"I ain't dead yet, my bell still rings," sings Dylan in the Early Roman Kings. New York, NY 11/21/21
Channel: Artur Artist presents The Casper Collection
Date: 2022-01-24

Dylan sang "Early Roman Kings" with verve and conviction Sunday, November 21, 2021 at the Beacon Theatre in New York, NY, during the first leg of his 2021-2024 World Tour.  

He obviously loves to perform it:  Dylan has played the song 519 times from November 2012 through December 2021, introducing it just after the release of his 35th studio album "Tempest" on which it appears.  It's appeared on his setlists in at least nearly every, if not in fact every single concert of all the tours he's played since.

I must confess, it's not the easiest song for me to get a handle on.  It helped after I listened closely enough, eventually, to determine that the lyrics are not, in fact, primarily about the literal early kings of ancient Rome who preceded the Republic that preceded the empire. Although some of the descriptions could fit.  

 It appears to reference more closely a Bronx street gang named the Roman Kings  - one of a number of notoriously violent organizations that fought vicious turf wars in the New York borough in the 1960s and '70s.  But most of those gang members ranged from 15 to 20 years in age.  Although not a few of the youngest members were themselves already stone cold killers, the gangsters Dylan describes sound like more mature men, possibly mafiosi, especially given the reference to trial in a Sicilian court.

Whatever facts or ideas served as Dylan's starting point for the song, as is typically the case, the imagery he evokes ends up veering in multiple directions.

The music is classic blues and easily fits the "swaggering" variety.  In this it's similar to "False Prophet" from his newest album "Rough and Rowdy Ways,"  also performed at last fall's shows.  But that song is all first person declaration, while "Early Roman Kings" is mainly third person observation - even if, as the song continues, the singer does comment more than once on ways he resembles them.

Unlike "Joey," a much older, biographical song about real life gangster Joey Gallo which serves as a mournful elegy for the man, no one's likely to hear "Early Roman Kings" as admiring or glorifying its subject.

These kings are both powerful and powerfully evil, and they appear to receive their rightful comeuppance in the end.

If anyone can take a stab at enlightening us further with more insight about the song, please do -- I'm all ears.