{"id":22385,"date":"2024-03-23T08:30:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T13:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=22385"},"modified":"2024-03-25T10:36:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:36:57","slug":"she-belongs-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=22385","title":{"rendered":"She Belongs to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
She Belongs to Me<\/strong>\n- Bob Dylan\n\nShe\u2019s got everything she needs\nShe\u2019s an artist, she don\u2019t look back\nShe can take the dark out of the nighttime\nAnd paint the daytime black\n\nYou will start out standing\nProud to steal her anything she sees\nBut you will wind up peeking through her keyhole\nDown upon your knees\n\nShe never stumbles\nShe\u2019s got no place to fall\nShe\u2019s nobody\u2019s child\nThe Law can\u2019t touch her at all\n\nShe wears an Egyptian ring\nThat sparkles before she speaks\nShe\u2019s a hypnotist collector\nYou are a walking antique\n\nBow down to her on Sunday\nSalute her when her birthday comes\nFor Halloween give her a trumpet\nAnd for Christmas, buy her a drum<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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“She Belongs to Me”<\/strong> is a song by Bob Dylan, and was first released as the second track on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home<\/strong>. The song may be about a former girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, or fellow folk singer Joan Baez, contemporary siren Nico, or Sara Lownds, the woman that Dylan would wed in November 1965.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Meaning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The title of the song is perhaps ironic. The woman described in the song perhaps belongs to no one, as suggested by the lyric “She’s nobody’s child, the law can’t touch her at all.” However that is open to interpretation. The lyrics describe how the singer “bow[s] down to her on Sunday” and “salute[s] her when her birthday comes.” Other lines celebrate the woman’s assertiveness and moral conviction.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>
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An alternative interpretation of the song is that it is a paean to Dylan’s muse, depicting it as unapproachable but domineering.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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She Belongs to Me<\/strong> is a love song, of sorts. As Joan Baez wrote in her song Diamonds and Rust, Dylan had a gift for \u201ckeeping things vague.\u201d<\/em> Often his songs can be interpreted in many ways, and this one is especially open to interpretation.<\/p>\nBob Dylan Commentaries<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>
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David Weir’s Analysis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A more spiritual interpretation can be found on David Weir’s site BobDylanSongAnalysis.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The song seems to present an ambivalent picture of God. The indications that it is God the narrator has in mind are numerous. In the first verse the woman is self-sufficient \u2013 \u2018She\u2019s got everything she needs\u2019 \u2013 just as God traditionally is held to be. She\u2019s also a creator \u2013 a creative, or forward-looking, artist (\u2018She don\u2019t look back\u2019). Furthermore, since she \u2018can take the dark out of the night-time\/ And paint the daytime black\u2019, she seems to be the creator of the universe, making the world revolve \u2013 and so continually turn from night to day and back to night again.
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It seems significant that the song is written in each of the first, second and third persons.<\/strong> \u2018She\u2019 is very prominent. The title, however, uses the first person \u2018me\u2019 in order to claim that the narrator possesses the woman \u2013 \u2018She belongs to me\u2018. And there is the second person \u2018you\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This seems to refer to someone else, maybe the listener, who it seems is possessed by the woman. \u2018Me\u2019 and \u2018you\u2019, then, seem to refer to different people. The tone of \u2018You will start out standing\u2019 seems to imply something like \u2018You will start out standing just as I did\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song, then, seems to describe a God in human terms (she\u2019s female, an artist, a wearer of jewelry, a collector, a recipient of gifts), and identifies her with human beings struggling to progress morally. At the same time, seen just as God, she is detached, and thus beyond characterization in human terms, including moral terms.
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(Interestingly relevant quote: \u2018Well, first of all, God is a woman, we all know that. Well, you take it from there.\u2019 Dylan, Austin Press Conference 1965.)<\/em><\/p>\nDavid Weir<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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Visual Interpretation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
We asked AI image generates to visualize the lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Margot Cotton \/ One Woman Band<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Margot’s YouTube channel can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She Belongs to Me<\/h4>\n\n\n\n