Listening to Oh Mercy and firstly, it’s just fantastic, I love it. Secondly, please tell me I’m not going mad, does this song sound *incredibly* George Harrison to you?!
From the unusual chord choices (flattened 6!minor 4!) to the slide guitar solo! Bob wrote a George song!!!
It’s Wilbury’s era so they were involved in this really close collaboration and it was a close time for their friendship. But I love it because you can hear Bob’s influence all over George’s music and every now and then it goes the other way too.
Lyrically imo there’s both too much and too little going on to hang specific interpretations on (and Dylan’s writing doesn’t really work that way), but it’s about grief and the space it takes up, and how it would be to meet each other there.
I liked this passage about playing music together:
We banged the drums slowly
And played the fife lowly
You know the song in my heart
In the turning of twilight
In the shadows of moonlight
You can show me a new place to start
