Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
| "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" | ||||||||||
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| Song by Bob Dylan from the album Blood on the Tracks | ||||||||||
| Released | January 17, 1975 | |||||||||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||||||||
| Length | 8:51 | |||||||||
| Label | Columbia | |||||||||
| Writer | Bob Dylan | |||||||||
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"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", is a song by Bob Dylan released on the 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. There have been two screenplays written based on the song: one by John Kaye and commissioned by Dylan, and another written by James Byron.[1] Neither screenplay ever became a film.
Hearing the lyrics read to her by Dylan just after they had been written, is thought to be the inspiration for the 1975 Joan Baez song, "Diamonds & Rust" - which is based on their own relationship ten years earlier.
Contents |
[edit] Main characters
Known for its complex plot and long running time, the song has a long list of characters. The role of several characters in the plot has been long disputed among fans.
- The main character in the song is "The Jack of Hearts" who has recently come into town as a leader of a gang of bank robbers ("The boys finally made it through the wall and cleaned out the bank safe... but they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts")
- Major women in the song are Lily and Rosemary. The two hold a special relationship, and both are referred to in royal terms ("like a queen without a crown" and "Lily was a princess"). One interpretation of the song uses this link to indicate they are mother and daughter.
- Big Jim is the wealthiest person in town: "he owned the town's only diamond mine". He also had relationships with Rosemary and Lily ("Rosemary was... tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife" and "It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring").
[edit] Clues and interpretations
There is an extra verse on the Bob Dylan website that is not in the album version (right after the "backstage manager" verse):
Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch,
She forgot all about the man she couldn't stand who hounded her so much.
"I've missed you so," she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,
But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.
Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.
This verse can be found on the Blood On The Tapes bootleg version. This version is slower and more somber, even mournful, reflecting the approach of the other New York sessions. The version on Blood on the Tracks was recorded later, in Minneapolis, and reflects Dylan's attempts, following his brother's advice, to make the album less difficult and intense. The same contrast can be seen with the New York (Bootleg Series) and Minneapolis (album) versions of "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Idiot Wind".
Incidentally, the characters of Big Jim and Lily may be derived from the historical figures Diamond Jim Brady and his sometimes romantic partner, Lillian Russell, who had a long affair in and around operetta houses of New York before WWI. A movie called Diamond Jim (1935) was made about their tempestous relationship.
The song could be an allegory for a takeover by the Freemasonry (here referred to as the "Jack of Hearts") of a European monarch.
[edit] Plot
There are a vast variety of interpretations of the story line, and at this time it is unknown which is the most accurate since Dylan has yet to comment on the plot.
- According to Tim Riley of National Public Radio, "'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts' is an intricately evasive allegory about romantic façades that hide criminal motives, and the way one character's business triggers a series of recriminations from people he doesn't even know."
- Others may say that the song is about criminal facades that hide romantic motives, ("In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground. For one more member who had business back in town. For they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.") and is more along the lines of some of Dylan's other work such as "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Isis". Like those songs the two main characters, Lily and the Jack of Hearts, come in and out of each other's lives ("...I'm glad to see you're still alive you're looking like a saint.") and a past relationship is implied between the two. (..."'I know I've seen that face somewhere' Big Jim was thinking to himself, 'Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf.'")
[edit] Themes
- The song makes numerous references to card games: "Lily had two queens", "like a queen without a crown" (a wild card), "owned the town's only diamond mine" (cheated using the suit of diamonds), "nothing would ever come between Lily and the King", and of course the "Jack of Hearts".
- The song ends with Lily thinking about some of the other characters, thereby tying together the different characters' stories:
"She was thinking about her father, who she very rarely saw,
Thinking about Rosemary, and thinking about the law,
But most of all she was thinking about the Jack of Hearts."
The same kind of ending would be used years later in the song "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" by The Traveling Wilburys - a musical group that included Dylan - which was written by Dylan and Tom Petty:
"Sometimes I think of Tweeter, sometimes I think of Jan,
Sometimes I don't think about nothing but the Monkey Man."
- Coincidence: The plot is contingent upon a series of events that are shaped by each other, thus combining the ideas of coincidence and fate, symbolized by the card game.
- Identity/Duplicity: The setting is a cabaret, and the theme of multiple identities ("there was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts") underlies the symbolic card game in which bluffing and acting are common motifs. "As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk" could be interpreted as a clever way that the "Jack of Hearts" leaves the crime scene disguised. Against this background are the main characters, who struggle between their personal and social identities ("tired of playing the role of Big Jim's wife").
- Justice: Like other Dylan works, this song could be said to parody conventional justice ("he went to get the Hanging Judge but the Hanging Judge was drunk"). Later the Hanging Judge is sober during the execution of the law at Rosemary's hanging, but was ironically unable to prevent the preceding events, despite the manager's concerns and the incessant drilling in the wall. The mastermind of the crime (the Jack of Hearts) has gotten away and is nowhere to be seen, as Rosemary is hanged for an act (killing Big Jim) that is, at worst, morally ambiguous and possibly even justifiable. It is also possible that Rosemary did not kill Big Jim; Lily or the Jack of Hearts seem equally suspect.
[edit] Covers
- Joan Baez included a performance of "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" on her 1976 live album From Every Stage.
- The group Mary Lee's Corvette also covered this song on their tribute album Blood on the Tracks.
- American Singer/Songwriter, Tom Russell sang a cover of the song with Eliza Gilkyson and Joe Ely for his 2004 album, Indians Cowboys Horses and Dogs.
- Swedish Singer/Songwriter Ola Magnell recorded a version of the song for his album "Nya Perspektiv", released in 1975. The song was entitled "På snespår".
