Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
Encyclopedia
"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", is a song by Bob Dylan
released on the 1975 album
Blood on the Tracks
. There have been two screenplays written based on the song: one by John Kaye and commissioned by Dylan, and another written by James Byron. Neither screenplay ever became a film.
Hearing the lyrics read to her by Dylan just after they had been written, is thought to be the inspiration for the 1975 Joan Baez
song, "Diamonds & Rust
" - which is based on their own relationship ten years earlier.
This verse can be found on the Blood On The Tapes bootleg version. This version is slower and more somber, even mournful, reflecting the approach of the other New York sessions. The version on Blood on the Tracks was recorded later, in Minneapolis, and reflects Dylan's attempts, following his brother's advice, to make the album less difficult and intense. The same contrast can be seen with the New York (Bootleg Series) and Minneapolis (album) versions of "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Idiot Wind".
Incidentally, the characters of Big Jim and Lily may be derived from the historical figures Diamond Jim Brady and his sometimes romantic partner, Lillian Russell
, who had a long affair in and around operetta houses of New York before WWI. A movie called Diamond Jim
(1935) was made about their tempestous relationship.
The song could be an allegory for a takeover by the Freemasonry (here referred to as the "Jack of Hearts") of a European monarch.
The same kind of ending would be used years later in the song "Tweeter and the Monkey Man
" by The Traveling Wilburys
- a musical group that included Dylan - which was written by Dylan and Tom Petty
:
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
released on the 1975 album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks is Bob Dylan's 15th studio album, released by Columbia Records in January 1975. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia after a two-album stint with Asylum Records....
. There have been two screenplays written based on the song: one by John Kaye and commissioned by Dylan, and another written by James Byron. Neither screenplay ever became a film.
Hearing the lyrics read to her by Dylan just after they had been written, is thought to be the inspiration for the 1975 Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
song, "Diamonds & Rust
Diamonds & Rust (song)
"Diamonds & Rust" is a song written and performed by Joan Baez - it was released in 1975, but had been written the previous November.In the song, Baez recounts an out-of-the-blue phone call from an old lover, which sends her a decade back in time, to a "crummy" hotel in Greenwich Village; she...
" - which is based on their own relationship ten years earlier.
Main characters
Known for its complex plot and long running time, the song has a long list of characters. The role of several characters in the plot has been long disputed among fans.- The main character in the song is "The Jack of Hearts" who has recently come into town as a leader of a gang of bank robbers ("The boys finally made it through the wall and cleaned out the bank safe... but they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts")
- Major women in the song are Lily and Rosemary. The two hold a special relationship, and both are referred to in royal terms ("like a queen without a crown" and "Lily was a princess"). One interpretation of the song uses this link to indicate they are mother and daughter.
- Big Jim is the wealthiest person in town: "he owned the town's only diamond mine". He also had relationships with Rosemary and Lily ("Rosemary was... tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife" and "It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring").
Clues and interpretations
There is an extra verse on the Bob Dylan website that is not in the album version (right after the "backstage manager" verse):
Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch,
She forgot all about the man she couldn't stand who hounded her so much.
"I've missed you so," she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,
But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.
Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.
This verse can be found on the Blood On The Tapes bootleg version. This version is slower and more somber, even mournful, reflecting the approach of the other New York sessions. The version on Blood on the Tracks was recorded later, in Minneapolis, and reflects Dylan's attempts, following his brother's advice, to make the album less difficult and intense. The same contrast can be seen with the New York (Bootleg Series) and Minneapolis (album) versions of "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Idiot Wind".
Incidentally, the characters of Big Jim and Lily may be derived from the historical figures Diamond Jim Brady and his sometimes romantic partner, Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago...
, who had a long affair in and around operetta houses of New York before WWI. A movie called Diamond Jim
Diamond Jim
Diamond Jim is a 1935 biographical film based on the published biography Diamond Jim Brady by Parker Morell. It follows the life of legendary entrepreneur James Buchanan Brady, including his romance with entertainer Lillian Russell, and stars Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, Cesar Romero and Binnie...
(1935) was made about their tempestous relationship.
The song could be an allegory for a takeover by the Freemasonry (here referred to as the "Jack of Hearts") of a European monarch.
Plot
There are a vast variety of interpretations of the story line, and at this time it is unknown which is the most accurate since Dylan has yet to comment on the plot.- According to Tim Riley of National Public Radio, "'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts' is an intricately evasive allegory about romantic façades that hide criminal motives, and the way one character's business triggers a series of recriminations from people he doesn't even know."
- Others may say that the song is about criminal facades that hide romantic motives, ("In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground. For one more member who had business back in town. For they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.") and is more along the lines of some of Dylan's other work such as "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Isis". Like those songs the two main characters, Lily and the Jack of Hearts, come in and out of each other's lives ("...I'm glad to see you're still alive you're looking like a saint.") and a past relationship is implied between the two. (..."'I know I've seen that face somewhere' Big Jim was thinking to himself, 'Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf.'")
Themes
- The song makes numerous references to card games: "Lily had two queens", "like a queen without a crown" (a wild card), "owned the town's only diamond mine" (cheated using the suit of diamonds), "nothing would ever come between Lily and the King", and of course the "Jack of Hearts".
- The song ends with Lily thinking about some of the other characters, thereby tying together the different characters' stories:
"She was thinking about her father, who she very rarely saw,
Thinking about Rosemary, and thinking about the law,
But most of all she was thinking about the Jack of Hearts."
The same kind of ending would be used years later in the song "Tweeter and the Monkey Man
Tweeter and the Monkey Man
"Tweeter and the Monkey Man" is a song by rock music supergroup The Traveling Wilburys that first appeared on the 1988 album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.-Background:...
" by The Traveling Wilburys
Traveling Wilburys
The Traveling Wilburys were an English–American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, accompanied by drummer Jim Keltner...
- a musical group that included Dylan - which was written by Dylan and Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
:
"Sometimes I think of Tweeter, sometimes I think of Jan,
Sometimes I don't think about nothing but the Monkey Man."
- Coincidence: The plot is contingent upon a series of events that are shaped by each other, thus combining the ideas of coincidence and fate, symbolized by the card game.
- Identity/Duplicity: The setting is a cabaretCabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, and the theme of multiple identities ("there was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts") underlies the symbolic card game in which bluffing and acting are common motifs. "As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk" could be interpreted as a clever way that the "Jack of Hearts" leaves the crime scene disguised. Against this background are the main characters, who struggle between their personal and social identities ("tired of playing the role of Big Jim's wife").
- Justice: Like other Dylan works, this song could be said to parody conventional justice ("he went to get the Hanging Judge but the Hanging Judge was drunk"). Later the Hanging Judge is sober during the execution of the law at Rosemary's hanging, but was ironically unable to prevent the preceding events, despite the manager's concerns and the incessant drilling in the wall. The mastermind of the crime (the Jack of Hearts) has gotten away and is nowhere to be seen, as Rosemary is hanged for an act (killing Big Jim) that is, at worst, morally ambiguous and possibly even justifiable. It is also possible that Rosemary did not kill Big Jim; Lily or the Jack of Hearts seem equally suspect.
Covers
- Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
included a performance of "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" on her 1976 live album From Every StageFrom Every StageFrom Every Stage is a live double album recorded by Joan Baez on tour in the summer of 1975. The album includes live versions of songs from her then current album, Diamonds & Rust, as well as previous and original work...
.
- The group Mary Lee's Corvette also covered this song on their tribute album Blood on the Tracks.
- American Singer/Songwriter, Tom RussellTom RussellThomas George "Tom" Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including...
sang a cover of the song with Eliza GilkysonEliza GilkysonEliza Gilkyson is an Austin, Texas-based folk musician. She is the daughter of songwriter and folk musician Terry Gilkyson and Jane Gilkyson. She is the sister of guitarist Tony Gilkyson, who played with the Los Angeles-based bands Lone Justice and X...
and Joe ElyJoe ElyJoe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, Texas Country, Tex-Mex and rock and roll....
for his 2004 album, Indians Cowboys Horses and Dogs.
- Swedish Singer/Songwriter Ola Magnell recorded a version of the song for his album "Nya Perspektiv", released in 1975. The song was entitled "På snespår".