"Judas!"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

OK, something that's always bothered me, but that the mostly great Scorsese doc reminded me to ask:

After the famous catcall of "Judas!" Bob Dylan responded with "I don't believe you! You're a liar!"

Now, that makes no sense. Had someone yelled "Your momma wears combat boots" or (per George Lucas) "Bob, I am your father," then perhaps both halves of his retort would jibe. But as it stands, why he respond to "Judas!" with "I don't believe you," as if it were some sort of provable fact? And if it was just shock on Dylan's part, why then did he follow it up with "You're a liar!"

Just wondering. The best my friend and I could come up with is that even though Dylan had grown so accustomed to catcalls, hectoring, booing and heckling by that point, something about the guy yelling "Judas!" threw him off his game and caused him to snap back nonsensically. Either that or Dylan is actually responding to something he misheard (i.e. "your momma wears combat boots!") or, tantalizingly, to something inaudible on the recording.

Thoughts?

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

Yea, it's weird.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 03:03 (twenty years ago)

you can hear someone else yelling something a few seconds after "judas," when the cheering dies down; you can't make it out but maybe that's what dylan was responding to. and yeah, "i don't believe you" doesn't make sense, and it's very possible bob was just rattled and snapped back the first thing that popped into his head, but it's weird that so few people have ever bothered to point this out.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 03:50 (twenty years ago)

It's the way he says it that's so amazing, though--and anyway, "I don't believe you" doesn't necessarily mean "I refute your statement," it can also mean, "I am at the end of my rope with you." Though "You're a liar" afterward would seem to point to the former, so hey.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

Maybe "You're a liar" means "you're being intellectually dishonest".

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

Play fucking loud.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:41 (twenty years ago)

At another point he responds to heckling with, "I was a baby once."

― M. V. (M.V.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:44 (twenty years ago)

I always heard the "I don't believe you" as "You don't really mean what you're saying." On the other hand (and as M.V. just pointed out), it not like it's the only time Dylan has ever responded with a non-sequitur.

― Burr (Burr), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:46 (twenty years ago)

And as we all know, everything Dylan ever said was of great significance.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:47 (twenty years ago)

The sneer that Dylan uses makes the "I don't believe you" line mean something like "I don't believe what you say, which is that I'm Judas," but it makes more sense for it to mean, "I don't believe you, heckling me with horse-shit like that. Man's trying to perform a rock show here." I think it was just a colloquial reaction, but then the words reverberated in Dylan's head and it sounded much more important than he meant it to, and then he follows it up w/ something that sounds really charged.

Eh, like most Dylan, might not make all that much sense but packs quite a punch. Regardless, I think the "play this fucking loud" is the best response he could've made.

― Suzy Creemcheese (SuzyCreemcheese), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:48 (twenty years ago)

He may have been on the drugs. In which case, we should all be happy that he said what he did, instead of "GIANT ANGRY CAT PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO KILL ME!"

― John Justen (johnjusten), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:59 (twenty years ago)

You're thinking of Bowie. Maybe throw in a Seig Heil or two.

― disco violence (disco violence), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 06:28 (twenty years ago)

Heehee. Well said.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 06:30 (twenty years ago)

Why are you puzzled by this? It makes perfect sense

"I don't believe you" - I'm disgusted/fed-up with your behaviour

"You're a liar' - You call me Judas when I'm clearly not. Your accusations are false, you lie.

― Hop, Tuesday, 13 September 2005 06:39 (twenty years ago)

like what's weird about it?

― Hop, Tuesday, 13 September 2005 06:40 (twenty years ago)

Yeah the phrasing is slightly weird (but hey he's a poet...) but I always understood it like Hop.

― Baaderonixx and the choco-pop babies (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 06:56 (twenty years ago)

"I Don't Believe You" was also a song he'd played earlier in the set, so maybe he was riffing on that.

― Sang Freud (jeff_s), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 10:28 (twenty years ago)

Has Dylan ever said or sung anything in a straightforward manner? That's why I love him.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 11:03 (twenty years ago)

x-post to Hop. Well, of course I understand it, in that I understand English and what those sentences mean. But it makes no sense in context. I mean, if someone called you Captain Kangaroo, you wouldn't respond with "You're a liar!" Of course you're not Capt. Kangaroo, so what's to disprove? It makes even less sense if you think of his "I don't believe you!" as outright disgust or indignation. Why, then, "you're a liar" as opposed to something less specific, like "you're a big fat jerk!"

Either retort may be metaphoric or literal, but both can't be metaphoric and neither literal for them to make sense. And neither is so out there ass to be just a surreal response, like "I was a baby once."

I still think it may indeed just be Dylan getting frazzled and frayed, plus the drugs. I'm just impressed so few people have addressed this.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 11:39 (twenty years ago)

I took it as 'I don't believe that what I'm doing makes me a Judas; you lot are perpetuating the idea that unadorned music is the only correct way'.

He just said it a little more snappily.

― Buffalo Stan (Buffalo Stan), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 11:51 (twenty years ago)

I know you are but what am I?

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 11:53 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

hes replying to a second heckle which is barely audiable after "Judas". From what i can gather the second taunt is something along the lines of "you stole your name from dylan thomas!" which isnt really a taunt. i guess. only shouted out like one.

― gary H (esskay), Saturday, 29 July 2006 23:17 (nineteen years ago)

"you stole your name from dylan thomas!

game is weak

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 30 July 2006 08:50 (nineteen years ago)

sixteen years pass...

wait, what? he was responding to a second, unheard heckle? this is serious "Kobe wasn't in front of the ball when he didn't flinch' shit!!!!

― linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 11 July 2023 03:02 (two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.