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v3n4.book : Lubet.fm Page 459 Tuesday, July 18, 2000 11:18 AM
Intimations of Contemporary Law s Politics in the Early Œuvre of Robert A. Zimmerman The Dylan Code Steven Lubet s Alex J. Lubet
n the tradition of The Bible Code,1 Consider this excerpt from It’s Alright, Ma (I’m which claims that all of human history is Only Bleeding), Iforetold by embedded numerology in the While preachers preach of evil fates Hebrew scriptures, we have discovered a par- Teachers teach that knowledge waits allel phenomenon: the “Dylan Code.” It is But even the president of the United States even more reliable than the Bible Code, Sometimes must have to stand naked.2 accurately predicting otherwise unforeseeable The “preachers,” of course, are the religious events in American law, politics, and culture. conservatives who dominated the vast right- We were stunned to realize that Bob wing conspiracy against the President, while Dylan’s arcane early lyrics contain a series of the “teachers” must surely signify the members previously unnoticed, artfully encrypted refer- of the American Education Association, ences to the impeachment trial of William staunch Democrats who were in no hurry – JeÖerson Clinton, from the beginning of Ken remember, “knowledge waits” – to learn the Starr’s investigation all the way through to the truth about Clinton’s escapades. sad spectacle of the Senate’s deliberations. Clinton himself was full of excuses, perhaps
Steven Lubet is a Professor of Law at Northwestern University. Alex J. Lubet is a Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota. 1 Michael Drosin, The Bible Code: Doron Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Vitstum (1997). 2Bob Dylan, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), Bringing It All Back Home (Columbia Records 1965).
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even seeing himself as the victim of the aÖair. And you say, “Who is that man?” Thus, Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream predicted Clin- You tr y so hard ton’s lament over temptation and betrayal, so But you don’t understand accurate that it includes both Monica’s beret Just what you’ll say and Linda Tripp, her perÕdious pal: When you get home. They asked me for some collateral Then, in what might be the most astonish- And I pulled down my pants ing forecast of all, Dylan was actually able to They threw me in the alley foretell the name of Paula Corbin’s eventual When up comes this girl from France husband: Who invited me to her house Because something is happening here I went, but she had a friend But you don’t know what it is Who knocked me out Do you, Mister Jones?6 And robbed my boots The tantalizing presentiments in the Dylan And I was on the street again.3 Code go on and on, including a pointed allu- Delving further into the President’s libido, sion (in Just Like a Woman) to Kenneth Starr’s Maggie’s Farm envisioned his preferred form of coercive treatment of his reluctant witness. sexual stimulation (“kicks”) as practiced in the She makes love just like a woman famous “windowless hallway,” not to mention But she breaks just like a little girl.7 his strained claim that he was never really Dylan’s prophecies include the President’s alone with Monica: lame, Õnger-wagging, televised denial – It Ain’t Well, he puts his cigar Me, Babe – as well as his brazenly successful Out in your face just for kicks. line of defense – Don’t Think Twice. And we His bedroom window can look to The Drifter’s Escape for the Senate’s It is made out of bricks. acquittal: The National Guard stands around his door.4 “Oh, stop that cursed jury,” Then To m b s t o n e B l u e s provides us with the Cried the attendant and the nurse, sarcastic reaction of Henry Hyde and com- “The trial was bad enough, pany: But this is ten times worse.” Well, John the Baptist aner torturing a thief Just then a bolt of lightning Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief Struck the courthouse out of shape, Saying, “Tell me great hero, but please make it brief And while ev’rybody knelt to pray Is there a hole for me to get sick in?”5 The driner did escape.8 The whole thing is uncanny. Dylan some- But Dylan knew that would not be the end how knew that Paula Corbin would be a clerk of it. Even though Clinton remained in oÓce, and that she would be lured into Clinton’s he could not entirely avoid the consequences Little Rock hotel room: of his actions. Hence, the disbarment You walk into the room proceeding in Arkansas, based upon the care- With your pencil in your hand fully parsed but ultimately false statements in You see somebody naked loverboy’s deposition:
3Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream, Bringing It All Back Home. 4Bob Dylan, Maggie’s Farm, Bringing It All Back Home. 5Bob Dylan, Tombstone Blues, Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965). 6Bob Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man, Highway 61 Revisited. 7Bob Dylan, Just Like a Woman, Blonde on Blonde (Columbia Records 1966). 8Bob Dylan, The Drifter’s Escape, John Wesley Harding (Columbia Records 1967)
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They’re spoonfeeding Casanova sota electorate and pro wrestling’s fandom, To get him to feel more assured anxious to reÔect their need for vicarious Then they’ll kill him with self-conJdence violence oÖ of the shining pate of Jesse the Aner poisoning him with words. Body – here called Jack the Ripper as if to And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls emphasize his disruptive impact on both “Get Outa Here If You Don’t Know sport and government. But it remains possi- Casanova is just being punished for going ble that his bald head is merely a toupee, To Desolation Row.” 9 which allows his supporters to back away from violence at least long enough to cast N their ballots. Thus, Jack the Ripper may be installed, via popular election, as the Proceeding further through the Dylan œuvre, “head” – bald, bewigged, or otherwise – of we Õnd a skein of references that preÕgure the the chamber of commerce (itself a not-so- rise and success of Jesse Ventura. With eerie veiled suggestion of the continuing commer- accuracy, the Dylan Code speaks clearly of the cialization of state government). journey from Navy SEAL to Governor of We are convinced that we have not Minnesota, by way of professional wrestling. exhausted the predictive powers of the Dylan Consider the following additional excerpt Code. It seems likely, for example that Just Like from Desolation Row: Tom Thumb’s Blues is a metaphor for Hillary They’re selling postcards of the hanging. Rodham Clinton’s public humiliation and They’re painting the passports brown. eventual redemptive campaign for the senate: The beauty parlor’s full of sailors. I started out on burgundy The circus is in town.10 But soon hit the harder stuò. We have not yet been able to decipher the Everybody said they’d stand behind me veiled textual implications of postcards and When the game got rough. passports, but there can be little doubt about But the joke was on me the Navy SEAL in the beauty parlor. Jesse There was nobody even there to call my bluò Ventura, it will be recalled, reached wrestling I’m going back to New York City stardom wearing eyeliner and a feather boa. I do believe I’ve had enough.12 The circus, of course, is a multiple signiÕer, Other references are more ambiguous, per- representing both the outsized world of pro- haps because of their bootleg origins. The fol- fessional wrestling and the clownish character lowing, for example, was Õrst recorded in 1963, of professional politics. All of which lead although it was not oÓcially released until directly to the next canonical prophecy, this 1991. It might appear at Õrst to again preÕgure one from To m b s t o n e B lu e s : Kenneth Starr’s immunity deal with Monica Jezebel the Nun she violently knits Lewinsky: A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits Well, you can run down to the White House, At the head of the chamber of commerce.11 You can gaze at the Capitol Dome, pretty mama, Jezebel the Nun, in a marvelously mixed You can pound on the President’s gate metaphor, clearly represents both the Minne- But you oughta know by now it’s gonna be too late.
9Bob Dylan, Desolation Row, Highway 61 Revisited. 10 Id. 11 Bob Dylan, Tombstone Blues, Highway 61 Revisited. 12 Bob Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, Highway 61 Revisited.
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You’re gonna need the Golden Calf. And though many are You’re gonna need my help someday. becoming wealthy by promising Paradise – the Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’ Internet? – to the masses, no one dares laugh Please quit your low down ways.13 for fear of losing access to upgrades. Of course, We have determined, however, that it is there is a single, telling exception that explains more likely an allusion to George W. Bush’s the entire allegory: or Tipper Gore’s eventual rebuÖ to Hillary. All except inside the Gates of Eden.15 Dylan evidently could not predict the win- But wait! What of the anti-trust case and ner of the 2000 presidential election, but he the impending break-up of Microsoft itself? was unerring when it came to the chilly Dylan recognized the threat: reception – from either Bush or Gore – that Relationships of ownership Mrs. Clinton might expect thereafter. They whisper in the wings We are also fairly certain that we have dis- To those condemned to act accordingly covered an extended metaphor leading to the And wait for succeeding kings.16 development of the Microsoft empire, as in But Dylan tells us the case will come the following text: to naught, shrugged oÖ by the power of With a time-rusted compass blade monopoly: Aladdin and his lamp All and all can only fall Sits with Utopian hermit monks With a crashing but meaningless blow.17 Side saddle on the Golden Calf Because, when you get right down to it, And on their promises of paradise There are no trials inside the Gates of Eden.18 You will not hear a laugh.14 Having discovered the prescient signiÕ- The compass blade would appear to be a cance of the Dylan Code, we have concluded disk operating system, providing directions for that the interpretive task is too big for us to the Aladdin’s magic lamp which in our day, of handle by ourselves. We welcome others to course, is the personal computer. The utopian join the project. As Dylan himself put it in monks must be the programmers at Rainy Day Woman, Microsoft, reaping untold billions through the I would not feel so all alone. near monopoly provided by Windows – a.k.a. Everybody must get stoned.19 B
13 Bob Dylan, Quit Your Low Down Ways, The Bootleg Series (Columbia Records 1991) (Copyright 1963). 14 Bob Dylan, Gates of Eden, Bringing It All Back Home. 15 Id. 16 Id. 17 Id. 18 Id. 19 Bob Dylan, Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35, Blonde on Blonde.
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