“It is not an old peoples’ world. It is not an old peoples’ world.”
Bob Dylan, Bill of Rights dinner, 13 December 1963, Hotel Americana NY City, US.
Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, a single bullet destroyed the icon of change of a whole generation: John F. Kennedy. Surrounded by a crowd of over 150,000, Nellie Connally turned to him and said,“Mr President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.” A minute later, he was shot dead by a man named Harvey Lee Oswald. The assassination of this figure signaled the death of the ideals and dreams that movements across the US and the world upheld.
From this point forward, Bob Dylan underwent a radical change that generated a far bigger impact than he could have ever foreseen. He stopped composing protest songs. While his album from 1964, Another Side of Bob Dylan included themes like “Chimes of Freedom,” he never could have predicted that a single song could change the world. But it did.
Dylan’s songs could well be considered poems given their lyrical structure and their departure from popular structures of the time, such as the pop style of The Beatles. The force of the feelings and powerful truth they carry hit the hearts of millions of people. Kennedy had kept the dream alive and with his passing it abruptly vanished. Dylan sung about injustices; he asked questions, and he would point fingers at corrupt politicians. People would keep their ears glued to the radio, and with each song, both young and old changed the way they saw the world. The death of a dream and the will to change the world gave Dylan a new purpose in his songwriting.
Dylan revolutionized the world through his poetry, the changes may not be visible to the naked eye, but his influence can be clearly felt. The narratives he weaves have influenced other musicians, writers, and even painters around the world. This man from Duluth, Minnesota showed the world that the power of song and the written word can overcome any adversity.
The following list is divided into two parts: songs that generated change in the minds and political ideals of the youth, and the second focuses on songs that changed the lyrical and musical global panorama.
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“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963)
“Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT8yTLzg-JU
Stepping into the shoes of a prophet, Dylan warns us of the dangers of nuclear war. Throughout the song he weaves images both terrifying and beautiful to image. No one is left untouched by the cruel hand of war, because the rain will fall, and it will fall on everyone. The world is filled with pain and pleasure, and this song attempts to soothe the listener even though he knows the rain is imminent.
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“Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” (1963)
“Now we all agree with Hitler’s views
Although he killed six million Jews
It don’t matter too much that he was a Fascist
At least you can’t say he was a Communist!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aD82dWOyYE
The narrator of this song is paranoid and convinced that communists, or “Reds” as he calls them, have infiltrated the country. He joins the John Birch society and searches high and low for these slippery Reds, “I got up in the mornin’ ‘n’ looked under my bed/ looked in the sink, behind the door/ looked in the glove compartment of my car.” Bob makes strong comparisons between the Nazis and the anti-communists and shines a light on their pretentiousness. After exhausting all possibilities of where the communists might be hiding, the narrator has no choice but to investigate himself.
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“The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” (1964)
“Hattie Carroll was a maid of the kitchen
She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children
Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage
And never sat once at the head of the table
And didn’t even talk to the people at the table
Who just cleaned up all the food from the table
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level”
Dylan would sing what he knew and read on the newspaper. A rich man murdered his maid without a logical reason and was never punished for it. His sole sentence was to be immortalized in one of Bob’s songs. A chronic in the form of poetry, it tells us the story of a life that was snuffed out by the capriciousness of a single rich man.
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“Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963)
“How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind”
The peace anthem of the early seventies. Using the metaphor of the wind, Dylan let’s us know that the answer to stopping the pain, ignorance, and injustice is elusive and can never be caught. The poet is tied to the power of nature, and no matter how hard you try to find the answers, these will escape your grasp. Eventually Dylan walks away from this philosophical wanderings, assuring us that nothing will never truly change.
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“Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)
“Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don’t wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don’t wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don’t work
’Cause the vandals took the handles”
This song roars out of the speakers and hits the nail on the head. Dylan opens his album Bringing It All Back Home with this poem that speaks of all rock musicians coming together and the Beat Generation. This song marks the division between Dylan’s musical style, and it also welcomed the rise of a social movement. Folk protests began to fade, and new movements arose to take its place. In 2004, in an interview with the LA Times, Dylan was swift to point out the origins of the song: “It’s from Chuck Berry, a bit of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ and some of the scat songs of the 40s.” This song forces people listen to it over and over, since it perfectly fuses folk music and blues. It is one of his more radical songs, as the lyrics speak of a society in revolution, drug consumption, authority abuse, and man’s perpetual quest to make sense of the world. Even John Lennon once said this song was so captivating no one could ever compete with it.
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“Like a Rolling Stone” (1965)
“You’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you’re gonna have to get used to it”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUyL83KAsKc
Considered to be the best song of all time by the Rolling Stone magazine and by thousands of followers as well. Dylan fused together poetry and rock in a way never seen before. While his poetry evolved with the passing of time, its folk spirit remained untouched. Dylan achieved the impossible: he brought the power of literature to the radio by mixing pop music and lyrical power. Bono from U2 stands amazed at the power of the song and the unflinching gaze of Dylan, “That sneer –it’s something to behold. Elvis had a sneer, of course. And the Rolling Stones had a sneer that, if you note the title of the song, Bob wasn’t unaware of. But Bob Dylan’s sneer on ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ turns the wine to vinegar.” He turns away from the pretentious hipsters with the idea that a person would have better values if they wore the right pair of shoes.
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“Tell Me, Momma” (1965)
“If you’re anxious to find out when your friendship’s gonna end
Come on, baby, I’m your friend!
And I know that you know that I know that you show
Something is tearing up your mind”.
More than a punch, this song is a slap to the face. This song didn’t make it to the recording studio, but it did make an appearance on stage in 1965-1966. Bob speaks directly to the protesters who judge him for moving away from protest and folk culture. This song tears up your mind and will make you lose sense of time and place. This song is an insane blast of energy, as it was an audacious step for Dylan to make. He shocked the audiences by playing the hardest rock music anyone had ever heard. Imagine standing in the audience and listen to a song no one has even heard before. Dylan never recorded a studio version, so it was a once in a lifetime experience, something you never would hear ever again in your life. Dylan was spoiling for a fight, and with a single punch of music, we were knocked out.
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“It’s All Right Ma’, I’m Only Bleeding” (1965)
“While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked”.
His breathing is so subtle you can hardly hear it, and the rhyme seems to go on forever as it meanders from phrase to phrase. This is Dylan stuck in the middle, between a dream kept alive by a single man, and the death of this man by the hands of a psychopath. More than a protest or complaint, it is a long winded thought, a last, mournful breath before sending to hell the whole system. Dylan is tired of point fingers at the flaws of society; instead, he tears it all to shreds. It’s a dazzling song with a complicated rhyme scheme and melody.
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“Visions of Johanna” (1966)
“Louise, she’s all right, she’s just near
She’s delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna’s not here
The ghost of ’lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place”
This poem defined him as a literary figure and musical genius. A story of lovers and betrayal that is accompanied by a heart stopping melody. It is a song without equal, and it may be that this ghost of electricity is Dylan himself howling in our faces.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines Revolution as a change in the way a country is governed, usually to a different political system, and often using violence or war. Dylan’s revolution is of a different nature; his revolution begins with the ears and our perception of the world. With each rhyming couplet our ideals and dreams are changed forever. He transformed himself as the sands of time shifted under his feet. He did not lie when he said he never stopped protesting. A protest doesn’t necessarily have to be directed at the government; it can be aimed at us, encouraging us to change who we are for the better. This is what Dylan wants. While we might not be completely moulded to his thoughts, he awakened in each of us our revolutionary spirit, and for that we are grateful.
