Month: July 2024

June 15 2024, The original writing was written in my wonderful English class (EngL100) at MiraCosta college.

Prologue

I was a little hesitant about which texts to choose between Reflections of a 17-year-old by Sylvia Plath (excerpt from journal) and A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan (song). Regardless of the warning not to choose A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall if you do not have enough knowledge of music composition and terminology, I could not avoid choosing A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall for my choice to analyze it when I listened to the music piece. I definitely heard the name of Bob Dylan, but I never knew the details about him, or heard any of his music pieces so far. However, I felt I knew his melody when I listened to it. The first feeling of the song A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall was warning, gloomy, and even horrible. The music raised me the images of the animation, Princess Monnonoke. Princess Monnonoke is a 1997 Japanese film. 

Introduction

Bob Dylan who composed a Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall is an American singer and songwriter. He is one of the best-selling musicians and a Nobel Prize winner in literature. His first debut album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963), was a big hit, and he (age 83) is still running a music festival tour (Wiki). The topic and motif of his rock and roll’s lyrics in his songs are understood as part of the Civil Rights Movement. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall was written in 1962 and recorded in 1963 (Wiki) when his age was 21 and 22. The themes of the song are series of images as arranged: dead forests and oceans (environment, pollution), orphanages, no people, no communication, a lost innocent and conscientious young generation, a destroyed blue-eyes’ world, no attention to others, individualism, hatred and a warning to escape or fight against these coming hard rains. However, these themes have values in all ages even of Noah’s time and even today. The year 1960s , when this song released, summarized as the most tumultuous and divisive decade in world history, marked by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and antiwar protests, countercultural movements, political and generation gaps, and the lyric of the song encapsulates the view of the times. The lyrics of the song are a part of his society, America and world young generation of 1960s as much as his personal growth development.  

The lyrics of A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

1 Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
2 And where have you been, my darling young one?

3 I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
4 I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways,
5 I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
6 I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
7 I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard.
8 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

9 Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son?
10 Oh, what did you see, my darling young one? 

11  I saw a new born baby with wild wolves all around it,
12 I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
13 I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping,

14 I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding,
15 I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
16 I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
17 I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children.
18 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

19 And what did you hear, my blue eyed son?
20 And what did you hear, my darling young one?

21 I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warning,
22 Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
23 Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing,
24 Heard ten thousand whispering and nobody listening,
25 Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing,
26 Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
27 Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
28 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

29 And who did you meet, my blue eyed son?
30 And who did you meet, my darling young one?

31 I met a young child beside a dead pony,
32 I met a white man, who walked a black dog,
33 I met a woman, whose body was burning,
34 I met a young girl; she gave me a rainbow,
35 I met one man, who was wounded in love,
36 I met another man, who was wounded with hatred.
37 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall. 

38 Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue eyed son?
39 Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?

40 I’m going back out ‘fore the rain starts a-falling,
41 I’ll walk to the depth of the deepest black forest,
42 Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
43 Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
44 Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
45 Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden,
46 Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
47 Where black is the color, where none is the number,
48 And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breath it,
49 Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinking,
50 But I’ll know my song well before I start singing,
51 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

The subject of this song, who is, was, or will be responsible for or in charge of this gloomy and unsatisfied world, is “blue-eyed son”. Blue-eyed son means the American White young healthy generation or Bob Dylon himself. This song is asking for the current or future responsibility of the blue-eyed son to avoid or fight against the coming hard rains. Hard rains are catastrophe like the Great Flood, a kind of God’s punishment

Let’s move and see the repeated below lyrics in this song. The current chaotic world was caused by the absence of the blue-eyed son (young, healthy white responsible generation) or his darling young generation, and this song is asking them/blue-eyed son/daring young generation to see the current political chaos, hatred, industrialization, and deprived environment, and this song is again asking or even encouraging the young generation’s proper or right action to escape the bigger catastrophe. 

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?

And what did you hear, my darling young one?

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?

Let’s check another repetition of phrases after different part of lyrics below. This is Emphasis and Soliloquy of this poem. The expression in this short-repeated phrases, has Symbolism, Tone, Mood, Satire, Imagery and Colloquialism in techniques.

And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard

And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

In the phrase, it’s hard is repeated again, emphasizing that the coming rain is greatly hard and destroying. A hard rain is like the Great rain that sins the whole world.

Let’s move on the other parts of the lyrics. The other parts have Irony, Metonym and Synecdoche as well as techniques of Soliloquy, Symbolism, Tone, Mood, Satire, Imagery and Colloquialism. The first part (lines 3-7 indicated above) of the song describes a sad and deadly world: twelve misty mountains, six crooked highways, seven sad forests, dozen dead oceans, and ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard. What numbers (12, 6 and 7) means? Bob Dylan surely has the exact meaning of the numbers although others are not easy to know. The number 12 is our world of mountains and oceans that are misty and dead. The number 6 is men-made roads that are crooked. The number 7 is the forest that is sad. What 7 forests mean exactly. 7 continents or 7 kings. 7 seems be somehow 7 authorities located or connected between crooked highways (men) and mountains and oceans (world). The second part (lines 11-17) describes: new bone baby, new young generation is around wild wolves, describing “threatened by the old generation, notion, environment, politics etc”. The wild wolves might mean the old generation, notion, environmental deprivation, political injustice.  There is another highway of diamond, where nobody is, and while latter maybe from the dead ocean, but covered. Dead forest continues described as blood dripping branches that men made. The men want to talk but the talkers could not talk because they do not have tongues. Young children have guns and swords, marching toward graveyards. Words of diamonds, hammers-a-bleeding, white ladder, tongues, guns, sword, hands, young children are Symbolism and Synecdoche. The most of these words transfer horrible mood but diamonds and white ladder are hints of hopes that this destroying world has inside, even although they are invisible and covered. The third part (lines 21-27) of the song is a kind of warning, but nobody could listen to or notice the warning, because they could not even hear others near them. Poets died and clowns cried. Many people laughing and one person starves.   The fourth part (lines 31-36) described broken hearted individuals: young child with dead pony, white man with black dog, burning women. They are all like ghosts and wounded.  but there is still hope described as a rainbow that a young girl has. The last part (lines 40-50) is resolution and shouting, even losing the war to fight against hard rains. This is a declaration against the older or existent generation or even himself, or he is still outside the his life and real world, showing his resolution that Bob Dylon wants to walk into dark black forest, even he wants to go deep into the black darkness with his free will or warm heart, but he wishes he would go back out of the forest before the rain. Let’s see the bellowed lyrics. The lyrics is beautiful sounding of soul full of resolution and confidence.

And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’

But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’

In summary, this is a sad song of accusation, warning, and declaration, but it calls for the hope of a rainbow. This lyrics is sad but not weak, and sounds strong and full of confidence, showing resolution against the world around him.

Prologue:

In the end, I would like to introduce Korean songs from the 1970s that similarly have accusations, warnings and declarations for resistance against the old or existent generation: Yeog by Yangbyeongjib,  Haengbog-ui nalalo/ To the Land of Happiness

by Handaesu ((lyric is different, but sounding is similar to the song A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall), more songs by Minki Kim (who is recognized as a Korean Bob Dylan), and Taechun Jeong. All of these songs are beautiful, and evoke lingering emotions from our hearts and ask for a kind of justice and community happiness, although the melody is simple and repetitive. Furthermore, these songs represent a kind of young generation, development or growth from kids to the adults, start seeing or realizing the imperfect world around themselves.

Reference

Wiki, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s