Bob Dylan’s “Melancholy Mood”

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. For those of us who have endured a brutally hot summer, the arrival of autumn sure is a welcome sight.

This past weekend, I happened to be checking out some stuff on YouTube and came upon a wonderful version of the song, “Melancholy Mood,” sung, believe it or not, by Bob Dylan.

The amazingly prolific song writer and musical performer typically sings songs he personally penned, but in 2016 he released an album titled Fallen Angels, and “Melancholy Mood,” is one of its twelve classic American songs.

“Melancholy Mood” was written by Walter Schumann and Vick Knight back in 1939. Upon its initial release, several big band performers cut versions, including Harry James’s orchestra with a very young Frank Sinatra doing the vocals. Harry’s instrumentation of the song naturally featured his dynamic trumpet playing, but there is none of that in Dylan’s version. Instead, we get some gentle, pensive guitars. And though it’s hard to beat the rich vocal tones and wonderful phrasing of Sinatra, Dylan’s vocals, as music critic Ray Padgett describes it, “underplays the emotion perfectly.”

The song immediately caught my interest because it brought into focus the topic of melancholy, which, as regular readers well know, I have discussed on several occasions (see for example, HERE, HERE, and HERE). In these earlier posts, I contrasted my views on the differences between melancholy and depression. To me, when we experience melancholy we have made friends with this experience, recognizing it as a natural process in which life hasn’t deserted us forever, and there may be some epiphanies in the mire.

Joni Mitchell

As Dylan’s fellow musician and song writer, Joni Mitchell, describes melancholy in her beautiful song, “Hijira.”

”There is comfort in melancholy where there is no need to explain, it’s just as natural as the weather in this moody sky today.”

Similarly, in an article titled “The Case for Melancholy,” Ms. Laren Stover writes,

“What ever happened to experiencing the grace of melancholy, which requires reflection: a sort of mental steeping, like tea?”

From the perspective of William James’s, when we are in melancholy we are sure we will be up again just as we are sure, when elated to be down again.

“Six months, or any cycle of time, is sure to see you produce a certain amount…. The good time will come again, as it has come; and go too.”

In contrast, depression arrives periodically just as melancholy does, but it is combined with insults thrown at oneself for being depressed without questioning if the insults are valid. Some refer to this as having a double depression because not only are we feeling depressed, but we are depressed about being depressed. Words come out of the depressed person such as, “I don’t have time for this! I’m crazy, mentally ill! This is the end of the road for me!” These are more than just words;  there is a furious deep belief that these words are completely true, and a sense of hopelessness is overwhelming.

So, with this as background, let’s take a look at the lyrics of “Melancholy Mood” to see how they depict the melancholy experience. The first few lines are,

Melancholy mood forever haunts me
Steals upon me in the night, forever taunts me
Oh, what a lonely soul am I, stranded high and dry
By a melancholy mood

So far, the lyrics have Dylan expressing a mood in which he will be forever going through. He is stranded high and dry, with no means to move to a better place.

It’s not clear if the word forever, as used here, means that the singer will be always in this mood, or he will forever have periods of this mood that will come and go. A recognition that this mood is something he will have to go through, but good times will come again would be more like what melancholy means to me. At this point in the song, Dylan might be depicting someone drifting into depression. And yet, he is not clearly insulting himself. Perhaps he is just putting into words the gloomy sense one feels at such times.

Let’s move on to the next stanza

Gone is every joy and inspiration
Tears are all I have to show, no consolation
All I can see is grief and gloom, till the crack of doom
Oh, melancholy mood

These words beautifully capture the melancholy moods that I experience. There is no sign of words that are insulting the singer. Even if there is, it would not automatically mean the person has fallen into depression as I define it.

To this day, because of old habits, as I fall into melancholy, I find old habits that I learned as a youngster will spring to mind, like, “I hate myself!” or “I’m such an idiot.” But when these words shoot into my consciousness, I now well recognize that they are not at all helpful in dealing with my current state, and I let them fly away, without trying to suppress the underlying feelings that accompany them. The main difference, for me, between a melancholy mood and depression is whether or not I am convinced that the words that spring to my mind are absolutely true or not. If not, then I’m in a melancholy mood. If I really am convinced that every nasty thing that comes to my mind is true, I’ve become depressed.

Another aspect of the above four lines from the song’s lyrics also worth thinking about, is the phrase, “till the crack of doom.” It suggests there will be no relief ever arriving. Such a hopeless view suggests a depression type of experience if the person saying them truly believes this. If he or she just notices these words coming into consciousness without accepting they are absolutely true, this is more consistent with melancholy.

Moving on to the next few lines, they point to a specific reason for the person grieving:

Deep in the night I search for a trace
Of a lingering kiss, a warm embrace
But love is a whimsy, as flimsy as lace
And my arms embrace an empty space

Here, the desire for romantic love is powerfully expressed. As we move on to the last four lines, along with the accompanying melancholy guitar rifts, we fall under the spell of the song’s grieving feelings.

Melancholy mood, why must you blind me
Pity me and break the chains, the chains that bind me
Won’t you release me, set me free, bring her back to me
Oh, melancholy mood

From these final words, we learn that it is not the desire for just any romantic love the singer is sharing with his audience. Rather, the words tell of someone grieving over the loss of a romantic relationship involving a particular woman. He is pleading for the mood to release him from this grief by bringing the woman he loves back to him.

The song suggests an important function of melancholy moods. We see the person depicted in the song articulating what his desire is, and spending time with his feelings. This just might lead to processing within his mind about what led to the breakup, and what might he do to reignite the shared romantic love he once had. Or, if not that, maybe the processing of the mood will lead to some thoughts of what he might do better in a future romantic relationship that will lead to a better outcome.

Well, in any case, that’s some of my little musings on a recent song I’ve been listening to. I share it in the hopes it will deepen understanding of the nature of melancholy and depression.

May you all have a colorful autumn.

My Best,
Jeff

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Some people will enjoy reading this blog by beginning with the first post and then moving forward to the next more recent one; then to the next one; and so on.  This permits readers to catch up on some ideas that were presented earlier and to move through all of the ideas in a systematic fashion to develop their emotional intelligence.  To begin at the very first post you can click HERE.

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