the Bob Dylan Commentaries

hogwash. it’s one of the strongest songs on the album

Thanks!!

I’m sorry but you have got a typo in this paragraph: “Edie was a

wild child with a penchant…”

John the Baptist was just a few months older than Jesus, (they were cousins) therefore there is no way for him to have baptised”baby Jesus”. Instead,he baptised Jesus in the Jordan River and they were both adult men.

They load ok for me. ?

Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the images on this blog loading?
I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
Any feed-back would be greatly appreciated.

Great food for thought, the whole point of creating this site.

I don’t think Gates of Eden has a conventional moral message at all.  Dylan never lived by conventional morals.  Just because Dylan used Biblical motifs throughout his songwriting doesn’t mean it was to convey a conventional moral message,. I think there is plenty of evidence to conclude that Dylan’s spirituality was not the “believe and obey” authority, clearly defined good and bad, reward and punishment, fear and guilt kind of fundamentalist type of religiosity, but instead it was an individualistic, humanitarian, mystical direct experience of God kind of spirituality.  He would certainly use themes from the Judeo-Christian tradition, but always interpreted mystically ,just as Joseph Campbell did.

To me, Gates of Eden is the state of being for souls who no longer believe or perceive in an artificial separation between humans, nature, and God.  Everything that is outside of the Gates of Eden is for those whose spirituality has not yet developed enough to know that every being, every bit of matter organic and non-organic, the entire universe, altogether collectively is what God is.

This is vs 1 before his reflective refrain.

“Crimson flames tied through my ears”

I’m thinking this has to do with how certain Dylan was that the ideas he had were true, big T true. His certainty motivated him to set up the following line as a battle strategy against those who thought differently.

“Rollin’ high and mighty traps”

Here’s the confidence of youth from that certainty setting up traps for those who didn’t know what he did.

“Pounced with fire on flaming roads”

Raw and fiery determination set his course. The strength of his youth dedicated to the journey.

“Using ideas as my maps”

He simply let his imagination and belief guide him.

“‘We’ll meet on edges, soon,’ said I”

Whether he’s speaking to the enemies of his truth or his fellow travelers doesn’t seem to matter here.

“Proud ’neath heated brow”

The heat in his head produced by the crimson flames, fire, and flaming roads.

The refrain to the verses is the reflection after some time on that road, recognizing that he really didn’t get it after all, or if he did get it, he is less certain that his truth was big T truth, or that he should have brandished his weapons against those who disagreed with him.