Bob Dylan

I don't mean to suggest my view is somehow universal or that you have to agree. I am just trying to provide some context that I personally find neglected that enriches the song and makes it a sort of wellspring for me even after hearing it a million times.

I don't think Dylan is saying he knows how you feel. The song is *rejecting* all that voice of a generation stuff. He's telling himself a hard truth that he doesn't want to hear but knows he needs to. And, maybe, he is telling the listener to listen to themselves as well.

This is a pretty good summary of what the song feels like to me:

i was overjoyed, and i was terrified, terrified of what that meant, terrified of what i'd have to _do_. and i'm still overjoyed. and i'm still terrified. i don't know what's next. i can't think about what's next.

i've lost everything and i have more than i've ever had, more than i ever dreamed of having.

Not to suggest that your life is reducible to a song or anything.

And now I've said everything I probably needed to say about this song for one lifetime.

otm---didn't think about all that 'til I heard his Before The Flood sweatbox ritual, heaving it: "How does it feeeeeeeeel", howling through the rest of the chorus, rattling the verses---and remembered a quote from another interview: "Everytime I say 'You' I mean 'I.' " Also as in "Advertising signs they con/You into thinking that you're the one/Who can do what's never been done/Who can win what's never been won/Meanwhile life outside goes on all around you." (Raspy loose puppet jittering over the balcony rail on BTF. Yeah, blame the Capitalists, man, with some degree of truth, but---if he hadn't gone that way ("I wanted to be bigger than Elvis..I used to sit in the dark and dream about it"), we'd have missed out on a lot---"I got nuthin Ma, to live UP to." Ha.

otm---didn't think about all that 'til I heard his Before The Flood sweatbox ritual, heaving it: "How does it feeeeeeeeel", howling through the rest of the chorus, rattling the verses---and remembered a quote from another interview: "Everytime I say 'You' I mean 'I.' "

i mean i get it, i make everything about myself too :)

anyway. having a shitty day today. whatever the song is about, i think it's mean-spirited. "punching down", as they used to say, not that i have any use for that kind of thing or ever did, really

Yeah the vibe I always get is schadenfreude, the addressee some upper middle class girl who didn’t probably idolize Bob Dylan enough. you think you’re so smart well look at you now, you pathetic superficial toad, exposed for all the world to see

Very much like Toby Keith’s “How Do You Like Me Now”

Maybe the original, but not on Before The Flood, where I prefer the versions of everything to originals.

Some parts of the song can be about himself, someone else, a third person, someone imaginary, Jackie O, etc. It’s long enough for it.

Been spending some time with Under the Red Sky lately, it's honestly not THAT terrible. The lyrics are indeed clunky on many of the songs and the version of "Born in Time" is far inferior to the Oh Mercy version from Tell Tale Signs, but its not like an album full of "Wiggle Wiggle".

Oops, had no idea this one was on ILE when I bumped it.

I Love Everything is Broken

I get scared when a prominent name pops up on both ILE and ILM.

wiggle wiggle is great-- the weird dread in it-- but title track, cat's in the well, handy dandy all fantastic too, full of shadows. unbelievable is a lot of fun to sing along to. born in time v stiff on it tho yeah. kind of a stiff song tho tbh or maybe i'm wrong.

gotta agree, not half as bad as I recall

though his voice/delivery hardly peaking