Absolutely Sweet Marie genre folk rock
Composition and lyrical interpretation
"Absolutely Sweet Marie" was written by Dylan in the studio. The handwritten lyrics from the session largely reflect the recorded versions, apart from several changes in the first verse. The original lyrics omit the "railroad gate" that is in the first line of the released version, and although the studio log shows the song listed as "Where Are You Tonight, Sweet Marie?", the line does not appear in the written lyrics or the first take. The song's bridge, which refers to a "riverboat captain" who knows the narrator's fate, is also not in the original lyrics, although there is a note that "they all know my fate". Oliver Trager notes that possible inspirations for the name of the song have included "everything from a type of biscuit to a famous carnival 'Fat Lady' to  a popular nineteenth century song by Percy French ... ('Mountains of the Mourne')". Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon describe the song as a "mid-tempo rock song", with similarities to a British Invasion sound. Buttrey's drumming features prominently on the track; organist Kooper remarked that "the beat is amazing, and that's what makes the track work".The narrator of the song is imprisoned. In Vanity Fair, Mike Hogan wrote that the song was about "being at the mercy of a much stronger woman". Journalist Paul Williams considers that "the whole album is about sexuality and power", and names "Absolutely Sweet Marie" as one of several songs on Blonde on Blonde referring to "the power and confusion of sexual connection, the mysteries and frustrations and rewards of the sexual encounter (always tied up in the problem or fear of being misunderstood)". Critic Andy Gill and Trager both interpret the song as about sexual frustration, citing the lines where the narrator refers to "beating on my trumpet" after mentioning "it gets so hard, you see". Gill notes that images used in the song, such as railroads, had gained a sexual connotation in songs; "white horses" in the traditional "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain", and Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", are a "blues image of sexual potency". Scholar of English Louis Renza remarked that Dylan's song "unquestionably traffics in sexual innuendo from first to last".The song features mosaic rhymes in the style of poet Robert Browning, and as used in some Tin Pan Alley songs. Scholar of literature Jim Curtis wrote that "Absolutely Sweet Marie" "has a five-line stanza which rhymes ababb, where the a rhymes are consistently mosaic rhymes. Thus, in the first stanza Dylan rhymes 'Jump it/trumpet' and in the second stanza 'half sick/traffic.'" Music scholar Larry Starr wrote of  "Absolutely Sweet Marie" that it was "probably the most unconventional of the Blonde on Blonde songs from a formal standpoint". He highlighted how the bridge music features twice, with different lyrics, and a "sudden, striking beginning on an out of key chord".During a 1991 interview published in Paul Zollo's book Songwriters on Songwriting (1997), Dylan gives an idea of how he sees the song in his explanation of a line about a "yellow railroad":
That's about as complete as you can be. Every single letter in that line. It's all true. On a literal and on an escapist level.... Getting back to the yellow railroad, that could be from looking someplace. Being a performer, you travel the world. You're not just looking out of the same window every day. You're not just walking down the same old street. So you must make yourself observe whatever. But most of the time it hits you. You don't have to observe. It hits you. Like, "yellow railroad" could have been a blinding day when the sun was so bright on a railroad someplace and it stayed on my mind... These aren't contrived images. These are images which are just in there and have got to come out.
The song contains the phrase "To live outside the law you must be honest". Jonathan Lethem points to a very similar line by the screenwriter Stirling Silliphant in the 1958 film The Lineup: "When you live outside the law, you have to eliminate dishonesty"; without attribution, Lethem imagines that Dylan "heard it ... cleaned it up a little, and inserted it into" this song. This possible allusion is also noted by Trager.
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