I ain't gonna work on Magee's farm no more. No, I ain't gonna work on Magee's farm no more. Well, I wake up in the morning. Fold my hands and pay for rain. I got a head full of ideas That are drivin' me insane. It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor. I ain't gonna work on Magee's farm no more. I ain't gonna work for Magee's brother no more. No, I ain't gonna work for Magee's brother no more. Well, he hands you a nickel. He hands you a dime. He asks you with a grin If you're havin' a good time, Then he fines you every time you slam the door. I ain't gonna work for Magee's brother no more. I ain't gonna work for Magee's pa no more. No, I ain't gonna work for Magee's pa no more. Well, he puts his cigar Out in your face just for kicks His bedroom window It is made out of bricks. The National Guard stands around his door. Ah, I ain't gonna work for Magee's pa no more. I ain't gonna work for Magee's ma no more. No, I ain't gonna work for Magee's ma no more. Well, she talks to all the servants About man and God and law Everybody says She's the brains behind pa. She's sixty-eight, but she says she's twenty-four. I ain't gonna work for Magee's ma no more. I ain't gonna work on Magee's farm no more. No, I ain't gonna work on Magee's farm no more. Well, I try my best To be just like I am, But everybody wants you To be just like them. They sing while you slave and I just get bored. I ain't gonna work on Magee's farm no more.
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 1995 11:29:19 GMT From: eddie@edlis.org (Ed Ricardo) Subject: Re: Subterranean Blues Lyric question Jason Sandlin (tpun@omni.voicenet.com) wrote: : He says "Magggie comes fleet foot, face full of black soot". : Why is this? I thought maybe a chimney, but is there a better : answer? Hmmmm. Wonder who Maggie is? Some say Suze Rotolo, they would say we are looking at a women driven with energy over civil rights, black voter registration and related matters. Some see her in Maggie's Farm, some see her in the real farm too, Silas Magee's Farm, Greenwood Mississippi, 6 July 1963 [1/050] from where the defining film footage of our hero as civil rights protest singer stems. But them analysis analysers are just out to mislead yuh. Wouldn't pay 'em no mind. Anyhootie, if it don' rain guess I better scrub the floor. Again. Taking It Easy. Too Much Monkey Business. Chimney? Naaaah. Santa Claus is On The Road Again... ;-)
Subject: Maggie's Farm/Magee's Farm From: catherine yronwode (cat@luckymojo.com) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 01:01:58 -0800 A pointer in a recent post querying on "Postively 4th Street" led me once again to the excellent EDLIS Things Twice pages, which i browsed for a while before realizing that MY personal "Things Twice" conundrum was not on the list -- nor have i ever seen it posted here, which makes it, i suppose, a Things Once: Has anyone ever speculated on -- or determined -- who Maggie is in the song "Maggie's Farm"? When the song came out, i recall some drug-addled freinds of mine stating that it referred to drugs, specifically peyote, because a woman named Maggie (last name forgotten by me) was well-known in that era for selling cactus plants by mail, including the infamous peyote cactus. But even to the at-the-time-drug-addled me, that seemed like too long a stretch. It didn't conform to the LYRICS of the song, you see. (I will not disfigure my thesis by noting that the narrator holds his head and prays "for rain," which in Weber-speak means heroin, but i must admit that the thought has crossed my mind, as many things Weberian have, twice.) Having, to my own satisfaction, disposed of the drug subtecxt, i pondered this song for years, until i ran across references to Dylan in his lefty folk-nik, pre-electric days having played at a civil rights gathering held at Magee's Farm in Mississippi. And at this point, the song's tenor, its electric agressiveness, somehow seemed to me to fit the notion that -- as in "Positively 4th Street," which was supposedly directed against Irwin Silber, who had slammed him for abandoning social protest songs when he went electric -- Dylan was proclaiming that he would not write political songs anymore. He would not work on Magee's Farn no more. Under this paradigm, the song, with its ironic, needling images of a southern plantation family, could very well be a cruel reversal of symbolism, in which the nominally kindly lefty folk-niks are the oppressors of a poet (Dylan) because they want all his songs to be proletarian-positive work songs. He has "a head full of ideas" but they want him to "scrub the floor." In breaking away from folk music and into his own style, he must confront their open hostility: "I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them." Even more, he is tired of folk music itself. According to the printed lyrics, he declares, "They sing while you slave and I just get bored" -- but i have always heard this line as, "They say 'Sing while you slave,' and i just get bored" -- which is even more of a renunciation of his erstwhile role as civil rights performer at Magee's Farm. Either way, the line could be interpreted as a termination of his interest in the acoustic folk style he had heretofore championed. Another oddity of this lyric is the description of Maggie's pa's bedroom window, which is "made out of bricks." Does this not evoke the imagery of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" -- written the same year? To my mind, at least, it is obvious that Maggie's pa cannot ever crawl out his window because it has been bricked over. A further, albeit more tentative, link exists between "Maggie's Farm" with its cigar-to-the-face injury, "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" with its "face is so bruised" injury, and "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" (written one year later) whch contains the line "he just smoked my eyelids and punched my cigarette." (And yes, that same "Stuck" verse contains the Webermanistic "rainman" and the notorious "Texas medicine," either psyolcybin mushrooms or peyote cactus, take your pick -- but again, i am not looking for a drug-drenched subtext here, although i must mention that drug use was one of many improprieties frowned upon by sincere left-wing social protesters.) What do you all make of this? Has anyone ever figured out who "Maggie" is? I await with interest going through all these things twice. For quick reference, here are the lyrics: MAGGIE'S FARM (Words and Music by Bob Dylan) I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. Well, I wake in the morning, Fold my hands and pray for rain. I got a head full of ideas That are drivin' me insane. It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor. I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more. No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more. Well, he hands you a nickel, He hands you a dime, He asks you with a grin If you're havin' a good time, Then he fines you every time you slam the door. I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more. I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more. No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more. Well, he puts his cigar Out in your face just for kicks. His bedroom window It is made out of bricks. The National Guard stands around his door. Ah, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more. I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more. No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more. Well, she talks to all the servants About man and God and law. Everybody says She's the brains behind pa. She's sixty-eight, but she says she's twenty-four. I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more. I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. Well, I try my best To be just like I am, But everybody wants you To be just like them. They sing while you slave and I just get bored. I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. catherine yronwode http://www.luckymojo.com Mojo Catalogue: http://www.luckymojo.com/luckymojocatalogue.html The Lucky W Amulet Archive: http://www.luckymojo.com/LuckyW.html Sacred Sex: http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredsex.html The Sacred Landscape: http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredland.html Freemasonry for Women: http://www.luckymojo.com/CoMasonry.html Comics Warehouse: http://www.luckymojo.com/comicswarehouse.html
Subject: Re: Maggie's Farm/Magee's Farm From: John Howells (howells@best.com) Date: 25 Jul 1997 07:37:17 -0700 X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #4 (NOV) This interpretation had never occurred to me before. There's a lot of merit in it. I agree that there's no drug business going on in this song. That makes little sense to me, but I had always taken the song in a political context, indeed as one of his easiest to figure out: we all live on the same farm, some of us workers and the rest of us in charge (hmmm, sounds a little like his later "George Jackson"). Praying for rain so that the work will cease for at least one day, and you're supposed to take it without complaint (sing while you slave). It all seemed so obvious: Maggie's Pa was corporate America, the CEOs and Chairmen of the big companies like GM or Texaco. Maggie's brother was the financial establishment, providing loans and credit as well as setting wages and cost controls, or perhaps he was meant to symbolize management or organized labor under corporate control? And Maggie's Ma was organized religion, manipulated by the government to keep control of the workers. Or you could take the three characters to represent the three branches of the US government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The only character missing in the song is Maggie herself. Who is she supposed to represent? It seemed obvious to me that Maggie was the country itself. But I think I like your interpretation better. Something to think about... -- John Howells howells@bigfoot.com http://www.punkhart.com
Subject: Re: Maggie's Farm/Magee's Farm From: catherine yronwode (cat@luckymojo.com) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 12:50:25 -0800 Organization: Lucky Mojo Curio Co. X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Macintosh; I; 68K) DSmith9942 wrote: > > Catherine, > > You notions about Maggie's Farm and Magee's Farm have never > occured to me. Makes a lot of sense. I have always taken it to > be based on either share cropper blues....or prison farm > blues...and used by Dylan to remind us we are "all working on > somebody's farm," as Shelton noted. He cited "Penny's > Farm." I am sure others will mention other influences. Yes, i should have mentioned the white country song "Penny's Farm" (also recorded as "Hard Times in the Country," "Tanner's Farm," etc.) and the black prison song "Parchman Farm" -- because both of those certainly influenced the TITLE of "Maggie's Farm." While Dylan's 1962 "Hard Times in New York Town" was essentially a parodic reworking of "Penny's Farm"/"Hard Times in the Country" neither "Penny's Farm" nor "Parchman Farm" affected the lyrical content of "Maggie's Farm" very deeply. However, the link between "Maggie's Farm" and "Penny's Farm" actually supports my thesis in an unlikely manner: if "Hard Tmes in New York Town" is a complaint about the poor life of a folksinger, then "Maggie's Farm" is the same complaint, now directed both against the establishment AND the institutionalized folk-music scene. catherine yronwode http://www.luckymojo.com Mojo Catalogue: http://www.luckymojo.com/luckymojocatalogue.html The Lucky W Amulet Archive: http://www.luckymojo.com/LuckyW.html Sacred Sex: http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredsex.html The Sacred Landscape: http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredland.html Freemasonry for Women: http://www.luckymojo.com/CoMasonry.html Comics Warehouse: http://www.luckymojo.com/comicswarehouse.html
Subject: Dylan & Anthology From: DSmith9942 (dsmith9942@aol.com) Date: 28 Aug 1997 23:28:58 GMT The recent release of "Anthology of American Folk Music" on CD includes "Supplemental Notes on the selections" by Jeff Place. Place's piece is based on the original numerical listing of selections by Harry Smith. It is intended to correct and update the original notes. Here is the entry for selection #25: "DOWN ON PENNY'S FARM" The Bently Boys JOHNSON CITY, TN: OCTOBER 23, 1929. The identities of the banjo and guitar players are unknown. The Bently Boys were possibly from North Carolina, but the producer of their recording session, Frank Walker, did not remember much about them (M. Seeger 1973: p.17). The memory of their song, "Penny's Farm," however, has remained vital. Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers recorded it as "Tanner's Farm," and Bob Dylan adapted it as "Maggie's Farm." The song is about being a sharecropper. OTHER RECORDED VERSIONS AND RELATED SONGS INCLUDE Folksong Revival: as Penny's Farm by Fleming Brown MRW 1953a; Pete Constantini and Rob Rosenthal FW 5287c; Pete Seeger SF 40018c; Happy and Artie Traum RND 3007a; and as a related song, Maggie's Farm by Bob Dylan COL2328c, COL 31120c, 34349c. Post Revival: as Penny's Farm by Bob Bovee and Gail Heil MMC 9045d; as Tanner's Farm by Mike Cross SGH 1001c. Country/String Band: as Penny's Farm by The West Orrtanna String Band, RVH 924a; as On Tanner's Farm by Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett BB 5565b. Several things about this entry puzzled me: 1. It is one of the few (perhaps only) time(s) Jeff Place mentions an adaptation of a song. Most of the listings are devoted to covers of the songs. Sometimes the title will change. I am sure many lyrics were changed or floated from song to song, but most of the more recent versions listed are closely linked to the version found on the "Anthology." Place seems determined to link "Maggie's Farm" to the "Anthology." There is, of course, some justification for linking both "Penny's Farm" and "Tanner's Farm" to "Maggie's Farm". 2. Why does Jeff Place ignore the more obvious link to Dylan's "Hard Times In New York Town?" Dylan's version quotes the first two lines of the Bently Boys version. The published version in "Lyrics" changes a later line to "It's hard times in the CITY...", but on the official "Bootleg" version Dylan even sings "It's hard times in the COUNTRY..." The tune and phrasing seem very similar to my (untrained) ear. 3. Place mentions "Maggie's Farm" both in the paragraph about the song's background and the discography-like passage that follows. Again an attempt, IMHO, to establish a definitive link between Penny's and Maggie's farms. 4. The final sentence is strange: "The song is about being a sharecropper." Is this Place's way of saying even in the modern world most of us are but sharecroppers for some huge corporation? All of this came to my mind because of the recent and earlier discussions on this list concerning the similarity of the names Magee and Maggie. Magee's Farm, of course, being one of the more famous public appearances by Dylan for the benefit of the Civil Rights movement. This connection suggests the song is possibly about Dylan's decision to abandon the role of an activist in the Civil Rights movement of the sixties. I am not implying Dylan was no longer concerned about the Movement, but was weary of being labeled as a spokesman for that and other political movements of the sixties. Is Jeff Place trying to lead people away from that possible explanation to an explanation of "Maggie's Farm" as simply another statement about the exploitation of workers? Any thoughts? David B. Smith DSmith9942@aol.com "You're a man after my own heart, with a razor."
