Dylan at Eighty

by Pa Rock

Poetry Appreciator

Legendary American singer, songwriter, and poet, Bob Dylan was born eighty years ago today (as Robert Allen Zimmerman) in Hibbing, Minnesota.   Dylan, who expressed a love of music at an early age, learned to play guitar and formed his own band in high school.  By the time the "peace and love" movement began to flower in the 1960's, Bob Dylan had already established himself as one of the preeminent folk singers and songwriters of that era.   Over the ensuing years his immeasurable talent has continued to expand and spread in many directions.

Bob Dylan's songs form much of the landscape of twentieth century American music, and while his original compositions number literally in the hundreds, many are quickly recognizable across generations of music lovers.   The classic "Like a Rolling Stone," Dylan's signature song, is still going strong, as are many of his other classics like "Positively 4th Street," "Blowin' in the Wind," "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "It Ain't Me Babe," "The Times They are A-Changin'," "Lay Lady Lay," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," and the list goes on and on.

In 2016 the Nobel Committee in Stockholm, Sweden, displayed the uncommonly good sense of awarding Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry.

Happy birthday, Mr. Dylan, sir!

As a birthday acknowledgment to the American music icon I would like to share one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs.  "Subterranean Homesick Blues" was recorded in 1965 and became Dylan's first "top forty" song in the United States.  It is a very quick (two minutes and twenty seconds) and compressed view of the social scene in the 1960's that touches on things like the Beat Generation, recreational drugs, and the Civil Rights movement - and, in fact, everyone seems to have their own take on what the song means.

Subterranean Homesick Blues

by Bob Dylan

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doing it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
A man in the coonskin cap, in the pig pen
Wants eleven dollar bills, you only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D.A. Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't tie no bows
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Oh, get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Hang bail, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters

Oh, get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance
Learn to dance, get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
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 want to be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles