Look out Kid . . .

Ever thought about this?

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off

Bob Dylan, of course. We were sitting around in Dickey's the other night, thinkin' bout the government, so to speak, and we decided to analyze this first half of the first verse of a rather alarming song. (It happens to be all the words of that song that I know, except for the line where he says something about "eleven dollar bills and you only got ten." It was the way that he said it.)

So anyway, we decided to try and figure out just what he was saying here. The song is obviously about drugs, aren't they all, and Johnny's the one making them, down in the basement. Bob, on the other hand, is standing on the sidewalk outside, looking down at Johnny through the window. It's one of those little dirty ones right down near the ground, but near the ceiling of the basement. Bobby's keeping watch, and contemplating either how many laws they're breaking by engaging in such nefarious activities, or what the feds are going to do if they find out. Or both.

(By the way, this basement - pavement thing keeps reminding me of that Sherlock Holmes story where he goes around tapping on the sidewalk to find the basement where the criminals were going to burrow into the bank vault-- Dr. Watson, of course, didn't know what on earth he was doing.)

But back to Bobby, who is nervously watching over that window. (You'd think they'd pick a more secret place, but I suppose, living in a big city like that, they had to take what was available.) And who should walk up then but the man in the trench coat. He's been hanging around, and they're afraid he knows something, and he might even be "government." Well, turns out he was, but not anymore. He's been "laid off," and for good reason. But he does know what kind of "medicine" Johnny's making down there (points at the window) and he needs some to take care of his "bad cough." But he could also go and tell his former employers all about it (who knows, they might even give him his job back), so if they want to stay in business, they'd better pay him off with some of what they get from other people, you know, just to make it worth his while to be unemployed.

At this point, as Bobby's getting rather worried, Johnny looks up from his work to see the long brown trench coat talking to Bobby's black-and-white hi-tops, and quickly begins to clear away all signs of what he's been doing . . .