What is the worst ever line from a Bob Dylan song?

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"If dogs run free, then why can't we?"

Probably not the worst. But it's getting there.

― F.R. Leavis, Friday, 11 February 2005 16:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The sun ain't yellow, it's chicken."

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

I like both of these so far.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:53 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit,
He spoke to me, I took his flute."

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

It would probably be something off one of the Christian period albums. A lot of those lines make me cringe.

This couplet panders a bit too much to Michael-Moore-style xenophobia for my liking:

Sheiks walkin' around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings,
Deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Man Gave Names to All the Animals" has some of the most inane lyrics of any Dylan song:

He saw an animal leavin' a muddy trail,
Real dirty face and a curly tail.
He wasn't too small and he wasn't too big.
"Ah, think I'll call it a pig."

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

"i am a gay bitch/why am i so gay?/the answere my friend is blowing on a cock/i am a gay bitch/amen"

― bobby dylan, Friday, 11 February 2005 17:02 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The sun ain't yellow, it's chicken" is a reference to the Sun Records logo methinks.

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:03 (8 years ago) Permalink

I think it's supposed to be a Strangelovian comment on the absurd belligerence of the US on the world stage.

The whole verse for context:

The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, "Death to all those who would whimper and cry"
And dropping a bar bell he points to the sky
Saving, "The sun's not yellow it's chicken"

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:09 (8 years ago) Permalink

C'mon out Phillips, you coward.

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:10 (8 years ago) Permalink

A complete aside: I saw Alejandro Escovedo last weekend, and he covered Dylan's "Dark Eyes" from "Empire Burlesque." What a beautiful song from an album I never planned to hear!

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The sun ain't yellow, it's chicken."

that's an awesome line....it's pretty obvious though..."yellow" being slang for cowardice as is "chicken"....great line.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:12 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, "Dark Eyes" is amazing. Though I should mention it doesn't sound much like the rest of the album.

xpost

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

I think it's supposed to be a Strangelovian comment on the absurd belligerence of the US on the world stage

I don't believe the Commander-in-Chief would say that though. It's the one joke out of dozens on the record that doesn't work. Usually with Dylan, if you understand why Shakespeare might be in the alley etc, what follows from that makes a kind of sense. But I think there is only one situation where someone might say "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken", and that it is in a Dylany absurdist song setting.

The joke would work if people commonly said the sun was yellow, but they don't. The sun's not yellow; it's golden if anything.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:17 (8 years ago) Permalink

I don't think it's supposed to be a haha-funny joke, it's kind of a joke turned inside out, like a joke that the Mad Hatter would tell the March Hare at the Mad Tea Party. It's supposed to sound weird.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The sun's not yellow, it's golden if anything"

It works, that.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

I mean, you could do a similar thing with the "The sky's not blue...." because people do think of the sky being blue. But the sun line has to invent the premise that it plays with.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The sky's not blue, it's smiling at you"

Yeah, that works too.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

x-post to complete aside

is alejandro up and about again? that's good news. i hadn't been keeping track.

― Pete W (peterw), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

What is the premise that is being invented? That the sun is yellow? It is kind of yellow. And it's pretty much invariably depicted that way from kindergarten crayon drawings on up.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

Wait, seriously, EB? C'mon, I bet if you walked down the street and asked the next ten people you saw "What color is the sun?" most of 'em would say yellow. Especially if you asked any kids.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:30 (8 years ago) Permalink

I always hated this one:

"She opened up a book of poems and handed it to me
written by an Italian poet from the 13th century
and every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you."

It's clunky, it's trite, and I don't like that song anyway.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Conceit is a disease that the doctors got no cure
They've done a lot of research on it, but what it is, they're still not sure"

The whole song's pretty embarrassing. There are tons of truly awful Dylan lyrics, and tons of really great ones, he's the original hit-and-miss lyricist.

― Joubert, Friday, 11 February 2005 17:38 (8 years ago) Permalink

See, you both have to bring in kids/kids drawings! There are a limited number of felt-tip pen colours, that's all! And what colour are tree-trunks then? Brown? Look again!

Anyway, I will ask ten people. Not while walking down the street, though. This might compromise the data I admit.

xpost

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

", he's the original hit-and-miss lyricist."

I think he's more like hit-hit-miss. Whereas Neil Young is something like hit-miss-miss.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:41 (8 years ago) Permalink

"For it's rush hour now / for the wheel and the plow / and the sun is going down upon the sacred cow."--Ring them Bells

― shookout (shookout), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:45 (8 years ago) Permalink

All of the lyrics to "Everything's Broken." All rhyme and no reason.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:06 (8 years ago) Permalink

"With no attempts to shovel a glimpse / Into the ditch of what each one means" ("Gates Of Eden")

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Time passes slowly up here in the mountains,
We sit beside bridges and walk beside fountains"

For some reason, this always grates.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Bob Dylan's 115th Dream," guys.

Total weak setup line: "I asked the captain what his name was and how come he didn't drive a truck."

It's in there for no reason except to set up the rhyme "He said his name was Columbus and I just said 'good luck'."

I always thought that if he recorded the song about 10 years later, he could've said "I asked the captain what his name was, as if I gave a fuck."

Oh well.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

"not yellow it's chicken" is brilliant! impugning motives to something that's just existing, or hanging out, by purposefully misunderstanding/twisting language to do it (you can tell it's purposeful by the sneer he says it with) i.e. GWB on Iraqi soldiers or just about anything

i'll also stick up for "if dogs run free." i like New Morning a lot.

how about "don't think twice it's alright." grr you passive aggressive fucko

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:45 (8 years ago) Permalink

"With no attempts to shovel a glimpse / Into the ditch of what each one means"

This one is great!

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 11 February 2005 19:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

'Congratulations' from the Traveling Wilburys album is certainly one of his laziest if not his worst:

"this morning I looked out my window and found-
a bluebird singing but there was no one around.

At night I lay alone in my bed-
With an image of you going around in my head."

― Flash (cowboytrance), Friday, 11 February 2005 19:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

People, people, look no further than Mozambique.

Christopher Ricks thinks Dylan's rhyming of "Mozambique" with "cheek to cheek" is brilliant. Crazy old fool.
Lester Bangs did a brilliant demolition of Desire, that song and Joey in particular.
It's such patronising excoticism. Noble savage and all that colonialist guff. And such hackneyed rhymes and banal cliches:

I'd like to spend some time in Mozambique
All the couples dancing cheek to cheek
It's very nice to stay a weeke or two...
There's lots of pretty girls in Mozambique
Andl plenty time for good romance...
Magic in a magical land

― stew, Friday, 11 February 2005 19:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

Over such a long career of go-for-broke word-slinging there are bound to be a lot of clams, but I'll defend a lot of examples cited. Admit it, some of y'all just don't dig Zimmy. Hurting's quote from "Tangled Up In Blue" (the "italian poet" verse) surprised me, 'cause I always found that bit thrilling -- he drops pretense & gets all nakedly emotional. And yes, I guess a little trite.

Now, from the xtian period, I know Bob's been called out before for this immortal opening couplet: "Senor, senor, do you know where we're headin'? Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?"

― briania (briania), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:02 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, I don't know Briana, maybe I'm being too cynical. But it just sounds silly to me:

Stripper: Check out these poems. They're from 13th century Italy.
Dylan: Wow! These poems go straight to my soul!

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

hahaha! I guess it's a thin line between illustrating your dorkiness and simply being a dork.

― briania (briania), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

I always figured he was just saying that poetry-in-my-soul stuff to get her in bed.

I've never heard "Don't Think Twice" as passive aggressive -- I think it's aggressive aggressive. Nothing much passive about "you just sorta wasted my precious time." It's in my pantheon of great Dylan fuck-yous, along side "Idiot Wind" and "Positively 4th Street" and "Most Likely You'll Go Your way..." ("you say my kisses aren't like his/ I'm not gonna tell you why that is")

But anyway, we're here to bury Dylan not praise, right, so..."Hurricane" is full of howlers, but this verse in particular is fingernails/chalkboard:

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

(I mean, first of all "punch" and "much" don't even rhyme, and then the rest of it is just absurd. Did Rubin Carter really like to ride horses along trout streams? The kicker is the horrible jailhouse/man into a mouse, arrrrrggggh.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

Most of "Desire" has pretty bad lyrics, most of which come from Jacques Levy.

I love "Empire Burlesque," btw.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

The joke would work if people commonly said the sun was yellow, but they don't. The sun's not yellow; it's golden if anything.

Are you out of your mind? Have you never played with crayons? Where I come from, if you ask people what color the sun is, they'll say "yellow".

The worst lines are on "Under The Red Sky".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 11 February 2005 21:27 (8 years ago) Permalink

"The sun ain't yellow, it's chicken" is awesome awesome awesome.

My pick would be "lay lady lay lay across my big brass bed". A frisky Bob = ewww.

― darin (darin), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

gypsy, I like the line "you just sorta wasted my precious time" because he finally busts through his mopery. It's the line I mentioned - and what goes with it - that annoys me about Dylan, and not just in that song.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

I've been saved
By the blood of the lamb,
Saved
By the blood of the lamb,
Saved,
Saved,
And I'm so glad.
Yes, I'm so glad, I'm so glad,
So glad, I want to thank You, Lord,
I just want to thank You, Lord,
Thank You, Lord.

― ffirehorse, Friday, 11 February 2005 23:10 (8 years ago) Permalink

So many of these clinkers are from great songs (not "Saved" though!), meaning: 1. There's much more and less to Dylan than the words (regardless of Christopher Ricks' visions of sin); 2. There's nothing memorable about a bad line in a bad song.

― briania (briania), Friday, 11 February 2005 23:12 (8 years ago) Permalink

Most of "Desire" has pretty bad lyrics,

I'd go along with this, except for "Isis". Also, I still like that album a lot, anyway.

― David A. (Davant), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

the 'written in my soul' lines from Tangled Up in Blue are pretty bad if you don't think about them too hard (and maybe if you do), but I like their role in that particular song on that particular album at that particular time. I take them as meta-lyrics, and they are well-received.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 12 February 2005 01:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Isis" is great. And I even kind of like "Hurricane" despite its dopiness -- it's catchy. And Tracer, yeah, I guess I just have always heard "don't think twice" as deliberate sarcasm -- I mean, "you're the reason I'm travlin' on," "we never did that much talking anyway," "a light I never knowed," "goodbye is too good a word", the whole thing is a big bitchslap, so I hear the chorus as pointed insincerity.

(funny thing is, my wife loves that song, and it's one of the handful of Dylan tunes I know on guitar, so she often asks me to play it for her -- it feels kinda weird to sing it to the woman you love)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 12 February 2005 01:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

C'mon guys, what about "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle like a bowl of soup" from Under The Red Sky?....

― John Caddell, Saturday, 12 February 2005 02:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 94 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

That skyway thing...was he maybe writing about the Minneapolis Skyway? The one that the Replacements sang about?

― Faster than food (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 7 December 2012 17:09 (6 months ago) Permalink

dislike the dogs run free dissing in the first post >:(

― the purpose driven trife (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 7 December 2012 17:29 (6 months ago) Permalink

xpost yo dog St Paul's got a ton of skyways too, it ain't just a mpls thing

(/western pride)

― my other pug is a stillsuit (Jon Lewis), Friday, 7 December 2012 17:40 (6 months ago) Permalink

lolol i meant /eastern

― my other pug is a stillsuit (Jon Lewis), Friday, 7 December 2012 17:40 (6 months ago) Permalink

I think I kinda like the "sun ain't yellow" line now.

― Eyeball Kicks, Friday, 7 December 2012 17:41 (6 months ago) Permalink

xpost yo dog St Paul's got a ton of skyways too, it ain't just a mpls thing

And you chain birds to them? That seems mean.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Friday, 7 December 2012 19:17 (6 months ago) Permalink

New album has some clunkers, especially on "Tin Angel." "He pondered the future of his fate"? And this:

“Get up, stand up, you greedy-lipped wench
And cover your face or suffer the consequence
You are making my heart feel sick
Put your clothes back on, double-quick”

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Friday, 7 December 2012 19:23 (6 months ago) Permalink

ze fkk?

― t**t, Friday, 7 December 2012 19:35 (6 months ago) Permalink

"He pondered the future of his fate"

Hello David Coverdale

― Tomb Of Spatula (Jon Lewis), Friday, 7 December 2012 19:51 (6 months ago) Permalink

i don't know if this is the worst or the best:

Wiggle ’til you’re high, wiggle ’til you’re higher
Wiggle ’til you vomit fire

― the purpose driven trife (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 7 December 2012 19:55 (6 months ago) Permalink

that's awesome is what that is

― Tomb Of Spatula (Jon Lewis), Friday, 7 December 2012 20:01 (6 months ago) Permalink

yeah under the red sky has some great oddball lyrics

Hey! Who could your lover be?
Hey! Who could your lover be?
Let me eat off his head so you can really see!

― tylerw, Friday, 7 December 2012 20:05 (6 months ago) Permalink

or
Handy Dandy, if every bone in his body was broken he would never admit it
He got an all-girl orchestra and when he says
“Strike up the band,” they hit it

― tylerw, Friday, 7 December 2012 20:05 (6 months ago) Permalink

i wouldn't say worst, and there's other keepers from Sara already referenced but

I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells,
I'd taken the cure and had just gotten through,
Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel,
Writin' "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" for you.

last line is just so yick

― da croupier, Friday, 7 December 2012 20:07 (6 months ago) Permalink

Like if Alanis Morrissette finally just wrote a song called "Dave"

― da croupier, Friday, 7 December 2012 20:08 (6 months ago) Permalink

alanis is gonna need a whole concept album to deal with Dave.

― tylerw, Friday, 7 December 2012 20:25 (6 months ago) Permalink

da croupier ot. I'm not a fan of I Shall Be Fee No. 10.

Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He’s a weird monkey, very funky

― Pat Finn, Saturday, 8 December 2012 06:15 (6 months ago) Permalink

Sorry, I meant "otm" when I wrote "ot".

― Pat Finn, Saturday, 8 December 2012 06:17 (6 months ago) Permalink

'sara' is one of my favorite dylan songs and performances but the concept is pretty appalling and that 'sad eyed lady' line is indeed cringeworthy.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 8 December 2012 06:43 (6 months ago) Permalink

Desire in general kind of straddles the line between being amazing and embarrassing, even more precariously than most of Dylan's albums.

― Pat Finn, Saturday, 8 December 2012 06:48 (6 months ago) Permalink

haha, the "Sad-Eyed Lady" part is probably my favorite in that song! It's only line on the whole album where it's clear that this is broken-hearted Bobby Zimmerman, a guy who writes songs sometimes to work out his feelings, not the narrative voice of Bob Dylan, Teller Of Fantastic Tales. I actually prefer the latter usually (see the two Lily/Rosemary/Jack-of-Hearts threads) but I dig the former here as a moment of something cracking through.

― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 8 December 2012 06:53 (6 months ago) Permalink

Do you like "Blind Willie McTell"? I think it does a similar thing to what you're talking about when the song is suddenly en media res at the "St James Hotel" in the last verse. I like that part of the song a lot.

― Pat Finn, Saturday, 8 December 2012 07:06 (6 months ago) Permalink

Listening to it now for the first time!

― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 8 December 2012 07:38 (6 months ago) Permalink

There are undoubtedly lots of bad lines from bad songs, but my collection is completely mid-'70s and earlier, so there are very few bad songs. I'll go with the second post and pick what I think is a bad line from a great song: "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken."

― clemenza, Saturday, 8 December 2012 16:39 (6 months ago) Permalink

Doctor Casino otm as usual, it's the best part of that shabby album

― Euler, Saturday, 8 December 2012 16:53 (6 months ago) Permalink

if we're talking worst ~delivery~ of a line in a Dylan song then I'm inclined to agree on Davey Moore, haaaate that song & its whinnnne

― Euler, Saturday, 8 December 2012 16:54 (6 months ago) Permalink

aww thanks Euler! Thing is, Desire is probably the Dylan record I've played the most times, as it was one of the first ones I discovered in my parents' record collection and I was (and remain) totally hooked on "Black Diamond Bay" and "Isis."

― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 8 December 2012 17:19 (6 months ago) Permalink

i really like (most of) Desire. don't much care for "Sara", but the Sad-eyed Lady line is p cool imo

― Still S.M.D.H. ft. (will), Saturday, 8 December 2012 17:30 (6 months ago) Permalink

it's not even true! dylan wrote it in the studio in nashville

― da croupier, Saturday, 8 December 2012 18:20 (6 months ago) Permalink

pretty ironic to pretend he's not a Teller Of Fantastic Tales in that bit

― da croupier, Saturday, 8 December 2012 18:21 (6 months ago) Permalink

Xpost I think "the sun's not yellow it's chicken" is a great line indicating the, like, absurd cosmic grandeur of the speaker's egotism. I'm surprised to see it mentioned here tbh.

― Pat Finn, Saturday, 8 December 2012 18:22 (6 months ago) Permalink

'blind willie mctell' is prob dylan's most perfectly formed lyric -- even his best songs usually have some throwaway lines, but not here. figures that he didn't even bother to release it for 10 years.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 8 December 2012 18:24 (6 months ago) Permalink

there's some very odd disagreement upthread about whether or not the sun is actually commonly considered to be yellow

― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 8 December 2012 19:06 (6 months ago) Permalink

the worst/funniest line in the pro-israel song "neighborhood bully" is:

WHEN HE DESTROYED A BOMB FACTORY
AIN'T NOBODY WAS GLAD
THOSE BOMBS WERE MEANT FOR HIM
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO FEEL BAD!

― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 8 December 2012 19:07 (6 months ago) Permalink

from you're a big girl now:

"time is a jet plane
it moves too fast"

― buh, Saturday, 8 December 2012 19:13 (6 months ago) Permalink

also from infidels another personal favorite:

YOU KNOW THEY USED TO GROW FOOD IN KANSAS
NOW THEY WANNA GROW IT ON THE MOON AND EAT IT RAW!!!

― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 8 December 2012 19:13 (6 months ago) Permalink

eating moon-food raw, that's a double entendre right

― da croupier, Saturday, 8 December 2012 19:49 (6 months ago) Permalink

It's innocuous but it really bugs me:
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

― *tera, Saturday, 8 December 2012 19:56 (6 months ago) Permalink

No way dogg

― the purpose driven trife (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 8 December 2012 19:58 (6 months ago) Permalink

"Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule."

Not every bit of speed-inspired nonsense that popped into his head in the 60s was brilliant.

― Driver 8, Saturday, 8 December 2012 20:54 (6 months ago) Permalink

the delivery of that line on the Live 1966 set is epic though

― Euler, Saturday, 8 December 2012 22:34 (6 months ago) Permalink

^^^

― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 8 December 2012 23:04 (6 months ago) Permalink

i think my favorite version of "visions of johanna" now is the one on the no direction home sdtrk. it rocks so hard; fuck a "thin wild mercury"

― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 8 December 2012 23:06 (6 months ago) Permalink

A close call: Desire, Street Legal or Infidels for grossest lyricist indivisible from vocal smarm

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 8 December 2012 23:13 (6 months ago) Permalink

*lyrics

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 8 December 2012 23:14 (6 months ago) Permalink

Street Legal is a pretty weird album, I agree. Changing of the Guards really creeped me out when I first heard it. The lyrics seem to describe an apocalypse of some sort but the song itself is really upbeat and joyful. I still don't really understand what it is about. I almost suspect that it is meant as ironic critique of revolutionary and/or apocalyptic rhetoric, like "When the Ship Comes In", but I'm not sure.

― Pat Finn, Sunday, 9 December 2012 02:11 (6 months ago) Permalink

Maybe it's just lazy and cryptic in a cynical way.

― Pat Finn, Sunday, 9 December 2012 02:12 (6 months ago) Permalink

Love street legal

― the purpose driven trife (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 9 December 2012 19:11 (6 months ago) Permalink

Street Legal is a more cynical cash-in than Knocked Out Loaded or whatever; the latter sounds like table scraps while the former really does sound like he cared enough to craft songs in the studio yet had no idea what to say except to imitate what fans thought Bob Dylan should sound like. I know plenty of his best songs boast throwaways and laugh lines (often the best part of'em) but the images in "Changing of the Guard" are more discrete than usual; they don't cohere, and as singer he doesn't try to make them cohere.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 9 December 2012 19:18 (6 months ago) Permalink

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