Expecting Rain

"Mississippi" is one amazing Dylan song for a variety of reasons. Of all the songs that get placed on a "Dylan's best song" list, "Mississippi" seems, to me, the most ephemeral of all. While songs like "Visions of Johanna" "Desolation Row" "Chimes of Freedom" clearly aren't traditional "story telling" songs, they none the less are chock full of images; they are overflowing with meaning, whereas "Mississippi" seems to barely trickle meaning, is more like a leaky faucet than the burst dams of those other songs.

More than any other Dylan song it seems like some odd alchemy of words that barely whisper meaning mixed with a strong performance create a result that is so surprisingly impressive. All the various early versions on BS #8 lead up to the final album version and that version is clearly the best because it finds that amazing contrast between a lyric that descends into a sort of darkness sung against a progression that ascends into light, counteracting the despair.

One way the song works in to create a sense of urgency in the opening verse. "Our days are numbered, there's no escape." A good chunk of Dylan's best work sets up a dichotomy of "light/dark" "urban/rural" and this does too in the second verse's "I was raised in the country, I been workin' in the town."

The song's structure is comprised of 12 verses arranged in three sets of four verses each and each of those three sets leading up to the repeating enigma: "Only one thing I did wrong / Stayed in Mississippi a day too long."

Here's where the greater context of Love and Theft enters the picture and contributes meaning to "Mississippi." Mississippi has nothing to do with the song per se, but fits into the larger puzzle of the record as a kind of tour through the reconstructed South.

Sung in the first person, it has a narrator; it's just that the narrator is less forthcoming than any other on any other song. To fill 12 verses and say.... almost nothing. It’s like a Steely Dan song.

"Mississippi" is a perfect example of a Dylan song that really resists "interrogation" (you could water board this song and it still isn't giving anything up). But there are two different approaches -- in the first you take a song, sit it in a chair and shine a 100 watt light in its eyes and ask it where it was on the evening of October 5th. That won't work here.

It is the other approach that works -- you take the song to the pub, not to "get it drunk" but to get drunk with it. You sit and drink 6 pints each and it tells you its secrets as you tell it a few of your own.

Every step of the way we walk the line
Your days are numbered, so are mine
Time is pilin' up, we struggle and we scrape
We're all boxed in, nowhere to escape

City's just a jungle, more games to play
Trapped in the heart of it, trying to get away
I was raised in the country, I been workin' in the town
I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down

Got nothing for you, I had nothing before
Don't even have anything for myself anymore
Sky full of fire, pain pourin' down
Nothing you can sell me, I'll see you around

All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime
Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

Well, the devil's in the alley, mule's in the stall
Say anything you wanna, I have heard it all
I was thinkin' about the things that Rosie said
I was dreaming I was sleeping in Rosie's bed

Walking through the leaves, falling from the trees
Feeling like a stranger nobody sees
So many things that we never will undo
I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too

Some people will offer you their hand and some won't
Last night I knew you, tonight I don't
I need somethin' strong to distract my mind
I'm gonna look at you 'til my eyes go blind

Well I got here following the southern star
I crossed that river just to be where you are
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

Well my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast
I'm drownin' in the poison, got no future, got no past
But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free
I've got nothin' but affection for all those who've sailed with me

Everybody movin' if they ain't already there
Everybody got to move somewhere
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow
Things should start to get interesting right about now

My clothes are wet, tight on my skin
Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in
I know that fortune is waitin' to be kind
So give me your hand and say you'll be mine

Well, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay
You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

I really like your analysis a lot. good job!

no doubt. Tell Tale version for me.

Well my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast
I'm drownin' in the poison, got no future, got no past
But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free
I've got nothin' but affection for all those who've sailed with me


a beautiful set of life affirming lines

I love the Tell Tale version. It was a revelation to hear it done so differently. But I can also hear how the extra effort pays off in the album version. The little progression he adds that goes up creates a perfect counterpart to the lyric.

Mississippi. One of my absolute favorites ever since I first heard it.

Walking through the leaves, falling from the trees
Feeling like a stranger nobody sees
So many things that we never will undo
I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too


That verse, just, amazing.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=43785

May I ask why you didn't simply bump this thread with a few minor additions?

Vocals not good.
Tune ok.
Lyrics usual latterday hotch potch of couplets that don't join up to make any coherent sense.
Why did he stay in Mississippi a day too long? Why was that a bad thing? Am I supposed to care?

wtf is the man in the panama hat doing with the soviet ambassador in black diamond bay? Why should i care about that? Mississippi is far better

Well I think you'll find that song demonstrates some of his most amazing vocals, not to mention one of the most complexly structured, thematically self-contained and narratively perfect lyrics he ever (co-)wrote. Jesus man, are you really saying 'Mississippi' is better than 'Black Diamond Bay'? Please, no.....

Oh and by the way, the main character who wears the panama hat at the beginning and leaves it behind when they die at the end is female. And the dramatic reveal in the closing verse is designed exactly to play with notions of caring for the plight of these people.

This is that I feel:

Hoy acaba otro día. No ha estado mal.
Te echo de menos. Eso en mí es normal.
El tiempo pasa lento en el lugar del que huir.
Hay otros detalles; voy a sonreír.

Mi pueblo me aburre; no hay a qué jugar.
Atrapado en el tiempo. Trato de escapar.
Yo quisiera ir al campo, no trabajar en la ciudad.
Tocando mi guitarra ver la noche llegar.

Tengo algo de ti; para mí, lo mejor.
Yo tengo algo que darte: aliviar tu dolor.
El cielo está brillando. La luna bajará.
A tus pies yo los pondré,un día más.

El poder de mis canciones van a convertir
la sangre en vino; hay magia en mi.
Tengo un deseo, para hacerlo realidad:
sentarme frente al Mississippi y ver los barcos pasar.

Varios cruces de caminos he dejado atrás.
No ha pasado nada. No he dejado de andar.
No voy a vender mi alma. Hay un nombre de mujer.
Estoy pensando en ella. Tengo a donde volver.

Paseando entre las hojas. Creo que va a llover.
Me resulta extraño lo que puedo ver.
Se ha dicho tantas cosas, que no supe oír.
Y diré lo siento y lo volveré a decir.

Me han prestado estas botas. El abrigo, lo robé.
He cambiado mi guitarra por tu nombre en un papel.
Necesito algo fuerte que me pueda calmar.
En el calor de tu cocina me voy a quemar.

Y sigo cantando un poco más este blues
Crucé que acababa en el sur.
Y yo tengo un deseo para hacerlo realidad:
sentarme frente al Mississippi y ver los barcos pasar.

Mi barco aun no ha zarpado. Oigo el viento soplar.
La mar aun está en calma, pero habrá que pensar
que el viento está rolando y hay que subir;
tengo el afecto de los que están junto a mi.

Todo el mundo se mueve sin saber a dónde van;
pero es mejor moverse, que quedarse atrás.
Y vas conmigo, baby, en mi misma dirección.
Empieza a ser interesante esta canción.

Mis luchas acabaron. Voy a descansar.
Me hago viejo; eso también es normal.
Sé que la fortuna no me va a enloquecer;
mi mayor tesoro duerme junto a mi piel.

Un último consejo. Al que quiera oír:
"No cuesta soñar, para ser feliz".
Y yo tengo un deseo para hacerlo realidad:
SENTARME FRENTE AL MISSISSIPPI Y VER LOS BARCOS PASAR.

By jcastro

11-18-2008.

yes. It's also as good (but no better than) isis and romance in durango.

Go join Warren in the room with the soft walls and rubber cutlery.

Long Johns thoughts are spot on. Great song.
Benny is wrong. this is better than Diamond bay and the vocals are great. I really trust the fact he has been trampling through the delta working hard while no one sees him. An inspirational sad song. (listen to it more than stuck inside of mobile) The TTS versions are great too but a way diffrent song based on the vocals and music. Dyaln...the master. (and though i love live dylan from 2000-2010 i never much cared for it live...funny)

"Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long"

These lines come from a chain gang song called Rosie, that was recorded by Alan Lomax on one of his field trips. Every man in that chain gang would have had a different reason for being incarcerated, and as they swung their hammers singing that they'd "stayed in Mississippi a day too long" the real thing they "did wrong" would have been pounding in their brains.

"Stayed in Mississippi too long" I might have that engraved on my tombstone.

Right, so you have to know this before listening to the song?

I'd heard it covered by Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks, and didn't think much of it...until Love & Theft.
For a guy that supposedly can't sing, he somehow managed to infuse this song with so much more Life & Depth than was apparent from those others.

Don't know how many of you caught it, but Russ Feingold in his concession speech last November quoted this song.

My heart is not weary...

http://www.starboardbroadside.com/2010/ ... peech.html

just listen to the bass, mannn

I was about to search for that thread too.

Are you ever supposed to understand?

First off, love the comment about Steely Dan....

"Visions Of Johanna" and "Desolation Row," I think resist a definitive interpretation simply because they are basically collections of words/lines that evoke a mood--it a mistake to try to assign a literal meaning to the songs. "Mississippi" is equally inscrutable as those two songs (and IMHO equally as great). But unlike those two songs, as LJ points out, the narrative is much more cohesive, however unfathomable with respect to specifics; there is a tale here the narrator isn't telling you.

It is a mistake to assume Dylan is the narrator, but I would bet that if you could pin Dylan down to a "what is this song about" type question, he would probably be able to answer it, and part of the answer would be how it relates to the other songs on "Love and Theft."

Despite being a TOOM outtake, the song doesn't really fit on that record.

Love this.
When I drink at the pub with this song and share secrets, I remember the one and only day I spent in Mississippi. Almost 20 years ago. I visited my parents in Laurel, and we went to the local country club for dinner. All of the patrons were well-to-do white folks. Every server was African-American. When taking my order, I was not once looked at in the eye. The only words spoken to me were "yes,sir" and "no, sir." I had spent some time in the south (Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia)but here in Mississippi, it felt as if I were being shot back in time 50 years. It was spooky. And my one day spent there was for me, one day too long.

Agreed. It's a classic.. maybe his last one to date?

It's one of Bob's greatest songs, no question. The lyrics are jaw dropping great.

Equally important, it lays to ruins any claims(and there are many) that the "golden years" of Bob Dylan were the 1960's - and the "modern Bob" is hardly worth listening to. Though I'm firmly in the camp with those who prefer his strong voice in the 60's, the irrefutable magic that is the genius of Bob Dylan shines through in this song like the north star.