In 1965, Bob Dylan changed the world. There’s a reason that Dylan going electric is such a revered and discussed period in music history, and that is because of the artistic freedom it gave him. Dylan had already proven himself as an exceptionally talented songwriter, but he wouldn’t begin to break the form wide open until he freed himself from the expectation of being a generational mouthpiece. Despite being fully acoustic, “Desolation Row” defines this period of Dylan’s writing perfectly.
The beat generation had an obvious impact on Dylan, and his writing throughout this period started to sound a lot less like Woody Guthrie and a lot more like Allen Ginsberg or William S. Burroughs. “Desolation Row” functions as both a folk rock song, and a beat epic. The lyrics are rambling, nonsensical, and utterly abstract. It is also one of the finest songs Dylan has ever written. Its legacy endures as a peak of his career, even being ranked in spot 83 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.
The song opens with some of my favorite lines of any Dylan song:
They’re selling postcards of the hangingThey’re painting the passports brownThe beauty parlor is filled with sailorsThe circus is in town
A few years ago back when I was in high school, I was taking an American history course along the time I was getting really into Dylan, and I happened to listen to this song pretty soon after learning about the practice of selling postcards of lynching photos. The opening line struck me over the head like a baseball bat. It’s such a violent, visceral, and disgusting image from American history that Dylan is invoking here. It immediately sets the tone for the song, and the rest of the opening lines reinforce this idea of a state of the world that is base, deranged, and falling apart.
To me, “Desolation Row” is a portrait of an America in free fall. The mid 60s were a violent time that was only going to get more violent as America would begin the Vietnam war, and we’d transition into the paranoia and darkness of the ’70s. It’s a song that exists upon the precipice of the next sixty years of American life, and the erosion of progress to follow. Within the context of the successes of the civil right movement, Dylan reminds us in the opening words of the song what the culture of the country is, and spends the rest of the song showcasing the absurdity and derangement of this nation we call home.
Related: 1975 Bob Dylan Classic, Ranked one of the Greatest Albums Ever, Invented the Break-Up Album
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