No Time to Think (1978) – Bob Dylan

No Time To Think is the fourth song to appear here from Bob Dylan’s 18th studio album Street – Legal. I wrote in the last entry New Pony – ‘To say, Street – Legal is ‘complex’ is an understatement. To get my mind and ‘ear’ tuned to it, required a lot of time, but once my senses adjusted, I found it a treasure box of contemporary music – the likes, I realise I’m doubtful to ever hear again in one package‘.

Today’s epic track contains 18 verses, but I have relayed just the first six below. You can read the remainder here. Comparable to Changing of the Guards, No Time To Think transports me to a medieval age because the music atmosphere exudes all senses revealing. It has a frolicsome, catchy, repetitive melody, but don’t be led under false pretenses. The man in the song is clearly struggling. As Freud referred to: His ego is tortured by the the ‘Id’ – underlying biological forces (impulsive actions and urges), but also severely limited and repressed by the Super Ego (civilization / society).

Edited 11/9/23 – I wish I had seen the following when I was researching this. For a detailed breakdown of this song I point you to this video – Lyrical Review of Bob Dylan’s “No Time To Think” (1978).

[Verse 1]
In death, you face life with a child and a wife
Who sleep-walks through your dreams into walls
You’re a soldier of mercy, you’re cold and you curse
“He who cannot be trusted must fall”

[Verse 2]
Loneliness, tenderness, high society, notoriety
You fight for the throne and you travel alone
Unknown as you slowly sink
And there’s no time to think

[Verse 3]
In the Federal City you been blown and shown pity
In secret, for pieces of change
The empress attracts you but oppression distracts you
And it makes you feel violent and strange

[Verse 4]
Memory, ecstasy, tyranny, hypocrisy
Betrayed by a kiss on a cool night of bliss
In the valley of the missing link
And you have no time to think

[Verse 5]
Judges will haunt you, the country priestess will want you
Her worst is better than best
I’ve seen all these decoys through a set of deep turquoise eyes
And I feel so depressed

[Verse 6]
China doll, alcohol, duality, mortality
Mercury rules you and destiny fools you
Like the plague, with a dangerous wink
And there’s no time to think

Background:

From Wikipedia:
Dylan spent the first half of 1977 engaged in divorce proceedings and a custody battle with his first wife, Sara, while editing Renaldo and Clara, an ill-fated film shot during the fall of 1975 on the first leg of his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. With the summer approaching, Dylan took a break from the film and returned to his farm in Minnesota, where he was accompanied by his children and Faridi McFree, with whom Dylan had started a relationship. There he began writing a new set of songs, including Changing of the Guards, No Time to Think, and Where Are You Tonight?

More from Untold Dylan:

According to reports Dylan was at his most difficult in the studio, distracted and not ready to work.  And how could he be?  Well, ok, some brilliantly creative people manage it – I recall the descriptions of Woody Allen working during the time when Mia Farrow was making all her allegations.  He could separate life and work.  I can’t in the slightest.  And it seems, at least on this occasion, Dylan couldn’t.  But he didn’t need to.  He put it all in this song.

Reference:
1. No Time To Think – Bob Dylan Song Analysis
2. “No time to think” – the meaning of the music and the lyrics – Untold Dylan
2. Street-Legal (Album) – Wikipedia