![]() ![]() ![]() And the song is basically a list, verse after verse, of the corrosive illusions that Dylan would sing about constantly from the mid-1960s on: illusions about obedience to authority about false religions and idols (the “utopian hermit monks” riding on the golden calf) about possessions and desire about sexual repression and conformity (embodied by “the gray flannel dwarf”) about high-toned intellectualism. According to “Gates of Eden,” it is where truth resides, without bewitching illusions. ![]() In Genesis, Eden is the paradise where Adam and Eve had direct communication with God. After an almost impenetrable first verse, the song approaches themes that were becoming familiar to Dylan’s listeners. Like “It’s Alright, Ma,” the song mentions a book title in its first line, but the song is more reminiscent of the poems of William Blake (and, perhaps, of Blake’s disciple Ginsberg) than it is of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, vaunting the truth that lies in surreal imagery. “The Gates of Eden,” as he called it that night, took us furthest out into the realm of the imagination, to a point beyond logic and reason. ![]()
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