Positively 4th Street
| Positively 4th Street | |
|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | |
| publication | September 7, 1965 |
| length | 3:54 |
| Genre (s) | Folk rock |
| Author (s) | Bob Dylan |
| Label | Columbia Records |
Positively 4th Street is a rock song by Bob Dylan , who by Bob Johnston was produced and in September 1965 at Columbia Records was released as a single.
The song was recorded on July 29, 1965 during the sessions for the Highway 61 Revisited album, but was not used for the album. The piece was after Like a Rolling Stone Dylan's second hit single in the US charts; it made it to number 7, in Great Britain it was ranked 8. In Canada , the number even reached number 1 on the singles charts. The B-side was From a Buick 6 from the Highway 61 album.
Today, the song is considered one of the best Dylan ever recorded, although the musician claims to the cover version of Johnny Rivers was better than his own, as he in his biography Chronicles Volume I wrote. In the list of Rolling Stone of the 500 greatest songs of all time is Positively 4th Street rank 203rd
In 2002 Uncut Magazine compiled a list of the best Dylan songs on which the song reached number 12. The Mojo magazine placed the song in their Dylan song list from 2005 behind Like a Rolling Stone ranked second
content
The text is a biting and sarcastic reckoning that the first-person narrator does with another person. He accuses her of always working for her own benefit and that she is not a real friend. She also tries to portray herself as a victim and only ever wants to be with the winners.
Towards the end, the first-person narrator mentions that he wishes the other person could see him as he sees him, so that he can see that it is anything but pleasant to see him.
The title Positively 4th Street (German: “Definitely the fourth street”) does not appear in the whole song, which led to debates among listeners about where it came from. Many see an autobiographical reference, as Dylan once lived on Fourth Street in Manhattan.
According to Michael Gray, the addressee of the billing could have been his friend Izzy Young , who accused Dylan of abstinence from the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations in the East Village Other newspaper .
Cover versions
Like almost all of Dylan's hits, Positively 4th Street was recorded by other artists. The first was Johnny Rivers ; The Beatles , the Byrds , the Jerry Garcia Band and Larry Norman also tried the piece. There are other cover versions by Bryan Ferry and Simply Red . Spoken also released a song called 4th Street, which, however, has no direct reference to Dylan's piece.