Song Interpretation: Sweet Heart Like You

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a huge fan of Bob Dylan. I get very annoyed when people don't know who he is or complain about his voice. Ignorant people are maddening to anyone rapt in fandom. To me, he is the greatest living chronicler of  the American and human experience. He is the 20th century Walt Whitman and Mark Twain rapped up into one person. He plays a mean guitar as well.

My first exposure to Dylan was the song "Sweetheart Like You." I heard it on the radio and for quite while, I thought it was by the band, Dire Straits. Dylan's voice sounds an awful lot like Mark Knopfler's on this track, but then I learned that Mark Knopfler (front man of Dire Straits) produced the song and played guitar on the album. Even at age 18, I could recognize a guitar player by listening to a riff. I learned the song was by Dylan, believe it or not, when I saw the video on MTV.  Then I ran out to buy the album on cassette. That's when this ride began.

Infidels was released in late 1983 and is his first non-religious album after the trinity of Slow Train Comin', Saved, and Shot of Love were released. It was originally titled Serving a Ruthless World, but apparently he didn't like the idea of having four albums in a row that started with the letter "S". Infidels' name calls attention to the end of the religious albums. He lost a lot of fans in the years those albums came out. They were very preachy, condescending and deeply religious. Infidels was a relief to these fans, but still, it is not a great album. It would be some time before he released another great album, but it was a decent album with some great tracks. It is uneven at best. It came out in an era, in America what is considered the bad part of the 1980's, when most of us realized that Reaganonics was a lie. Some people still haven't figured this out. The town I grew up in was hit hard with factories closing all over town. My thriving working class neighborhood now had crack houses and prostitutes walked the streets at night. I'm still waiting for the trickle down to hit that town. Songs like "Jokerman," "Neighborhood Bully" and "License to Kill" were indictments on the greed and excesses of the Reagan years. You can see why I got hooked. Even an average Dylan album is great compared to most of the crap coming out in the 80's.

"Sweetheart Like You" (see lyrics below) is like a lot of other songs in that its narrator is a man singing to a woman, yet it is not exactly a love song, at least not a traditional love song. By the first stanza, we know that her boss has gone North for vanity reasons. Who is her boss? We are not sure. It could be the obvious that he is her boss at her job or he could be a possessive lover. Since this album is still full of religious imaginary, the boss could be God. It may not matter, but she is no longer under his yoke. So the narrator compliments her. Did he have to wait until her boss was gone to do so? He compliments her hat, her smile and tells her that she is too good for this "dump." What is this dump? Is it a bar, like the video shows, another place of employment or is it life in general? Is it the America? The power of the lyrics is that it could be all of them. This gives it depth and makes it thought provoking.

The next stanza he compares her to another woman who used to call him "sweet daddy" when he was "only a child." She reminds him of her when she laughs. There is so much here, almost too much, to grab onto. Who is this other woman? Is it his mother or an aunt because it is someone that he knew as a child? But her nickname for him is paternal. This is a paradox about the cycle of life that we are our parents and they are theirs and they make the adults that we are. It reminds me of the Wordsworth poem My Heart Leaps Up where we find the quote "The child is father of the man." We are not adults until our child beats it into us making us whole until we are no longer children ourselves. In our reality, past is experience, present is experiment and tomorrow is expectation. Dylan's narrator sees it as a cruel game, you make the "queen disappear" with a "flick of the wrist," yet how could there be someone as beautiful as her in this cruel world? How could someone so beautiful be letting a wretch like him into her life? How do you make "the queen" disappear? ":With a flick of the wrist." Our narrator reveals to us that he is a part of the problem with this world.

He tells her that she "should  be at home," presumably a safe place, where she could not be hurt. Our narrator, shows us some misogyny,"that's where you belong." He quotes the New Testament, John 4:2 almost directly "in your father's house, there's many a mansions."  I am no expert, in this quote, I believe, Jesus was talking to his disciples about the vastness of heaven. Is he telling her that there is no salvation until the afterlife? All you got here is misery and abuse: "Just how much abuse will you be able to take?"

The last stanza is the most difficult to interpret because the narrator no longer praising the woman any more. He is less conciliatory and downright preachy. He paraphrases Eugene O'Neill's "Emperor Jones": "steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king." He paraphrases Herman Melville's Billy Budd: "They say that patriotism is the last refuge/To which a scoundrel clings." Perhaps Serving a Ruthless World was a better title for this album, because there is clearly no hope in this world and the next world is a "step down." This is the most religious song on the album and my favorite. It is a devastating portrayal of a very ruthless world and it has no answers. The more you listen, the more questions you have which is one of the things that people don't like about it. For me, it just makes me listen more. 

Lyrics and music by Bob Dylan:

Well the pressure's down, the boss ain't here

He's gone North, for a while
They say that vanity got the best of him
But he sure left here in style
By the way, that's a cute hat
And that smile's so hard to resist
But what's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

You know, I once knew a woman who looked like you
She wanted a whole man, not just a half
She used to call me sweet daddy when I was only a child
You kind of remind me of her when you laugh
In order to deal in this game, got to make the queen disappear
It's done with a flick of the wrist
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

You know a woman like you should be at home
That's where you belong
Taking care for somebody nice
Who don't know how to do you wrong
Just how much abuse will you be able to take?
Well, there's no way to tell by that first kiss
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

You know you can make a name for yourself
You can hear them tires squeal
You could be known as the most beautiful woman
Who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal.

You know, news of you has come down the line
Even before ya came in the door
They say in your father's house, there's many a mansions
Each one of them got a fireproof floor
Snap out of it baby, people are jealous of you
They smile to your face, but behind your back they hiss
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

Got to be an important person to be in here, honey
Got to have done some evil deed
Got to have your own harem when you come in the door
Got to play your harp until your lips bleed.
They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings
Steal a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king
There's only one step down from here, baby
It's called the land of permanent bliss
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

Hindsight 2020 - February 2019 edition

I would hope that most Americans learned their lesson from 2016 and stop to think, verify their sources, before sharing an article on social media. Just because an article reinforces what you already believe or fear, doesn't mean it is true or a real source of information. It is painful when I still see people sharing crap on Facebook or Twitter that is clearly garbage published out of Russia designed to divide us, not inform us. 

The 2020 election is creeping up on us. So far we have eight candidates officially announced that are running for the Democratic nomination for president. Some of them I have never heard of.  There are some big names that haven't officially announced yet: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Beto O'Rourke,  Sharod Brown and Kirsten Gillibrand. I will discuss them once they have, if they do.

From the midterms, the Democrats learned that if they stay on message, namely health care and environmental protection, they can win. Medicare For All and The Green New Deal are two of the big flash points for the Democrats now. For a president to tackle even one of these would be a huge undertaking; tackling both seems to be setting us up for failure. I consider myself left of center politically. I usually vote for Democrats not because I consider myself a Democrat but mostly because I hate the Republican party so much. The worst the GOP gets, the more  Democratic I become. 

It is the intent of this Blog post to a log of my thought process of my decision making about the 2020 Presidential election. Whom I will vote for and why will be documented here. Please share your thoughts with me. If you have a candidate, tell me who. No Trump supporters please. The most important issue for me, is that we pick a candidate that can beat Trump. The second most important is the issues: environmentalism, health care, voter's rights and Judiciary nominees are probably my top four priorities.

I have to say I am impressed and excited with the diversity of these candidates.

The Candidates (in order of how well I know them): 

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts: I like Senator Warren but I believe she is probably too far left for the general public. She is probably further left than Bernie Sanders, who is a Socialist. Like Bernie, I question her ideas on the economy. I also doubt her appeal to the general public. Nominating her might just fire up Trump's base to a defeat in 2020, but maybe my opinion will change. She is from Oklahoma City from a middle class family so perhaps that will help her appeal to the American centrist. She has no executive experience. 

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey:  I like Senator Booker as well. He was born in DC but grew up in New Jersey in a middle class family. His parents were two of the first African American executives at IBM. As mayor of Newark, his environmental record is not great, but overall he was a good mayor. He is a Rhodes Scholar. I'd love to see Trump go up against someone this smart. 

Ex-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro: Castro is a twin and his identical brother, Joaquin, is a member of the US House of Representatives.  He is from San Antonio and seems to be on the correct side of the issues for me. He was also the HUD Secretary in the Obama administration. He seems to be a political light weight. We'll have to see how he does on the campaign trail. He was one of the front runners for the vice presidential nomination for Hillary Clinton in 2016.  She may have won if she had picked him over the extremely unexciting Tim Kaine. The fact that he is Hispanic and from Texas might make him the perfect VP pick for whoever wins. 

Senator Kamala Harris from California: She is from a working class Berkley  neighborhood with both of her parents being economics professors and civil rights activists. Before becoming a Senator in 2017, she was the Attorney General of CA for six years and before that the AG of San Francisco for seven years. For a lot of people on the left this is a strike against her, but this will be a great asset to her in the general election. I could imagine her legal experience will be a great tool for her in the debates. She is a first generation American from Indian and Jamaican descent. 

Senator Amy Kobuchar from Minnesota: She is a seasoned Senator and with an excellent record on liberal issues. She is the daughter of a second grade teacher and journalist/sports writer/travel writer. Before becoming a Senator in 2006, she was an attorney. She has no executive experience. 

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii: Now we are getting to the people I know nothing about.  I had to look up all of this information. She is from American Samoa and is a Hindu.  She is an active member of the Army National Guard and did a 12 month tour in Iraq. Before she became a Rep., she was in the Hawaiian House and the Honolulu City Counsel. She seems to have a good environmental record but has no executive experience. 

Former Rep. John Delaney from Maryland: He actually dropped out of Congress to run for President. He was the first to announce. Before becoming a Rep. in 2012, he was a businessman in private sector in health care and commercial lending. He has no executive experience. 

Former tech executive and author Andrew Yang: He seems to be a one issue candidate. He supports a Universal Basic Income in response to the growing labor problem due to automation. He is from Schenectady and is another first generation American. His parents are from Taiwan. He has no executive experience nor any experience in government whatsoever.

If the election were held today, I'd have a difficult time picking from these eight because I know so little about them. Right now, my pick is Kamala Harris with Cory Booker as a close second.  I am looking forward to learning more about these candidates and I am sure I will change my pick several times.  Talk to you next month.