Having just read that the award of "#1 song, film, book or TV show that changed the world" went to Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, my feelings are mixed. The sound of his scratchy, tone-deaf voice makes me want to run away and fill my ears with dirt...but I can't deny that he is an entrancing poet.The more I think about it, the less sense this list makes --I mean, She Loves You by the Beatles came in at #3 (!?); we all know that Strawberry Fields Forever is their greatest song. Ok, or I am the Walrus. It's a toss-up. A book doesn't appear until 19th place, and even then, it's Jack Kerouac's On the Road --come on!?
Anyway, back to Dylan; I guess the song's context has to be taken into account...
"On its release, everything about the song seemed insurrectionary, from the dense intrigue of the lyric to the magisterial sneer in Dylan's voice to the crackling electricity of the accompaniment. Even its length was revolutionary. At six minutes and six seconds, Like A Rolling Stone busted wide open every rule of radio formatting. And yet when CBS chopped the song in half with three minutes on each side of the 45rpm single and radio DJs faded the song after side one, so many fans jammed station switchboards demanding to hear it in full that programmers across America caved in and played it all...
...Not that everybody got it at the time. When Dylan took Like A Rolling Stone on the road, the folk purists turned out in their droves to boo and jeer the prince-of-protest-turned-electric-messiah. The song received its first live performance at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. It was also the first time Dylan had plugged in his electric guitar in front of an audience, and there were howls of outrage. The boos reached a crescendo the following year on his world tour with the Hawks, culminating in the infamous incident at Manchester Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966: immediately before playing Like A Rolling Stone, someone in the audience -which had been unremittingly hostile throughout Dylan's electric set- shouted "Judas!" ''I Don't believe you. You're a liar!'' Dylan sneered back. "
Knowing all this, you decide:
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
