I don't know that "Dark Eyes" would qualify as one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs or not. When thinking about which selections I would choose from Dylan's immense catalog, there are so many incarnations of him to consider. But no matter what I thought about, I kept coming back to "Dark Eyes."The 1980's were cruel to many artists. The musical trends and styles of the early part of that decade were just plain bad. Sometimes I think John Lennon is lucky to have died. We never had to hear what might have been his inevitable descent into synthesizers. A few people made it out alright, but they were the acts who pretty much started and stopped within those years. For a lot of musicians whose careers started in the 60's or 70's, however, the 80's proved to be difficult to navigate.
Look at this picture of Bob Dylan. Yes, that's him alright, clad in a sleeveless shirt, leather pants, and... this is hard to say... fingerless gloves. The hair is frizzed out. You can't even make out the dangling earring he was sporting at the time, but that was there too. If you didn't look too closely, you might've thought this was Kip Winger or one of the guys from Whitesnake. But no, that's Bob Dylan, the voice of his generation, a writer so revered that there's a considerable push to award him the Nobel Prize. And there he is, lost in the wasteland of the 1980's.
In 1985 Dylan released "Empire Burlesque." Most fans and critics agree that it's one of Bob's worst albums... a failed attempt at appealing to the mainstream pop masses at the time. It's over-produced and smothered in back-up singers, electronic drums, and keyboards galore. I actually don't think it's that bad and maintain there are good songs under all of that production. Watch Dylan's quirky film "Masked and Anonymous" to see proof of this when "I'll Remember You" was performed by Dylan and a wholly different group of side-men. But for the most part, Empire Burlesque is a bit of a letdown from the guy who gave us "The Times They Are-A-Changin'," "Blonde on Blonde" and "Blood on the Tracks." Most people probably don't even listen to it all the way through... and THAT's why I picked "Dark Eyes."
After all the synthesizers and drum loops were put away, suddenly Dylan showed up with his trusty acoustic guitar and harmonica and recorded "Dark Eyes" alone for the last track on the album. It's almost astonishing to hear it in context with the rest of the record. It would be like following "Pour Some Sugar On Me" with "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." That's why I like it so much. It's a typical Bob Dylan shot out of left field.
The lyrics to the song are pretty interesting too. Dylan's been called a poet for a reason and the words to "Dark Eyes" definitely show that. It seems to discuss being surrounded by good and happy things, but only seeing negativity. Dylan says he lives in another world, "where the earth is strung with lovers' pearls, but all I see are dark eyes." There are other curious lines where he sings about feeling nothing for those for whom "beauty goes unrecognized." Is this a comment on the over-commercialization and materialization of the 1980's? It seems so. I've always found the ending to the song to be especially powerful too. The last line is "A million faces at my feet, but all I see are dark eyes." Is this the ever-elusive Dylan singing about himself, a god in some people's eyes, and the people that all bow down to him? If so, it's just another reason why I never want to be famous. The life you're left with seems pretty hollow and I'd gather that Bob Dylan can attest to that.
"Dark Eyes" is from the album "Empire Burlesque." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.
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