How Bob Dylan Mocked the Press
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
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00:00 Intro
02:18 Title Card
02:25 Who is Mr. Jones?
03:54 The Press
04:16 Setting the Scene
05:23 Confusion
06:07 Others and Fakery
07:40 Homoeroticism
08:31 Metaphor for Art
09:37 Conclusion
The clip of Bob Dylan getting off his plane with a camera and taking photos of the paparazzi that are taking pictures of him always cracks me up
Is that on UA-cam?
sourcee
colin r how times have changed
@@rivelman23 😂😂😂
its still a good answer rn you just make reporters run for their life
This aged like a fine wine
@@st.beatles7283 Repackaged of course
Last time I was this early to a video, Dylan hadn't gone electric yet
@@terrimy3402 same
Lame attention grabbing post... annoying
@@tylercooper1551 Who cares? I happened to see this video a minute after it was posted, I made a silly joke about it. No reason to get worked up about it mate, you're the one who wasted your time responding to it :)
@@tylercooper1551 dude u suck
@@tylercooper1551 You are an idiot and with an undeserved pomposity
I've always seen the sword-swallower as Dylan himself. Kneeling down to the media at first so he could use their voice (or throat). He then took it and used it to speak and get his ideas out into the world. Then when he was all done with it, he asks them how it feels, making them think about something real. After that he dropped the media and went on to use his own throat; "here is your throat back, thanks for the loan."
Makes sense.
I think you're right.
Mr Jones was probably gay...I think that's all it means...he probably remembers some uptight fake pressing dylan with questions that showed he wasn't really interested in dylan as an artist just was on a job to wrote about him..looking for a a scoop butting having to pick out the bones as dylan says...he was probably a bit camp and dylan wanted to make sure the person knew who the song was about without giving to much away to anybody else...
He was a male prostitute on drugs before he became a folk singer.
Should have shown the clip when Dylan was asked if he thought of himself as a singer or a poet.
Dylan’s response - “I consider myself more of a song and dance man”
Thought about the same, the very moment the famous interview had been shown:)
That always kills me lol.
Victoria contract finalized
He was being serious too, but everyone laughed.
The more dylan content you have the more respect you get👍👍👍
I second that. More 72-74 Grateful Dead
It's just basic science
Bob Dylan aside from being a songwriter and performer is such an interesting figure of the 20th Century, I love the Beatles but he is something totally different on his own, it’s really quite something. The way that he can paint a picture of a fictionalized version of himself in songs like this is so ahead of its time for me
Love him. He's just genius.
Bob Dylan or the creator of this video (I believe his name is Greg Polyphonic)
Seen him answer/say " I'm Bob Dylan when I have to be. I'm myself the rest of the time".
True, he’s an absolute archetype for the generation that came after him. And Dylan’s ok.
And always ahead of everyone, lol....
Lou reed also played with the press a lot. Some of his early interviews are epic.
As did The Beatles. They did it in a more playful and mischievous way, but they were still all incredibly quick-witted and made the stuffy old journalist look really dumb and lame.
Lou Reed didn’t just play with them he tortured them
Warhol-style.
They never forgave us for what we did to Nagasaki
They don’t beat Dylan
I always feel like Polyphonic looks at my recently listened to and then makes a video. Ballad of a Thin Man has been on heavy rotation recently and I love this song. Good video as always
Really love the aesthetic on this video dude
" Mr Jones" is a generality. Dylan was always talking about society. Mr Jones is a common name, someone on one "side" of society...a square, not hip. Dylan was the New Voice. Not necessarily just a blanket "other side", but more as a reporter of the burgeoning Youth Movement. The press was naive at this time, old school. It could have been Mr. Smith. But phonetically, Jones just sounds better to use.
back when artists, musicians and actors did not tow the line of the media
Bob towed the line . It’s just in different ways.
I'm a simple woman. I saw Bob Dylan and I clicked
same
Boomer moment
Just like a woman.
Ricky Spanish Sa
Does a simple woman look for a simple man?
Polyphonic making a video about bob dylan? Liked already
He made a lot of Dylan videos lmao, I think Dylan is his favorite subject.
@Baron Butt tangled up in blue is the other vid he did, I mistook him for another youtuber who also made a Dylan video, I thought he made 3 lmao my bad.
@@jessepinkeye2339 what's the name of the other UA-cam channel?
@@quadeca5617 Nerdwriter1. great channel. they're focusing mostly on movies and other forms of media and rarely on music. He deconstructs the philosophy of the subjects.
@@jessepinkeye2339 nerdwriter1 only make 1 video of bob
the eagle picks my eyes, worms they lick my bones
feel so suicidal just like Dylans Mr. Jones
i dont know if this is another song or something you wrote but either way, i really like it
Alivia Mason John Lennon wrote it
During his heroin phase
@@terrybono5995 Thank you!
@@aliviamason533 you're welcome the song title is YER BLUES
ua-cam.com/video/HEQQ-1rd4A0/v-deo.html
and a special rendition with his friends eric clapton keith richards and mitch mitchell
ua-cam.com/video/JeFwaWFTGYU/v-deo.html
When I listened to this song the first time it hit me like a brick. Some of the greatest rock and roll writing out there
Thank you for this. Ballad of a Thin Man is my all time favorite Dylan song
Could you make a video about Rory Ghallagher? I think that’d be awesome!
Awesome! This song always felt, to me, like Dylan had just finished Naked Lunch and was using that “twisted-circus” setting to make the Mr. Jones character feel dizzy and lost. It feels so hot and hazy, I can smell the smoke in the room.
I really like your channel. I can tell you are very passionate about music (as am I) and you do a great job of explaining music and its backstories. Keep up the good work!
Wow, the look and style of your videos have really gotten sophisticated
"His movement" Dylan was insistant that he didn't belong to any movement.
The complete works of Bob Dylan is staggering. No one wrote songs as good or original as Dylan. He is in a category of his own no one else comes close not even Cohen or Mitchell.
Maybe, but Mitchell's run of albums in the 70s is a better five album run than Dylan ever had.
@Matt Miller Dylan 7 in a row. Plus Mitchell went Jazz so that precludes some albums. Jazz is a despicable form of music.
Wait how are you still on 500K subs only? You deserve more than a million. I love your content
You just keep getting better and better. Love your videos!
You're content is always top notch! Thanks dude.
You've just got yourself a new subscriber, love your work!
Went to a concert in Kilkenny, Ireland, with Young and Dylan and he opened with this song. The ground shook and people roared it was incredible
I was there too. Dylan and his band gave us an absolute masterclass in American music. Fantastic show. I couldn't believe how good he was at 78 years old.
The sword-swallower line is so clever. Mr Jones had loaned his throat (perhaps a metaphor for something else) without realising. The Sword-swallower, having slashing up the insides of it with swords, (again, metaphor) gives it back, and only then Mr Jones realises he's been out done by the younger, smarter, freaky generation of the 1960s.
That's how I've always imagined it.
Always heard it as “are you still speechless? You can speak if you like. Have you nothing left to say now?”
The pen is mightier than the sword? The sword swallower might be the artist who is using the media as a mouthpiece to spread the word? Maybe?
One day someone will do a video on Polyphonic because these videos are great. I’m trying to learn about music and interesting stories and moments and you’ve summed them up cleanly and beautifully. Please. Don’t stop.
Really enjoy watching your videos man! Lots of insight. I know it might be an ambitious task but In My Time of Dying by Led is downright my favorite song by them & filled with imagery you could play with!
Love it man, thanks!!
I feel like all you need in life is The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, Neil Young ... and someone to listen to them with.
And pink Floyd.
Leo - I think I’m gonna listen to Dark Side of the Moon since you said that.
Santana
There's a few others too but those are definite "ins" for me.
Lol no.
Mr Jones is an institution asking questions that lead nowhere while actively (if unconsciously) working to fetishize the freaks, and Mr Jones is a freak who refuses to face himself and come out of denial. I dig it, and this probably explains why I like the song so much more now than I used to.
So not the devil then? 😂 wow you have much to learn.
@@DanFernandesBenficaSaint lol K
PS you don't know me at all
I didn't know the history to this song, but it has long been my favorite songs of Dylan's. Thanks for shedding some light!!!
To this day, this remains one of your strongest pieces...I come back to it every so often and get more out of each time!! I think Dylan brings out the best in you; although I love all your Led Zeppelin pieces as well. Can sense your passion and you clearly have thought long and hard about it---keep up the good work!!(and Dylan content;)!!!
Reminds me of sick-of-the-press NBA players
you are killing it upload after upload dude, well done
I've been waiting so long for this episode!!
Damn, you're a great essayist. Another masterpiece. I would LOVE to see you do a video on Tom Waits or Ween.
This my Favorite of his Works, It's Dark Vibe, & Rag Time/Blues Piano are what I strive for on the Keys..
Amazing video. An absolute joy to watch
One of my two favorite Dylan's songs, was also very much loved by Huey Newton and the Black Panthers' commanders who, allegedly, wrote their programme to its soundtrack.
Another fantastic video. Thanks for your work!
Being that Dylan is still living, I can't help but wonder what he thinks of your analysis...
Jesse Terpstra he would completely disagree with all of it. LOL that’s why I love Dylan
He told me to tell you that he kind of likes it because it keeps people confused, his words not mine.
He'd say something like "oh look, Mr Jones is trying to figure out who Mr Jones is" 🪞
Loved the video. Bob Dylan is a favorite of mine. Also a video request I have is on Kendrick's To Pimp A Butterfly album. Favorite rapper right now.
These vids are beautifully mad dude! Keep it up
I love music. I'm 25 and every year of my life i have appreciated music more and more, and now i make my own music. Life without music isnt worth living in my opinion. Music has literally saved my life in more than one way. I see my friends and family talk about or listen to music in such an unaffected and stoic manner compared to me. It's like some people just don't hear good music the way others do. I think to some music is an addictive drug, whereas to some it's just catchy noises.
That's how interests work
i feel like music is a drug too, and sometimes my only coping mechanism. i think what brings me towards dylan is i can relate to the melancholy in his soul
Without music, life would be a mistake - Friedrich Nietzsche
my goodness you are condescending
@@asarogers5786 me? All im saying is that many people are seemingly less affected by music than others. Do you not agree? I was pointing out how strange it is that the music is being heard the same, but it is perceived different. My siblings for example admit that they may go all week without playing music and they don't know but a hand full of artist and thats only because they are trending in the top 10 right now.
Its a good thing we all have different interest and taste. I was simply thinking out loud because this video inspired me to think about variations in musical taste. I'm not implying that music people are objectively superior humans. I didnt intend to come off condescending.
your videos are freaking great!
Very informative and interesting, well done!
Been a Dylan fan for 25 years and know most of his songs by heart but the number of them where I'm sure what I know what he's talking about is probably in the single digits.
It's stream of consciousness poetry that's beautiful and I don't try to dissect it. Some lines I hear for years and they just pass thru my brain w/o making contact and then something in my life will happen, a new experience and then the next time I hear that "nonsense lyric" I burst out laughing coz I finally have something to associate it with. I still don't think it means "I've understood what he was talking about" only that I finally related to something he said in a song.
Was eagerly waiting for another Dylan video.
Do make more
You should do a vid on Phil Ochs. Really interesting guy.
Fantastic breakdown of this tune man
some of the best videos on the internet right now thanks for another great video
Incredible timing!
This was great! I was just thinking that you should put out another Dylan video 2 days ago and then "Oh hey look...!"
Hands down, best music video essays on the internet
Another great one, sir! Of course, he became prescient as well, when in the live version he changed the last line to make Mr. Jones at all times wear a telephone!
Love the last Dylan video, loved this one as well!
The piano part from "I believe to my soul" by Ray Charles so that's where Dylan came up with the piano dirge part that he plays on "Ballard of a thin man" and I also love the analyg of the song I have highway 61 revisited on CD where that song is from.love the references and the phrasing of the lyrics.DYLAN IS THE MAN!!! Thanks for the info about the song.
Always love your videos
Was literally just listening to Dylan!
Love your videos
Great video once again, Polyphonic. Is there a possibility you could make a video decoding 21st Century Breakdown (by Green Day)’s story?
This is probably my all time favorite Dylan song.. Thank you so much!!
Very well put.
Ballad of Hollis Brown or North Country Blues are definitely his darkest songs. This video was amazing. Thanks!! Keep em coming
Amazing video !!!
Great content, as always.
Could you maybe do a video on all the strange, cryptic, abstract, and surreal lyrics of a lot of punk, indie, and alternative bands and artists. It's a surprisingly common and prevalent aspect of that particular kind of music and I almost never seem to hear anyone discuss it.
Polyphonic so the nature force. I really appreciate your work man.
I heard this song as a child through my older brothers. Just watching "Peaky Blinders" tonight and they are using a really good rendition of this song in an episode. I forgot how damn old this song is!
Your Dylan videos are my favorite
I love your videos, but I also like to imagine that sometimes the artist actually didn't carefully craft their song to have a complicated poetical meaning and that they just thought it sounded good.
I once went to a modern art museum and took a tour where the artist was present. after talking about one of his pieces and explaining all of the emotional baggage behind it, the tour guide asked the artist if he was correct. The artist answered with "No, it just looked good, so I kept it."
I like to think that sometimes music is the same way, and artists just use peoples interpretations as a meaning so people stop asking about it. Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven" for example, I always kind of thought that they might have put a message in that song, but it was mostly just a song that sounded good.
That's why I always find it almost funny when I see people analyzing any form of art.
That said, I really do love your videos, you clearly are well-read and know what you're talking about.
Well, it's true what you said but if there's ever a song in Dylan's work that does not fit the "just sounds good" it's Mr Jones.....lol Besides I think the "oh there's no meaning at all" take is as much an interpretation of the artist's intentions as any other even though it's normally thought to be "neuter" or "truer".
Love the videos about Dylan, I’d love something about The Velvet Underground
My TOP 5 Dylan Songs:
5. Jokerman
4. As i went out one morning
3. Changing of the guards
2. One more cup of coffee
1. Ballad of a thin man
My 5 and 3 are the same!
Sorry, I GOTTA have Hurricane in there
What about "masters of war"? It's a gem
changing of the guards is a absolute masterpiece of a song
I Shall Be Released
Mr. Tambourine Man
Tangled Up In Blue - also probably the greatest song ever!
Almost forgot to say I appreciate your interpretations and thank you for posting 💟
Then who is Mr. Jones in the Counting Crows song? Where Dylan is even mentioned in
Great question.
Mr. Jones was one of Adam's friends that was also in a band. If I am remembering correctly.
Have a good one
He's the bassist.
Very interesting video, but could you do a video about Woody Guthrie?
Simon Schoeters Yes, do a video on Woody, my grandfather knew him in the late 20s maybe early 30s in Okema Oklahoma where Woody grew up.. I have a rich memory of my mother making me listen to a phone call recorded from the John Birch society talking about Woodys communist affiliations, she was angry with them, although Woody certainly was a Communist in the 1930s.. My grandmother was also close to Woodys sister. A true American icon his music and ideology that was inspired during the depression is a true contribution to our culture.
@@LK_Ireland "I ain't a Communist, necessarily, but I've been in the red all my life." - this quote was first presented to me as him denying being a Communist, but the qualifier, " _necessarily_ ", sounds to me like a winking confirmation.
@@dwc1964 to add apparently this was said a sentence or two before "Left wing, right wing, chicken wing - it's the same thing to me,"
omg yessss
If I'm understanding this correctly, these reporters were trying to understand Dylan almost as anthropologists, but were taking an ethnocentric approach (or etic vs emic approach if you know the vocabulary). Interesting application here; nice video.
Good lord dude you never fail to deliver great content
Bob Dylan made it quite clear what he thought about the press in "Idiot Wind".
I believe the song had a lot to do with Sara
Yea... bad reading lmao
What "chiopix2" is probably referring to is Idiot Wind's opening verses. Dylan storms into the song with a dryly ironic mini-rant, whereby he caricatures the scandalizing faux-exposés of tabloid press, even while slightly humoring it by framing the song's first "persona" voice as a sort of villainized celebrity outlaw:
"Someone's got it in for me;
They're planting stories in the press!
Whoever it is, I wish they'd cut it out quick.
But when they will, I can only guess!
They say I shot a man named Gray
And took his wife to Italy.
She inherited a million bucks.
And when she died, it came to me..."
Of course, if we were to take some presumed literal interpretation of these lines as being directly autobiographical, then Dylan would be technically "exaggerating", himself serving up "distorted facts" ("fake news"?). Yet, since it is hardly ambiguous that the songwriter had indeed remained by the mid 1970's a frequent target of overzealous media scrutiny - sometimes consisting of wild guesses and even outright fabrications - it is difficult to call his attitude quite "paranoid" either. Arguably, this odd tension between the simultaneous air of fanciful extravagance and of real palpability within his opening rant is just one of many levels of tension Dylan seems to set up... in the first verse alone! And the way some of this tension is resolved by the verse's "punchline" of "I can't help it if I'm lucky!" is merely a further testament to Dylan's crafty prowess. And, in any case: yes, he Is indeed talking about the press here.
Nevertheless, Dylan being Dylan, even when he's talking about the press, he's not Only talking about the press. Specifically, he is also using the press here as a way to frame another discourse; namely, one concerned with his marriage. At select points of the song, Dylan does seem to use his 'song persona" to speak directly To his wife. So, both commenters are correct. And Dylan here is speaking about the press And about Sara.
Yet, even to say that the song is an address to Sara would be over-reductive. Sure, Jacob Dylan's famous musing that songs on "Blood on the Tracks" are his "parents talking" seems most apt in reference to "Idiot Wind". However, one of the great things about this album is that, even if this is correct to some degree and even if this serves as the central expressive "intention" of the song as a whole, it still does not work as a "skeleton key" to every line. Because it is not just Dylan talking to his wife. Rather, it is both of them talking to each other! Indeed, the song's perspective seems to shift between different speakers from verse to verse. And whenever Dylan sings "you", the pronoun refers to different people throughout the song. Sometimes it's him speaking to Sara. Sometimes it's Sara speaking to him. Sometimes it might be a character from a movie or a book. Sometimes a sort of a dream or imaginary self ("the murderous outlaw" aka "righteous defender of truth" certainly makes reappearances). During one of the rare instances when Dylan allows himself to talk somewhat openly about the specificities of his craft (was it in Chronicles?), he provides a sizable hint as to his own methodology in writing "Blood on the Tracks": he compares the album to a Chekhov play. This may seem confusing to some people. As if Dylan is merely putting us on. Isn't he know for that sort of thing? Indeed he is. Always hiding his tracks! (Though not quite because there's blood on them. More like magic. Is he maybe afraid to jinx his own creative muse?). However, despite Dylan's real slipperiness, in this instance, I do imagine that he is being earnest. Whenever I really let myself stop and think about the lyrics at length, I am struck by how various lines throughout the album seem to relate to each other, by how they "talk" not only to the listener, but also "among themselves". As such, I've come to consider "Blood on the Tracks" to be one on the more complexely and innovatively "theatrical" of Dylan's albums. Something that gives even more credence to such an interpretation of Dylan's lyrical method with "Blood on the Tracks" is even a cursory glance at where the songwriter took his art next.
After all, it's a well known fact that Dylan pursued his exploration of this "song as mini play" mode even further, when he was writing his follow-up to "Blood on...": "Desire". Dylan cowrote the latter with his friend Jacques Levy, a seasoned playwright and theater director.
I suppose, after having been thrust into a life where he was constantly surrounded by people who wouldn't know "how to act" around him, it may have seemed to Dylan like a wise move to turn his song world into a sort of a semi-secreted metaphorical theater stage, one where real life and artifice would fuse together and begin to echo and quote each other. And if, per one of Dylan's many heroes - Shakespeare, all the world is indeed a stage and everyone mere players, then perhaps, by trying to make a theatre of his art and life alike, Dylan hoped that people around him might, at the very least, feel more inclined to let themselves grow into better actors.
Whatever his real private reasons, the 1970s was when Dylan the actor-singer-poet had suddenly become a playwright as well. Moreover, soon after that he would expand his already long list of creative roles even further, adding to it the role of a film and a theater director (see Rolling Thunder Revue and "Renaldo and Clara").
You know what... that was an enlightening and downright impressive reply. My mind was changed well done sir 👍
@@dylandream2248 song Sara, idiot wind and sad eye lady
The one song he wrote later that came close to Ballad of a Thin Man was This Wheel's on Fire from The Basement Tapes. It has a similar feel and vibe.
Graphics winner n challenging
Super summary 👌
Great work
Oh hell yeah! Love dylan content and definitely from your channel!
Great graphics! Work perfectly.
Great video on probably my second favorite Dylan song.
That’s cool! Somehow, even from the very first listen, I had always had this vision of ‘the thin man’ as being a member of the press.
one of my favorite Dylan songs!
Brilliant analysis
This is so amazing, can youvplease make a video on blind willie mc'tell?
I genuinely believe that this channel makes the best content on UA-cam. Not even joking
the best on YT
You should make, a podcast Where you just upload the audio from your videos. Would love to listen to them while i work.
I agree 100% but don't know how you'd make anything from it...
Yes!! At long last a look at this underrated song!!
That’s a tack piano Dylan is playing. That’s a a standard piano with tacks applied to the hammers inside to create a more metallic sound that eliminates the sustain.
I would love it if you did Positively 4th Street soon. Dylan is absolutely brutal in that song.
One of my all time favorite Dylan songs
@Polyphonic guys you are making excellent videos, I am still though expecting something about Muse after two years of production!! I am sure you could dig up some interesting facts about them!