So the big story today among Dylan watchers is from England’s Observer, where Caspar Llewellyn Smith reports on what he’s heard of the forthcoming album Modern Times.

… any notion that the 65-year-old singer might have lost touch with the contemporary world is dispelled by the first verse of ‘Modern Times’, the opening song on his new record.

‘Thunder on the mountain, fires on the moon, There’s a ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon,’ it begins, before quickly skipping to the lines ‘I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn’t help from crying/When she was born in Hell’s Kitchen, I was living down the line/I’m wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be/I been looking for her even clean through Tennessee.’

It is not known whether Dylan really is a fan of the soul singer 39 years his junior – ever the enigma, he has not discussed the new record yet. But the two of them are thought to have met at the 2001 Grammy awards, when Keys was a five-times winner with her album Songs in A Minor and Dylan won Best Contemporary Folk Album with Love and Theft. Dylan also seems to have done his research – Keys was indeed raised in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York.

‘I first heard through the grapevine that he’d mentioned my name in one of his new songs,’ Keys told The Observer, the first newspaper to hear Dylan’s album, last night.

‘I just knew somebody had to be playin’ with me! How could such a legend know me? And bigger than that, want to write about me? I haven’t heard the song yet – it’s top secret. But I’m crazy excited about it and I’m honored to be on his mind.’

So, apparently “Modern Times” is not just the album title, it’s also a song title. The Alicia Keys reference is funny — but one would have to hear the whole song to begin to figure what Bob might be getting at (aside from amusing himself).

An interpreter like Ronnie Keohane might point out an alternative way of hearing the other lines:

Thunder on the mountain, fires on the moon
There’s a ruckus in the alley and the Son will be here soon

… but all of that can wait, I guess.

More from The Observer:

Debates about the autobiographical and political nature of his work will be revived with the appearance of this 32nd studio album. His last, Love and Theft, was released on 11 September, 2001, and the reference on the title track of the new record to ‘all the ladies in Washington scrambling to get out of town’ might lead some to speculate that Dylan has been brooding on the events of that fateful day. Similarly, while the title of the song ‘Workingman’s Blues’ pays an obvious debt to Merle Haggard, with whom Dylan recently toured, and his record of that name, it’s the line ‘I got a brand new suit and brand new wife’ that will have the gossips’ tongues wagging in the light of Dylan’s uncertain matrimonial status. But, inevitably, the songs elude strict interpretation, and instead the listener is left to contemplate the grander themes of nature and mortality.

What — you mean there’s no songs calling for Bush’s impeachment?? How disappointing for some.

And more from The Observer article:

Steve Barnett, chairman of Columbia Records, said that the company was ‘approaching Modern Times as the third release in an outstanding trilogy of recorded works along with Time Out Of Mind and Love And Theft’. The new album certainly has a similarly rootsy sound to its predecessors. Among the 10 tracks are at least three pieces that many will see as masterpieces: ‘Working Man’s Blues’, ‘Netty Moore’ and ‘Ain’t Talkin’, Just Walkin’.’

“Similarly rootsy”? Dylan’s entire career is pretty darned rootsy. At least he hasn’t tried techno-dance or Celtic Anthem Rock yet. Now that would be news.

As for this concept of the new album being the “third in a trilogy” — I wonder if that comes from Dylan himself or not. If it does, it might be a form of cuteness; you can call any three consecutive albums a trilogy, and people will entertain themselves looking for thematic connections. My speculation at this point is that there are just as many thematic connections between any three Dylan albums as there will appear to be between these three. I mean, he does have his themes (and dreams and schemes). However, that can wait too.

Of-course Columbia may simply see it as shrewd marketing to associate this album with the previous two, because it means that stories about it, like this one, will mention all three albums.

Their marketing is a little curious so far. The story initally was that a handful of critics were allowed to listen to the album in New York a few weeks ago but were “sworn to secrecy” about what they heard. Did that include The Observer, and has Caspar Llewellyn Smith brought the wrath of “Dylan’s people” down on his head now? But why would you swear people to secrecy if you want them to go out and create a buzz? That story never made much sense.

In any case, though, the buzz would seem to be building.

Alicia Keys: “crazy excited” about
Dylan’s new album

….

Addendum 05:25 pm I referred to Ronnie Keohane above, and sure enough, received an email reaction from her to the Observer story:

‘Thunder on the mountain, fires on the moon, There’s a ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon,’

Above supposedly is the first line from the song Thunder on the Mountain that will be heard on the 8/28 new album Modern Times.

My two cents – again Dylan is using “sun” as a metaphor for “the Son” like before.

From Time Out Of Mind: “I still have the scars the sun didn’t heal” – God may heal disease and illness and soul sickness — but He may not necessarily right every bit of damage we have done to our lives like: divorce etc.

Also, the word “alley” in Under the Red Sky and Mississippi I believe refer to this fallen world. And no one can deny that there is a ruckus going on.

In Mississippi the verse reads:

“The devil’s in the alley – the mule’s in the stall”

Well, Satan is the god of this world until the Savior returns riding a steed. His First Coming was riding lowly on a ass. As the animal evolves in stature – a way to describe these interim days before Handy Dandy gets up from the table to do battle is the use of the term “mule”.

Not like what you’d hear from Michael Gray, I think, but that’s all to the good. I’d note that we seem to have contradictory information about whether the song in question is called “Thunder On The Mountain” (as previous reports indicated was a song title) or “Modern Times” (as the Observer says).

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Cynicism?
• The Keys to the conspiracy
• Musings On Modern Times