Jan 22, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: Maggie’s Farm
What you should know about this song: This comedic satire on greed and hypocrisy, based on “Down on Penny’s Farm,” became an anthem for people in the decades to follow.* British radicals, for example, adopted the song as their on while enduring life under leadership of Margaret ‘Maggie’ Thatcher, Prime Minister of the UK form 1979 – 1990. The song also inspired Barak Obama, who used it during the 2008 election. In fact, he told Rolling Stone Magazine, “I’ve got probably 30 Dylan songs on my iPod… One of my favorites during the political season is ‘Maggie’s Farm.'” (Issue 1131).
“This was electricity married to content. We were hearing music with lyrics that had a meaning, with a rock beat, drums and electric guitars. Absolutely stunning.” – Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records*
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
Jan 21, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: Subterranean Homesick Blues
The Lumineers Cover: Subterranean Homesick Blues
What you should know about this song: The title isn’t the only thing that’s intriguing about this song, which made its appearance as the first track on the 1965’s Bringing it All Back Home album, but the rock ‘n’ roll rhythms and electric guitar also seemed to produce a bit of a shock factor for Dylan’s more conservative followers.* Dylan was innovated when it came to his music, which is why I wasn’t too surprised to come across a song that sounded so different from his previous material.
“It’s from Chuck Berry, a bit of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, and some of the scat songs of the 1940s.” – Bob Dylan, 2004*
Jan 20, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: To Romona
What you should know about this song: There is not a hint of politics in this love song, which seems odd given that it was recorded for the Another side of Bob Dylan album in 1964 alongside a number of his most famously outspoken political pieces. Jackson Brown described this love song as “a song imbued with the struggle for personal freedom and the perpetual trap of co-dependence…. a moment when people wanted a leader and spokesman to point the way, but in this song, Dylan dismantles that.” (Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1131).
“That was just somebody I knew. I think I’d played this for the first time at the Gaslight, probably after hours.” – Bob Dylan, 1985*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: YouTube
Jan 19, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Here is the version he performed in Renaldo and Clara: It Ain’t Me, Babe
What you should know about this song: One of Dylan’s “most elegant women-don’t-get-me-songs,” as dubbed by Rolling Stone Magazine, is a catchy tune that is most famously remembered from Dylan’s performance in the panoramic film Renaldo & Clara. On a side note, Rolling Stones Magazine also indicated that while Dylan used 16th century poetic formulas in the lyrics, he also pulled form contemporary artists to write the song. For example, it has been suggested that the “no, no, no” in the song was likely meant to parody the “yeah yeah, yeah,” from the Beatles’ “She Loves You.”
“My songs are just talking to myself. Maybe that’s an egotistical thing to say, but that’s what it is. I have no responsibility to anybody except myself.” – Bob Dylan, 1965.*
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
Jan 18, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: My Back Pages
What you should know about this song: Wait, a protest song to his protest songs?? Well, essentially that’s what “My Back Pages” is – it is an alternative to Dylan’s regular political agenda-filled songs during which he pokes fun at himself for being so serious.
“There aren’t any finger pointing songs on here…I don’t want to write for people anymore. You know – be a spokesman. From now on, I want to write from inside me. The way I like to write is for it to come out the way I walk or talk.” – Bob Dylan, 1964*
Photo Source: Don Hunstein
Jan 17, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: Spanish Harlem Incident
What you should know about this song: Dylan wrote this song about his brief crush on a fortune teller. Since recording it for the Another Side of Bob Dylan album in 1964, has only played it live once: at New York’s Philharmonic Hall that October. I like how Rolling Stone Magazine describes it: “The ‘incident’ of its title seems to be as tiny as incidents come: the ‘gypsy gal’ holding his hand in hers, and sparking a flurry of associations…” (issue 1131).
“It’s hard being free in a song, getting it all in. Songs are so confining. That’s why I write a lot of poetry, if that’s the word.” – Bob Dylan, 1964*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
