Hip Hop Fan Reacts To Bob Dylan - Its Alright Ma I'm Only Bleeding
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- Опубліковано 20 гру 2022
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"Money doesn't talk, it swears" - still one of my favorite lines from Mr. Dylan.
Obscenities who really cares
As a massive Bob Dylan fan, it's amazing listening to your reaction.
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Listening to people cover his songs are fantastic.
His 30th anniversary concert was epic as, all the major players in the 90s doing his songs, then he does this last. Must be special to him.
"He not busy being born is busy dying.” - Bob Dylan
Always loved “bent out of shape by society’s pliers”
There are so many lines in this song that seem to be appropriate to modern society. One verse virtually describing a race to the bottom. I bought this album when it was released and I've grappled with Dylan's lyrics all this time and decided that he is just painting pictures with words and it's up to the listener/ viewer to decide what it means to them. Sometimes, like a picture you just like it but you not sure why. "Chimes of Freedom", "Hard Rain" are just a couple more examples. No wonder that he got the Nobel prize. I don't know a single thing about Rap but a great video all the same. Thanks.
Remember, Dylan wrote this in 1964 and released it in 1965. Take a look at what else was popular music in 1965. Dylan was decades ahead of the curve.
Remember what else was happening at the time. Kennedy eliminated, Johnson escalating the war in Vietnam, all according to the plan of the military-industrial complex; GI Joe being marketed to kids (the propaganda). This is biting political commentary wrapped in enigmatic language. Nostradamus in his day had to hide his message inside of opaque verse because speaking truth to power would have meant torturous death. Dylan's last verse touches on the theme of censure by evoking the medieval imagery in a sarcastic one-liner, then finishes with the defiant ' it's life and life only' as a middle finger to those who would cancel him.
It's called poetry and there was a shit load of good artists back then, so I'm not really sure what you're getting at?
Dylan has also came out in interviews and said he doesn't know how he managed to write most of his music back then. He's lost the ability years ago, probably in the mid eighties to create lyrics like that.
@@watkinssixtyfive7788 To be fair, let's take a look at the other side, also. Just for the sake of it. Let's make it shocking and poetic and snappy, as I'm sure you'll enjoy that:
Think back to 1964, Germany in ruins, worse than poor, Korea aided by Russia even more than before, the Cold War's warhead threats higher than ever. Feeling nothing safe at all as you look upon the horizon at dawn or the hippie feminist revolution breaking down family ties just as planned, and the Chinese Communist Party filling student magazines by the rack without familiar speech; all the silver-tongued hidden words thrown upon the door, right at the feet of every university baby and fresh-faced street whore, teaching them how to parent themselves right down to the new factories where the future is built all alone in small containers.
Some slightly less obvious Huxley, Hegel, and Orwell references for you in there, just for the sake of it.
Now you know why he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. You have to let great poetry wash over you. Then you get the overall meaning.
The Subterranean Homesick Blues video he created in ‘65 is the first rap video ever. The video visuals are a must!
This song is the single greatest lyrical achievement in the history of folk-pop rock, rivaled only by Dylan's other great works and the best of Leonard Cohen. It cannot be fully grasped (some parts are obvious others are not) at first listen.
"He not bust being born is busy dying" is one of the most profound and quotable lines of all time.
*busy being born
Quotes by Jimmy Carter I believe in his inaugural address
@@BasedNation except Dylan wrote this 13 years before Carter was President
@@kipkelly8559 yeah he quoted Dylan in his speech...
It speaks volumes about human emotions.
The "hundred dollar plates" reference may be to that sort of political/charity fundraiser where people pay to attend some sort of dinner with speakers and the like and network with other attendees. He was often invited to be a part of these kind of things, sometimes for pretty worthwhile causes, and he probably attended some.
Teachers teach...go to college and be someone.........
you cannot pigeonhole bob's "it's alright ma" it is groundbreaking timeless art and it is not of this world we now live in. The best way to appreciate this song is to sit alone in a room just you and the song. It will make you weep because of it's absolute perfection. Bob Dylan is a living legend.
Its absolute truth. Dylan himself claims its an otherworldly channel.
Spot on mate. Oh, by the way - who killed you?
@@chrissmurray255 Dunno, Chriss. Don't know why or what the reason was for!
@@interrupt394986 Giggle, chuckle, chortle!
Reminds me of my own Dylan story. The morning of September 11, 2001, I had barely started my sophomore year of college. We had skipped anthropology class to watch the twin towers fall live on TV in the common room of a nearby ladies' dormitory. Later, dazed and in shock, I walked the five minutes back to my dorm room, put my CD of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" into my old 3-CD changer stereo, and listened to "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" I don't even know how many times, contemplating with horror what lay before us all. 22 years later, it hasn't gotten any better.
Absolute masterpiece .. first time I heard this song as a teenager, it stayed w/ me .. still hasn't left.
ps: one of the very few early Dylan tunes that Bob still plays in concert.
I agree with you most hardly. The song has stuck with me for 50 plus years. The only way he can understand the meaning to the lyrics is to listen to it about 10 times while he is driving down the road and find the thought and meaning in his own light. he wants to seek his meaning when Dylan wanted you to think about it in your own life.
Same situation here!
He's like an Impressionist painter; things are more suggested than said flat out. As you said, "trying to describe an emotion". Maybe even moreso, he's EVOKING an emotions in us by his images: we may not know exactly what he's saying, but we feel...We get the message, each in our own way. So much more artful than telling us what to feel. It doesn't really even matter what it 'means'. Genius.
You know, he paints as well as a hobby, it's worth a look.
Sorry I just repeated what you said. Focus on how it makes you feel
He is talking about the situation in the USA leading to the full-blown Vietnam War...he knew how ugly it is getting and how the people are being sold on the goodness of the upcoming war
Right, these young kids have a hard time just being still and receptive, like they don't get any joy from a world class performance because they think the point is to understand the lyrics.
"money doesn't talk, it swears" - one of my many favorite Dylan lines.
Obscenely who really cares
Propaganda
All is phony
Bob Dylan swears sometimes too
His genius won him a Nobel Prize in Literature. He's a wonder.
Dylan doesn't attempt any thing it is always perfection.
Because it is Dylan..
An underated line in this song is "bent out of shape by society's pliers' . Feel that one ha
Been watching your Dylan videos. So beautiful to watch new generations be moved by the power of this music and experience it for the first time.
I've always thought the earliest pop recordings that resembles modern Hip Hop came from Bob Dylan. Greatest lyricist of all time, imho.
Not normally a fan of this sort of reaction style videos but being obsessed with Dylan and seeing your hip hop background, I couldn’t help but watch and I’m so glad I did! Your critical analysis is astounding; very interesting to see how everybody interprets songs as complex as this differently. Would love to see you tackle Just Like A Woman, Sad-Eyed Lady or Stuck Inside of Mobile!
i would love to watch him listen top Masters Of War or With God On Our Side they are both not as cryptic and easier to understand.
This type of content is mostly a pandering-fest
It’s about the era…
Vietnam. He was a stunning poet.. appreciate your efforts
I love how the title never shows up in the song. Fifty some years later and I'm still waiting for it.
Dylan, an amazing poet.
As an old Dylan devotee I will only add that honesty and brilliant poetry are then seated in a musical form that is nearly perfect and hits me right in my brain and heart.
As a massive Bob Dylan fan, it's amazing listening to your reaction.
You got my subscription,
notifications are on 🤘
Listening to people cover his songs are fantastic.
His 30th anniversary concert was epic as, all the major players in the 90s doing his songs, then he does this last. Must be special to him.
I know i've said this before, but this may be one of his best songs..(as long as i don't think of all the others). Thanks for bringing us the music with the lyrics and analysis, really makes you think about it on a deeper level. I think the line-"can lead to 100 dollar plates" refers to classy dinners with the bigwigs. This was the mid to late 60's, probably $5000 dollar plates these days...
It's great to hear the studio first, but the live performance from 1965 really shows the prototype rap nature of it. Subterranean Homesick Blues and Desolation Row are very similar in this style of vocal delivery.
Desolation Row is probably the most beautiful song ever written.
@@ArnoSchmidt22I once asked a busker to play it for me...I was shocked when he played the whole thing. Definitely paid him for that.
It's interesting to see a younger person reacting to this song that is so iconic but it's really interesting hearing your take on the origins of rap. Subterranean Homesick Blues (from the same Dylan album) is often cited as an 'origin of rap' and that seems influenced by Chuck Berry (Nadine, Too Much Monkey Business) but It's Alright Ma seems to have come out of nowhere. Dylan's own talking blues (via Woody Guthrie) are a sort of model but the song is so uniquely centred on poetry that it's a very long way from anything else.
Listen to the same song live at Budokan (It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (Live at Nippon Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan - February/March 1978)
Well done, Syed. As you implied, it’s somewhat of a fool’s errand to try to get one of Dylan’s lengthy wandering songs in one take, but Ithought your discussion was mostly right on. The thing about Dylan’s most masterful pieces is we tend to like them more as we hear them more. He was and remains brilliant. There are others who compare well, but he is the gold standard over the last 60 years (!).
Thank you and Happy Holidays to you.
Great reaction, as always. I enjoy seeing you appreciation Dylan's writing style as well as listening to your superb comments. I've been a huge Dylan fan since the late 60s and particularly find his early works (up into the 80s) most fascinating. This song has always been a favorite in the way it is structured. Not only does each line in the verses rhyme, but so does the final line of each verse rhyme with the chorus that follows it. Ofc, the last line is the kicker that makes me laugh everytime (they'd probably put my head in a guillotine). An excellent example of his humor.
One tune I'm confident you would appreciate is Chimes of Freedom. Practically every line in that song creates its own story. It's one of his best, imo. Listening to it will be time well spent.
Cheers and happy holidays to you and yours!
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is another great one in this style, or perhaps "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". If your want to get some of Dylan's absolute spite at it's most scathing, "Positively 4th Street" is brutal.
Well said my friend. Dylan was truly one of a kind. First time I've seen your video, so I don't know what you covered. I am a Dylan fanatic, and there are so many lines that are unforgettable. Imho, lyrically speaking, on that very album is Mr. Tambourine Man, which has to be the greatest lyrics he has ever written. But, not really a hip-hop structure, but so much meaning in a stoned way. Great try to figure out the lyrics, on It's Alright Ma, a daunting task! Rolling Stone put out what would be a fairly accurate list of the top 70 Dylan songs in order. ( I believe everyone agreed with #1-Like a Rolling Stone), but this song was placed at # 7. Great job!
One of Dylan's absolute best songs. So happy you got around to it. You picked up on some basic stuff, but you need to hear this many, many times to get anywhere near it, IMHO. -- As for the internal rhyming, did you pick up on the other rhymes between the last lines of each block? For instance V. 7, 8, 9, 10 last lines also rhyme ( you, you, to, to).
Great Dylan song. I know you like to listen to the studio session first but there’s a black and white video on UA-cam of Dylan’s live performance of this, it’s great, he completely commands the room.
Love to see you cover some late-period Dylan too! Things Have Changed is a great inverse of The Times They Are A-Changin’, Not Dark Yet is a masterpiece of impending mortality, Cold Irons Bound is one of his grooviest songs musically, etc. Also I&I is superb with Bob and Mark Knopfler of the Dire Straits working together.
Agreed, I'd add High Water and Tryin' To Get To Heaven also, both in the "mortality" realm with Not Dark Yet
Great songs. I pre-ordered the upcoming Time Out of Mind bootleg, can't wait to hear some other versions of those tracks!
Would love to see this
Bob appreciates hip hop and has mentioned artists he likes in various interviews over the years.
check out Hard rain's gonna fall and Masters of war
I think there is a real beat poetry influence on this...
Dylan changed music because he was the first one to speak your mind. Positively 4th Street is a very scathing Dylan song with a pop music organ sound, The Ballad Of A Thin Man is another scathing Dylan song with an church organ sound. Dylan is really the ultimate musical chameleon, you'll realize this as you listen to his catalog. Just Like A Women, I Want You are also Dylan must listens.
There is a live solo performance of this song from sixty five which is incredible. Thanks for doing this song.
Love this song. There is a folk tradition called the talking blues. This song kind of falls in that vicinity. And I agree - what an awesome song name! What does this song mean? I have no clue and yet I love it. He's acid and salt. Thanks for the mention of Kendrick Lamar. I'm going to check him out and start with Count Me Out.
Now this song he performs AMAZING live from 1965. Great that you reacted!
This was the first Dylan album I bought. As a sixteen year old Oasis fan I knew it was a rite of passage. Tried to learn this one. I just ended up kind ripping off the chorus hook for my own song! Song helped get me a distinction diploma so worth it in the end.
The greatest lyrical song ever. No contest.
Its catchy word salad babble. Many poets and artist of his day used this technique. Abstract nonsense.
@@marcoevans2155 the lyrics, though broad and abstract, are far from nonsense. They are clearly critiquing the ever changing social structure and societal norms that were being flipped on its head around this time in 1964/1965. Now Dylan does have numerous songs with nonsensical lyrics that are intended to paint an abstract picture of emotions rather then convey a “message”. But this one is definitely not just poetic nonsense.
Oh, I strongly recommend Not Dark Yet if I haven't already. Heartbreaking!
Born as this released, never heard til this year. Wow. Incredible stream of scathing assembly of words and sounds. Waiting for a cover of this - it surely wouldn't match but wortha go.
The rhyme scheme for this song is fabulous. Structured in three stanzas each with their own rhymes but with final lines of all three that rhyme with each other and the refrain. Mastery!
The whole album is a masterpiece, first track subterranean homesick blues is more rap, but tambourine man is the strongest song on the album for me,
Yeah. Tambourine Man is a song that has always just been there in the background for most people. You think it's just a nice folk song about a man with a tambourine. But then you look at the lyrics and realise it's actually on another level.
Tambourine Man is the first song I ever learned on guitar. the Rolling Thunder ear version
"Beautiful laid flat." Brilliant comment. I've always loved Dylan on this basis alone. But I enjoy you taking the next step and moving up to try to interpret the lyrics, as you say, crazy to do on the first listening. thanks.
Bro, FINALLY! I’ve been requesting this one in the comments for a while. Hope it was worth the wait.
He' s nobel laureate, probably one of the best writers of all time in regards to his reach in and influence. It's good to know a new generation is discovering and appreciating his work.
This is one of my two favorite BD songs (the other is "Visions of Johanna"). Remember this was recorded in the studio live without overdubs, and he was accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica as he was rapping/singing.
Visions of Johanna could my favourite Dylan lyrics
DAMN. As a huge Bob Dylan fan, I'd never made the connection to Kendrick's cadence being similar but you are 100% spot on
Dylan illustrates a feeling and brings home the point in the last line of each verse.
Dylan took music to incredible new heights. Sophisticated more in depth serious written lyrics. Rap (a fake coin, used to get away wish theft, followed by a quick dialogue to distract a store keeper.
The thing that a hip-hop artist should notice about Dylan immediately is his timing. Epecially with his early stuff, which is basically just human voice and guitar, sometimes with a very simple bass/drum rhythm section but often with none at all, it is the cadence of the voice, the pattern of the consanants and the way that he bounces off each syllable ... that creates ALL of the rhythm. And yet you cant help but to tap your fingers to the beat, because it is so catchy. It's alright ma is a decent enough example.
A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to
Put ANY beat track behind that and it will sound phenomenal. The words bounce off your mind in the way that any truly insightful rap lyric does. I could definitely see Bob putting out a successful Hip-Hop album, simply because the musical gift that he has can grow into a perfect song no matter what genre you choose. Go listen to Bob's stuff with the Staple Singers if you want to hear some good old gospel. And of course in the country category he did Nashville Skyline among others. Rock, pop, americana, blues, folk, and yeah, he could surely do hip-hop too.
Another Dylan masterpiece! I suggest the following Dylan songs: Things Have Changed & It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Bob Dylan walks out to center stage.... Doubleday Field- Cooperstown N.Y. Crowd of around 7,000. He sits down with his guitar and sang the first verse of this masterpiece and the crowd went crazy screaming their approval that Bob stopped playing to say Thank You, then started the song over again. I was about 25 feet away and will never forget the way I felt and the crowds reaction. A Standing Ovation lasted for many minutes before Bob started doing...."Like A Rolling Stone" and that song was beyond description how everyone was blown away. A life changing event for me and my family.
"Dylan was a big hip-hop fan-ever since rapper Kurtis Blow turned him on to artists like N.W.A and Public Enemy. 'These guys were definitely not bullshitting, Dylan wrote in "Chronicles." 'They were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs.' "It's All Good" is his most gangsta moment: He adopts a Howlin' Wolf growl to flip the hip-hop catchphrase, kissing off a collapsing world where it isn't all good at all" (Rolling Stone "Bob Dylan: The Complete Album Guide" p. 67).
When my aunt was a freshman at the University of Minnesota Bob Zimmerman was in one of her classes.
Been so waiting for you to respond to this
Yes! I've been waiting for this one.
nice video. I very much look forward to the next
Wow, this was very informative! Thank you!!
Great choice of a song for you to react to, Syed!
If you like Bob Dylan now, just wait because within a couple of years from now he'll be essential listening to you.
I know you're focused on Dylan's early works now, but when you reach the 80s, you'll have to hear "Infidels", an album produced by Dylan and Marc Knopfler. Dylan chose Knopfler and former Rolling Stones member Mick Taylor as the guitarists he plays with on the album.
There's a song from the 90s that stands with Dylan's best work called "Not Dark Yet" that's stunning. I've a friend who's a huge Dylan fan and seen him a hundred and fourteen times, last I heard. He knows a guy who had the chorus of this song tattooed on his arms. On one arm he has "it's not dark yet", and on his other arm he has "but it's getting there".
I've seen Dylan a few times and it's amazing how he's like a chameleon from one song to the next, almost like he's actually become a different character. He would've been a great actor if he'd wanted to; thank God he chose to be a songwriter.
"He not busy being born is busy dying.” - Bob Dylan
It is certainly interesting to hear the take of a Hip-Hop guy on this “proto-rap” song, as you call it , and I agree that many of the lyrics reach us on an emotional level. I also get the comparison to Kendrick Lamar-another artist always worth listening to. But the thing that sets Dylan apart is the sheer power and efficiency of his lyrics. They meet us head on when needed (see comments below for examples from this song) AND work on a metaphorical level, all in the least amount of words needed. The carefully selected notes he plays further underline the text, until many of the notions he “sings” about land like the bombs thousands of other rappers talked about and whose destructive power few have ever approached. This is why he won the Nobel Prize.
In closing-I still get chills listening to this because of the guitar, because of the lyrics-dropping bombs on your moms, and most of all because no one hits as hard as Dylan does. It’s not even close.
Wonderful video and thanks for doing this.
Dylan is a poet. He was influenced by the beats like Kerouac and Ginsberg, and also Dylan Thomas. His rhyme schemes have been used for centuries.
His rhymes schemes also lean heavey on ts elliot and hank Williams
His biggest influences was Little Richard and Woody Guthrie. In that order, Facts.
Nice choice. Love Dylan.
I love your analytical reactions👍
This song to me has always felt like a very young man's journal where he addresses every entry to his Ma. Each entry seems to express some level of dismay, but ends with the young man telling himself he'll be fine. It's just life. Pretty simple really.
Figuring out what he's talking about from one verse or even one line to the next is almost futile. He probably forgot most of it himself within a short time.
One of my favourites of his, in the top 5.
Dylan is a masterpiece. Takes people with an intelligent deep thinking within oneself to appreciate. Thankfully, there are millions. Dylan will live with us forever.
I really enjoyed your take on this gem by Bob Dylan. Your insights made me appreciate his genius even more. Well done.
Oh my this is the song ive been hoping youd get to
Bent out of shape by societys pliars
Dylan is unique, a one off, irreplaceable, the likes of whom we will never see again. So much amazing output, like no other. Listen to "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie" more of less my "yard stick" on Bob Dylan, who else has written anything like this ? He's just amazing ...
I think you'll enjoy Subterranean Homesick Blues. Sick bars! Cheers!
It means whatever it means to you. That's the beauty of Dylan. Am loving you starting to love Bob. He's very much a "Marmite" artist. People either love or loathe him. I highly, HIGHLY recommend his best live album "Live at The Budokan" which is Dylan perfection. His live gigs are famously "difficult" but Budokan is superb. Also the 15 minutes of "Desolation Row" is completely worth every second. There is a reason he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature. If I don't hear a notification from you before, I wish you a Happy Christmas 🎄
Not with this song. Along with "Masters of War" it is one of the most direct, didactic and pointed assaults on the madness and dysfunction of modern America life of the times. No surrealism like Tombstone Blues, Highway 61 and Desolation Row, Pick any verse,. It's obvious what he is doing. what he is assaulting
"Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
'That not much is really sacred"
"Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you"
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something they invest in"
"Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn’t talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony."
Subterranean Homesick Blues is the Dylan song that always reminded me of rap.
Bob Dylan’s the man I remember the first time I heard him back in 1993 when everybody was listening to dance music hip hop etc it was a cassette tape one side had another side of bob dylan and the other side was blood on the tracks blew my young mind at the time I’ve never looked back since
Listen to his early live stuff the emotion is amazing
One time I saw Jim in concert and he did this song. The crowd went crazy when he sang the line about the President standing naked. The President at the time was Richard Nixon. Can you imagine the audience reaction?
Try to imagine hearing this 60 years ago !!!
In your reference to Eminem, it’s ironic that I just read an article where Eminem said Dylan was one his most important influences. I love Dylan and if you haven’t heard, Subterranean Homesick Blues. That song seems so connected to rap and the story and stories are awesome. Love your channel.
you do know that Dylan won a noble prize for his writing!!!
Desolation Row. DESOLATION ROW!! You gotta listen to that one. Mick Jagger said it was one of his favorites....the way he could just put stuff together and keep you fascinated for 11 minutes. Jagger said it was quite inspirational for him--and probably opened up the possibility of him doing stuff like Sympathy For The Devil and more compkex themed things. They all said that about Dylan--that he opened doors and creative channels for them.
You nailed it. There's nothing to figure out by digging deep into the lyric, there's nothing there, it's all on the surface of the text,
When you said about talking about an emotion on verse three, I remembered a Charles bukowski quote, where he says a bit glibly 'writing a poem you try to use as many words as possible to describe something simple, whilst writing a novel you try to use a few words as possible to describe anything complicated' I'm paraphrasing but I think it works here lol.
For the rhyming scheme, you might also want to check out Mozambique from the Desire album. Co-credits go to Jacques Levy.
Bob's six-line stanzas where all lines rhyme except the last one is signature Dylan. You'll find it in other songs of his as well.
The "simple musical approach"...that is, just the acoustic guitar and voice...was very much the standard way of recording a great many folk albums at that time. That is what's being done on Dylan's first 4 albums (with the frequent addition of his harmonica, of course), and on half the songs on his 5th album, which is where this song comes from. The singer just walked up to the microphone, played his instrument(s) and sang. No sidemen needed. There was nothing unusual about that at the time. That's the way most folksingers who did a solo act were recorded in the late 50's through the early 60's. Dylan's playing with a Dropped D tuning here, and he did that frequently. It provides a deep base and permits the notable riffs he uses in the song. I think this song is the single greatest piece of lyrical work Dylan has done in his entire career....(although that can certainly be debated). He later "electrified" the song and used a very powerful backup group to do it, which can be heard in some live recordings such as the one at Budokan (1978) or in the concert video "Hard To Handle" (1986), among others. It's very interesting to hear how that changes the effect of the song, taking it from an "intimate" performance on the original recording to an apocalyptic avalanche of sound in the late 70's and after, but the incredible words remain the same. "He not busy being born is busy dying" is probably the most stiking line in the whole song, but there are many others of similar power.
This song personifies existentialism.. the genius .. indescribable
Another great example of the “talking blues” also with some pretty good word-smithing check out “The Establishment Blues” by Rodriquez.
I love it! Dylan is a genius. This is one of my favorite pieces of his poetry and I appreciate the fact you dissected it the way you did. I really enjoyed it. You should consider looking at Letter to Woody. It’s straight poetry with no music. However it’s a masterpiece. It was written around the same time as this song. Thanks again for this 🙏
Edit: Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie
Verse thirteen is one of my favourite’s from Dylan, truly a man with his finger on the pulse.
This was the first album I bought with my own money, still makes me tingle when I hear it.
On one of Dylan's live gigs he introduced this song "this song is called it's alright ma, i'm only bleeding ho ho ho" xD can't get it out of my head
My favorite song ever, possibly
Love this
1965!! Bob Dylan TOP First and always. Check his Positively 4th Street. Classic line ….You’d know what a drag it is to see you!
Thanks for covering Dylan. I wish I understood more of the meaning behind the words, maybe being an artist, it only matters what meaning we perceive. It’s most likely timeless and fluid.
Understanding the meaning of Dylan's words is sometimes an exercise in futility. But, still, we like to go along to the places he takes us.
He is not "covering" Bob... he is using our Bob for his inane purposes; fooled you I guess.
The man basically invented rap. Forget the electronics and button pushers, it's the words and vocals.
I like how he never says “I’m only bleeding” in the song itself. What do you make of that?
Is that a "vision" you have just seen?
For me the words are the "bleeding" - coming out from inside - an allegorical blood transfusion
Or I could be completely wrong - it does not matter - its only a thought dream
Cheers Kevin