128 – "Ain't Talkin'" - by Daniel

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128 – "Ain't Talkin'"

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128 – "Ain't Talkin'"

"Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

May 20, 2021

Daniel and Kelly are listening to Dylan one random song at a time. This episode features our return to Modern Times with the great “Ain't Talkin’.”

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Next episode: She's a long hearted mystic and she can't carry on

Context (3:00)

Recorded in early spring 2006 in New York City. “Ain’t Talkin’” closes Modern Times. He’s played this 118 times to this recording, from November 2006 to November 2013.

Music Talk (8:00)

The song is riffing off the Stanley Brother’s “Highway of Regret” and borrows some lines from Ovid’s Tristia. Kelly talks about the chords and trying to playing it. We compare the two versions of “Ain’t Talkin’” (the other is on TBLS Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs).

Song Itself (15:00)

Kelly and I craft a narrative in both Modern Times and Tell Tale Signs. The lyrical divides and pacing create different energies that propel the song into different territories. It’s been a while since we’ve had a classic Murder Bob song, but the darkness in this mystic garden is overwhelming at times. The push and pull between the “human” and the “supernatural” makes this one of Dylan’s strongest. Taken together, the two versions we have speak to its power – however, in classic Dylan fashion, we look at how some verses weaken the flow or should’ve, wholesale or slightly rewritten, been in one or the other version.

We quote Ian Bell:

The final track, ‘Ain’t Talkin’’, stands out from the rest as the summation of everything the album has been about: faith and the loss of faith, failure, the urge to vengeance, hard times and injustice. Still the pilgrim keeps on walking. No single verse gives an adequate idea of the whole. It is enough to say that while critics prepared to celebrate the triumphant conclusion to a so-called trilogy, Dylan ended the album with words that were as bleak as they were unflinching.

Also Dylan’s 2007 interview with Rolling Stone:

JW: When you write songs where you say you walk in “the mystical garden,” there’s a lot of religious imagery.
In the mystic garden. That kind of imagery is just as natural to me as breathing, because the world of folk songs has enveloped me for so long. My terminology all comes from folk music. It doesn’t come from the radio or TV or computers or any of that stuff. It’s embedded in the folk music of the English language.

JW: Much of which comes from the Bible.
Yeah, a lot of it is biblical, a lot of it is just troubadour stuff, a lot of it is stuff that Uncle Dave Macon would sing off the top of his head.

We quote John 20:15

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Does this song work today? (46:30)

Another strong yes. It’s a Murder Bob song. It’s a Park Bench song. It’s a Walkin’ song. It's a song about the loss of faith, or the power of faith in dark times. It's a metaphor for the duality in all of us told through evocative images, something Dylan always does!

We quote NPR in their premiere of this track in 2006:

As Dylan has said in interviews, he's not trying to be a sage or a skeptic or a cultural bellwether. He's just a seeker on the road, sharing a bit of the clarity that comes to those not searching for the big answers.

We'll clarify if we're a real podcast and talk our playlist (51:00)

Recommendations (57:30)

Kelly continues to revisit childhood albums: Michelle Branch The Spirit Room (specifically “Paper Pieces”); Moby Play (“Inside”)'; Melanie Doane Adam's Rib ("Adam's Rib"); Cibo Matto Viva! La Woman; and, in light of his passing, DMX Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood ("Slippin'").

Daniel listened to a lot of music: Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature; Dreamwell - Modern Grotesque; Spirit of the Beehive - Entertainment, Death; Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!' There’s also a bunch of movies: The Midnight Sky, I Care a Lot, The Legacy (1978), The Bourne Ultimatum, and Hereditary. Also finished Ken Burns' three-part Hemingway series on PBS. Read Hanif Aburaquib’s sublime A Little Devil in America: Notes on Black Performance.

Endings (1:19:00)

Kelly generated 5 random words to match to Dylan’s lyrics to pick next episode. The words are scream, grind, curriculum, lend, and outlet. We’re listening to “I’m Not There.”

References

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