[Rieslingrübe]

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.............. Man in the Long Black Coat . (Bob Dylan, 1989)

......... https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-man-in-...ck-coat-lyrics


Crickets are chirpin', the water is high,
There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry,
Window wide open, African trees
Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze.
Not a word of goodbye, note even a note,
She gone with the man
In the long black coat.


Somebody seen him hanging around
At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town,
He looked into her eyes when she stopped to ask
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask.
Somebody said from the Bible he'd quote
There was dust on the man
In the long black coat.


Preacher was a talkin' there's a sermon he gave,
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved,
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it's you who must keep it satisfied.
It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat,
She gave her heart to the man
In the long black coat.

There are no mistakes in life some people say
It is true sometimes you can see it that way.
Bridge: But people don't live or die, people just float.
She went with the man
In the long black coat.


There's smoke on the water, it's been there since June,
Tree trunks uprooted, 'neath the high crescent moon
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force
Somebody is out there beating the dead horse.
She never said nothing there was nothing she wrote,
She gone with the man
In the long black coat.



......... Kleine Interpretationshilfe: .


>>The instrumental intro to this song induces an ominous mood. You feel immediately that something creepy is going on. Makes you freeze in the hot southern night.

The first verse fully meets the expectations of the intro. Dylan's voice, low and foreboding, paints a landscape, frozen, stiffened, fixed in eternity, nothing moves. A hurricane has passed but all is still now. Even the dress on the clothesline hangs down. A man has lost his woman. The man seems powerless. How can you compete with "a man in a long black coat"? One associates to something demonic, even the Devil himself. Or at least a hired hand from some spaghetti-western. What can anyone do when a creature like that invades your backyard? Nothing, so it seems.

Second verse sets up a contrast between our narrator and the mysterious stranger. The stranger not excately acts but he is where it's at. Ready to take what he's offered. The narrative voice on the other hand is one of self-defeatism, whimpering. You already now suspect that his description of the stranger is an attempt to demonize what he himself is not.
BUT, the real counterpart to our anti-hero is the woman. She acts. She's the one who turns to the mysterious stranger. She's the one who leaves her old man behind. Without explanation, she doesn't even try. She knows he will never understand.

In the third verse Dylan lets a preacher confirm the rather trite notion that "every man's conscience is vile and depraved". How can you trust your conscious mind when your conscience is mixed up with emotions and feelings you cannot control. Things may not at all be like they are experienced. Maybe the stranger is not at all the villain he seems to be. And maybe our narrator is not at all so righteous as he deems himself. We may ask if he has done any effort to prevent what has happened, or to win the lady back. Doesn't he just comfort himself with the thought that he is a victim of someone else's ill-doing? Blinded with the tears of self pity and envy.

The bridge: Mr D. Himself seems to sneak in a good word here. He says that some people say that nothing is your own fault; that one is guiltless due to the fact that one is unable to control one's own mind. Wrong! Life is not a thing that's just there and then you die. You are the only one responsible for your life. If you disregard that responsibility you do nothing but float.

The fourth and last verse repeats the creepy mood from the first verse. But something has happened. The scenery is at the first glance as lifeless as before. The smoke on the water has lain there for a long time, but something is indeed moving. A force of nature or God or the Devil vibrates the air and rumbles in the ground, and thus intensifies the feeling of fatal doom. And who is that someone who beats a dead horse? Your guess can be as good as mine. And our narrator still whimps and whines and shows no sign of being able to take his life in his own hands.

Don't get it wrong. There are no raised fingers here. Dylan neither sneers nor condemns. But he is certainly pointing out that merely to sit down and watch them days go by is a no go. It won't make you happy.

The song is stuffed with visual elements and the producer Daniel Lanois makes the picture clear and audible for all to hear. You hardly need the words at all. I am happy, though, they are there.<<

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