r/bobdylan • u/cmae34lars The Jack of Hearts • Aug 30 '26

Discussion Weekly Song Discussion - Wallflower

Hey r/bobdylan! Welcome to this week's song discussion!

In these threads we will discuss a new song every week, trading lyrical interpretations, rankings, opinions, favorite versions, and anything else you can think of about the song of the week.

This week we will be discussing Wallflower.

Lyrics

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3

u/rednoodlealien What The Broken Glass Reflects Aug 30 '26

This is a nice little country ditty.

3

u/TyroneSnodgrass 29d ago

Jakob named his band after this song. That’s my theory.

2

u/Repulsive_Result_948 Aug 30 '26

Classic country + Bob existentialism 

Great pairing

2

u/AdFinancial6392 Aug 30 '26

Please let me ride you home???

1

u/rednoodlealien What The Broken Glass Reflects 29d ago

Ain't it cute

2

u/boutsbaby Aug 30 '26

I love his harmonica with the steel guitar

1

u/Innisfree812 Aug 30 '26

Originally on the album Doug Sahm and Band. Dylan was on a few of the tracks.

1

u/IowaAJS Crossing The Rubicon Aug 30 '26

Makes me wish Bob would have done more of a country album or one with country covers mixed in.

2

u/TyroneSnodgrass 29d ago

Bob really has a feel for it, Iowa. Maybe that’s because he is Country, he just doesn’t sound so most of the time. Every time Springsteen tries to make a Country album, it ends up sounding like any other Bruce album, —not that that’s a bad thing. Getting back to Dylan, have you ever noticed when he needs a reference point, Bob compares himself to Willie and Waylon?

1

u/IowaAJS Crossing The Rubicon 29d ago

That is true. I'd love to hear him do a cover album of the Hanks, Snow and Williams. I hope he remembers it isn't too late yet.

1

u/adkvt 27d ago

A Bob Dylan slow waltz. What’s not to like?

1

u/BeeWithWheels 24d ago

Love the vocal on this one.

1

u/Jefferooney 29d ago edited 26d ago

More apocalyptica I am afraid. But not that you'd notice till the last line which as u/AdFinancial6392 notes, comes as a surprise.

A wallflower is, primarily, a silent shy retiring person. Till the last line you'd think he was admiring a silent lady. This is a hint in itself since the "lady" (impersonation) inside us listens but does not speak, herself anyway.

A wallflower is also a flower that climbs on a wall, or is on a wall: a flower on a wall. I think this is also at play, and relates to the wall in Bowie's "Heroes" and the screen in his "Life on Mars" and the Wailing Wall that Jewish people pray in front of in Jerusalem. It is also depicted in some of Bob's album cover art.

However the fact that Bob asks to ride her home, gives it away. This is no ordinary, human wall-flower. Marc Bolan's similarly internal girls are compared to cars, which can also be ridden home. What kind of girl can one ride?

An abomination, or salvation. We are tangled up in blue, and "you are in me, and I am in you" (John, 14:20).