Bob Dylan: Knockin' On Heaven's Door Meaning

Song Released: 1973

Knockin' On Heaven's Door Lyrics

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.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock,...

1. m320753

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   Oct 13th 2008 !⃝

   This song along with romance in durango were writen while dylan was making pat garret and billy the kid. Starring kris kristoferson as the kid and james coburn as pat garret. It also had rita coolidge as a woman who loved billy or just a prostitute. bob dylan played the part of alias who in most of the shots he was in he just looked apon what had just happened and never said much. except when he was in a bar and trading post/general store and pat garret told him to go read the labels on the cans while he and billy talked. alias took this literally and he read the labels out loud after a few labels were read the camera turned back to garret but you could still hear dylan reading labels in a bored voice beans-- carrots beans---chicken soup and so on then you heard him say uum string beans. It was hilarious . antway that song was written for the movie and it has to deal with Billie the kid getting shot by pat garret
2. mikeb

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   Oct 6th 2008 !⃝

   I think the speaker is a wild west era lawman. He's disillusioned by the lawlessness that pervaded his time and place, and faces a violent death. Though he expects to die, he's reluctant to wait for it. It looms and he's afraid.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. anonymous

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   Mar 23rd 2008 !⃝

   I believe this is a man at the end of his life. He realizes that he's too old to do most of the things he used to and is putting away his badge, his gun, and eventually his life.
4. anonymous

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   Dec 6th 2007 !⃝

   My interpretation is this...he is a guy who is in the middle of life and death, but he is surrendering...there is some kind of hatred towards some other people..but he is surrendering and giving up...

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. MountaineerForLife

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   Sep 20th 2007 !⃝

   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.
   
   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
   
   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.
   
   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
   
   
   This is, in my opinion, one of the most well-written songs ever, and I think that's why it has been done so many times (Guns N Roses, U2, Eric Clapton, and Roger Waters, just to name a few).
   
   This song is very much a statement against war. It's written from the point of view of a soldier who is on his death bed. Right as he is about to die, he seems to regret his life as a soldier. Unlike the romanticized image of the soldier who clutches his gun to his heart as he dies in battle, this particular soldier seems to reject those symbols of military and war - his badge and his gun.
   
   I'm a literature student in WV and I didn't appreciate Bob Dylan nearly as much before I started studying poetry and literary criticism. He truly is the poet laureate of the 20th century.

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