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Middle Earth various issues, 1967-1968

Page 6

Middle Earth page six

Hey Jude: a message to Dylan

   Hey Jude, Beatles’ recent hit, is in reality a poetic speedball delivered by John Lennon and Paul McCartney to their spiritual teammate Bob Dylan.
   And you thought it was just a song.
   In Hey Jude Lennon-McCartney attempt to convince Dylan that he should return to his role of “rock superstar” and forget about “folk-music.” They choose to do this in a poem because poetry is the most significant extension of themselves and they can turn a lot of people on the process.
   Look and listen.

VERSE ONE
   Hey Jude (Saint Jude is the patron of lost causes, an appropriate pseudonym for anyone who is trying to make America a little saner) “don’t make it bad” (don’t contribute to the sordid state of reality” “Take” (take in the sense of record) “a sad song” (a song which reflects how you feel about the time we linger in e.g. “Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands”) “and make it better” (and improve reality) “Remember to let her into your heart” (I think that Lennon-McCartney are using her in this context to symbolize “teenagers” just as Dylan did in many of the songs on Blonde on Blonde, e.g., in Fourth Time Around, so the line becomes ‘turn the young people on to the way you feel’) “Then you can start to make it better” (start to have a say about the way things are).

VERSE TWO
   “Hey Jude, don’t be afraid” (of performing in public) “You are made to go out and get her” (The last time you went out on tour you did so against your will since you had to fullfill a lot of contractual obligations which were made before you realized you were too far ahead of your time for most people to appreciate you. For example, when Dylan went to England in May of 1966 he was met with boos and sometimes pelted with fruit for that crime against humanity-so-called folk-rock. The more the assholes hastled Dylan the more exaggerated his folk-rock became. Dig the flip side of I Want You (Col. 4 - 43683), Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues recorded live in Liverpool in 1961. Dylan sounds like he’s doing an imitation of himself and if you listen closely to last couple of grooves you can hear boos mixed in with cheers.) “The minute you let her under your skin” (But as soon as you got out there voluntarily and let the teenagers know what’s going on inside of you) “Then you begin to make it better” (then giving concerts will be much easier).

VERSE THREE
   “M any time you feel the pain” (Again Lennon-McCartney rephrasing Dylan’s reactions to teenagers from Blonde on Blonde -- in Just Like A Woman Dylan reproaches mindless American youth— “Your long time curse hurts/But what’s worse/Is this pain in here” so ‘any time being a pop star becomes too difficult’) “Hey Jude, refrain” (go back to the seclusion of Woodstock) “don’t carry the world upon your shoulder” (don’t try to do the impossible) “For well you know” (Now that Dylan has recovered from his accident which took place while he was reluctantly giving concerts, he knows from experience) “that its a fool” (literally) “who plays it cool” (who takes the easy way out) “By making his wealth a little golder” (By giving concerts rather than being used for breach of contract).

VERSE FOUR
   “Hey Jude, don’t let me down” (More Blonde on Blonde symbolism. In Obviously Five Believers Dylan writes—‘ Don’t let me down/ Don’t let me down/ I won’t let you down, etc. so Lennon is imploring Dylan in his own terms to record some more rock) “You have found her” (You have made initial contact with Like A Rolling Stone, etc.) “now go and get her” (get her hip to what’s happening) “Remember to let her into your heart/Then you can start to make it better’(see verse one).

VERSE FIVE
“So let it out and let it in” (Continue to make change the only constant factor in your art”) “Hey Jude begin” (doing your thing in public again) “You’re waiting for someone to perform with’(You’re waiting for the band to make it big and appear on a double bill with you) “And don’t you know what it’s just you” (that you were responsible for the band’s success)   “You’ll do” (and your presence is enough to insure SRO crowds wherever you go) “The movement you need” (movement in the musical sense--tempo or rhythm -- you need to win the alligance of the young) “is on your shoulder” (is rock-that-is music which comes from an electric guitar which hangs from one’s shoulder vis a vis an acoustical guitar which one ‘carries in every hand.’

VERSE SIX
   See verses one and two.
   The record lasts for 7’11”, lengthy singles were a Dylan specialty . . .

By A.J. Weberman

Reprinted from the East Village Other.

SHIT (cont. from page three)

Muerde America will be under 30, the educational explosion will have blown the ass-hole out of the sick society, and the New Age in which consumption is balanced by elimination (a colonic revolution every 20 years) will have begun, invulnerable to any such stoppages as Johnson, Nixon, Humphrey, and their symptomatic disorders. 
   A dose of salts in the belly results in cramps in the intestines, but when the hard-packed fecal core is ejected, a sensation of psychedelic relief will follow. Salt of the ‘60’s brings peace to the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Not too old yet to enjoy life, to live in a world of intelligibility with only a faint remembrance of the old cramping farts and the sour, sick smell from the crappers. When shit will be shit and not a social doctrine—Ah, Paradise. A loaf, a jug, a joint— and Thou, singing in the New Wilderness.
   Graduate, oh Student, with a salt in stead of a shit degree. We need you, dainty coed, brawny Ed, to clean the fabled stable. Lift your hand in salute to the future and a tremor of fear shakes the morbid mountain. Strike, and it spews forth odor like tear-gas in Chicago. But with no new generations to support it, it can only dry out and desiccate in the sun— a dusty turd to be probed by history majors specializing in shitology.
   You are the first anti-shit generation, you are the time-bomb built into the educational system, whose ominous ticking began with John Dewey, each tick an accumulation of intelligence, discrimination, integrity, and anticipation of a free and rational society whose creative nerve center will be, not Washington, or Madison Avenue, or the Pentagon, but the educational evolution incipient in the basic idea of a University— uncodified, shit-free, sprung from and powered by the community of scholars.
   You are the first generation to wield the secret weapon. You are an explosion more powerful than Greek culture, the Renaissance, or the atomic arsenal. After you nothing will be the same again. You will get your hands dirty and your heads bloodied, but you will move mountains. You are an millenium of ideas whose time has come and the pot-warmers tremble for their holy ass. You are the catharsis of history in a society whose gross national product swarms with flies. You are sappers of the brown stuff and one day you will set the charge and watch the sun blotted out as the mountain explodes in a megaton of star-spangled shit.

Mac
[hand drawing of a soldier]

Saving...

Middle Earth page six Hey Jude: a message to Dylan Hey Jude, Beatles’ recent hit, is in reality a poetic speedball delivered by John Lennon and Paul McCartney to their spiritual teammate Bob Dylan. And you thought it was just a song. In Hey Jude Lennon-McCartney attempt to convince Dylan that he should return to his role of “rock superstar” and forget about “folk-music.” They choose to do this in a poem because poetry is the most significant extension of themselves and they can turn a lot of people on the process. Look and listen. VERSE ONE Hey Jude (Saint Jude is the patron of lost causes, an appropriate pseudonym for anyone who is trying to make America a little saner) “don’t make it bad” (don’t contribute to the sordid state of reality” “Take” (take in the sense of record) “a sad song” (a song which reflects how you feel about the time we linger in e.g. “Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands”) “and make it better” (and improve reality) “Remember to let her into your heart” (I think that Lennon-McCartney are using her in this context to symbolize “teenagers” just as Dylan did in many of the songs on Blonde on Blonde, e.g., in Fourth Time Around, so the line becomes ‘turn the young people on to the way you feel’) “Then you can start to make it better” (start to have a say about the way things are). VERSE TWO “Hey Jude, don’t be afraid” (of performing in public) “You are made to go out and get her” (The last time you went out on tour you did so against your will since you had to fullfill a lot of contractual obligations which were made before you realized you were too far ahead of your time for most people to appreciate you. For example, when Dylan went to England in May of 1966 he was met with boos and sometimes pelted with fruit for that crime against humanity-so-called folk-rock. The more the assholes hastled Dylan the more exaggerated his folk-rock became. Dig the flip side of I Want You (Col. 4 - 43683), Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues recorded live in Liverpool in 1961. Dylan sounds like he’s doing an imitation of himself and if you listen closely to last couple of grooves you can hear boos mixed in with cheers.) “The minute you let her under your skin” (But as soon as you got out there voluntarily and let the teenagers know what’s going on inside of you) “Then you begin to make it better” (then giving concerts will be much easier). VERSE THREE “M any time you feel the pain” (Again Lennon-McCartney rephrasing Dylan’s reactions to teenagers from Blonde on Blonde -- in Just Like A Woman Dylan reproaches mindless American youth— “Your long time curse hurts/But what’s worse/Is this pain in here” so ‘any time being a pop star becomes too difficult’) “Hey Jude, refrain” (go back to the seclusion of Woodstock) “don’t carry the world upon your shoulder” (don’t try to do the impossible) “For well you know” (Now that Dylan has recovered from his accident which took place while he was reluctantly giving concerts, he knows from experience) “that its a fool” (literally) “who plays it cool” (who takes the easy way out) “By making his wealth a little golder” (By giving concerts rather than being used for breach of contract). VERSE FOUR “Hey Jude, don’t let me down” (More Blonde on Blonde symbolism. In Obviously Five Believers Dylan writes—‘ Don’t let me down/ Don’t let me down/ I won’t let you down, etc. so Lennon is imploring Dylan in his own terms to record some more rock) “You have found her” (You have made initial contact with Like A Rolling Stone, etc.) “now go and get her” (get her hip to what’s happening) “Remember to let her into your heart/Then you can start to make it better’(see verse one). VERSE FIVE “So let it out and let it in” (Continue to make change the only constant factor in your art”) “Hey Jude begin” (doing your thing in public again) “You’re waiting for someone to perform with’(You’re waiting for the band to make it big and appear on a double bill with you) “And don’t you know what it’s just you” (that you were responsible for the band’s success) “You’ll do” (and your presence is enough to insure SRO crowds wherever you go) “The movement you need” (movement in the musical sense--tempo or rhythm -- you need to win the alligance of the young) “is on your shoulder” (is rock-that-is music which comes from an electric guitar which hangs from one’s shoulder vis a vis an acoustical guitar which one ‘carries in every hand.’ VERSE SIX See verses one and two. The record lasts for 7’11”, lengthy singles were a Dylan specialty . . . By A.J. Weberman Reprinted from the East Village Other. SHIT (cont. from page three) Muerde America will be under 30, the educational explosion will have blown the ass-hole out of the sick society, and the New Age in which consumption is balanced by elimination (a colonic revolution every 20 years) will have begun, invulnerable to any such stoppages as Johnson, Nixon, Humphrey, and their symptomatic disorders. A dose of salts in the belly results in cramps in the intestines, but when the hard-packed fecal core is ejected, a sensation of psychedelic relief will follow. Salt of the ‘60’s brings peace to the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Not too old yet to enjoy life, to live in a world of intelligibility with only a faint remembrance of the old cramping farts and the sour, sick smell from the crappers. When shit will be shit and not a social doctrine—Ah, Paradise. A loaf, a jug, a joint— and Thou, singing in the New Wilderness. Graduate, oh Student, with a salt in stead of a shit degree. We need you, dainty coed, brawny Ed, to clean the fabled stable. Lift your hand in salute to the future and a tremor of fear shakes the morbid mountain. Strike, and it spews forth odor like tear-gas in Chicago. But with no new generations to support it, it can only dry out and desiccate in the sun— a dusty turd to be probed by history majors specializing in shitology. You are the first anti-shit generation, you are the time-bomb built into the educational system, whose ominous ticking began with John Dewey, each tick an accumulation of intelligence, discrimination, integrity, and anticipation of a free and rational society whose creative nerve center will be, not Washington, or Madison Avenue, or the Pentagon, but the educational evolution incipient in the basic idea of a University— uncodified, shit-free, sprung from and powered by the community of scholars. You are the first generation to wield the secret weapon. You are an explosion more powerful than Greek culture, the Renaissance, or the atomic arsenal. After you nothing will be the same again. You will get your hands dirty and your heads bloodied, but you will move mountains. You are an millenium of ideas whose time has come and the pot-warmers tremble for their holy ass. You are the catharsis of history in a society whose gross national product swarms with flies. You are sappers of the brown stuff and one day you will set the charge and watch the sun blotted out as the mountain explodes in a megaton of star-spangled shit. Mac [hand drawing of a soldier]