Talk:Changing of the Guards
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I'm not done with this page; I still have some more research to do, so forgive what it lacks for the moment. Tix 13:13, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
By Andrea Alberini, 24 August 2006.
Regarding the lyrics of "Changing of the guards" I would give notice of some differences between official text (http://bobdylan.com/songs/guards.html) and the one actually sung by Bob Dylan, as it seems to me.
1 - In the second part of the strophe #1 (I consider a strophe the singing between the instrumental choruses) the text should be "I stepped forth from the shadows, ..." but it seems that the word "forth" is not audible.
2 - In the second part of the strophe #4 the text should be "But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination ..." but "brace yourself" seems not recognizable. Maybe "get (ready)"?
3 - In the last strophe the text should be "But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall" but "bring us" seems not recognizable (maybe "leave" or "let"?) and "when" is probably a transcription error for "than".
These differences could be due to the inaccuracy which Dylan is often subject to, even at the recording phase. Anyway I consider the lyrics a great example of poetry coming from the evocatory power of dreamlike images rather than from some direct meaning. Maybe a unique example of “ermetic”, obscure poetry in the folk music. And the dramatic, almost tragic sense of the music agrees perfectly with the words. Everything is too intense to speak of “parody” or some cryptic attempt to do just something new.
I am Italian and I was caught by the song when I was sixteen (yes, right “sixteen years”… in 1980). At my home, together some friends, with an Italian FM local radio station on the background. I did not know Bob Dylan yet, except for his fame, and I could not understand any of the words, but I immediately phoned to the DJ to know who could be … The day after I bought a book of Dylan’s songs. So started my love for Bob Dylan’s songs.
Solemnity, pain, fever, rage, hope and visions: these are the “codes” of the song. Just a verse: “The empty rooms where her memory is protected, where the angels' voices whisper to the souls of previous times.”
Many thanks for your attention
Andrea Alberini, Verona, Italy andrea.alberini@tiscali.it
