Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
| Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues | |
|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | |
| publication | July 1965 |
| length | 5:27 |
| Genre (s) | Blues rock , folk rock |
| Author (s) | Bob Dylan |
| Label | Columbia Records |
| album | Highway 61 Revisited |
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues is a folk rock song by the American musician Bob Dylan , which first appeared on his album Highway 61 Revisited in 1965 , and later also as the b-side of the single I Want You .
The Uncut ranked him 38th on their list of the best Bob Dylan songs.
Emergence
The song was recorded by Dylan and his band on August 2, 1965 in a session under the production of Bob Johnston on Columbia Records . He also wrote Ballad of a Thin Man , Queen Jane Approximately and Highway 61 Revisited for the same album . Mike Bloomfield played with Dylan on electric guitar, Al Kooper on pianet , Paul Griffin on piano, Harvey Brooks on electric bass and Bobby Gregg on drums. Dylan himself played a guitar and harmonica. It took 16 takes to get the version that appeared on Highway 61 Revisited .
The version that appeared as the B-side of I Want You in 1966 was a live recording from a concert in Liverpool . Dylan also played the piece live at his 1966 concert at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester , which Columbia Records later officially released on CD as part of the Bootleg Series. An alternate take that was created during the Highway 61 sessions was featured on The Bootleg Series No. 7: No Direction Home released.
text
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues describes nightmarish experiences that the lyrical self had in the Mexican- American border town of Juarez , which eventually led him to travel back to New York . Depression, substance abuse, prostitution, corrupt authorities, illness and despair are described.
The lyrics are lyrically very different from the other works Dylan published on Highway 61 Revisited . As with Like a Rolling Stone, there are no references to historical figures; the characters involved are the lyrical self and fictional female characters like Saint Annie and Sweet Melinda . The former is evidently some kind of drug dealer to whom he is indebted.
- Now if you see Saint Annie
- Please tell her thanks a lot
The verse that follows shortly thereafter:
- I don't have the strength
- To get up and take another shot
clearly refers, albeit in dealer slang ( to take a shot ), to the abuse of drugs. In Sweet Melinda is, meanwhile, a prostitute who speaks good English and invited him. The experience with the authorities is also bad. You bribe a constable and take a man offended for something, even though he has just arrived in town. In the last verse, the lyrical self starts a drinking tour with Burgundy and harder things. Badly affected by being left alone by everyone, he decides to go back to New York.
The song takes up the theme of straying on country roads and thus resembles the previous track Highway 61 Revisited on the album . The experiences in Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues meanwhile are bad.
Bob Dylan uses literary quotations and references. The title alludes to Arthur Rimbaud's sonnet My Bohemian Life (Fantasy) , where a character named Tom Thumb is addressed. The first stanza speaks of Rue Morgue Avenue , which refers to Edgar Allan Poe's The Double Murder on Rue Morgue . The first verse of the fourth stanza, Up on Housing Project Hill, comes from Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac . Dylan also recites Malcolm Lowry and his novel Unter dem Vulkan . The verses And she takes your voice // And leaves you howling at the moon are not only metaphors for sexual intercourse with a prostitute, but possibly also a reference to the country song Howlin 'at the Moon by Hank Williams ; a musician Dylan greatly admired.
Cover versions
Like many Dylan songs, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues has been covered by a variety of musicians. They include Gordon Lightfoot , Nina Simone , Judy Collins , Barry McGuire , Neil Young , Bryan Ferry, and the Grateful Dead .