Bob Dylan - Desolation Row

I’ve never been a huge Bob Dylan fan. Well, a Bob Dylan fan, in general. In any capacity. I never had a strong opinion one way or the other. His music was always just there; background noise. Something to ignore like Musak or that nondescript coworker you pass every day in the hall and nod to, but you never really learn their name. That was me and Mr. Zimmerman. We had a very “you don’t interfere with me and I won’t bug you” relationship. Honestly the majority of my experience was when he would randomly pop up on a radio station; I would hear myself mentally professing, “Wow. Who is a Bob Dylan fan? Who listens to this man sing and gets really psyched about this voice?”

I eventually found myself working with a woman from Australia who was a wild Dylan fan; to the point where she would follow him around like the Grateful Dead. Literally would take vacation time to go see him. And she was an otherwise amazing woman and was my best friend in the office despite the fact she was in her late 50s and I was in my mid-20s at the time. She would bring me graham cracker “sandwiches” filled with butter and encouraged a healthy vegemite addiction. I haven’t worked with her in forever, but through the miracle of facebook, I’ve gotten back in touch with her and her daughter, who was also a very close friend.

I don’t even remember when it happened, definitely in the past 5 or 6 years, as that is the time I have worked at my current job, of which I have eventually found myself listening to an internet radio station called Radioparadise. Good mix of world, eclectic, standard rock, 80s and alt-country, etc. One day this song pops up. I was about halfway through this almost 12 minute song, barely paying attention when the line “Her profession’s her religion / Her sin is her lifelessness” and I hear myself saying “hold up now - what?” and I got to googling.

By the way… This is my all day/everyday. When I am otherwise “working” at my job, I am most likely playing professional music critic in my head. I do a lot of previewing via other blogs of songs (see the blogroll to the right over there to see where I get the majority of these songs) and when I’m not in the mood to troll blogs, I play radioparadise. For the first few years I listened to RP, I would keep a notepad beside my computer that was basically a list of songs or artists to download (as well as a notepad for a list of songs I want to write posts about). I found a great many artists who have become main staples of my musical diet through this website. And once in a while, I’d almost say once or twice or 40 times a day, a band will come on the radio and I find myself thinking “hmmm where is Cake from? Where did David Byrne go to college? What is the meaning of this Eels song? Why is Elbow so amazing?” so I have to sit online and read Wikipedia articles or band sites for a while. Long digression short; I Google. A lot.

This song comes on, these lyrics hit me, and I get online and find out more about this song. The supposed Steinbeck connection (Cannery Row?) and the Duluth hangings… and I finally had my light bulb moment with Dylan. This is the song that made me go “Ohhhhh… Okay. Bob Dylan. Gotcha.... Depth!”

Not that I am in any way, shape or form a "big Dylan fan", now. I still don’t even own a single album, just a handful of songs I’ve grabbed here and there, but I don’t ignore him anymore. And I feel it is entirely irresponsible of me to not at least acknowledge WHY people are Bob Dylan fans without dismissing him completely.


This song reminds me that I can be wrong and opinions can change. I never thought I would like any Dylan song. I also never thought I would like mushrooms. Who knew?


PS - I am now stuck listening to Elbow all day. I tricked myself. People... Listen to Elbow. seriously.