The Beauty of “Mississippi”

“Mississippi” as you know, is not only my favourite Bob Dylan song but it is also my favourite song of all time, by anyone. The beauty of the song is not only through the poetic lyrics and mind-blowing imagery but also through the way in which the song sounds. The song’s melody is incredibly calming. I imagine listening to it on a hot Summer’s Day, sitting on the steps leading up to my garden with a glass of water and a fresh salad with tomatoes on the plant in my garden. It is a very refreshingly calm song and it just sounds beautiful. So I would like to tell you about the beauty of the lyrics as well and why I see it as so gorgeously written.

If you want to read my other article on this song that was written ages and ages ago now, it is called: “Mississippi: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying” and you can click here to read it.

Now, let’s get on with my little story about these lyrics that are so beautiful they make me sigh every single time I listen to it.

The first verse deals with the topic of death and well, makes it look not only inevitable but inevitably picturesque as well. It is made to look like something they should just accept and accept in a loving way as well. The fact that there is ‘nowhere to escape’ is also a problem that cannot be solved. But the way Bob Dylan sings this does not even worry the listener. It actually puts us at ease and makes us accept our fates:

“Every step of the way we walk the line

Your days are numbered, so are mine

Time is pilin' up, we struggle and we scrape

We're all boxed in, nowhere to escape…”

His singing voice in the second verse is absolutely gorgeous, it is so brilliant and fits the song absolutely perfectly. When he sings the line ‘trapped in the heart of it, trying to get away…’ all the way to the end of the verse, I just think this is one of his greatest attempts at actually using his singing voice properly. Now, as you all know, I think Bob Dylan is the greatest vocalist of all time and it’s my most viewed article so I’m not going to think for a second that you have not read it. Just sing this in your head and you will know what I am talking about when it comes to this:

“City's just a jungle, more games to play

Trapped in the heart of it, trying to get away

I was raised in the country, I been workin' in the town

I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down…”

“Mississippi” is one of those songs that the more you listen to each verse individually, the better each verse individually gets. It is one of those songs where you need to really listen to it - like really listen to it. Listen to the guitar, listen to his powerful voice and take note of his beautiful and poetic lyrics.

“Well, the devil's in the alley, mule's in the stall

Say anything you want to, I have heard it all

I was thinkin' about the things that Rosie said

I was dreaming I was sleeping in Rosie's bed…”

I’m not going to lie, this verse is one of the best vocal performances in the whole song. The intonation in his voice is something that makes the listening and understanding of the song a lot easier and puts a lot more emphasis on the thematic side of the poetry. I will call it poetry because that is what it is. It is not a normal song with just mild verses and a nonsensical chorus. It, like most Bob Dylan songs, is a part of the poetic realm and because he won the Nobel Prize for Poetry four years’ ago, it is now called poetry.

The third verse has to be my favourite though:

“Well my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast

I'm drownin' in the poison, got no future, got no past

But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free

I've got nothin' but affection for all those who've sailed with me…”

For some reason, when I listen to this verse I imagine the time I first read “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville when I was about fourteen because that was the very same experience. I am imagining myself in the narrator’s shoes and the ship is in peril. I am aware of death but I do not care - I am not scared. I understand death is a part of life and that is it.

This song is one of those songs that when you listen to it, you need to appreciate it first and foremost for its unending everlasting beauty. After that, comes everything else in analysis.