I’ve been listening to Scarlet Town a lot lately. It’s not a particularly easy song to digest. Perhaps an impossible song to really get to know. Dylan long ago stopped writing in a linear fashion, with often spectacular results. Think Desolation Row, to name one glorious example. Sometimes though, like with this song, this style can result in a bit too much ambiguity. IMO.
Anyway, I thought I would put together a series of blog posts devoted to this complicated song.
It seems that Dylan based, at least in part, Scarlet Town on the traditional folk song, Barbara Allen. Dylan played a version of Barbara Allen at the NYC Gaslight club in 1962, which was released on CD in 2005. That melancholy version is alright, but I much prefer the version he did during the early days of the Never Ending Tour. Most importantly for the purposes of this post, Dylan performed a version of the song during the Tour that starts with “In Scarlet Town where I was born.”
Other references are more obvious. The second verse is basically a summary of Allen’s plot.
Scarlet Town in the month of May
Sweet William Holme on his deathbed lay
Mistress Mary by the side of the bed
Kissin’ his face and puttin’ prayers on his head
So brave and true, so gentle is he
I’ll weep for him as he would weep for me
Little Boy Blue come your blow horn
In Scarlet Town, where I was born
The rest of the song, it seems to me, is Dylan describing a time and place where a tragic story such as described in the traditional song could take place. Perhaps a place like Hibbing Minnesota, Dylan’s hometown. We’ll get to that later.
Barbara Allen – As Sung By Bob Dylan During the Never Ending Tour
In Scarlet town where I was born There was a fair maid dwelling And every youth cried well away For her name was Barbara Allen 'Twas in the merry month of May The green buds were a swelling Sweet William on his deathbed lay For the love of Barbara Allen He sent a servant unto her To the place she was dwelling Saying you must come to his deathbed now If your name be Barbara Allen Slowly, slowly she got up Slowly, slowly she came nigh him And the only words to him she said Young man I think you're dying As she was walking o'er the fields She heard the death bell knelling And every stroke it seemed to say Hardhearted Barbara Allen Oh, mother mother make my bed Make it long and make it narrow Sweet William died for me today I'll die for him tomorrow They buried her in the old churchyard They buried him in the choir And from his grave grew a red red rose From her grave a green briar They grew and grew to the steeple top 'Till they could grow no higher And there they twined in a true love's knot Red rose around green briar In Scarlet town where I was born There was a fair maid dwelling And every youth cried well away For her name was Barbara Allen
Additional Reading
https://americansongwriter.com/barbara-allen-behind-the-song/
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Interesting how Mr D ended his gorgeous version in 1988 while married to Carolyn Dennis and raising out of wedlock DESIREE ’till marriage made it legal and somewhat sacred” that he chose to sing this song, and changed the usual traditional ending to “it was from William’s breast/grave that the briar grew, and from Barbarie Allen heart grew the beautiful eternal red rose” I wonder how personal this was to Mr. D so that in later albums after his or Mr CD divorce he wrote “TWO TIME SLIM WHO EVER HEARD OF HIM” and ‘i went to Sugar Town and shook all the sugar town’ or in his latest song..Black Rider…he said to …that it’s been on the job too long..anyway just some interpretations but it is not fair to use unexamined People’s magazine second hand infor or second guess someone’s heart, but that change of lyrics at the end of Mr d’s BA is very shocking and tell-tale heart revealing..No/Yes? thanks for your interesting articles. I just sent this to Prof. Kees de Graaf in the Netherlands who did an excellent anaylsis of SCARLET TOWN. He is a Christ lover and pursuer. He does an excellent job on Mr dy’s songs; and he is a scientist plus interest in Jewish mysticism as I am and I think he does a careful analysis of the songs. I think he mentioned he took 9 months to write about FALSE PROPHET before he put it on his blog. He asked me to comment on it before he put it to print, but I was on my way to vacation and would need a comparable time period for thinking and praying to be careful with such a complex masterpiece of a song.
Thanks for taking the time to submit the most interesting comments. I was not aware of Dylan’s change to the traditional ending.
I’ll check out de Graaf’s analysis. I’ve long been aware of his work. Like you said, excellent. I’m going to do another post on Scarlet Town from a religious angle (although not in the depth of folks like you and de Graaf). I definitely see some connections.