The song features a large cast of characters and an elliptical plot:
Characters • The main character in the song is "The Jack of Hearts", who has recently come into town as a leader of a gang of bank robbers. ("The boys finally made it through the wall and cleaned out the bank safe... but they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts".) • The female protagonists are Lily and Rosemary. Both are referred to in royal terms ("like a queen without a crown" and "Lily was a princess"). Rosemary is Big Jim's long-suffering wife and is ultimately executed for his murder. Lily is a dancer who is Big Jim's mistress (wearing a ring symbolizing this) and also a former lover of the Jack of Hearts. • Big Jim is the wealthiest person in town: "He owned the town's only diamond mine" (i.e. he is the "King" of Diamonds). He is married to Rosemary and having a longstanding affair with Lily. He is killed at the climax of the song, though Dylan leaves it ambiguous who does the deed. The lyrics describe Big Jim as a greedy man who destroys all that he touches. • The Hanging Judge; a patron of the bar where the plot plays out. The character is referred to as a drunk and is intoxicated for the bulk of the song. However, he is "sober" the next day when he oversees Rosemary being executed for Big Jim's death.
Plot The song takes place in a cabaret in an unnamed town where most of the residents "with any sense" have already left. The town's bank is being targeted by a gang of thieves led by an enigmatic figure called "The Jack of Hearts". The Jack of Hearts appears inside the cabaret right before the show. Big Jim and his wife Rosemary are in attendance of the show, though they arrive separately and it is apparent that Big Jim intends to use the night to pursue his affair with Lily. After her performance, Lily meets the Jack of Hearts in her dressing room with romantic intentions, but Big Jim makes his way to the dressing room as well, followed by Rosemary who has been driven to despair by her years of mistreatment at the hands of Big Jim. Big Jim is going to shoot the Jack of Hearts but is killed by a penknife in the back wielded by Rosemary (her "one good deed before she dies"). "The next day", Rosemary is executed, a hanging overseen by "the hanging judge", another figure in town who is in attendance at the cabaret the night before. The fate of the Jack of Hearts is left ambiguous. He is described at the end of the song only as "missing", as Rosemary is on the gallows, his gang across the river with the safe from the bank, and Lily contemplating the events of her life.
Extra verse There is an extra verse on the Bob Dylan website and in the published sheet music that is not in the album version (right after the "backstage manager" verse): Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch, She forgot all about the man she couldn't stand who hounded her so much. "I've missed you so," she said to him, and he felt she was sincere, But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear. Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts. This verse was recorded during the album's New York sessions and can be found on the deluxe version of
The Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks. This version is slower and more somber, even mournful, reflecting the approach of the other New York sessions. The version on
Blood on the Tracks was recorded later, in Minneapolis, and reflects Dylan's attempts, following his brother's advice, to make the album less difficult and intense. The verse also appears in
Joan Baez's cover of the song. ==Personnel==