New Bob Dylan song: Huck's Theme

why make fun of the earnest young man for ever having believed? what he did back in '63 helped, not as much as he may have imagined but it did. by making fun of himself he's making fun of everyone who is still trying to do the work he abandoned, which isn't, i don't think, fair.

How is he “making fun of himself”?

Also, he wrote "protest songs," not "propaganda songs" (they're sort of opposites, aren't they?)

if it's sincere his mind has gone. i mean, is he back to being the voice of his generation? deranged, meaningless rambles, namechecking like it's a fucking episode of Family Guy?

Explain to me the difference between what he is doing on this song and what he is doing on Desolation Row?

I think Desolation Row is packed with meaning and I will happily give you my take on it if you want.

amazing how close a lot of this song is to being full-on Grocery Bag:

I'm just a patsy -- CLINE!

Living in a nightmare -- ELM STREET!

xp Be my guest, but I don't see how that makes it different than this song.

In case not everyone is aware, Kennedy’s motorcade was on Elm Street when he was shot — so there’s a double meaning there.

I think the “name checking” parts of this song are very meaningful; it’s like an elegy for the 20th Century, as evoked through cultural references that also stretch back farther (all the way to, you know, “Hamlet”).

Also, he wrote "protest songs," not "propaganda songs" (they're sort of opposites, aren't they?)

― morrisp

in best bob dylan style, i stole that line from someone who's been dead since around 1986 and am not super qualified to debate the point

I think the “name checking” parts of this song are very meaningful; it’s like an elegy for the 20th Century, as evoked through cultural references that also stretch back farther (all the way to, you know, “Hamlet”).

― morrisp

but how does it stack up to

JFK
Blown away
What else do I have to say?

this is Dylan's "Junior Dad"

I only make it all the way through once last night before bed. I went from loving it to kind of hating it and back to loving it again. I really like the dirge-like arrangement and the instrumentation, but the lyrics kept throwing me.

And while some of the couplets are indeed clunky, I think there may be a deliberate strategy to discuss Kennedy’s murder in very matter-of-fact, even clichéd terms (similar to how Lennon’s death was addressed in “Roll on John”) — to leave “breathing room” for evoking its heavy cultural weight in the other parts of the song, and tying in the Kennedy mythos with all those other aspects of Americana, both fictional and real. (I dunno, I’ve also only listened to it once all the way thru so far!)

xp You know, I think you're right. Maybe one of these days I'll wander over to the Dylan: classic or dud thread and post my take on Desolation Row, but it doesn't really have anything to do with what I think of this song. I like it a lot but can't articulate what I think of it yet, I'll have to let it percolate.

music reminds me of Dirty Three

In case not everyone is aware, Kennedy’s motorcade was on Elm Street when he was shot — so there’s a double meaning there.

they are both streets that something bad happened on, i would put the meaning multiplier at 1.25, maybe lower

Jimmy Wapo reference

Dylan's entire studio protest output is basically about 13 songs off his first four albums, and that is only if you include stuff like "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall".

Dumb comma.

You can also probably remove "Song to Woody" and "I Shall be Free" from the list.

@ums otm re Dirty Three

the music is really gorgeous, very eerie too. and the far-off rumble of drums when he repeats the “murder most foul” semi chorus is cool

they are both streets that something bad happened on, i would put the meaning multiplier at 1.25, maybe lower

Ok, it’s a “double reference” — however you prefer to phrase it.

Friend just pointed out the arrangement sounds like Ghosteen, kinda.

xp for more insights check out my new podcast where i go through dylan line by line and rate the precise amount of meaning in each lyric

It seems to me that part of the whole premise of the song's construction is that lines are there because they rhyme. And needing rhymes, you allow things in. But I'm not convinced of their vacuousness.

Hey, and Billy Joel's in there, too. In fact, it's the first song he asks Wolfman to play. I admire the inclusivity.

Friend just pointed out the arrangement sounds like Ghosteen, kinda.

― Julius Caesar Memento Hoodie (bendy), Friday, March 27, 2020 11:53 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah there's a strong cave feeling. i was reminded of higgs boson blues, mostly cause of all the references.

Play Oscar Peterson, play Stan Getz
Play "Blue Sky," play Dickie Betts

I found this pretty lovely. The lyrics idk I heard less than half of them but found them pretty disarming, laughed a few times. Definitely felt like it could be a matter of faith whether I took them as poignant or just daft but I’m not sure what I would have to gain from being a sceptic

I’m not a Dylan person really but desolation row is one of my all time faves so that might explain it

Don’t really care about Kennedy at all don’t @ me

"play Don Henley
play Glenn Frey"

well, yeah

I love this

On the Waterfront reference?

Play Nat King Cole, play "Nature Boy"
Play "Down in the Boondocks" for Terry Malloy

i enjoyed the rhymes & the references he grabbed to complete them were idk, just enjoyable from a writing standpoint either for silliness or outthereness etc

Dylan's entire studio protest output is basically about 13 songs off his first four albums, and that is only if you include stuff like "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall".

― Why, I would make a fantastic Nero! (PBKR)

some of those songs are pretty decent tho

This is an obvious reference but it's making me think of (70s) Waits if anything. I love the arrangement.

Who am I kidding - these are weird times and this is destroying me.

Listening for the first time, haven't read anything above.

Very striking...It's not "Desolation Row," but I know how silly it is to even say that; it's not the same person who made "Desolation Row," so why would it be? The music's beautiful, and I'm more comfortable with the vocal than most of what I've dipped into the past couple of decades. Putting out a Kennedy song right now is perversely vintage.

Dylan has spent so much time just referring to the musicians before him that it is totally disarming to hear him reference those who came after him. Like that 70s interview where he praised Alice Cooper felt odd (and true) enough.

Bob was friends with Kurtis Blow

The Beatles thing is interesting because it sounds like a putdown, yet Dylan is the author of my favourite Beatles-love quote ever, the one about driving through Colorado in 1964.

xxp Or the Alicia Keys verse in "Thunder on the Mountain."

For anyone who's never read it...

Then, when we were driving through Colorado we had the radio on and eight of the ten top songs were Beatles songs. In Colorado! ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand,’ all those early ones.

They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. You could only do that with other musicians. Even if you’re playing your own chords you had to have other people playing with you. That was obvious. And it started me thinking about other people.

But I just kept it to myself that I really dug them. Everybody else thought they were for the teenyboppers, that they were gonna pass right away. But it was obvious to me that they had staying power. I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go. I was not about to put up with other musicians, but in my head the Beatles were it. In Colorado, I started thinking it was so far out that I couldn’t deal with it — eight in the Top Ten. It seemed to me a definite line was being drawn. This was something that never happened before. It was outrageous, and I kept it in my mind. You see, there was a lot of hypocrisy all around, people saying it had to be either folk or rock. But I knew it didn’t have to be like that. I dug what the Beatles were doing, and I always kept it in mind from back then.

Greatest use of the word "outrageous" ever.

that is cool, thx for posting clemenza

"In Colorado!" That kills me every time.

Bob was friends with Kurtis Blow

they used to throw horses off of cliffs together iirc

I also dig the reference to Paula Abdul while in New Orleans recording Oh Mercy.

re:Chronicles and others---fits current discussion, and I've always found it disturbing. Keeps coming back into my head uninvited (as does "Desolation Row," but don't mind that one): https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2005/03/10/i-is-someone-else/

My computer has probs posting YouTubes here, but check for his track w Kurtis Blow.

Dickie Betts?

"oh you like Ozzy? What about Ratt? You like Ratt?"

https://youtu.be/cntGcbU3nM8

Probably super uncool and unhelpfully obvious but this makes me think of "Rave on John Donne"

that 80s street interview is one of my favorite Bob artifacts

whereas many others are superb: 'S H Blues', 'changing of the guard', 'if not for you' (but that's basically 'pop single as opener'?), 'tangled up in blue' for sure, 'hurricane' maybe but again too long, 'political world', 'tweedle dee', 'thunder on the mountain' yes - and indeed 'I contain multitudes' !! and even 'young at heart' on a covers LP - marvellous.

Also underrated in the role: 'tight connection to my heart'?

But I'm reminded that the worst Dylan LP opener has to be 'rainy day women' - the most overrated song of his life.

"Tight Connection' is a superb opener.

You folks are crazy, “Lovesick” opens the door to the thick night air perfectly. And the snare crack of “LaRS” is the shot that starts the revolution.

'tweedle dee' is musically thrilling, I'd say, not so different from 'political world'
totally agree, very similar, don't like political world

Tight Connection is the album highlight iirc

here for the tweedle-dee love. such cool, demented lyrics and great drums

"Love Sick" is a fine opener. At the time it felt like, "Hey, Bob's back! And he...doesn't suck! Huh!" (Those who heard "Wiggle Wiggle" on release day will understand.) But all live versions -- especially those with Bob soloing -- surpass it.

"Thunder," though, is easily my fave out of those three openers.

Wiggle Wiggle >>>>> Love Sick

I wouldn't use quite so many ">"s, but I also prefer "Wiggle Wiggle." (I'm not too into Time Out of Mind, tho)

Kenny Aronoff's drum roll in "Wiggle Wiggle" is the real thunder on the mountain

Love Kenny Aronoff! So hope he'll show up on the Never-Ending tour.
he snare crack of “LaRS” is the shot that starts the revolution. Yeah, but after that I'm pretty much with pinefox--got tired of the monotonous, lecture-y delivery long ago (even though he later said, "Every time I say 'you' I mean 'I'"), It's the one track from that LP that doesn't play itself in my head on any given day---nothing necessarily against the song, though; I really like the Hendrix at Monterey Pop rendition.

As a character read, it's more effective for the shrewd, seemingly soft and off-handed phrasing.

That "Wiggle Wiggle" performance was the beginning of the decline of Aronoff's greatness. He was brilliant with Mellencamp -- his re-entrance in "Check It Out" is arguably the greatest moment in Mellencamp's oeuvre. But with Dylan and -- especially -- Fogerty, every snare hit sounds like a sales pitch as aggressive as it is ineffective.

I don't see Aronoff jumping back into Bob's band anytime soon, as Charley Drayton is beyond perfect for what Bob's doing now, and Bob seems to love him ("Boy, Charley's really something on the drums, isn't he?" -- Bob during the band introductions when I saw him a year ago).

I didn't realize it until much later, but when I saw Jerry Lee Lewis at Riot Fest, it was Aronoff on drums. Agree with Tarfumes, he's a loud, aggressive player. I don't think he'd be right for Dylan at this point. He was perfect for Mellencamp though.

got tired of the monotonous, lecture-y delivery long ago

Now there's a controversial take! Not one I can agree with though.