Yesterday I posted the first track on Dylan’s first album, so today I’ll post his most recent. I’m skipping the Christmas album as that’s more of a novelty and posting the final track of Dylan’s 2009 album, Together Through Life.
Dylan is known for excellent closing tracks and this one, while not on the level of his classic album finishers, is indeed one of the better songs on the album.
It’s funny to hear a wizened old dude like Dylan repeating the very modern phrase “It’s all good,” and of course he knows that.
I read one commenter on BobDylan.com who drew parallels between this song and Voltaire’s Candide, in which the character Pangloss blindly adheres to the Leibnizian idea that this is the “best of all possible worlds.” Such optimism in the face of such despair crosses a line into foolishness.
I have no idea if Dylan had Voltaire in mind when he wrote this song, though it’s certainly possible… he draws from a vast array of influences from literature, art, cinema and of course music. But I love that Dylan’s fan base is the sort that looks for those connections.
Throw on the dirt, pile on the dust
I’d do the same thing if I could
You know what they say, they say it’s all good
All good,
It’s all good
Big politician telling lies
Restaurant kitchen, all full of flies
Don’t make a bit of difference, don’t see why it should
But it’s all right, ’cause it’s all good
It’s all good
It’s all good
Wives are leavin’ their husbands, they beginning to roam
They leave the party and they never get home
I wouldn’t change it, even if I could
You know what they say man, it’s all good,
It’s all good
All good
Brick by brick, they tear you down
A teacup of water is enough to drown
You ought to know, if they could they would
Whatever going down, it’s all good
All good
Say it’s all good
People in the country, people on the land
Some of them so sick, they can hardly stand
Everybody would move away, if they could
It’s hard to believe but it’s all good
Yeah
The widow’s cry, the orphan’s plea
Everywhere you look, more misery
Come along with me, babe, I wish you would
You know what I’m sayin’, it’s all good
All good
I said it’s all good
All good
Cold blooded killer, stalking the town
Cop cars blinking, something bad going down
Buildings are crumbling in the neighborhood
But there’s nothing to worry about, ’cause it’s all good
It’s all good
They say it’s all good
I’ll pluck off your beard and blow it in your face
This time tomorrow I’ll be rolling in your place
I wouldn’t change a thing even if I could
You know what they say, they say it’s all good
It’s all good
Meet Me In Montauk 
For a minute it was as though your post had been hijacked by Max Von Sydow as Frederick in Hannah and Her Sisters.
But it’s all good 😉
Okay, I don’t have the many doctorate degrees clearly possessed by the fellow spewing Voltaire references, but isn’t the speaker of this song being ironic? I don’t see him as a fool who is ridiculously optimistic in the face of tremendous tragedy. Rather, I see him echoing the phrase “they say” – “it’s all good” – as a way to point out the discrepancy between the various ways the world is going to hell and the flippant attitude demonstrated by a catch phrase that has caught on as a particularly troublesome time.
Of course, the further irony is that nobody who throws off that phrase (perhaps including this speaker?) is actually suggesting that it is ALL good, Rather, the phrase becomes the salve to soothe the growing despair. A sort of verbal pat on the back that encourages the speaker to keep at it. The fact that the words – linked together -do not begin to mean what their denotation suggests they ought to is part of the power of the phrase. And helps to make this a very clever and powerful song.
I side with Amy’s interpretation. Seems to me Dylan is reflecting on the indifference of our society toward tragedies and suffering. We stamp the verbal bandage of “It’s all good” after being confronted with these horrors as a way of rationalizing, minimizing and dismissing them.
it’s great to hear Dylan still doing good and interesting work. Undoubtedly, his aging craggy voice has been greatly aided by modern technology, excellent production and arrangements, all of which showcase Dylan’s ongoing talent in writing great songs.