Link to Song: I Pity the Poor Immigrant
What you should know about this song: Bob Dylan has a unique way of recreating his material in unexpected and stunning ways. “I pity the Poor Immigrant” was first recorded as a “tender acoustic ballad,” yet when Dylan played it with Joan Baez seven years later he rearranged it as a vibrant rock song.
“Before I wrote John Wesley Harding, I discovered something about all those earlier songs I had written. I discovered that when I used words like ‘he’ and ‘it’ and ‘they’, I was really talking about nobody but me. I went into John Wesley Harding with that knowledge in my head.” – Bob Dylan, 1970*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Rolling Stone Magazine
