Jack organized the bank robbery for when everyone would be at the cabaret. He had a history with Lily. Big Jim recognized him as a possible threat to his thing with Lily and possibly had his own history with Jack as well. Big Jim went to kill Jack in Lily's room, but his shot went awry because Rosemary stabbed him at that exact moment - the one good thing Rosemary wanted to do before she died. The boys got the money and were waiting for Jack. Jack met up with the boys and skipped town. The next day, Rosemary was hanged. And, Lily was left reflecting about her dad and her past while wondering when she'd see Jack again. The song is a movie.
Not sure Jim ever fired, it said only "clicked" or "cocked" the gun, never actually mentioning a shot, errant or otherwise. Rosemary took him out first.
A favorite of mine...Bob tells you enough of the story for you to piece it together, but it's kinda cryptic and unresolved. I've listened to it hundreds of times, and it's definitely cinematic. Love when Dylan doesn't bother with a chorus, but each verse ending with "the Jack of Hearts" is a refrain, which is a stylistic signature of his. Glad you took the time to check it out. Enjoyed your reaction!
Bob is an entire planet to explore. Only one reasonable thing you can do at this point. That's listen to the entire Blood on the Tracks album. It's a masterpiece.
Easily one of my favourite Dylan songs on one of his best two or three albums. The entire album is just so solid. Thanks for reviewing this - I really wish I could hear this song for the first time again.
I can think of a handful of others on this cinematic level, but it's a small list! Paul Simon wrote some wonderfully visual stuff. I also think "Tangled Up In Blue" could be a cool movie.
Nice reaction. I feel like you got the story quite well. Lily is a showgirl, hence why she was playing cards backstage and dying her hair. She's an old acquaintance of the Jack somehow, likely from her period of traveling and having 'many strange affairs'. The Jack is some kind of roving outlaw, which explains why Big Jim recognizes him either from Mexico or a poster on a wall (ie a wanted poster). And yeah Big Jim and Rosemary are the town big shot and his embittered wife who stabs him in the end. The real anbiguity of the track is the fate of the Jack since its not established, but i feel like the most common interpretation is that Big Jim either misfired or the click was Jim cocking the gun, but he was stabbed before firing, in which case we can assume Jack eventually did get back to his gang
I gotta say, I have been listening to Bob"s catalog since about 63 or so. I could not escape his story as I owned 3 record stores beginning in my University years. I was always entertained by his quirky imagination. To this day his story occupies a fairly large space in my brain as I follow his music. He seems to have no equal at what he puts to music, just consider, "A Murder Most Foul" written in his late 70's.
@@John_Locke_108 Ha ha! Good point. But he does say "... on the seven o'clock news". That's the best part of the song, though. The ending. "It didn't seem like much was happening, so I turned it off and went to have another beer...."
This was great to hear. There aren’t enough Dylan reactions. His catalog is a treasure trove of mixed genres, light & deep masterpieces. There was much controversy when he went ‘Electric’ but In my humble opinion, that was some of his best, not to downplay his exquisite folk beginnings. Ok. You got me to subscribe. I hope to hear a more Dylan. Thanks.
Dylan & Townsend; 2 of the greatest poets of the last few generations. "Blowin' in the Wind" is perhaps the best poem of this age. If you want to know why Dylan was awarded the Nobel prize, listen to this song to get an idea.
Bob Dylan was brother/uncle Gary's favorite, so this was well received, thank you .. the tempo is so quick, amazing he can keep up with the words.. :) love the way you guys seemed to figure out the story, I got sort of lost... :)
This song was released not to long after Dylan's soundtrack to "Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid'', and I've always thought the movie experience (in which Dylan had a small part) may have put him in an old western frame of mind.
SAM NAILED IT! Lilly took the dye out of her hair because the cabaret shut down and she didn't need to look her best anymore. In the American West the gallows was a temporary scaffold built for hanging people. You GUYS ROCK!!!, PJ
This whole brilliant album should be seen in the context of Dylan's separation from Sara (the Sad-eyed lady from the lowlands). The experience spawned this album and a return to live touring (which I was fortunate enough to see). Dylan's lyrics are like a good jazz solo, focused, but drawing inspiration from many sources and weaving them all together in a mysteriously evocative lyric, subject to change in any future performance.
Love Minus Zero/No Limit is another intriguing and somewhat mysterious lyrical masterpiece. Rod Stewart does an entertaining and engaging ( if somewhat schmaltzy) version centred around one of his wives. Joan Baez singing Dylan songs, songs about Dylan or frankly almost any song, is a sheer delight…… a voice so pure and beautiful! A personal favourite is Joan singing “Love Song to a Stranger”. She also sings “Lilly,Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts “. There are so many more I could recommend.
"Blood on the tracks" the album on which this appears, does not include a track that is less that magnificent. And there aren't many albums about which that can be said
Sam you nailed it 100%, Blood on the Tracks, is my favorite Dylan album.....Grew up in the 60's and 70's, most amazing music, Enjoy from a 70 yr old hippie😀.............Please react Bob Marley's "Redemption Song", his last song, amazing!!!
"Masters of War" "John Brown" "Ballard of Hollis Brown" "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" "Idiot Wind" "She's Your Lover Now" "Tweeter and The Monkey Man" (Traveling Wilbury's) for serious stuff, for fun stuff "Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" "Drifter's Escape" so much to listen to
Great reaction! Try Brownsville Girl by Dylan. One of his great long ballads. Not as short as Jack of Hearts, 11 minutes, but better. Not as straightforward either, more confusing. You'll love it.
Nice Job Sam decifering this one!! Some others to consider .."The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol" "The ballad of Hollis Brown" and "The man in the Ling Black Coat" all tell wonderful stories...Hattie Carrol....like Hurricane is based on true events!
There's a whole movie in these Lyrics. I've listen to it hundreds of time and i still don't think I've caught everything in the song but a gallows is what they hang you from.
This song had me scratching my head for years since I first heard it as a young teen. Could not figure out what the heck was going on. It was only after becoming familiar with some other Dylan songs that I finally got it. It's a big canvas, and Bob is painting in little sections here and there and leaving the rest for us to fill in as we like. He is making us become involved in his song. Another good example of this is his song Idiot Wind. Each little section is some different event that vexed him in some way, you don't get many details about it, so you have to fill it in for yourself. And certainly one of the angriest songs ever recorded.
True about Idiot Wind, but as many Dylan songs do, the vitriol is mitigated to some degree with the narrator's recognition of his own culpability. Note, the final chorus uses 1st person plural (we, our, ourselves), rather than 2nd person singular (you, your, yourself).
Dylan's former lover Joan Baez did a WONDERFUL cover of this song. Her voice is extraordinary! Also, check out "The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down" and "Joe Hill" sung by Baez. All great storytelling songs! Really enjoying your work in this period!
""I know I've seen that face before", Big Jim was thinking to himself. Maybe down in Mexico or a picture upon somebody's shelf." Or maybe in a deck of cards.
@@TheSixtoo I think it is "Colt revolver", but I think @zimmerman89 is right there with the meaning. The click may have been Big Jim cocking the revolver prior to firing, and then he got Rosemary's knife in his back before he could pull the trigger. Or perhaps he had pulled the trigger, and the click was the sound of the hammer falling on an empty chamber. Ooh, intriguing, had Rosemary unloaded his gun when he wasn't watching because she was "leanin' to the Jack of Hearts"?
Although this song seems like an outlier on this album Blood on the Tracks which delved into the breaking up of his marriage, this song could very well be a metaphor for himself as the Jack of Hearts his wife and a woman executive from the record company. Another song that is very beautiful and very direct from this album is If You See Her, Say Hello.
Gallows refers to the apparatus or equipment of the actual hanging...think of the old game hangman...the thing that you drew your stickman onto was the gallows...maybe that helps but I could've just made it worse...lol...😂😂😂
J of H's gang was in town to rob the bank, J of H was the distraction. Rosemary in an unhappy marriage with Big Jim. He looks across the room at J of H, he looks familiar. J of H is looking over at Lily, with whom Big Jim is having an affair. Obviously J of H and Lily had had a thing sometime in the past. (Maybe she had a pic of him on her shelf, and that is why he looks familiar to Big Jim?) Cut to the dressing room where Lily and J of H are getting "reacquainted." Big Jim suspected something, or perhaps just observed J of H leaving with Rosemary. In the dressing room, Big Jim has caught J of H and Lily, and pulls out his gun. His wife Rosemary is at his side, does the math and so stabs Big Jim in the back with the same knife in which she had earlier stared at her reflection. Next day, Rosemary found guilty, on the gallows. Lily is left thinking about her life, but also wistfully about J of H. I'm sure Bob saw himself as the all-conquering antihero, J of H, and just had a rip roaring time spinning this tale! Perhaps there are different layers, but I never really dug down any deeper than I would any Classic Western! Love it as well as every other single song on the album. Tangled Up In Blue the clearest masterpiece, but you might find Idiot Wind a really challenging song to check out lyrically. But really, pick any song on thee album, you can't go wrong.
This is my favorite album and song of all time, what does it mean? I don't have a clue. I don't recall if you have reacted to "Tangled Up in Blue" from the same album. I think Sam nailed it.. I hope someday you will react to, "You'll Never Leave Harlen Alive." a great storytelling song. Patty Loveless has a voice that will not you out of your chair.
I can't believe you guys did this one ! Great stuff. You should try ANOTHER random Dylan song... ISIS...is the second cut on the HURRICANE album. ISIS is an AMAZING Dylan story. Love you guys--keep listening. Peace. A gallows is where you are standing when you are being hanged. GULP.....
I bought "Blood on the tracks" the day it was released and being a huge Dylan fan this whole album is fantastic from start to finish just like "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde" if anyone likes this album they should check those two albums and the three are my votes for his BEST!!!
Great job, Sam! ❗Great musical breakdown. ❤🔥😙👌(chefs kiss) Phil you did wonderful too. A+🤭 Anyway, I agree with the other comments the entire album "Blood On The Tracks" is most certainly a wonderful place to start, if you're wanting to start listening to entire albums. But if not, I'll suggest another song from the same album, if interested. "Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue" (by the channel: Bob Dylan) --This song is from his 15th studio album called "Blood On The Tracks" released in 1975. (This song by BD has some religious references. Just saying)
Tangled Up In Blue is great and I've done it a couple of times at open mics. But I think a song that is also great that nobody mentions much is Jokerman.
Good Dylan song but that Album has better tracks like, Tangled Up In Blue, Idiot Wind and You'er Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go. You must react to Idiot Wind. Amazing. Try this album version then compare to the live version from the 1976 Hard Rain concert at Red Rocks. Incredible
The album this song comes from is written during a time when Dylan and his wife are to be divorced, think about that in the plot . The album itself is full of songs relating to relationships ups and downs ......
