knockin' on heaven's door -bob dylan

[student1]

Hello everyone, can someone pls help analyze this song for me..pls and thank you!


Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

[Redzeppelin]

Dylan is often cryptic and so heavily metaphoric that analyzing him can be a considerable challenge. With this song, clues are pretty sparse, so you're stuck with the few images/connotative words he left us.

First - identify the speaker: who speaks this monologue? What are your clues to his identity?

Second - what is the dramatic situation the lyrics present (i.e. if this poem were being acted out on stage in front of you, what would you see)?

Third - choruses of songs are generally given the lyrics of most consequence, and repetition is a form of emphasis.

There you go - good luck.

[genoveva]

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Hmm...a man is done with life, it's time to die, and is professing this to his mother? He's knocking on heaven's door, and hoping they'll let him in!

[Turk]

This looks like a dying soldier's last words.

[Whifflingpin]

or a policeman's?

[WoodDraw]

Dylan's hard. Here are my thoughts after a few minutes of reading though.

I agree with Turk that the setting is war. The narrator seems lost and emotionally broken. He's speaking to his mom which gives the image of a child-like maternal need. I read the "Mama, take this badge off of me/ I can't use it anymore." and "Mama, put my guns in the ground/ I can't shoot them anymore." lines not as the character being done with the badge and gun, but emotionally unable to use them anymore. The badge represents his position and power as a soldier - the ability to break the most basic of human laws. That's built on in the second verse with the gun - it's the shooting and the killing that he can't stand most.

The darkness represents his moral doubt. He no longer can see right from wrong or trust his moral instincts. The heaven part is hard. He "feels" like he is knocking on heavens door; he isn't physically doing it. Maybe it's just an image of his moral doubt. He no longer feels that he is worthy to be in heaven. He stands at the gate to paradise, asking for forgiveness.

Everyone gets something different out of Dylan, but I always feel like he uses these stories to discuss more personal emotions and problems. To me, the war setting isn't the important part; the emotions are. The war is just a vehicle to get there.

Hopefully that gets you started.

[cuppajoe_9]

He wrote it for a western film, I believe. The speaker is the sheriff of a small town who has just been fataly shot.

Now do 'Desolation Row'.

[Redzeppelin]

Now do 'Desolation Row'.

Yeah - that's a master's thesis. "Knocking" is a twinkie compared to "Desolation."

[Camán]

[QUOTE=cuppajoe_9;311376]He wrote it for a western film, I believe. The speaker is the sheriff of a small town who has just been fataly shot.
/QUOTE]


Jepp, that's it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Gar..._Billy_the_Kid

Sometimes lyrics are just that, lyrics.
I once actually overheard a woman analyzing one of my song
and I can tell ye, I didn't know that I had put all that intriguing
and interesting stuff in the lyrics.

[B-Mental]

I always thought it was a sherriff, or police officer that saw something very bad happen, maybe he had to use his gun on a friend or used it when he didn't want to, or maybe didn't use it when he should have. He is so torn up that he can no longer fulfill his duties. He doesn't want to feel this pain.

Although the easiest interpretation is he was shot. I like mine better. Think of the police officers that were in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Many of them have committed suicide since. They saw things I'm sure that they just couldn't deal with. It broke their hearts. Quite sad actually, as they probably were saviours for many people.

[djy78usa]

Caman is absolutely right. I hate to say this about a Bob Dylan song, but there's not much going on here lyrically other than what is happening on the screen (Still a great song though). I'm hoping that the original poster wasn't given this as a class assignment, as there isn't much to analyze. The song is quite literal.

[mortalterror]

Dylan's hard. Here are my thoughts after a few minutes of reading though.

I agree with Turk that the setting is war. The narrator seems lost and emotionally broken. He's speaking to his mom which gives the image of a child-like maternal need. I read the "Mama, take this badge off of me/ I can't use it anymore." and "Mama, put my guns in the ground/ I can't shoot them anymore." lines not as the character being done with the badge and gun, but emotionally unable to use them anymore. The badge represents his position and power as a soldier - the ability to break the most basic of human laws. That's built on in the second verse with the gun - it's the shooting and the killing that he can't stand most.

The darkness represents his moral doubt. He no longer can see right from wrong or trust his moral instincts. The heaven part is hard. He "feels" like he is knocking on heavens door; he isn't physically doing it. Maybe it's just an image of his moral doubt. He no longer feels that he is worthy to be in heaven. He stands at the gate to paradise, asking for forgiveness.

Everyone gets something different out of Dylan, but I always feel like he uses these stories to discuss more personal emotions and problems. To me, the war setting isn't the important part; the emotions are. The war is just a vehicle to get there.

Hopefully that gets you started.

You got a lot of that right, but Dylan did write the song for Sam Peckinpah's classic western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. It's a tragic story of friendship and betrayal. Pat Garrett loves Billy, but he accepts the star and guns his friend down. This sets up his moral uncertainty, and a feeling that maybe he's unworthy of heaven. It also doesn't hurt that the movie starts with Pat Garrett being gunned down years later. This was a very unique movie, and I remember likening it to the Robin Hood myth except Little John has to throw in with Nottingham and accept the bounty on Robin's head. Well worth seeing, if not quite so good as The Wild Bunch, Peckinpah's masterpiece, with a cameo by Dylan himself.

[B-Mental]

So I was close then.