The writeup that used to be above this one seems to have been deleted, presumably because of E2 Copyright Changes. The lyrics can be found here:
https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/lily-rosemary-and-jack-hearts/
Some notes, regarding "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts"
- Verse twelve in the song ("Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch...") does not appear in the recorded version of this song, on Blood on the Tracks. This exclusion does make the story a bit harder to follow, but I suspect it was done to add a bit of mystery to the aural experience, in true storyteller fashion.
- help im a rock, in the writeup above, mentions the desire to see this song turned into a movie; I suspect that anyone who has heard this song more than a few times has, at least fleetingly, had the same idea. What's interesting is that, according to Robert Shelton's excellent Dylan biography, No Direction Home, "There was some Hollywood talk of turning the song into a screenplay, with speculation that Dylan would play Jack"1. A little bit of web research confirms this, indicating that said screenplay was written by someone named James Byron, is inspired by both the song and the Shakespeare play, Hamlet, and is in storage at the University of Ohio. I have found no indications, however, as to why further production never proceeded.
See Also: The E2 Bob Dylan Literary Analysis Project
Works Referenced:
- No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan, (c)1986 Robert Shelton. Da Capo Press, New York.
- "Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts - Screenplay", http://www.edlis.org/twice/threads/lily_rosemary_screenplay.html
Works Cited:
1 -
No Direction Home, pp. 442-443