Modern Times: Thunder On The Mountain
A new Bob Dylan album is always an occasion for reflection. Modern Times is his first release for five years and it unofficially completes the trilogy begun with Time Out of Mind (1997) and Love and Theft (2001). Despite the waterfall of words that is going to flow over Modern Times, Rainy Day will not be deterred from commenting on each of the ten tracks in the coming weeks. Today, we kick off, as Bob does, with "Thunder On The Mountain," which has acquired instafame because he declares: "I was thinkin' 'bout Alicia Keys, couldn't keep from crying / When she was born in Hell's Kitchen, I was living down the line / I'm wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be / I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee."
Because every Dylan utterance is subject to intensive analysis, his "longing" for the R&B diva has already been interpreted as lust, envy, despair and dementia. Whatever. With "Thunder On The Mountain", Dylan opens the album in magnificent form, belting out a precision-honed piece of rock 'n roll that reminds one instantly of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode". And the title? Well, there is this book by David Poyer about a bitter 1936 strike at an oil refinery in Pennsylvania, but it's possible that Dylan is also thinking about the biblical revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai. Best couplet? "I got the porkchops, she got the pie / She ain't no angel and neither am I". Favourite verse?
Thunder on the mountain rolling to the ground
Gonna get up in the morning walk the hard road down
Some sweet day I'll stand beside my king
I wouldn't betray your love or any other thing
As we'll see on our trip through Modern Times, Dylan's very much in the present and thinking about wild women and quick money, but his mind is also on the final things. Next track here on Wednesday: "The Levee's Gonna Break". Guess what that's about, eh?
Comments
Bob Dylan's lyrics are all subject to various interpretations, but In "Thunder on the Mountain" the verse "hammer's on the table, pitchfork's on the shelf" puts me at a loss. It doesn't appear to have an underlying meaning. In fact it seems askewed – I have never seen a pitch fork on a shelf, they usually hang from a hook or sit on the flooring. It's clear he intends to nurture Mother Earth, but for some reason he has the hammer on the table – more accessible than the pitch fork. Does anyone have any idea what he's saying here, or is this just a phrase of another great song?
Posted by: Les Simon | April 21, 2008 12:42 PM
The hammer on the table sounds like a gavel to me. (Judgment before God or maybe also an image from the lodge work of Freemasonry ,which Bob seems to be signifying / name-dropping fairly frequently these days.) And the pitchfork is on the shelf because earthly work (like farming) is done, and evil (Satan's pitchfork) has been conquered.
The shelving of Satan's pitchfork has been featured in other early 20th c. blues songs before--at least one that I have heard personally, anyway. Can't recall what song off the top of my head, though. I'll try to track it down...
Posted by: CS | April 7, 2009 4:57 PM
Aw Jeez I knew it was familiar -- I heard it in a version of Stagolee >>>
When de devil wife see Stack comin' she got up in a quirl, –
"Here come dat bad nigger an' he's jus' from de udder worl.'"
All de devil' little chillun went sc'amblin' up de wall,
Say, "Catch him, pappa, befo' he kill us all"....
Stagolee took de pitchfork an' he laid it on de shelf –
"Stand back, Tom Devil, I'm gonna rule Hell by myself."
Posted by: CS | April 7, 2009 5:57 PM