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Rainy Day Women - Bob Dylan |
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"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" is a song by American
singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It is the opening track of his 1966
album, Blonde on Blonde. It was initially released as a single
in April 1966, reaching No. 7 in the UK and No. 2 in the US
chart. "Rainy Day Women", recorded in the Nashville studio of
Columbia Records, features a raucous brass band backing track.
The song's title does not appear anywhere in the lyrics and
there has been much debate over both the meaning of the title
and of the recurrent chorus, "Everybody must get stoned".
According to Dylan critic Clinton Heylin, Dylan was determined
to use a "fairly lame pun"—the idea of being physically stoned
for committing a sin, as opposed to being stoned on "powerful
medicine"—to avoid being banned on the radio. Given its Old
Testament connotations, Heylin argued that the Salvation Army
band backing becomes more appropriate. Heylin further suggested
that the song's title is a Biblical reference, taken from the
Book of Proverbs, "which contains a huge number of edicts for
which one could genuinely get stoned". He suggested that the
title "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" refers to Proverbs chapter 27,
verse 15 (in the King James Bible): "A continual dropping in a
very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike." Dylan critic Andrew Muir suggested that the sense of paranoia suggested by the recurring phrase "they'll stone you" is a reference to the hostile reaction of Dylan's audience to his new sound. "Dylan was 'being stoned' by audiences around the world for moving to Rock from Folk," wrote Muir, who also suggested the seemingly nonsensical verses of "Rainy Day Women" can be heard as allusions to social and political conflicts in the United States. For Muir, "They’ll stone ya when you’re tryin’ to keep your seat" evokes the refusal of black people to move to the back of the bus during the civil rights struggle. For Muir, "They’ll stone you and then say you are brave / They’ll stone you when you are set down in your grave" reminds listeners that Dylan also wrote "Masters of War" and other "anti-militarism songs that mourned the waste of young men being sent off to be maimed or killed". I Think he just wanted to get High. All That Said, I could have made a video of a bunch of Hippys Sitting around Puffing on Spliffs, Or Punching Cones but I thik it sits nicely with Paul Hogans Hobo, He was Pissed, The song is High, If Hoges was making a new show today, The Hobo would possibly be High as a kite anyway. |
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