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John Dunne asked:
Does anyone know the original melody which Dylan adapts for 'I Pity the Poor Immigrant'? The well-known Irish song 'The Homes of Donegal' (murdered by numerous Irish artists including Dylan favourite, Paul Brady) and 'Come My Little Son' by Ewan McColl both use similar melodies but what's the original?
And while we're on the subject of influence/adaptation, has anything been written about the opening line of 'I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine' and the old labour ballad 'Joe Hill'?
Peter Stone Brown responded:
There are many many songs that have the same melody Dylan used for "I Pity The Poor Immigrant." For one thing Dylan himself used the melody before for "The Ballad of Donald White." At that time (I believe he said) he got the tune from "The Ballad of Peter Amberly" by Canadian folksinger Bonnie Dobson. However, the liner notes of the Dobson album say the song is based on the Scottish ballad, "Tramps & Hawkers." This melody was also used for another traditional song Dylan performed live in the early '90s, "Banks of Ponchartrain." On the Shane MacGowan & the Popes album, there are a couple of songs that use this melody or variants, most notably "The Song With No Name" and "Roddy McCorley," though the latter is speeded up. To make things even more confusing, on the Chieftains album, "Lily of the West" which features guest artists, Mark Knopfler does the title track using this melody though the lyrics are pretty much the same exact "Lily of the West" other artists including Dylan have sung.
As for "St. Augustine" borrowing from Earl Robinson's "Joe Hill," when the JWH came out at the beginning of 1968, I believe everyone who had heard "Joe Hill" noticed immediately though that is the only similarity.
Jim Linwood added:
Matt Zuckerman covered this (with help from Peter Stone Brown) in his excellent series in Isis on the folk roots of Bob's songs. Peter's post expands on the entry but Matt on the lyrics also cites Leviticus: And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 26.20 And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass. 26.19 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat and not be satisfied. 26.26
to which Peter Stone Brown again responded:
The above quotes from "The Blessings of Obediance" blew my mind when I first discovered them (which was long before RMD was in existence), making what the song is about very clear and also verifying Dylan's claim about the album that he is not in the songs.
Don Freeman wrote:
This morning, I was listening to Gene Clark's very fine version of "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" and I was struck by that very strange line:
"Who falls in love with wealth itself And turns his back on me"
This is a song that lists all the sad things about the immigrant that are worthy of the singer's pity. But to suddenly inject the personal element that he "turns his back on me" seems quite strange. Just what does "me" symbolize here? Humanity? All the meaningful things in life? Seeing as the liner notes to the album John Wesley Harding contain a farcical myth whose key is said to be Frank, Dylan's use of "me" in the song seems to have a similar multi-level non-meaning.
I've been criticized in rmd for thinking that many of the lines in Dylan songs are self-referential. So what do the linear thinkers here think the meaning of the line is?
And I can think of other songs where personal elements seem to jump in out of nowhere, but I can't think of any as blunt as this one in "I Pity the Poor Immigrant."
Kevin Reilly responded:
Look at the "I" as God. The song is based on a text from the Jewish scriptures. See Leviticus.
Ze 39steps wrote:
Yeah, I don't think it's self-referential, really. To me, it simply means the immigrant is choosing money before humanity. One is supposed to love people, not money, but by falling in love with money, it's at the expense of one's love for people.
SCREAMBLU (Chris) wrote:
OK-I'll admit this is one of my weirder ideas...but it was sparked by that very same line and I think it holds up-or at the very least I'm not likely to give it up. I see this as a song written to one's self-with the "immigrant" referring to the part of ourselves that goes out into the world and makes the deals, etc. and the "me" referring to the more spiritual side. The "immigrant" is constantly put down in the song, not only by the things that happen to him, but his very character seems to be questioned-something I'd find unlikely if you took the song literally. There's my two cents...try it next time you hear the song. Chris
AZskies1001 responded to SCREAMBLU:
Sort of like "I and I"?
Bob Gill seconded SCREAMBKU:
I think this song makes sense pretty well if it's "read" as the soul talking to the body. The body is a poor immigrant, having to live in the physical world, see? So that's why the physical self falls in love with wealth itself, succumbing to the lure of pleasures of the flesh and so on, while turning his back on the needs of the soul. I think it works best that way.
Peter Stone Brown wrote:
Mr. Reilly happens to be absolutely correct. As has been pointed out on RMD several times (and other places as well) several lines in the song are taken from "The Blessings of Obediance" in Leviticus.
Dylan has commented in at least one interview, but I think more that he is not in the album and for once this may not be a misleading comment.
The "I" in this song is God, the "Immigrant" represents the Jews in the desert during Exodus. Once you make this connection every line in the song makes perfect sense.
KHematite wrote:
"I pity the poor immigrant Whose strength is spent in vain, Whose heaven is like Ironsides, Whose tears are like rain, Who eats but is not satisfied, Who hears but does not see, Who falls in love with wealth itself And turns his back on me." Leviticus 19: And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass. Leviticus 20: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. Leviticus 26: And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
Don Freeman wrote:
I don't deny the influence of Leviticus on the song "I Pity the Poor Immigrant." I just think it is nonsense to say that the song is taken from Leviticus and is really all about the exodus of the Jews in the desert, and has nothing to do with immigrants coming to North America and turning their backs on the meaningful things in life. It's as if someone as presented you with the key to understanding the whole album, and the key is Frank, and now that you have the key, you don't have to think anymore.
Like most Dylan songs, I Pity the Poor Immigrant" is full of many meanings, and I was hoping to get a discussion of some of those meanings without everyone braying like sheep, "Leviticus, Leviticus, Leviticus."
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