Bob Dylan – Roll On John

 My first thought was that, no matter how great an artist John Lennon may have been and no matter how much I like his music, so much praise and eulogy for a mortal human being sounded over the top and initially the song felt to me as if there were some sort of misplaced idolatry in it. Also at first glance, the praise and eulogy addressed towards Lennon in the lyrics of the song, somehow seems to suggest that Dylan and Lennon were close friends, if not soul mates or bosom buddies. But they weren’t. 

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The relationship between Bob Dylan and John Lennon seemed to be particularly one-sided. Lennon wrote a handful of Dylan-esque songs; Dylan never wrote a Lennon-esque one

“Roll On John” is certainly mythic. Dylan detaches Lennon’s journey from the Liverpool docks, “bound for the sun,” from literal meaning, avoiding straight biographical detail in favor of a collage of quoted Lennon lyrics and images rooted in the American folk tradition—”Roll on John, roll through the rain and snow /Take the righthand road and go where the buffalo roam.”

Read More at : https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/bob-dylan-and-john-lennons-weird-one-sided-relationship/262680/

There are lines in Dylan’s Tempest “Roll on John” which lead to an easy interpretation such as “They tied your hands and they clamped your mouth” in reference to the record company requirements that Lennon was supposedly not to make political statements (for example about Vietnam) while in the Beatles.

And Dylan indeed quotes Lennon (“I read the news today oh boy”) but whether the reference to being on an island for too long is actually a derogatory reference to Britain or being on Manhattan for five years or something quite different, I’m not at all sure.   And although many see “Come together” as a reference to the Beatles song, I’m still not quite sure of the poetry as the song rolls on…

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LYRICS

Doctor, doctor tell me the time of day
Another bottle’s empty, another penny spent
He turned around and he slowly walked away
They shot him in the back and down he went

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John

From the Liverpool docks to the red-light Hamburg streets
Down in the quarry with the Quarry men
Playing to the big crowds, playing to the cheap seats
Another day in the life on your way to your journey’s end

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John

Sailin’ through the trade winds bound for the south
Rags on your back just like any other slave
They tied your hands and they clamped your mouth
Wasn’t no way out of that deep dark cave

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John

I heard the news today, oh boy
They hauled your ship up on the shore
Now the city gone dark, there is no more joy
They tore the heart right out and cut him to the core

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John

Put on your bags and get ’em packed
Leave right now, you won’t be far from wrong
The sooner you go the quicker you’ll be back
You’ve been cooped up on an island far too long

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John

Slow down you’re moving way too fast
Come together right now over me
Your bones are weary, you’re about to breathe your last
Lord, you know how hard that it can be

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John

Roll on, John, roll through the rain and snow
Take the right-hand road and go where the buffalo roam
They’ll trap you in an ambush before you know
Too late now to sail back home

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John

Tyger, tyger burning bright
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
In the forests of the night
Cover ’em over and let him sleep

Shine your light
Movin’ on
You burned so bright
Roll on, John