Analyzing Bob Dylan's 2016 Christmas Lights

This has become an annual tradition -- a time when Dylan watchers anxiously await the fates in the lights. Merrill Markoe released her analysis of Bob Dylan's Christmas lights. Here are some highlights.

An "N" shape is seen in the string:

link to original

I've seen clearer "N's" embedded in kid's pajamas.

Deeper analysis of the string reveals various clues to Bob's quixotic response to the Nobel Prize Committee; begin down in the lower left with 1 and follow through to 21 (number 11, lol):

link to original

For previous year's analyses, click on the "Bob Dylan's Christmas Lights" tag.

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How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown, like The Rolling Stone...

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Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Literature Prize

It's about time that lyrics were regarded as poetry.

Congrats!

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Pretty lady covers a 50-year-old Dylan song:

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link in case the video flops

'Gentlemen,' he said, 'I don't need your organization, I've shined your shoes

I've moved your mountains and marked your cards

But Eden is burning -- either brace yourself for elimination

Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards.'

Full lyrics after the jump

KLEM FM: My Favorite Dylan Covers

Compiled from my iTunes according to my "played" metric which spans a number of years. Number 10 is least played; number 1 has the most plays:

10. Mama, You've Been On My Mind by Rod Stewart from his 1972 LP "Never A Dull Moment."

9. The Mighty Quinn (The Eskimo) by Manfred Mann and his Earth Band (1968).

8. All I Really Want To Do by The Byrds (1965).  I have three Byrds songs in my top ten so there is something special about them. I suppose it's their sound. They really did invent a new sound as I described here.

7. Don't Think Twice by Mike Ness (1999)

6. All Along The Watchtower by The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968)

5. My Back Pages by The Byrds (1967)

4. It's All Over Now Baby Blue by Them (that's Van Morrison in disguise, 1966). I probably under-counted this version and it should be ranked higher. But the song only recently became available on iTunes.

3. Mr. Tambourine Man, The Byrds (1965)

2. Changing Of The Guards Patti Smith (2007)

1. I Believe In You Cat Power (2008). The original is from Dylan's "Slow Train Coming," the LP some Dylan fans still love to forget. But the song works well at a non-religious level too, in my opinion.
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So what did I leave out?  What would you add or subtract?

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"Gallows Pole "is another ye olde folk song (like "House of the Rising Sun" considered here the other night). Coincidently, the plot of "Gallows Pole" was also originally written about a woman (called "The Maid Freed From The Gallows"), but Led Zeppelin's version left no doubt that it was about a man who didn't cheat the hangman.

Just like "House of the Rising Sun," Bob Dylan did an earlier version of the song called "Seven Curses." It tells the story of a woman desperately trying to save the life of her condemned father. She gives gold, silver, and herself to the judge who takes everything and hangs him anyway. This sad state of affairs reminded me of an episode of "Foyle's War" -- the one in which a young desperate woman gives herself to the one man who can give her a new life and he ends up taking hers instead (sorry for the spoiler).

Listen to the last lines in the Led Zeppelin version:

Oh yes, you got a fine sister, she warmed my blood from cold,
She warmed my blood to boiling hot to keep you from the Gallows Pole,
Your brother brought me silver, and your sister warmed my soul,
But now I laugh and pull so hard to see you swinging on the Gallows Pole

Cruel.

Led Zeppelin III is an underrated album, IMHO. There is a slew of great songs on that album, many of which were never overplayed. When I first heard it (on vinyl), I thought the recording quality was inferior to their other records. But Jimmy Page remastered it and re-released it this June.