Cassandra Voices

Tag: I Contain Multitudes

  • Shane MacGowan and ‘the Riddle of Ballinalee’ in Bob Dylan’s ‘I Contain Multitudes’

    At Cassandra Voices we uncover stories behind stories. Just occasionally these accounts reach the mainstream. So it has proved with what is being popularly referred to as ‘the riddle of Ballinalee’.

    Let’s recall the adventure so far. Last week our then anonymous sleuth advanced a theory as to the origin of the words in the opening lines of Bob Dylan’s new song ‘I Contain Multitudes’. It might just explain why the previously unheralded village of Balllinalee in County Longford has shot to global prominence:

    Today and tomorrow and yesterday, too,
    The flowers are dyin’ like all things do,
    Follow me close, I’m going to Ballinalee,
    I’ll lose my mind if you don’t come with me.

    Ballinalee, County Longford, Ireland.

    We are now quite convinced that Ballinalee is indeed an Irish reference, especially considering ‘the flowers are dyin’’ in the line preceding is an obvious play on the second verse of the Irish ballad: ‘Danny Boy’.

    But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying,
    If I am dead, as dead I well may be,

    It’s certainly a ballad that would be well known to Dylan.

    The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

    It’s a plotline that might have been lifted from a Cold War spy novel. Our agent’s identity has been revealed. Like the best of them, pride proved his undoing.

    The honey trap was an invitation to be interviewed on Shannonside FM, a local radio station broadcasting to the Longford area, and surrounding counties. He is Dr Francis Leneghan of Oxford University no less. George Smiley himself couldn’t have found a better cover.

    In the interview – which is available here as a podcast – Dr Leneghan repeats his hunch that the Ballinalee reference might be traced to a banquet involving Dylan and his excellency, the resident Bard of Ballsbridge, Shane MacGowan, formerly of the Pogues and the Popes. The meeting of bards, now the stuff of legend, took place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin in 2017 while Dylan was touring Ireland.

    The Word from Ballsbridge

    Lo and behold, The Sunday Times reports: ‘Bob Dylan fans tangled up in clue to solve Irish riddle of I Contain Multitudes.’ Perhaps unsurprisingly, the journalist fails to credit this august publication when he writes:

    In online forums, some fans state that Dylan might have picked up Irish poetry tips from Shane MacGowan, with whom he spent time on a trip to Dublin in 2017.

    We can exclusively reveal that another one of our agents – who insists he won’t fall for the same ruse as Dr Leneghan who has since been sent for a ‘cooling off’ period in the Scilly Isles  – managed to catch up with Shane MacGowan himself.

    MacGowan said he remembers having a great night with Bob, so great indeed that he cannot recall what they spoke about. There you have it.

    When Bob met Shane as reported by VIP magazine.

    It is widely recognised that mystery coincides with all great poetry, and it seems the riddle of Ballinalee that features in Dylan’s song will remain just that, unless of course we can persuade Shane MacGowan to undergo hypnosis.

  • Bob Dylan’s New Song and Ballinalee County Longford

    Butterflies continue to fly from septuagenarian Bob Dylan’s cocoon. Last week the Bard of Duluth released yet another song ‘I Contain Multitudes’ after his long hiatus. The opening lyrics piqued our curiosity:

    Today and tomorrow and yesterday, too,
    The flowers are dyin’ like all things do,
    Follow me close, I’m going to Ballinalee,
    I’ll lose my mind if you don’t come with me.

    Why does Ballinalee, a remote village in County Longford in the Irish midlands, feature in the song? One of our correspondents has a theory.

    He suggests it is a reference to the early nineteenth century, Irish-language poet Antoine Ó Raifteirí’s (Anthony Raftery) poem ‘The Lass from Ballynalee.’ Raftery was a contemporary of James Clarence Mangan, beloved of Irish songster Shane MacGowan, the resident Bard of Ballsbridge.

    Rumour has that the Bard of Duluth met the Bard of Ballsbridge for dinner in the Intercontinental Hotel a few years ago and talked poetry all night.

    Conceivably, the Bard of Ballsbridge, who is a great admirer of James Clarence Mangan, suggested his fellow Bard take a look at Raftery, who was blinded as a child after a dose of smallpox. We’re actively pursuing comment from the Ballsbridge citadel.

    It’s known that Dylan spent three days in Ardmore Studios, Bray, during the same trip, working on an as-yet unnamed project with his touring band. Was he inspired by Shane to write some new songs and then record them straight away?

    The link might sound fanciful, but another online sleuth has noticed that a line in the final verse of the same song, “Keep your mouth away from me”, matches a line from Lord Longford’s translation of the seventeenth-century Irish poem, “Keep your Kiss to Yourself”.

    The latter is anthologised in Seán Ó Tuama and Thomas Kinsella’s An Duanaire, 1600-1900: Poems of the Dispossessed (Bord na Gaeilge, 1981). Did the Bard of Ballsbridge reach to his shelf and grab a copy to present to Bob on their meeting? And what did Bob give Shane?

    Our operatives are tracking down the book to check if Raftery’s poem is in there too.

    We know that in recent decades Dylan has littered his lyrics with quotations and allusions to sources as diverse Ovid, Chaucer and Homer and the obscure Civil-war poet, Henry Timrod, as well as the usual panoply of blues and folk sources, often within the same stanza. Can we now add an anthology of translations of Irish-language verse to his reading list?

    But Dylan may have come across Raftery way back in early-60s New York, via his ballad-singing idol Liam Clancy, who loved to recite his poems.

    Or maybe Bob actually sings, ‘I’m goin’ to Balian Bali’. He’s off surfing, and we’re barking up the wrong tree.

    If you can help solve this mystery leave a comment below.

    Here is the Raftery poem itself:

    The Lass from Bally-na-Lee
    (translated from the Irish)

    On my way to Mass
    To say a prayer,
    The wind was high
    Sowing rain,

    I met a maid
    With wind-wild hair
    And madly fell
    In love again.

    I spoke with learning,
    Charm and pride
    And, as was fitting,
    Answered she:

    ‘My mind is now
    well satisfied,
    So walk with me
    To Bally-na-Lee.’

    Given the offer,
    I didn’t delay,
    And blowing a laugh
    At this willing young lass,

    I swung with her over
    The fields through the day
    Till shortly we reached
    The rump of the house.

    A table with glasses
    And drink was set
    And then says the lassie,
    Turning to me:

    ‘You are welcome, Raftery,
    So drink a wet
    To love’s demands
    In Bally-na-Lee.’

    This article contains contributions from Dr Francis Leneghan.