Sign on the Window isn't the Bob Dylan podcast you need, but it's definitely the one that you want! Each week we select a Dylan song at random, live with the song for a week (or two) and then get together to discuss. This week we talk about death with 1997's "Not Dark Yet."
Kelly and Daniel talk context (4:00), the song itself (6:00), the verses and the role of letters in Dylan's songs (12:00). We hype our playlist, share our recommendations for this week and close.
Next week: I'll be with you when the last episode of Music Video Month! goes down
CONTEXT (4:00)
"Not Dark Yet" was first recorded at Real Music Studios in Oxnard, California, between September and October 1996. The version that appears on Time Out of Mind was recorded in January 1997 at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida.
This was the first single off the album. It was also on the Wonder Boys soundtrack with "Things Have Changed" as well as The Passion of the Christ: Songs Inspired by The Passion of the Christ, apparently.
As of recording, he's performed the song 152 times — from October 30, 1997 to September 8, 2012.
SONG ITSELF (6:00)
Daniel relates "Not Dark Yet" in relation to W.B. Yeats "Ode to a Nightingale."
Dylan has said a lot about this song — which serves as a ballast on Time Out of Mind.
A lot of the songs [on Time Out of Mind] were written after the sun went down … This one phrase was going through my head: 'Work while the day lasts, because the night of death cometh when no man can work' … It wouldn’t let me go. I was, like, what does that phrase mean? … It was at the forefront of my mind for a long period of time, and I think a lot of that is instilled into this record. —Dylan to Jon Pareles, 1997
I try to live within that line between despondency and hope. I’m suited to walk that line, right between the fire. — Dylan 1997
I like the night. Things grow at night. My imagination is available to me at night. — Dylan, Chronicles
The song is lovely. It expresses no regrets, no sadness; yet there's not really a desire for it all to end — just an acceptance that this is how it is although at the same time somehow not quite sure why this is how it has to be.
It's a mood piece, which the production helps with. It's a mournful dirge that lets the light lead the band marching forward. The refrain — it's not dark yet / but it's getting there — is brilliant and evokes not just physical death, but a spiritual one (as later reference to the Talmud will make clear). It's also a song about time, about memory. Lines like I can't even remember what I came here to get away from hit hard.
Daniel recounts the use of letters in Dylan's songs off the dome:
"Farewell" — I will write you a letter from time to time
"Desolation Row" — I wrote you a letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke)
"I Was Young When I Left Home" — never wrote a letter to my home
"Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)" — There’s a long-distance train rolling through the rain / Tears on the letter I write
"Boots of Spanish Leather" — I got a letter on a lonesome day
"When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky" — Well, I sent you my feelings in a letter / But you were gambling for support
DOES IT WORK IN 2019?
Duh.
Death is scary. Despair is real. Meaning is fleeting. The sheer act of putting something like a song into the world — even if it's about how meaningless this human game can feel — is vital.
ALMOST FINISHED WITH MUSIC VIDEO MONTH
After "Not Dark Yet," we only have one more week of Dylan videos left this year.
THE EPISODE’S BOOKLET & PLAYLIST (31:00)
RECOMMENDATIONS (38:30)
Kelly is listening to Björk's Greatest Hits again, along with watching Lego Movie 2 and nearing the end of her third re-watch of Six Feet Under.
Daniel recommends St. Vincent's MassEducation (a stripped down version of her Mass Education that is actually good) and has been revisiting Gatsby's American Dream.
We also say goodbye to Glen Campbell, who passed away before recording.
ENDINGS (44:00)
We've got 416 songs left. For the last time this summer, Kelly hopeless chooses a number to pick our next song. She picks #236 — the great "Abandoned Love." Of course she's wrong. We conclude Music Video Month with "When the Deal Goes Down."
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