Bob Dylan: Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest Meaning
Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest Lyrics
They were the best of friends
So when Frankie Lee needed more money one day
Judas quickly pulled out a roll of tens
And placed them on a footstool
Just above the plotted plain
Sayin', "Take your pick,...
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Please consider:
1.The longest song on John Wesley Harding (1967), it's humour is largely untypical of the rest of the album, its tone similar to Dylan's liner notes.
2.It could considered a comic version of the previous track, All Along the Watchtower; both tales of a young man (Frankie Lee-The Joker) mislead by a older man (Judas Priest- The Thief)resulting in death or destruction.
3. It is a likely template for McCartney's Rocky Racoon on The White Album(1968); the puns and the arrangement (note Lennon's harmonica)features of early Dylan. Composed on retreat in India, it has been suggested that there was some inspiration from Donovan, no stranger to Dylan's work.
An early take had Rocky coming from "a little town (Hibbling?) in Minnesota."
4. The scope of Dylan's influence is almost impossible to quantify; in this case the heavy metal band Judas Priest derived their name from this song.
Geoff Cater
geoff@surfresearch.com.au -
No one can interpret anything Bob has written accurately. He is a genius and leaves songs open for us to relate to them in our own ways. We can never understand the workings of his mind.
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