Link to Song: Positively 4th Street
What you should know about this song: This non-album hit single was one of the most vocal pop songs ever written up to that point in 1967.* Many speculate “4th Street” refers to New York’s 4th Street in Greenwich Village where Dylan once lived (and the heart of the 1960’s folk music scene), or possibly the 4th Street at the University of Minneapolis in Minnesota where Dylan also lived and played. People also presume that the song is primarily ridiculing Greenwich Village residents who criticized Dylan for leaving traditional folk styles and embracing the electric guitar and rock music (source).
Lucinda Williams, who wrote the review of this song for Rolling Stone Magazine, wrote,
“I love the theme of this song: jealousy over artistic success… I heard he wrote the song when he started getting famous and he was still living in the Village. Nobody wants to admit that that stuff goes on, and of course nobody knows what it’s like to be Bob Dylan. There’s only one of him. He’s so damn good at that.” (Issue 1131)
Joni Mitchell also commented on the song, saying:
“This particular song showed me – I remember thinking, ‘The American pop song has finally grown up. You can sing about anything now.’ When he sang, ‘You got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend’, just in that statement was a different song than any I had ever heard.” *
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Rolling Stone Magazine
