Song of the Day: 2-10-2025

Bob Dylan: "Positively 4th Street"

I recently watched A Complete Unknown and was mesmerized by the film. Timothée Chalamet’s performance was everything I’d hoped for. After watching The King and Dune, both films I watched multiple times, I became a big fan of his.

The myth of Dylan is so overwhelming in my mind that seeing his early years in New York brought to life was revelatory and, surprisingly, a bit emotional. I found myself living though stories I’d heard many times: Dylan’s early meetings with Woody Guthrie (which recalled Wilco’s Collaboration with Billy Bragg for the Mermaid Avenue Sessions), his early days in the Village, becoming an almost messianic figure for Pete Seeger and the 1960s folk music revival, and, finally, playing electric at the Newport Folk Festival.

At the heart of the film, though, is the music. It was the music that really floored me. Somehow the film provided me with the feeling of being there in that moment when—as Chalamet/Dylan says at one point in the film—he caught a spark. The movie creates the illusion of being in the room when Dylan wrote and performed his early songs for the first time. It would be easy to get the tone wrong—as so many biopics have done before—but the careful craft of the film brings it to life. If I were a Dylan fan on the level that so many of my friends over the years have been, I’d be cautious of this film and probably be tempted to stay away. But, now I find myself wanting to see it again.

Thus, as so many great works of art do, the film sent me scrambling for more. More information on the film, more Dylan, more myth, more music. Hearing “Positively 4th Street” after watching the film hit differently. You can really feel Dylan’s anger and frustration with fame, politics, the music industry, folk, the fans, etc. in the song—it’s palpable. The frustration with Dylan is understandable, too—if you are willing to open yourself up to those who saw him as a messiah-turned-Judas. I take Dylan’s side in the war, but I’m sympathetic to purists like Pete Seeger. But there is a reason why the people in the folk music never left the 60s and Dylan kept evolving. I have always believed that if you tie your artistic vision to politics, you can’t help but compromise your art. I’d argue that everyone who saw Dylan as a sell-out did not realize that it was his refusal to sell out that allowed him to write the songs he did in the first place.

The lyrics speak for themselves, and they are brutal. Joni Mitchell credits the song for inspiring her: I thought 'oh my God, you can write about anything in songs.' It was like a revelation to me.

Hearing Mitchell call the song a revelation after watching Dylan sing “The Times They are A-Changin’” at The Newport Folk festival in the film is in itself revelatory. The revelation of Dylan’s art, his vision, is transcendent.

“Positively 4th Street”

You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that’s winning

You say I let you down
You know it’s not like that
If you’re so hurt
Why then don’t you show it

You say you lost your faith
But that’s not where it’s at
You had no faith to lose
And you know it

I know the reason
That you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd
You’re in with

Do you take me for such a fool
To think I’d make contact
With the one who tries to hide
What he don’t know to begin with

You see me on the street
You always act surprised
You say, “How are you?” “Good luck”
But you don’t mean it

When you know as well as me
You’d rather see me paralyzed
Why don’t you just come out once
And scream it

No, I do not feel that good
When I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief
Perhaps I’d rob them

And now I know you’re dissatisfied
With your position and your place
Don’t you understand
It’s not my problem

I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is
To see you

About the Song of the Day:

Another form of my favorite form of cycles are song-cycles—song-cycles of great albums, and of course song-cycles of mixes. I have made cycles of mixes for friends for years—Mix-tapes in high-school and college—Mix-cds in grad-school and beyond. Now that cds have lost a bit of their shine in the wake of streaming services, I’ve struggled to find my footing with sharing mixes with friends. My goal here is to share songs that culminate in mixes—one song a day until a mix is completed. I will then post the complete mix and then begin a new cycle.