Desolation Row

   

        I figured I would analyze a Bob Dylan song. Problem was, my theme-genre of Defying Authority in Pop Punk and Post Hardcore doesn't really include his style. Luckily, I remembered the Bob Dylan Tribute Album: Chimes of Freedom. It just so happened that one of the seventy-something covers fit my themed genre. So, although this cover is a shortened version of the song, it's an interesting one to analyze, and could be looked at from many perspectives. 
Lyrics: Desolation Row (My Chemical Romance) Originally by Bob Dylan

They're selling postcards of the hanging
Where they're painting the passports brown
Yeah, the beauty parlor's filled with sailors
The circus is in town

Oh now but here comes the blind commissioner
Well, they got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other's in his pants

And the riot squad, they're restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row

Cinderella, she seems so easy
"Well, it takes one to know one," she smiles
And she puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style

Now but in comes Romeo moaning
"You belong to me I believe"
And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend
You better leave"

And then only sound that's left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row

Now at midnight all the agents
And super-human crew
Go out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do

They gonna bring 'em to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene!

Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that no one is escaping
To Desolation Row

'Cause right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no letters, no
Not unless you gotta mail them
From Desolation Row
         Adopting a very different style for the delivery of Desolation Row, and shifting from first to second person viewpoints, My Chemical Romance utilizes a constant narrative, pessimistic tone, and meaningful allusion to display how they fought the law, but the law won. 
       The song is in a narrative form, like a story, so one gets the idea of what is happening chronologically. It is in the first person point of view, and they are describing the characters in the song's fight against those opposing them. "Go out and round up everyone/that knows more than they do/They gonna bring em to the factory,"  sings Gerard in the covered version. They are telling a story, and the story they tell shows the listener the struggle that the subjects of the song are facing.  This format is constant throughout, until the end where he switches to second person and says "don't send me no letters," so it becomes his story rather than simply one he was telling about anyone. This aids in conveying that universal idea of trying to fight the law. 
       The tone is pessimistic, for the speaker seems to have lost all hope. He sings, "and then only sound that's left/After the ambulances go/is Cinderella sweeping up/on Desolation Row," nothing else was left. He is saying so much wrongdoing occurs there that by the time everything is cleared up there is nobody there anymore. "And the riot squad, they're restless/they need somewhere to go," his tone is not cheerful, but wary and unoptimistic. He sees no way out from what is happening. Thus, the tone helps in displaying that idea of defying their authorities and failing, because they do not have that optimism any longer.
       Allusion plays a key role in this song as well. The singer speaks of Romeo, Cinderella, and a Blind Commissioner. Romeo was someone who went against his parents wishes and secretly married his lover. His spiteful act of defiance cost him his life, so this allusion might be hinting at how it is not always worth it to "stick it to the man". However, Cinderella, also alluded to in the song, went against her stepmother and ended up living a happy life. She did pay the price of losing her shoe though, and risked never meeting her true love again. The Blind Commissioner mentioned could be someone turning a blind eye to wrong deeds, and has an evil nature. This person would be abusing his power as well as the system, and with this opposition that is rigged, the subjects of the song are bound to lose. 
       Desolation Row is a great song with many different meanings and interpretations. There are multiple devices heavily present throughout the song, yet allusion, tone, and narrative most clearly displayed the universal idea of defiance to opposition, and then failure. The idea behind the song could also be something more surreal, and how evil reigns over all that humans do, with our nature to disobey and fight.