I don’t know why I picked this book up again; I was clearing out the accumulated library of decades and came across it and it is a quick read–Like A Rolling Stone, by Greil Marcus. Like most people, and certainly most music critics, Mr. Marcus has a point of view, in this case a political one and it flavors his writing. This short book, written almost 20 years ago, was entirely about the creation and “meaning” of Like A Rolling Stone, certainly one of the, if not the, most well-known of Dylan’s songs. I have the advantage of this point of having heard most of the early cuts of the song, as Dylan like many artists has been quick to put out everything ever recorded, in the everlasting search for more bucks. Much of this material is pretty interesting as you can see the evolution of a song and you come to understand that often the “take” that was put on the record was perhaps by chance or just a singer or a group being tired.
In any event, Like A Rolling Stone has an evocative sound with lyrics that stick in your head. Dylan’s songwriting in this period he has referred to as magic; words and music just came to him. He was always tired, often drug influenced and he had listened to an incredible amount of folk, country, blues and other music and had read interminably. This melange swirled in his brain and formed lyrics which created indelible images not really seen before or since with any artist, definitely not with such regularity. And of course everyone has some idea of what or who the song is about. Those ideas often say more about the people expressing them than about whatever Dylan intended, if he had any intention.
The early takes of the song have a waltz rhythm, which would have left listeners with a very different perspective, even with the same lyrics. As released, the song had a driving, almost bitter, tone of recrimination. On the surface one could easily believe that Dylan was singing about some former girlfriend or acquaintance. In reality I think Dylan had no particular meaning in mind, that the words and music did just flow from some corner of his brain, down his arm and onto the page and guitar. Like Maggie’s Farm, discussed below, it might at least partly have been aimed at the circle of musicians and producers that he felt trapped in and eager to break away from. And if it is addressed to anyone, it is like many of his songs, addressed to and about himself. He certainly knew what it felt like to be a complete unknown, to have no direction home, like a rolling stone. And Dylan could be harsh on himself.
Marcus has a somewhat political take on the song, that it was a sort of protest song or a song about how society and the individuals in it had to change. But as with other Dylan songs he references, this is just wrong. For example, he says Maggie’s Farm was about a workers’ revolt against conditions in factories and other businesses. That song is directed against those who ruled the folk and recording communities and thought Dylan had to keep being an acoustic, folk-oriented, protest singer. Dylan rebelled against anyone telling him what he was or should be.
Marcus should have taken as his lodestone, Dylan’s likely most personally revealing song in terms of his world view, My Back Pages. The lyrics in that song, written before Like A Rolling Stone, recite the simplistic approach he had to issues, in common with most of his colleagues, and then comments “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Dylan insisted on the right to grow, to change perspective, and was stridently vehement to those who tried to pigeonhole him and keep him in the pigeonhole. Like A Rolling Stone could also be read as a diatribe against those he felt were oppressing him in this manner.
The record Like A Rolling Stone was on, Highway 61 Revisited, was Dylan’s first all-electric album. It contains a number of wonderful songs, including my favorite, Desolation Row, perhaps the strongest of Dylan’s “image” songs. It remains among the greatest of all rock albums. And Like A Rolling Stone will likely persist as an anthemic song for many generations. Give it a listen again and form your own conclusions about what meaning it has or what meaning Dylan might have intended.
