Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door — Bob Dylan Analysis
This song narrates the experience of someone devastated by his own violent actions. From gun violence in America to the post-traumatic stress of soldiers after the Iraq War, taking someone’s life is a large step away from the innocence of childhood.
Verse 1
Mama, take this badge off of me
I can’t use it anymore
It’s gettin’ dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door
The narrator has taken a life. He calls mama which is a primitive response in children when they want to cry. He has sinned so seriously that he yearns for motherly comfort. Take this badge off of me. He holds a high position where the badge symbolizes a level of trust, honor, and status. He feels doesn’t deserve it.
The scene is getting dark and nightfall is coming. This sets the scene and suggests what he is feeling inside. Too dark for me to see. He is blinded by disorientation and the lack of clarity. He doesn’t know what to do. Knockin’ on heaven’s door. He has sinned so gravely that he feels he isn’t welcome in heaven.
Chorus
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, Knock, Knockin’ vaguely mimics the sound you make when you knock on someone’s door. Again, he feels he isn’t welcome in heaven. There is a sense of emphasis when the statement is repeated (as opposed to only repeating it twice, etc).
Verse 2
Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door
put my guns in the ground. He is distraught by the weapons that caused him so much emotional turmoil. Burying these guns doesn’t change his/her past. Rather, it suppresses these experiences underground. Analogously, suppressing our memories in our consciousness, doesn’t change what really happened. The narrator wants to bury these so he can’t shoot them anymore. He can’t trust himself with too much power, especially the power to take a life.
That long black cloud is comin’ down. Weather is almost universally used in literature to set the scene and tone. There are hints that darker days are ahead because he must live with what he has done.
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is an iconic song. Bob Dylan has built a whiskey brand called Heaven’s Door. The band Guns N’ Roses have made an iconically famous cover of this song (how I first met Bob Dylan’s work). It was featured as a soundtrack for the movie Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.
