Talk:I Shall Be Released

Untitled
Shouldn't this be under Dylan hierarchy, not the Band (see, e.g., the info box at the bottom of the page)? I know they "released" the first prominent recorded version, but this is a Dylan song thru and thru. 24.7.92.115 (talk) 11:38, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Marion Williams Died in 1994, so could not have recorded the song in 1995. Needs to be changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.199.129.66 (talk) 19:46, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

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Why the light comes West to East
''Yet I swear I see my reflection

''Some place so high above this wall

''I see my light come shining

''From the west unto the east

''Any day now, any day now

I shall be released

I've always interpreted this as a reference to the Allegory of the Cave. I feel like that should be mentioned here somewhere. I hope this is the correct way to suggest it. JIntorcio (talk) 18:00, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Style and content
"I Shall Be Released" deserves better than it gets in this section. Above all, the sources and ideas need to be broadened. For example, Yaffee's book includes one sentence on the song's meaning, that the song is about redeemed prisoners (that's it?) Marqusee devotes three pages to the song, but we're left with a similarly unexciting thought, the cruelty of the criminal justice system as one of Dylan's motifs - more interesting is our yearning for freedom, given that life can be incarcerating. While Heylin's quote touches on this, the point could be made clearer and with far less words. Meanwhile, the lines lifted from the lyrics in the first paragraph give the wrong impression entirely, that the song is about the guy who's crying he's been framed. Hardly. The subject is the first-person narrator - he sees the light and will soon be free. Suggestions: change the section's title, drop Yaffee as a source; draw more from Marqusee; distill the Heylin quote; and add a few sources and ideas - for example, Sounes's Down the Highway on the music and The Band, Morgotin/Guesdon's All the Songs on what Dylan has said about related topics (or the fact that he has performed the song nearly 500 times), and among other sources with good things to note, Paul Williams's Performing Artist 1960-73, Oliver Trager's Keys to the Rain and Barney Hoskyn's Across the Great Divide: The Band in America. As for the lyrics, the chorus, "I see my light come shining...", should be used in its entirety, not only to illustrate what the sources say but because it's Dylan at his songwriting best. Allreet (talk) 05:21, 6 December 2019 (UTC)