Bob Dylan Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again Highway 61

Commentary

I gauge you could say that From a Buick 6 is the closest affair to filler on Highway 61 Revisited. It doesn't really break whatsoever new basis, the use of linguistic communication is nil we oasis't seen earlier, and it doesn't have the most memorable melody or beat. However, I think that says more about the loftier quality of Highway 61 than information technology does almost the quality of this vocal.

From a Buick vi is another blues number. It follows the typical blues chord structure, information technology repeats lines, and information technology deals with the same adult female-trouble themes as do and so many blues songs. Many take noted its similarities to Sleepy John Estes' Milk Cow Blues.

From a Buick 6 is some other of many Dylan songs from this fourth dimension period in which the title doesn't appear in the lyrics. At first chroma, the title doesn't appear to have anything to do with the song at all.

Dylan frequently gave nonsensical names to works-in-progress. According to Michael Krogsgaard in an commodity in the Dylan fanzine The Telegraph, the vocal was at some betoken named Lunatic Princess. Information technology is possible that Dylan just substituted one crazy name for another and it really has no other pregnant.

A more interesting possibility is that Dylan is pointing out the debt this song has to erstwhile dejection songs. Co-ordinate to Andrew Montgomery in his volume On the Road: American's Legendary Highways, the Buick automobile visitor produced a model called the "Buick 6" from 1914 to 1930. Given that many of the old blues songs that Dylan has mined so well were existence written during that time frame, it is not beyond the realm that Dylan wanted the title of the song to bring to mind that fourth dimension period.

Most commentators – including Paul Williams and Robert Shelton – interpret the lyrics of the song as a tribute to a woman, an "Earth Mother" type who takes intendance of her human, putting a "coating on his bed". I don't run into it quite that fashion. It seems to me that there are two distinct women in this vocal: his "graveyard" woman who keeps his kids (i.e. his wife), and his "soulful mama", a mistress who knows what he wants (i.e. his mistress).

I got this graveyard woman, you know she keeps my child
But my soulful mama, you know she keeps me hid

The key word is "but", which clearly tells the listener that the narrator is singing about ii distinct women. To me anyway, Buick six is clearly a cheating song, similar to Stuck Within of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Over again in which his mistress says"debutante knows what you demand/ simply I know what y'all desire".

The lyrics incorporate some brilliantly off-the-wall lines, including two of my favorites:

I need a steam shovel mama to keep away the dead
I need a dump truck mama to unload my head

There are so many lifeless people effectually the narrator that it volition take heavy equipment to remove them, and there'south and so much confusion in his mind he needs a big truck to conduct his mental anxieties away. Both funny and profound at the same time. What a wonderful fashion to describe a troubled mind!

Dylan played From a Buick vi a few times during a bout just after his electric debut at Newport. Never played again. An alternative version with an extended harmonica intro was released on the Japanese version of Highway 61.

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Lyrics

I got this graveyard adult female, you know she keeps my kid
Simply my soulful mama, you lot know she keeps me hid
She'southward a junkyard angel and she always gives me breadstuff
Well, if I become downwards dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed.

Well, when the pipeline gets cleaved and I'm lost on the river bridge
I'thousand cracked up on the highway and on the water's edge
She comes down the motorway gear up to run up me upwards with thread
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she spring to put a blanket on my bed.

Well, she don't make me nervous, she don't talk too much
She walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch
She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead
Well, if I become down dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed.

Well, you know I demand a steam shovel mama to go on abroad the dead
I need a dump truck mama to unload my head
She brings me everything and more, and just like I said
Well, if I go downwardly dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed.

mclendoninglacrievor1979.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.bobdylancommentaries.com/highway-61-revisited/from-a-buick-6/

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