Queen Jane Approximately
| Queen Jane Approximately | |
|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | |
| publication | July 1965 |
| length | 5:19 |
| Genre (s) | Folk rock |
| Author (s) | Bob Dylan |
| Label | Columbia Records |
| album | Highway 61 Revisited |
Queen Jane Approximately is a folk rock song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan , which first appeared on his album Highway 61 Revisited on August 30, 1965 . It was also used as the B-side of the single One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) in January 1966.
Dylan often plays the song live at concerts. The Grateful Dead and The Four Seasons covered the song.
Emergence
Dylan recorded the song on August 2, 1965 on Columbia Records with producer Bob Johnston . The musicians Mike Bloomfield , Al Kooper , Paul Griffin, Bobby Gregg and Harvey Goldstein played with him . Ballad of a Thin Man , Highway 61 Revisited and Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues were written in the same session .
construction
The song consists of five stanzas with five verses each. Dylan uses a cross rhyme in the ABAB scheme. The last two verses of each verse repeat the song's central question: “Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?”. In terms of sound, the song is reminiscent of the garage rock of earlier Dylan songs, such as Maggie's Farm on Bringing It All Back Home or other pieces from the Highway 61 album (e.g. Tombstone Blues ). The organ tones in the background of the song are very dominant, for example on Like a Rolling Stone . The electric guitars line up with this sound and appear to be untuned in some places . The piece has no refrain in the classical sense, but it repeats a kind of refrain question .
The text
Lyrically, Queen Jane is reminiscent of Like a Rolling Stone or Ballad of a Thin Man , except that the lyrical self in Queen Jane also pity the sung victim of his criticism and basically wants to be part of her life, hence the repeated question of when she would like him want to see and spend time with him. Queen Jane is less harsh and nasty than the other tracks on the album, which tell of a fallen person. Unlike Miss Lonely in Like a Rolling Stone , Queen Jane has yet to be convinced of her situation and perspective. The singer offers her to leave the superficial and step into a new life with honesty and depth. Dylan uses a variety of surrealist metaphors , making Queen Jane approximately a typical Dylan song of this period.
Queen Jane
Who Dylan actually meant by Queen Jane has been widely discussed in musicology by critics and fans, such as the identity of Mr. Jones in Ballad of a Thin Man or Miss Lonely in Like a Rolling Stone . Because of the name Jane and the title Queen , Jane Gray and Jane Seymour from earlier English history have become the object of some interpretations. However, more attention is paid to Joan Baez , with whom Dylan had a relationship that failed. Dylan and Baez were considered the king and queen of folk music. Possibly Queen Jane was Approximately Dylan's résumé of the relationship. Other interpretations say that Baez is already the central character of the malicious text in Like a Rolling Stone . Dylan told journalist Nora Ephron that Queen Jane was a man.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Dylan's interview by Nora Ephron and Susan Edmiston , 1965. Retrieved February 22, 2013