Why Bob Dylan Matters

by Richard F. Thomas

Lennon, John, 146–47, 148, 164

  Leone, Sergio, 122

  “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” (song), 93

  Lethem, Jonathan, 123

  Letterman, David, 207

  Letters from the Black Sea (Ovid), 238, 240, 246–47

  Levy, Lou, 96, 118

  Lewis, Furry, 170

  Life of Virgil (Suetonius), 203, 211–12

  “Like a Rolling Stone” (song), 93, 272

  Lindberg, Erik, 13

  Little Richard, 45, 50, 167

  Live at the Gaslight 1962 (album), 86

  Lomax, Alan, 169, 170, 171, 172

  London Palladium, 46

  “Lonesome Day Blues” (song), 7, 77–78, 194–202, 238, 273

  “Lonesome Valley” (song), 170

  “Long Ago, Far Away” (song), 70–72

  “Long and Wasted Years” (song), 278, 279

  Longley, Edna, 294

  “Lord Randall” (ballad), 297

  Love, Robert, 129, 270, 271, 274, 284

  “Love and Theft” (album), 7, 43, 74, 77, 174, 228, 265, 269, 275, 279. See also individual songs

  historical and contemporary elements in, 121–22

  intertextuality in, 164, 187, 193–94, 196, 197

  “Love Sick” (song), 64, 168, 188, 279

  Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The (Eliot), 16, 305–6

  Lownds, Hans, 72

  Lownds, Sara. See Dylan, Sara

  Lunde, Gunnar, 292

  Lybba, 52, 53, 54

  Lyre, 13, 36, 82, 288

  Lyric poetry, 35–36, 60, 237

  Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 63

  McCarthy, Joseph, 283

  McCarthyism, 52–53

  McCartney, Paul, 29

  McCormick, Neil, 218

  McGhee, Brownie, 312

  MacKenzie, Eve, 138

  MacLeish, Archibald, 97–98

  Madison Square Garden, 186

  “Maggie’s Farm” (song), 290

  “Make You Feel My Love” (song), 189, 206–7

  Mandela, Nelson, 20

  “Man in the Long Black Coat” (song), 93

  Mankiewicz, Joseph L., 53, 54

  “Man of Constant Sorrow” (Dylan), 70

  Maori people, 20

  March on Washington, 1963, 20

  Marcus, Greil, 32, 42, 43–44

  Mark Twain House, 44

  Marqusee, Mike, 157

  Martin, Dean, 269

  Masked and Anonymous (film), 42, 99, 228

  Mason, Catharine, 5–6, 8

  “Masters of War” (song), 23, 28–29, 133–35, 319

  “Mattie Groves” (song), 314

  Max Gate (Hardy’s house), 44

  Maymudes, Victor, 214

  “Meet Me in the Morning” (song), 35, 224–25

  “Melancholy Mood” (song), 277, 278

  Melville, Herman, 314–16

  Memory, 245–52

  Mesabi Iron Range, 42, 45

  Metamorphoses (Ovid), 115, 244

  Miller, Bennett, 230

  “Million Miles” (song), 188

  Milton, John, 115, 209, 220

  “Mississippi” (song), 225, 262, 284, 309

  “Miss Mary Jane” (song), 172

  Mitchell, Joni, 39, 85

  Moby-Dick (Melville), 56, 314–16

  Modern Times (album), 109, 122–23, 164, 197, 204, 227–48, 253–55, 275. See also individual songs

  critical and popular success of, 228

  narrative texture of, 229

  old songs on, 231–34

  release of, 227

  Modern Times (film), 229

  Moross, Jerome, 269

  Morrison, Toni, 292

  Morrison, Van, 39

  “Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)” (song), 93

  “Most of the Time” (song), 251

  Motion, Andrew, 293

  “Mr. Tambourine Man” (song), 22, 153–54, 155

  Murphy, Cullen, 3

  Muses, 12, 13, 37, 59, 66, 72, 108, 116, 174, 248

  “Mutineer” (song), 163

  “My Heart’s in the Highlands” (Burns), 176–79

  “My Wife’s Home Town” (song), 251

  “Narrow Way” (song), 259

  Nashville Skyline (album), 31, 32, 285

  National Defense Education Act of 1958, 63

  Neil, Fred, 99–100

  Nelson Mail, 239

  “Nettie Moore” (song), 232–33, 248

  New Lost City Ramblers, 312

  New Morning (album), 32

  Newport Folk Festival, 21–22, 47, 167, 216, 293

  Newsweek, 48, 62

  New Yorker, 213, 291, 298, 299–300

  New York Post, 300

  New York Times, 233, 234, 293, 311

  Nixon, Richard, 1, 28, 62

  Nobel Prize in Literature, 11–16, 56, 120, 160, 256, 261–65, 273, 274, 276, 281, 291–319

  Dylan’s absence from award ceremony, 296, 299

  Dylan’s award announced, 292–94

  Dylan’s banquet speech, 304–11

  Dylan’s Nobel Lecture, 311–19

  Eliot awarded, 14–16, 209

  inscription on medal, 12–14, 31, 189

  No Direction Home (film), 49, 289

  “North Country Blues” (song), 47–49

  “Norwegian Wood” (song), 146–47

  Nostalgia, 245–52, 322–23

  Nostoi, 246

  “Not Dark Yet” (song), 44, 187–88, 230

  “Notes on Scottish Song” (Burns), 178

  “Nottamun Town” (song), 133–35, 319

  Nuclear threat, 5, 296–97

  Oates, Joyce Carol, 293

  “Obviously Five Believers” (song), 163

  Odes (Horace), 236–38

  Odyssey (Homer), 14, 56, 132–33, 252–65, 287, 313–14

  Dylan as Odysseus, 254–65

  nostalgia in, 245–46

  Ovid as Odysseus, 252–56

  “Old Ark’s A-Moverin,’ The” (song), 169

  “Once Upon a Time” (song), 272

  “One Too Many Mornings” (song), 67

  “Only a Pawn in Their Game” (song), 21

  “Only Wanna Be with You” (song), 135–36

  On Moral Duties (Cicero), 17

  Oresteia, The (Aeschylus), 127, 276, 288

  Ostergren, Klas, 160

  Østrem, Eyolf, 199

  Ovid, 2, 4, 56–57, 109, 123, 124, 197, 270, 295, 322

  Art of Love, 238

  exile poetry, 238–48, 253

  Letters from the Black Sea, 238, 240, 246–47

  Metamorphoses, 115, 244

  as Odysseus, 252–56

  Tristia, 238, 239, 240, 241, 246, 247–48, 253, 254

  Oxford University, 236

  Paradise Lost (Milton), 220

  Pareles, Jon, 188, 233–34, 267

  Pasqua, Alan, 311–12

  Past Present Future (album), 127, 276

  “Pastures of Plenty” (song), 136, 138

  “Pay in Blood” (song), 254, 259, 264–65, 277, 278, 303

  Pennebaker, D. A., 72, 148

  Persian Gulf wars. See Iraq wars

  Peter, Paul and Mary, 19, 20, 206

  Petrarch, 124

  Philharmonic Hall, 152

  “Philip Massinger” (Eliot), 193

  Plagiarism, 131–33, 203–4, 321–22. See also Intertextuality

  Plato, 97

  Plutarch, 124, 129

  “Po’ Boy” (song), 268

  Pompey the Great, 4

  “Poor Boy” (song), 171

  “Poor People in Church” (Rimbaud), 158–60

  Popular culture, 205–8

  “Positively 4th Street” (song), 93, 163

  Pound, Ezra, 15, 16, 153, 305–6

  Princeton University, 24

  Protest songs, 21, 23, 29, 38

  “Queen Jane Approximately” (song), 93, 163

  Quo Vadis (film), 53–54

  Radio City Music Hall, 272

&
nbsp; Raeben, Norman, 32–33

  Raji, Azita, 304

  “Rebecca” (song), 269

  “Red River Shore” (song), 252

  Remarque, Erich Maria, 314–15

  Remnick, David, 291

  Revolution in the Air (Heylin), 320

  “Rhapsody of a Southern Winter Night, A” (Timrod), 235

  Rich, Motoko, 234

  Ricks, Christopher, 42, 208–9

  Rimbaud, Arthur, 77, 121, 149–60, 196, 244, 245, 295

  “The Drunken Boat,” 153–54

  “Poor People in Church,” 158–60

  Ring composition, 144

  “Rising Sun Blues, The” (song), 171

  Ritchie, Jean, 133–35, 312, 319

  Robe, The (film), 53, 54, 55, 89, 127

  Rock and roll, 57–58

  Rolfzen, B. J., 43–44, 47, 48, 54, 111

  “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” (song), 93, 227, 242

  Rolling Stone, 32, 98, 123, 124, 201–2, 228, 242

  Rolling Stones, 29

  Rolling Thunder Revue, 36, 40, 73, 97, 219

  “Roll on, John” (song), 164

  Rome. See also individual poets

  author’s interest in, 1

  Colosseum of, 67, 72, 78, 91

  Dylan influenced by ancient literature of, 2–8, 17, 27, 79–86, 89–94, 114–15, 121–26, 127–29, 144, 201, 202, 308

  Dylan’s adoption as birthplace, 70, 74, 125

  Dylan’s early interest in, 49–57

  Dylan’s press conference in, 74–78, 98, 116, 122

  Dylan’s visits and performances, 54, 66–74, 92–94, 207, 229, 249

  Rosen, Jeff, 217

  Roth, Philip, 291

  Rotolo, Mary, 66

  Rotolo, Suze, 65, 66, 67–68, 69, 140, 146, 149–50, 248–49

  death of, 94

  A Freewheelin’ Time, 108–9, 149

  Rubber Soul (album), 146

  Rucker, Darius, 135–36

  Rush, Tom, 169, 170, 183

  Rushdie, Salman, 293

  Ruth Eckerd Hall, 268, 286

  “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” (song), 30, 185

  Saga, Junichi, 196–99

  Samson and Delilah (film), 127

  Sappho, 2, 59, 97, 302–3

  “Sara” (song), 73, 218, 220, 252

  Satires (Juvenal), 91

  “Scarborough Fair” (song), 250

  “Scarlet Town” (song), 86–89

  Scobie, Stephen, 42

  Scorsese, Martin, 49, 289

  Seeger, Pete, 136

  “Selfish Child” (original title of “Idiot Wind”), 218

  Self Portrait (album), 31–32

  “Señor” (song), 38

  September 11 attacks, 6, 193

  Serpent of the Nile (film), 53

  Sexton, Charlie, 273

  Shadow Blasters, 50

  Shadows in the Night (album), 58, 241, 270, 271, 273, 278, 279, 283

  Shakespeare, William, 53, 208, 254, 256, 274, 276, 283, 295, 307–10

  Sharp, Cecil, 134

  “Shelter from the Storm” (song), 55–56

  Shelton, Robert, 153

  Shepard, Sam, 105

  “Shooting Star” (song), 252

  Short, Luke, 102

  Shot of Love (album), 285–86

  Sibelius, Jean, 298

  Silver Chalice, The (film), 53

  “Simple Twist of Fate” (song), 33, 34, 35, 231, 277, 279, 281

  Sinatra, Frank, 58, 127, 241, 270, 271, 272, 276, 278, 283

  Sisario, Ben, 216

  60 Minutes (television program), 70, 163

  Slow Train Coming (album), 84

  Smith, Fred (“Sonic”), 298

  Smith, Patti, 296–301

  “Some Enchanted Evening” (song), 271

  Song and Dance Man III (Gray), 319–20

  Songs of Leonard Cohen (album), 1

  “Soon After Midnight” (song), 85, 243, 278, 279

  Sophocles, 114, 288

  South African apartheid, 20

  Spartacus (film), 54

  Spring of My Life, The (Rolfzen), 47

  Springsteen, Bruce, 39

  Sputnik, 63

  “Stagger Lee” (song), 314

  “Standing in the Doorway” (song), 188

  “Stay With Me” (song), 269–70, 271, 279, 283

  Steely Dan, 163

  Still on the Road (Heylin), 320

  Street Legal (album), 37–38, 80

  “Streets of Laredo” (song), 314

  Strouse, Charles, 272

  Suetonius, 114, 203, 205, 206, 211–12

  “Sugar Baby” (song), 267

  Svedberg, Andrea, 48

  Symbolist poetry, 149–50

  Tacitus, 114, 129, 205

  Tags, 208

  “Tangled Up in Blue” (song), 34–35, 101, 166, 181–82, 184, 186, 206, 277, 278, 279, 280

  archival material on, 218–22

  legal issue over, 135–36

  Tangled Up in the Bible (Gilmore), 162

  Taylor, Elizabeth, 54, 61

  Telegraph, 302–3

  Tempest (album), 84–91, 93, 124, 126, 164, 166, 197, 204, 209, 228, 243, 269, 273, 275, 278, 279, 306, 319, 320. See also individual songs

  critical acclaim for, 84

  major influences on, 254–65

  “Tempest” (song), 85–86, 116–17, 185

  Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 258

  Ten O’Clock Scholar, 136

  Terkel, Studs, 27–28, 68

  Terry, Sonny, 312

  Theme Time Radio Hour (radio program), 106–7, 109–10, 228, 276

  Theoharis, 263

  “Things Have Changed” (song), 278, 281–83

  “This Land Is Your Land” (song), 136

  Thucydides, 112–14, 115–16

  “Thunder on the Mountain” (song), 238–39

  “‘Til I Fell in Love with You” (song), 64, 189, 251

  Time Out of Mind (album), 6, 44, 122, 126, 148, 162–91, 228, 229, 238, 267, 275, 277, 279, 319, 320, 322–23. See also individual songs

  aesthetics of melancholy in, 188–91

  allusiveness of title, 163

  “Time Out of Mind” (song), 163

  Times They Are A-Changin’, The (album), 21, 47, 283. See also individual songs

  Timrod, Henry, 123, 197, 204, 234–36, 242–43, 270

  “A Rhapsody of a Southern Winter Night,” 235

  “A Vision of Poesy,” 235

  “Tin Angel” (song), 85, 258, 259, 314

  Tiny Tim, 100

  “Titanic, The” (song), 85, 117

  Together Through Life (album), 93, 164, 241, 252, 278, 306

  “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” (song), 67

  “To Phyllis” (Horace), 237

  “To Ramona” (song), 281

  “To Sing for You” (song), 148

  “Touch the Hem of His Garment” (gospel song), 89

  “To Virgil” (Tennyson), 189

  Town Hall concert, 249

  Transfiguration, 86, 88, 110, 119–27, 164–65, 167, 168, 176, 255, 262. See also Intertextuality

  Travers, Mary, 33

  Triads, 127, 275–81

  Triplicate (album), 127, 260, 270, 272, 273, 275–76, 279

  Tristia (Ovid), 238, 239, 240, 241, 246, 247–48, 253, 254

  Trouble in Mind (Heylin), 320

  “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” (song), 168–75, 199, 251, 319

  Tryon, Tom, 269

  Tulsa archive. See Bob Dylan Archive

  Turner, Big Joe, 269

  “Turn Your Money Green” (song), 169, 170

  “Tutti Frutti” (song), 50

  Twain, Mark, 44, 95, 199–201

  Twelve Caesars, The (Suetonius), 114, 212

  Under the Red Sky (album), 6, 227, 286

  “Under the Red Sky” (song), 93, 286

  University of Caen, 5–6, 8

  University of Minnesota, 41–42, 49, 136

  University of Tulsa, 151, 216. See also Bob
Dylan Archive

  “Up to Me” (song), 218

  Ustinov, Peter, 53–54

  Van Gogh, Vincent, 207

  Van Ronk, Dave, 149, 156–57

  Verlaine, Paul, 149, 150–51

  Verne, Jules, 102

  Vienna, 259–60

  Vietnam war, 5, 20, 23, 25, 28, 195, 289

  Vindolanda, 208

  Virgil, 2, 4, 5, 7–8, 12–15, 31, 62, 77–78, 80, 121, 124, 189–91, 194–96, 201, 202, 203–8, 216, 217, 238, 242, 270, 273, 322

  Aeneid (see Aeneid)

  contemporary popularity of, 205–8

  creative methodology of, 211–12

  Eclogues, 13, 83–84, 191, 206

  Georgics, 189–90, 211

  Homer’s work “borrowed” by, 132–33, 203–4

  “Vision of Poesy, A” (Timrod), 235

  “Visions of Johanna” (song), 30, 33

  Von Schmidt, Eric, 37

  Walker, Irene, 52, 65

  Wallace, Karen, 136

  Wall Street Journal, 196

  Wanderin’ Around (album), 231

  Warmuth, Scott, 91, 256

  Warner, Rex, 112

  Warriors, The (Yurick), 90

  Waste Land, The (Eliot), 15

  Watergate scandal, 28, 62

  Waters, Muddy, 29

  Waters, Roger, 29

  Weisman Art Museum (University of Minnesota), 41

  Wells, H. G., 102

  WFMT radio, Chicago, 27–28

  “What Is a Classic?” (Eliot), 14–16, 209–10

  “When He Returns” (song), 286

  “When I Paint My Masterpiece” (song), 72–74, 75, 77–80, 88, 93

  “When the Deal Goes Down” (song), 93, 229–31, 234–35

  “When the Ship Comes In” (song), 21

  Whitman, Walt, 295

  Who, 29

  “Who’s Going to Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet” (song), 143–45

  “Why Try to Change Me Now?” (song), 283

  “Wiggle Wiggle” (song), 286

  Wilentz, Sean, 233

  Williams, Hank, 137, 212, 231, 295

  Wilson, Tom, 213

  Wolf, Howlin’, 29

  Wolfe, Paul, 155

  Wonder Boys (film), 282

  Woods, Rosemary, 62

  Wordsworth, William, 213, 214

  “Workingman’s Blues #2” (song), 222, 229, 239, 240, 244, 246–48, 251, 255–56, 260

  Workplay Studios, 272

  World Gone Wrong (album), 162

  World War II, 4

  Wright, Frank Lloyd, 42

  Young, Neil, 29, 39, 180, 185, 287

  “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” (song), 30, 151

  YouTube, 40, 206–7, 219, 268, 272

  Yurick, Sol, 90

  Zevon, Warren, 163

  Zimmerman, Abe (father of Dylan), 97

  Zimmerman, David (brother of Dylan), 43

  Zimmerman, Keith, 124

  Zimmerman, Kent, 124

  Zimmerman, Robert. See Dylan, Bob

  Zimmy’s, 47, 49

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR