The Least Cheerful Easter Song Ever

 Bob Dylan has been on my brain lately, ever since I began to write what I was supposed to be a quick and easy comment on the new movie about him, A Complete Unknown. You can read those comments here. They became long and complex, largely because they led back to an earlier essay I wrote about Dylan’s religious ideas. One part of what makes it complex is that listeners don’t always have ears to hear his religious allusions. Another is that many of his songs are quite dark. The word “apocalyptic” captures the flavor, from early songs like “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” through his image of the world as the Titanic on his 2012 Tempest record. If you like your religion upbeat and optimistic, Dylan’s religion might not be for you, whether or not some of his allusions fly over your head.

In this context, the opening words of an Easter sermon I heard two days ago switched me onto a Bob-centric exit ramp, away from the rest of the sermon. It happened when the preacher referenced a Bible text (John 20:11-18) where Jesus’s friend and possible lover, Mary Magdalene, looks for his tomb after his execution by the state. Recall, if you haven’t read your Bible lately, how Magdalene mistakes Jesus for a gardener at first, then embraces him once she recognizes him. He is still alive—his violent repression by the state does not have the last word and hope is returning—in whatever mysterious sense we bring to conceptualizing "resurrection" as we try to wrap our heads around whatever Easter means.  

I don’t know what the sermon went on to argue about such nuances, since I drifted off into Dylan’s “Ain’t Talkin'” from his 2006 record Modern Times instead.  

Assuming we can call this an Easter song—which we can since its climax references this story of Mary finding Jesus in the garden—it must be one of the least triumphalist or upbeat Easter songs of all time. But not in a bad way!

Rather than reading my summary of why this is so, you are likely better off listening to it. Here are the lyrics and you can click below for the music.

Ain't Talkin' by Bob Dylan, from Modern Times.

For starters, consider how the sound controls the mood, how Dylan states a desire to “slaughter [his enemies] where they lie,” and how he sets the glimmers of hope that shine through his song “at the last outpost of the world’s end.” If you want to approach the mindset of Magdalene’s trauma and grief, this song includes lines that can take you right there. If you want to pass through Trump-world toward your Easter hope, and not simply try to forget it and live in another world, Dylan’s route will work for you.  

But about those glimmers. There is a mystic garden at the beginning and end. At first it includes a “cool and crystal fountain”—Eden-like perhaps, except for the “wounded flowers hanging from the vines.” It comes back at the end with the allusions to Jesus/Mary. The lyrics about that are dense, giving Dylan the deniability he likes since he “ain’t talkin’” about theology overtly any more. His lines condense both the Jesus/Mary story (with their genders scrambled) plus a parallel text (Mark 16:1-8) where an angel in Jesus’s empty tomb simply tells Mary “he is not here.” Although this likely flies over some people’s heads, I have no doubt that when Dylan says “the gardener is gone,” a preferred interpretation includes an implication that “gone” is evoking the story of Jesus resurrected. By extension it evokes whatever form of hope that comes with this, although this more an opening question to frame our interpretation than a clear answer settling it.  

With this ending in mind, we can grasp how the song builds. It starts from the fountain (Dylan was walking there before “someone hit [him] from behind”; now it comes back in view). There are prayers and a middle verse where “’it’s bright in the heavens...the fire’s gone out but the light is never dying/Who says I can’t get heavenly aid?” Most importantly, he is steadily walking with “heart burning, still yearning.” (Fans will think of his song “Pressing On.”) The most remarkable aspect of the song is how, after this refrain takes us through depressive—even misanthropic—spaces for long stretches, the tone shifts by the end. It opens forward toward the light and back toward the fountain, pointing “up the road and around the bend.” It’s all done with restraint and nuance, not dragging mysteries down into words that could trivialize them but rather evoking things beyond our “normal” world. 

I’ve discussed before how optimism that rings false and enthusiasm that is forced may produce the opposite effect that it intends—making me feel less hopeful and more annoyed instead of pulling me into joy. Of course this problem manifests in many ways, but it often peaks at occasions like Christmas and Easter. Last Sunday some of the music had already started to distract me on this front, pushing me out rather than drawing me in, before the sermon switched me onto my exit ramp.

Although it is hard to imagine a church playing “Ain’t Talking” on Easter Sunday, maybe they should. (Or not: I was once roped into a Christmas service where everyone received an enormous nail, seven inches long, so that we would never forget that tiny baby Jesus would later be tortured on a cross. Parts of this song may be equally off-message.) In any case, if you are allergic to Christian triumphalism and fake cheer, and you if want to think with Dylan about how a low-flying Easter theology can stack up against our debased, betrayed, and evil-soaked world, you might give “Ain’t Talkin’” a listen.