Counting Down Bob Dylan by Jim Beviglia

Author:Jim Beviglia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

47. “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” (from Blonde on Blonde, 1966)

“Dylan Goes Electric!” is often hailed as one of the singular moments in rock history, but, when placed under closer inspection, the whole thing is a bit deceptive. There is an implication that goes with that headline which suggests that Bob was playing polarizing, abrasive music, but, at least on record, that wasn’t really the truth. Very few of the songs from the three-album period between Bringing It All Back Home and Blonde on Blonde, which contains “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” are even what might be called “hard rock” today, and those that loosely fit that category aren’t exactly assaults on the earlobes.

In his live shows from that era, it was a slightly different story, as Dylan was challenging his audiences nightly to get on board or get out of the way. Even in these shows, however, it wasn’t like he was unleashing an hour’s worth of feedback on the audience. In fact, the No Direction Home documentary features footage of disgruntled fans at his 1966 British concerts complaining that the music was too commercial. These British fans had already been introduced to blues-based rock, so what Dylan was doing seemed to them more of a capitulation than a revolution.

If anything, the alteration in the subject matter and lyrics from his acoustic period to his electric period was far more game-changing. The musical switch was more obvious on first listen, but Dylan’s words were leaps and bounds ahead of anything else that was being released at the time.

The way that Dylan opened up the lyrical possibilities was also far more influential than the sound that he and his various mid-’60s band incarnations were creating. Rock and roll had always been electric music; it was what Bob was putting inside of the music that was opening up new avenues to bands and artists everywhere.

“Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” is an excellent example of the fallacy of Dylan’s electric period. It is clear as a bell, at least in terms of the music. It’s an elegant track, loping about at a mid-tempo pace with great spacing between the instruments so that every one of Dylan’s words gets its desired attention. The guitars just prance about, bouncing off Al Kooper’s chirping organ, without any force behind them. The music is not the least bit abrasive; it’s not even aggressive.

That leaves the lyrics to do the heavy lifting in terms of innovation and evocation, and these words are up to that task. It’s a fool’s game trying to find any kind of natural progression or linear story here. Dylan often gets mocked for the obscure nature of some of his lyrics, but the bizarre tenor of the words in songs like this have a way of emphasizing the intended emotions far better than a straightforward take might do.

In this case, the narrator gets buffeted about between these goofy characters and absurd situations ’til his activities become almost comforting.

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