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On the road again
For some comic relief in this naughty world, here’s something I haven’t heard in 20 years, the original recording of “On the Road Again,” from Bob Dylan’s 1965 album, Bringing it All Back Home. There’s one anti-religious line in the song, but that is just part of Dylan’s standard anti-establishmentarianism, which is the least enduring aspect of his work from that period. In a funny not a serious way, the whole song is anti-establishmentarian. It’s about being in a crazy scene that gives you nothing of what you need and where you don’t want to be. But it can be relevant to us, if we think of it as being about the liberal and conservative establishment of today. In fact the last verse, beginning, “There’s fist fights in the kitchen / Enough to make me cry,” sounds like the presidential campaign going on right now And get that line about “Your daddy comes in wearing a Napoleon Bonaparte mask.” Remind you of anybody?
Tip: ignore the photos of Dylan on the YouTube screen, which are completely inappropriate to the song. Email entry |