EDLIS: After A War

 The Songs

A brief list of some of Bob Dylan's songs featuring cars and motorbikes... 

Question: What are your songs about?

Dylan: Some of my songs are about four minutes, some are about five minutes and some, believe it or not, are about 11 or 12. 

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In Tangled up in Blue, there is a car used as a metaphor for a relationship, for example. Two people in an enclosed physical or emotional space, moving through the moment inextricably linked. The line, 'We drove that car as far as we could/Abandoned it out West' is followed immediately by the protagonists splitting up as soon as the journey is over and the car is abandoned. 

As an extension of this metaphor, there is a stanza in Brownsville Girl as he is driving in her car (a 'busted down Ford').

'Well, we’re drivin’ this car and the sun is comin’ up over the Rockies
Now I know she ain’t you but she’s here and she’s got that dark rhythm in her soul
But I’m too over the edge and I ain’t in the mood anymore to remember the times
when I was your only man
And she don’t want to remind me. She knows this car would go out of control'

Again, the relationship is represented by a car. The narrator is driving, trying to maintain (emotional and physical) control. He needs to focus on the here and now, and his partner understands this. The car going out of control would be his emotional reaction which could lead to the destruction of the current relationship. The later line, “We’re going all the way ’til the wheels fall off and burn...” is indicative of seeing a path of action through to the end - even when that end could be catastrophic. 

Of course, the entire song, in the case of Dylan's cover of Hank Snow's Ninety miles An Hour (Down A Dead End Street), is an analogy for a doomed and adulterous temptation. 

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There are some references to cars that are relating to energy, drive, restlessness and the potential for self-destruction (the 'crash'). This Wheel's On Fire is an example of this in a youthful and 'fiery' way, with a touch of irony, sarcasm and gall. In the reflection of someone older, we hear in Summer Days, 'Well, I got eight carburetors and boys, I’m using ’em all/I’m short on gas, my motor’s starting to stall' which is still about wanting to maintain that drive and motion, pushing oneself to the limits, but recognizing the constraints of age. 

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In Lonesome Day Blues, the line 'I’m forty miles from the mill—I’m droppin’ it into overdrive/Settin’ my dial on the radio/I wish my mother was still alive' concerns the rapid movement through life (is he heading away from the mill or towards it?) and how poignant memories can fill a seemingly mundane moment so intensely. 

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Urban decay and dissolution is represented by the use of negative car images - 'boulevards of broken cars' (Beyond Here Lies Nothing) and 'Where all the cars are stripped between the gates of night' (Golden Loom). They could be said to enhance the dismal atmosphere of anti-social, emotionally disconnected environments against which the singer is building a contrasting positive image of internal emotional connection. 

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In Let's Keep It Between Us, a song dealing with the outside world making judgements and interfering with personal matters, there is the line 'backseat drivers don’t know the feel of the wheel' in a clear analogy. If the car is a relationship, or even representing movement along the road of life, the backseat drivers are the people who are vocally 'meddling' in a person's chosen route without being aware of the position, difficulties or goals of the 'driver'. 

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There are other links, other metaphors, other analogies... these are just a few isolated thoughts. Not everyone will agree with the above ideas. Look at the lyrics yourself. Listen to the songs. Draw your own meanings and conclusions. Most of all, enjoy the music! 

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