This is part two in a series on the new Dylan Archives book ‘Mixing Up The Medicine’ by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel. In this we look broadly at what the book is made up of, and just what kind of Bob Dylan book it is. Pt1. is here.
In May 1963, Studs Terkel asked Bob Dylan about his new song ‘A Hard Rain Is A-Gonna Fall’. The song is a cascade of imagery written at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Dylan explained: “I wrote that - every line is another song - it could be used as a whole song - every single line.” (listen below)
Dylan has used a somewhat similar technique many times - parading a list of vignettes and disconnected lines and characters and imagery to tell stories much bigger and longer than the songs that contain them. It’s not that details are lacking - “The guilty undertaker sighs” - “She walks along with a parrot that talks” - “I rode with him in a taxi once” - “In one I committed a crime” - “the sound of the keys as the clink” - it’s just that the full story…