Synopsis by the artist

The song does say "clowns", plural, not "clown". But I have a reason for making one solo clown.

Many say the target of the song is a woman who left him for someone else. I don't care much about his personal story because the song can easily apply to any alleged snob who's had the tables justly turned on them. So I'll refer to this "woman" simply as "the target" that the song is sung to.

With the words being such a linguistic middle finger, I'll go ahead and assume that Dylan himself, or at least the character in the first person, is the one who'd been dismissed by the target, and hence the clown.

The past tense areas of the song are depicted by the trail of dropped juggling pins and flower petals, suggesting that the clown had unsuccessfully attempted to follow the target for at least a moment.

Separately, there are second-stanza characters that the target made the mistake of getting close to. Napoleon in rags, the mystery tramp, the diplomat, etc. These people are the opposite of the clown, at least in the past tense. They were the ones getting the target's attention while the clown did not. They might have been different slurs for the same person.

These derogatory characters should be the opposite of the clown. But to honor the main theme of the song, being that the tables have turned, I've put them in the new roll of the clown. Like, who's the clown now?

It would seem that in the present tense of the song, the target would rather escape these characters but is now bound to them by poor decisions. My only subtle address of this comes in the form of the diamond ring around the cat's neck. While it literally refers to the diamond ring that the singer suggests should be pawned, I'd add that it has been pawned to the mystery tramp, "Do you want to make a deal?"

-Dave Russo