Only a Pawn in Their Game (1963) – Bob Dylan

We return to one of Bob Dylan’s most impactful political songs, Only a Pawn in Their Game. You could be forgiven for thinking you’re listening to the gravelly voice of a world-weary old man, but Dylan was just 22 years old when he wrote it, calmly dissecting racism, class, and political blame.

The song was written in the summer of 1963, following the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. Its first major performance came at the Newport Folk Festival, July 26, 1963. Two other notable live performances are worth mentioning: its first public performance on July 6, 1963, when Dylan appeared at a voter registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, and later at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

Dylan included the song on The Times They Are A-Changin’, released in February 1964. There it sits alongside its thematic companion on Side Two, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, which Dylan wrote a few months later in October 1963. Together, the songs form the album’s moral backbone.

As a teenager, I was deeply immersed in Dylan’s music, and I could sense it shaping my outlook and values beyond the family bubble. These two songs stood out because they felt as real as music could get: they dealt with real people and real news, exposing injustice without softening the blow. This was Dylan openly aligning himself with African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.

When he sang these songs, he sounded angry and affected. He wasn’t just performing lyrics; he was bearing witness. At times it felt closer to a eulogy or a sermon than a folk song. The music became secondary, almost spare by design, allowing the words to sit front and centre while everything else quietly fell into the background.

Lyrics (Wikipedia)

The lyrics attribute blame for the killing and other racial violence to the rich white politicians and authorities who manipulated poor whites into directing their anger and hatred at black people. The song suggests that Evers’s killer does not deserve to be remembered by name in the annals of history, unlike the man he murdered (“They lowered him down as a king”), because he was “only a pawn in their game.”.

The lyrics actually reiterate the claim that the murderer “can’t be blamed. He’s only a pawn in their game.” In fact, the state twice prosecuted the murderer in 1964, but each time the all white jury failed to reach a verdict. Dylan no longer played the song after October 1964. In 1969 the murderer had the original indictment dismissed. However, when these first trials were shown to be held unfairly and with new evidence available the murderer was eventually found guilty on February 5, 1994.

[Verse 1]
A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man’s brain
But he can’t be blamed
He’s only a pawn in their game

[Verse 2]
A south politician preaches to the poor white man
“You got more than the blacks, don’t complain
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin,” they explain
And the Negro’s name
Is used, it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

[Verse 3]
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
‘Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

[Verse 4]
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoof beats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back, with his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide ‘neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t a-got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

[Verse 5]
Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one that fired the gun
He’ll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain
Only a pawn in their game

References:
1. Only a Pawn in Their Game – Wikipedia