” Everybody always says … Go back to the ancient tradition in song is, I’m down on my knees, I’ve absolutely had it, but it wouldn’t be too late if you would just, in the last line of the song, say, “love you”. It’s what people say on the phone, don’t they, all the time; “love you”. Just that.
Sean Wilentz
Sean Wilentz – Do you hear that in that song, “Like a Woman”?
Christopher Ricks – Yes, I do.
Sean Wilentz – You do?
Christopher Ricks – Because I think the pain isn’t to be comprehended. There’s some wish at the end … If anybody says, “I believe it’s time for us to quit,” nobody ever says it.
Everybody always wants you to say, “No, it isn’t really”, isn’t that right? You say that. Of course, to rhyme on “quit”, means you can’t quit it. If you rhyme “fit” and “quit”, they fit together, and the one word has refused to quit the other one. It’s just stayed there.
Tomorrow – Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart is Folk Music
Sources
- Bob Dylan in America – Amazon.com – Amazon.ca
– Amazon.co.uk
- Dylan’s Visions of Sin – Amazon.com
– Amazon.ca
– Dylan’s Visions of Sin
- Slow Train Coming – Amazon.com
– Amazon.ca
– Amazon.co.uk
- Saved – Amazon.com – Amazon.ca
– Amazon.co.uk
- Shot Of Love – Amazon.com – Amazon.ca
– Amazon.co.uk
- Highway 61 – Amazon.ca
– Amazon.co.uk
- Blonde on Blonde – Amazon.com – Amazon.ca
– Amazon.co.uk
iTunes – Bob Dylan
End Note
Sean Wilentz is a noted historian and the author of Bob Dylan in America
Christopher Ricks wrote the definitive book on Bob Dylan’s lyrics as poetry – Dylan’s Visions of Sin
The discussion took place at The Philoctetes Center for the Multi-Disciplinary Study of the Imagination. You can watch the symposium on YouTube although it’s tediously long at 1 hour and 49 minute.
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