Re: The Color of Sound In Bob Dylan's Music
- From: "Treadleson" <treadle99@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 17 Aug 2006 20:06:39 -0700
K. Stephen Shain wrote:
Bob once sought what he called a thin wild mercury sound in his music.
As he told a Playboy interviewer in 1977: "The closest I ever got to
the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the Blonde on
Blonde album. It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic
and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up. That's my particular
sound."
While he saw his sound as a color, he also used color in his lyrics.
His use of color in this way was evident in the opening verse of My
Back pages:
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
He also mentioned the power of colors in Lay Lady Lay:
Whatever colors you have in your mind
I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine
And of course who could forget the imagery in Tangled Up In Blue?
Early one mornin' the sun was shinin',
I was layin' in bed
Wond'rin' if she'd changed at all
If her hair was still red.
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough.
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue.
Funny thing is, some people know exactly what he's talking about and
some don't. I'd like to compile a list of Bob Dylan songs in which he
refers to colors or uses it in his imagery, especially as it relates to
sound. Perhaps Bob shares certain synaesthesiatic abilities with a
percentage of the population and is knowingly or unknowingly
communicating with us on yet another level.
Anyone care to help in this effort?
Yeah, that's all true. He also says his songs are mathematical music
and has introduced one of his songs as a fraction-- Love - 0/ No
limit. Of course zero minus zero equals zero and this is an allusion
to a poker game, but love minus zero is not zero. And of course no
limit (infinity) can be divided into love an infinite number of times
since love (in Christian theology and elsewhere) is understood to be
infinite. His songs are rife with numbers and math, as you know. I am
not trying to undermine your color theory, only possibly enhance into
the area of math.
Also recall that the above cited song was also introduced as having
been painted in two colors--maroon and silver.
Some other revlevant points--5 believers is equally divisible into 15
jugglers three times--the Trinity. Dante also used a numbering system
to map hell, purgatory and paradise. At the center of course was the
trinity, guided by number One...God. In 5 Believers he also returns to
the One, singing he could make it without you IF i didn't feel so all
alONE. In other words, being alone is being away from the
One--ironically.
.
- References:
- The Color of Sound In Bob Dylan's Music
- From: K. Stephen Shain
- The Color of Sound In Bob Dylan's Music
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