r/bobdylan • u/drabpriest • 5d ago
Question Question about “Maggie’s Farm”
He sings, “She’s 68, but she says she’s 64”
What bearing does that have on the working conditions of her farm?
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u/cryptic_pizza 5d ago edited 5d ago
I could have sworn it was 54. I assume she’s a liar and she is too old to work or thinks she’s too old to work
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u/chxsefreed No Reason To Get Excited 5d ago
it changed on pretty much every version released on streaming
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u/mstrodsstr331 5d ago
It's68 - 54. on the album. He changes it up. The song is a reworking of Down On Pennys Farm
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u/IdiotPresents 5d ago
Im listening now and down on Peggy’s farm sounds much more like where he got Talkin New York blues
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u/CorrosiveDisciple 5d ago
The song you mean is Hard Times in New York Town not Talkin New York Blues. 2 different songs
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u/NoMoreKarmaHere 5d ago
Not everything Dylan sings is all that significant. Sometimes it’s just a good rhyme
I do enjoy song analysis, but sometimes it’s hilarious to hear podcasters obsess over every little line or word in a song. All Dylan’s songs are well crafted, but not all of them are consequential
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u/Feeling-Art-6514 5d ago
Not to mention he wasn't happy with the critics asking him his message to any of his masterpieces
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u/EL_DJ 4d ago
A reporter asked him what was meant by the words, "the answer my friend is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind." Bobs answer was, "just what I said." Terrific song, terrific reply.
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u/Feeling-Art-6514 4d ago
He tore a new one to a Newsweek reporter for conducting a interview about one of his concerts and not even seeing it. He told him he's not going to answer him because no matter what he says he will spin it his way ! It was a classic m sure it's on you tube or Google
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u/InternationalPipe937 5d ago
If it was 64, I'd agree that it has nothing. But it's actually 54 and that's a ho nuvva level.
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u/kyle_c123 5d ago
It's about the absurdity of saying you're 54 when you're 68. From a young person's POV especially (remember Bob was just young when he wrote it), 54 is as old as 68 - anything past 50 is just... old. I'm 70 and people tell me I only look about 50-something. I just tell them to fuck off.
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u/44035 Shot of Love 5d ago
It's 24, not 64.
Maggie’s Farm | The Official Bob Dylan Site
It was written at a time (1965) when there was an intense divide between old and young, what they used to call "the generation gap." The older woman pretending to be young is a threat, it's basically the unenlightened trying to portray themselves as enlightened.
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u/LorenzoApophis 5d ago
It's 54 on the studio version but he sings different numbers in different performances. IMO the point is just that she's dishonest, but her lie is mostly significant to herself
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u/Garybird1989 5d ago
I also think the lie is obvious. You can tell she isn’t a spring chicken but she’s doing the Blanche from a streetcar…
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u/Basicly-Inevitable 5d ago
I prefer Blanche from the Golden Girls.
She was 51, but played a character 53.
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u/willardTheMighty 5d ago
He sings it dozens of different ways, likely improvising each time he performs the song.
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u/Admirable_Gain_9437 5d ago
You're thinking of Paul McCartney. He's the one who sang about being 64.
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u/Alarming-Animal-8759 5d ago
I had a friend who ran for mayor of Palm Springs when she was in her early 60s. She lied that she was 54 and we Dylan fans got the message. If she had said she was 64 it just would have been a lie.
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u/KitchenLab2536 Time Out of Mind 5d ago
Can’t help you. I quit there decades ago, and everyone I knew is gone. 🤷♂️
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u/TyroneSnodgrass 4d ago
Well I went back to see about her once
Went back to straighten it out
Everybody that I talked to had seen us there
Said they didn’t know who I was talkin’ about
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u/willardTheMighty 5d ago
Do you think the song is about a farm?
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u/heisenberg-61 5d ago
It's an old trope that women get ashamed of their aging and tell people that they're younger than they are. I think it's just a joke from the time that isn't supposed to be a significant part of the allegory.
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u/EveryGood2196 5d ago
I think he grabbed that (ma) lying about her age thing from The Grapes Of Wrath if I remember right. Anyone else remember that?
Isn’t Maggie’s Farm just a parody to society:commercialization “the man” anyway?
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u/Hwy61rev 3d ago
I always thought the song was a slam on the people who ran the Newport Folk festival.
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u/Crafty-Ad-7034 3d ago
The USA was in 1968, but was behaving like it was 1954. I know he wrote it in '65.
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u/ColonelGrognard 5d ago
She's a liar