Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

Commentary

Stuck Inside is another one of Dylan’s non-narrative narrative songs. The lyrics clearly tell a story of some sort, a tale of loneliness, isolation, longing, desperation, and escape. However, the verses are only connected by theme, not by any sense of linear storytelling. In performance, Dylan often swaps the order of several verses (often the third through the fifth). The order doesn’t really matter.

Once again the theme is one of the outsider trying to escape square society. The song tells the tale of a man desperately looking for a way out of “Mobile’s Grand Street” and into some kind of sane world, such as can be found, apparently, in “Memphis”.

Stuck Inside is a song that would have fit in well on Highway 61 Revisited. First of all, the sound is much more raucous and explosive than anything else on Blonde on Blonde, outside of maybe One of Us Must Know. The style of the lyrics definitely hearkens back to Desolation Row and Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues. The influence of the Beat poets is obvious. A phrase such as “neon madmen” could have been pulled right out of an Allen Ginsberg poem. The lines

But he cursed me when I proved it to him,
Then I whispered, “Not even you can hide.
You see, you’re just like me,
I hope you’re satisfied.”

bring to mind Ballad of a Thin Man, another Beat-inspired lyric.

Like many songs on Highway 61 Revisited, the song features a host of proper nouns and characters – the Rag-man, Mama, Shakespeare, French Girl, Mona, Railroad Men, Grandpa, The Senator, The Preacher, The Rain-man, Ruthie, The Debutante, and Neon Madman. The song has more characters than some movies.

Dylan probably chose the two contrasting city names, Mobile and Memphis, not only because the names sound good together, but also because of the contrasting history of the two towns. Mobile is a city in Alabama, one of the more racially segregated states in the country. It was the site of some of the infamous civil rights protests and violence that was happening around the time Blonde on Blonde was recorded. Memphis, on the other hand, was the home of “soul music”, and known as a hip and happening town.

These lines:

Now the senator came down here
Showing everyone his gun

Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son

And me, I nearly got busted
And wouldn’t it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck

were certainly inspired by Matthew 22:

22 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.

But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

On the recording, Dylan sings one line differently than what is published in the lyric book. In the published lyrics the line is written “Now the preacher looked so baffled”. On the record Dylan clearly adds an additional word before “preacher”, but it’s not clear what it is. It could be “tea preacher”. Some have speculated that a tea preacher could be a marijuana dealer. Some on rec.music.dylan have suggested that Dylan was trying to sing “teacher” and it came out wrong.

It could be that Dylan sings “teen preacher”. A post on rec.music.dylan noted that Dylan could have been referring to the well-known teen preacher Marjoe Gortner, who worked as a traveling evangelical preacher during the sixties. Gortner later help create a documentary, Marjoe, in which he confesses that his preaching was just an act he did to make a buck. Could be I guess, although in all likelihood it was just a vocal hiccup.

Stuck Inside only appears on one official live album, Hard Rain. It’s a nice version.

Dylan performed it live many times in the late eighties and the nineties. In the live versions, he sometimes leaves out several of the middle verses, not always the same ones.

Most of the bootleg versions don’t really add a lot to the original. However, G.E. Smith, the former Saturday Night Live bandleader, contributes some very energetic guitar solos to the song during the early 90s shows. More recent performances are performed quite differently, very slow and quiet. All are interesting but none really comes close to surpassing the original.


Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block.
I’d ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don’t talk.
And the ladies treat me kindly
And furnish me with tape,
But deep inside my heart
I know I can’t escape.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Well, Shakespeare, he’s in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells,
Speaking to some French girl,
Who says she knows me well.
And I would send a message
To find out if she’s talked,
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line.
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine.
An’ I said, “Oh, I didn’t know that,
But then again, there’s only one I’ve met
An’ he just smoked my eyelids
An’ punched my cigarette.”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Grandpa died last week
And now he’s buried in the rocks,
But everybody still talks about
How badly they were shocked.
But me, I expected it to happen,
I knew he’d lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the senator came down here
Showing ev’ryone his gun,
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son.
An’ me, I nearly got busted
An’ wouldn’t it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest.
But he cursed me when I proved it to him,
Then I whispered, “Not even you can hide.
You see, you’re just like me,
I hope you’re satisfied.”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the rainman gave me two cures,
Then he said, “Jump right in.”
The one was Texas medicine,
The other was just railroad gin.
An’ like a fool I mixed them
An’ it strangled up my mind,
An’ now people just get uglier
An’ I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can watch her waltz for free
‘Neath her Panamanian moon.
An’ I say, “Aw come on now,
You must know about my debutante.”
An’ she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want.”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb.
They all fall there so perfectly,
It all seems so well timed.
An’ here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.

But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

15 thoughts on “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”

  1. I always assumed that the Tea Preacher was pushing Temperance, but YOU are supposed to make up your own meanings for the songs, ..I always assumed.

    1. I think you have a reasonable view when you think that the Tea Preacher is pushing Temperance. But I do see the Tea Preacher as Allen Ginsberg and how he used to dress with posters on his chest promoting marijuana – or tea. It seems that Dylan is subtly chastising Ginsberg for doing this because he has subsequently become as famous (or notorious) as Dylan was…To be famous – what a curse! I pity good hard working people like Bob Dylan – and Taylor Swift or anyone else that hard working and famous – who can’t go out in public without being stared at, accosted…Our stars should be respected and given space…

  2. I always heard it as “street preacher.” Made sense to me, certainly as a Dylan character. And that was the era of “Jesus freaks,” don’t forget.

  3. As to the line about Texas medicine; I always assumed that referred to peyote and mixing it with alcohol-railroad gin- would certainly have”strangled up” his mind with people getting uglier and having no sense of time. Dylan’s use of psychedelics has been debated and his own comments over the years have been cryptic and contradictory.
    Hard to imagine though that in the Village in the mid 60’s he wouldn’t have at least tried it once. Drinking may well have loosened him up to saying “O.K. I’ll try it” to proffered peyote. (I’ve done it, with similar results.)

  4. The ragman drawing circles is most likely a reference to hobos and the secret signs they’d draw on fences and doorways indicating a soft touch, a safe place to sleep or danger. A circle apparently means “no good”. Dylan would certainly be aware of the existence of hobo signs, as a believer in the mythos.
    Otherwise I’d say many of the characters are disguised versions of actual people he knows and the ‘meaning’ of any lines is not knoweable to us.

  5. I appreciate your remarks as well as your willingness to share them. It seems to me that your line of reasoning makes sense, and there is no reason that two interpretations can’t coexist. After all, ancient Memphis represents one of the earliest great civilizations. It’s easy to imagine that thousands of years later we could find two examples of modern cities that reflect divergent evolutionary results. On the other hand, contrasting modern Mobile, AL with Memphis TN, achieves a similar result – industrial city vs. cultural center. Both interpretations are valid, and yours may be a bit more interesting. Thank you.

  6. “Dylan probably chose the two contrasting city names, Mobile and Memphis, not only because the names sound good together, but also because of the contrasting history of the two towns. Mobile is a city in Alabama, one of the more racially segregated states in the country. It was the site of some of the infamous civil rights protests and violence that was happening around the time Blonde on Blonde was recorded. Memphis, on the other hand, was the home of “soul music”, and known as a hip and happening town.”

    I think this is trying too hard. To me, the song is just a string of images meant to evoke a mood (similar to many other Dylan songs), with blues references scattered throughout.

    The old blues song, “Blues In the Night” includes the lines, “From Natchez to Mobile, From Memphis to St. Joe.” In my opinion Dylan’s song title may simply be an oblique reference to “Blues In the Night.”

    Mobile has a history and culture that is different from the rest of Alabama. It was influenced by the French and Spanish and in fact has more in common with New Orleans than with, say, Birmingham, Montgomery or Selma. During the Civil Rights era Mobile largely escaped the racial conflicts that roiled much of the state.

    I don’t think Dylan was really trying to say anything specifically about Mobile (or Memphis for that matter). There’s no Grand Street in Mobile, for instance. If he were really trying to reference Mobile, he could have used Broad Street, which would fit the meter just as well. There *is* a Main Street, but it is a very minor one that most people there probably have never heard of; Mobile’s actual “main” street is called Government Street.

    Whatever. I love this song!

    (FWIW, I grew up in Mobile.)

    1. I love the song too. It is one of the (if not THE) songs that first got me seriously hooked on Dylan.

      And with a few exceptions, I think Dylan’s entire CAREER is “a string of images meant to evoke a mood.” I’ve been trying for more than half a century to figure his words out, and I can’t make hide nor hair of them. But they damn sure cook up a mood.

  7. In the verse where it says; “How badly they were shocked”. It should read; “How badly they are shocked”. Then where it says; “We built a fire on main street”. It says; “When I speak built a fire on main st.” or something like that. I used a program called Sony Vegas Pro 12 and it allows you to slow the song down as much as you want but I still can’t decipher exactly what he says about building a fire on main st. Hopefully, someone can help me out.

    1. About that “fire on Main Street”, Sounds like there was a tape splice there. In those days it wasn’t done as cleanly as it is now. Dylan my have flubbed or changed a word in an otherwise good take.

  8. Edlis Cafe comment…
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_Puzzle_%28song%29

    Richie Unterberger draws comparisons to the mid-to-late 1960s work of Bob Dylan. (Dylan’s name appears among the graffiti on the album cover.) Unterberg writes “…the similarity to some of Dylan’s long, wordy surreal songs of the mid-’60s is close enough that it’s a little surprising ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ hasn’t been singled out by more listeners as being a Dylan imitation, particularly since it frankly sounds a little hackneyed in its approximation of Dylanesque weirdness.” Some Dylanologists consider this song to be a direct response to the 1966 “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again.” The lyrics depict the observations of the singer who finds himself surrounded by “misfits and weirdos”:

    “There’s a tramp sittin’ on my doorstep, Tryin’ to waste his time; With his methylated sandwich, He’s a walking clothesline; And here comes the bishop’s daughter, On the other side; She looks a trifle jealous, She’s been an outcast all her life”

    “Me, I’m waiting so patiently, Lying on the floor; I’m just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle, Before it rains anymore”

    1. This is really off the wall and not at all something Dylan intended. But – and this is so way out START LAUGHING NOW – I see an analogy with this song to ancient Egyptian polytheism. Specifically, the first line: “The ragman – that is say, a mummy – draws circles – or makes hieroglyphs – up and down the block (or a block of stone). I’d ask him what the matter is but I know that he don’t talk. (He is mute because he hasn’t been through the ancient Egyptian ritualistic “Opening of the Mouth Ceremony.”) And the ladies – (the goddesses Isis and Nephthys?) treat me kindly and they furnish me with tape. (That is, the strips of cloth that’s used to bandage the grateful dead.) But deep inside my heart, I know I can’t escape.” Then:”Oh Mama, can this really be the end….” (That is to say, can this be what death – the end itself – is all about.) “To be stuck inside of Mobile -a fine place to be sure, but not a holy one – with the Memphis Blues again!?” (And by Memphis, I think of the Osirian cult center, Memphis, Egypt, where, if the narrator were properly and ritualistically interred, he would not be in Mobile – again, a fine place – but in the Beautiful West, The Fields of Peace…(I could go on – unfortunately…LOL.)
      P.S. Three more highly Egyptian themed Dylan songs include: “From a Buick Six,” “Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat,” and, of course, “Isis.” Best to all, hope you don’t take all this seriously and continue to enjoy a song that I’ve been listening to for well over 50 years. Edward Dalton

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      1. Nothing is out of the question. I always saw the song as being about being stuck in the South. The ladies in a boarding house. Grandpa– emphasis on family. Senator and son — inbred politics. Showing his gun — gun culture, Southern violence, with a double entendre. Preacher– dominance of religion. Discovered beneath a truck — slang for boxcar, free ride for hobos. Once, Dylan even says “came down here.”

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