Link to Song: Ballad of Hollis Brown
What you should know about this song: Bob Dylan claims that the song is based on a true story that he saw in a newspaper about a man who, overwhelmed by the desperation of poverty, chooses to kill his wife, five kids, and himself with his shotgun. Quite a sad song, really, but appropriate for such a sad story.
Dylan performed this song at his debut performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall over a year before he finally recorded it. The song was recorded during Dylan’s third album sessions in 1963.
“The songs are there. They exist by themselves, just waiting for someone to write them down. If I didn’t do it, someone else would.” – Bob Dylan, 1962*
