Love and Theft was released on September 11, 2001, and I’ve always considered it a testament to my Dylan fandom that I made it out to Best Buy on that horrible day to buy this album. I suppose in difficult times you cling to what you’re certain of, don’t you?
Like other albums recorded prior to 9/11 but released just afterward (Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot comes to mind), Love and Theft feels eerily appropriate for that time. You won’t find any inadvertently specific echoes of the tragedy (such as the twin buildings on the cover of Wilco’s album) but what you will find is a deeply and meaningfully American album.
The blues have gotten Americans through tougher times than this, Dylan seemed to be saying, and the blues will get us through again.
I doubt when most people list their favorite Bob Dylan songs that the title ‘Floater (Too Much to Ask)’ comes up very often. But I number this track among the very best things he has recorded. I love the instrumentation… the fiddle absolutely makes this song.
Lyrically, too, it’s a tour de force. I’m in awe of the last three verses, and these lines in particular: “My grandfather was a duck trapper. He could do it with just dragnets and ropes. My grandmother could sew new dresses out of old cloth. I don’t know if they had any dreams or hopes. I had ’em once though, I suppose, to go along with all the ring-dancin’ Christmas carols on all of the Christmas eves. I left all my dreams and hopes buried under tobacco leaves.”
Such beautiful use of language in such a lively and unpredictable song.
For all of Dylan’s brilliant output in the 60s and mid-70s, I wonder if his best album might be the one that kicked off a whole new millennium. Love and Theft was the happiest surprise in a career full of happy surprises.
Comes the dazzling sunlit rays
Through the back alleys—through the blinds
Another one of them endless days
Honey bees are buzzin’
Leaves begin to stir
I’m in love with my second cousin
I tell myself I could be happy forever with her
I keep listenin’ for footsteps
But I ain’t hearing any
From the boat I fish for bullheads
I catch a lot, sometimes too many
A summer breeze is blowing
A squall is settin’ in
Sometimes it’s just plain stupid
To get into any kind of wind
The old men ’round here, sometimes they get
On bad terms with the younger men
But old, young, age don’t carry weight
It doesn’t matter in the end
One of the boss’ hangers-on
Comes to call at times you least expect
Try to bully ya—strong-arm you—inspire you with fear
It has the opposite effect
There’s a new grove of trees on the outskirts of town
The old one is long gone
Timber two-foot-six across
Burns with the bark still on
They say times are hard, if you don’t believe it
You can just follow your nose
It don’t bother me—times are hard everywhere
We’ll just have to see how it goes
My old man, he’s like some feudal lord
Got more lives than a cat
Never seen him quarrel with my mother even once
Things come alive or they fall flat
You can smell the pinewood burnin’
You can hear the school bell ring
Gotta get up near the teacher if you can
If you wanna learn anything
Romeo, he said to Juliet, “You got a poor complexion
It doesn’t give your appearance a very youthful touch!”
Juliet said back to Romeo, “Why don’t you just shove off
If it bothers you so much”
They all got out of here any way they could
The cold rain can give you the shivers
They went down the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee
All the rest of them rebel rivers
If you ever try to interfere with me or cross my path again
You do so at the peril of your own life
I’m not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound
I’ve seen enough heartaches and strife
My grandfather was a duck trapper
He could do it with just dragnets and ropes
My grandmother could sew new dresses out of old cloth
I don’t know if they had any dreams or hopes
I had ’em once though, I suppose, to go along
With all the ring-dancin’ Christmas carols on all of the Christmas eves
I left all my dreams and hopes
Buried under tobacco leaves
It’s not always easy kicking someone out
Gotta wait a while—it can be an unpleasant task
Sometimes somebody wants you to give something up
And tears or not, it’s too much to ask
Meet Me In Montauk 
I remain stunned that you bought this album on 9/11. My memory of that day consists of staring at the TV and trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. There was also, of course, the palpable fear that going to any public place anywhere in the country that day could lead to your death. Nearly 10 years later, that type of fear feels wholly disproportionate to the point of being crazy paranoid, but, then again, there was nowhere else I really wanted to be that day than in the safety of my home with my family.
Then again, had a new Star Trek movie opened that day, I probably would have risked it:)
By the way, on the plane ride home from Oregon, I listened to the entirety of The Eminem Show, which I am ready to declare as his best album (though, to be fair, I haven’t gone back and listened to all of the Marshall Mathers LP for quite a while). Anyway, I bring this up because I found the 9/11 references on that album fascinating. They are raw and real, alternatively angry and light.
One of the most intriguing things to witness immediately after 9/11 was how artists and entertainers dealt with the tragedy. You had Letterman handling it so well, while Leno and Stewart seemed to fumble. You had Bruce Springsteen literally “rise up” to the occasion
But for the youth of America, I think Eminem delivered just what was needed at the time: anger, disbelief, mixed with cynicism that seemed treasonous at the time regarding the Bush administration’s exploitation of the tragedy. The contrast, complexity and mood is best displayed on ” I Think My Dad’s Gone Crazy” where Eminem first sings:
So tell Laura and her husband to back off
Before i push this motherfucking button and blast off
And launch one of these Russians, and that’s all
Blow every fucking thing, except Afghanistan on the map, off
When will it stop? When will I knock the crap off?
and then he brings it poignantly home with….
More pain inside of my brain
Than the eyes of a little girl inside of a plane
Aimed at the World Trade, standin’ on Ronnie’s grave,
Screaming at the sky, till clouds gather as Clyde Mathers and Bonnie Jade
And that’s pretty much the gist of it,
Parents are pissed, but the kids love it
For those not familiar with the song, here it is (with, of course, a parental warning that must perpetually remain in place for all Eminem songs):
By the way, have you featured Eminem as a SOTD? I suppose the language and content might make you avoid him, but still…
So anyway, about today’s SOTD, it is indeed very good, though I still don’t put it up there with the material on Blood on the Tracks. The instrumental breaks are a nice touch, and give the song a unique quality as compared to much of Dylan’s other work.
I’ve featured Eminem twice (‘Rock Bottom‘ and ‘Deja Vu‘) but he’s definitely due for a theme week.
Funny that in the ‘Rock Bottom’ post I single out ‘My Dad’s Gone Crazy’ as one of his more frivolous songs. I guess I hadn’t listened to it very closely at the time.
By the way, I also listened on the plane to both Relapse and Recovery. I was particularly interested to see if Relapse was deserving of the criticism Eminem heaped upon it in Recovery. My conclusion was that there were a handful of decent songs on Relapse that I would put up along side of some of his better work, but there were also a fair amount of forgettable songs. “Insane,” “Stay Wide Awake,” ‘Old Time’s Sakes,” “Must Be the Ganja”and “Crack a Bottle” feel particularly lazy.
However, while Recovery is decidedly sharper, I still don’t think it has the musicality and diversity found on Marshall Mathers, LP and The Eminem Show.
3 straight hours of Eminem… you must have been in quite a state after that flight!
Ha….it’s true…I walked off the plane cursing like a sailor:)
Not sure about this whole Eminem tangent….
Back to Dylan 🙂 I like today’s song quite a bit, though this is the first time I’m ever hearing it. I’m particularly fascinated by the tip to get up close to the teacher if you want to learn anything, followed by an intriguing and amusing interpretation of the Romeo and Juliet story (by one of the students sitting in the back of the room, perhaps?)
As for your 9/11 purchase of this album, I completely get it. I remember sitting there watching the t.v. and saying out loud – again and again – that I needed to hear and see Bill Clinton. That I needed to hear what he had to say, that he would help me make some sense of what was going on. I kept flipping channels looking for someone (but preferably Bill) who would make me feel better.
While Bob Dylan clearly hadn’t written any profound songs about what was happening at that moment, he had more than demonstrated his worth as a songwriter who could reflect profoundly on his country. Wanting to hear some of his musical wisdom seems a very natural response to the tragedy.
Thank you very much. I very much enjoyed this song. Keep the stuff on Bob Dylan coming.