Post by erik on Sept 2, 2023 21:09:03 GMT -5
Bob Dylan is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with one of his more venomous songs, but one that was such a huge hit in the fall of 1965.
POSITIVELY 4TH STREET (Bob Dylan; CBS: 1965)—For much of the early 1960’s, Bob Dylan was considered the successor to icons like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger when it came to the modern American folk music movement. Beginning in 1962, he wrote and recorded many rhythmically simple but at times quite biting songs that were to become American standards, folk and otherwise: “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall”; “Blowing In The Wind”; “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”; and many others. He was also present, along with fellow folk music icons Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary for the March on Washington of August 28, 1963, which was led by the great Martin Luther King. By 1964, however, the Beatles and their British Invasion counterparts, along with the emergence of Beat poetry, were causing Dylan to expand his songwriting horizons into a million weird directions. He was also moving away from pure acoustic folk to a more electrified sound, which would spawn the folk-rock movement. The first indication of this was in early 1965 when, inspired by the Byrds’ recording of his “Mr. Tambourine Man”, he got together with keyboaridst Al Kooper and members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to record the epochal “Like A Rolling Stone”. This song would become Dylan’s all-time biggest hit, reaching #2 in August 1965. But even before that, his appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with an electric band was widely derided by folk music fans and colleagues, who felt that Dylan had stiffed and betrayed them. Perhaps in response to such a reaction, Dylan went on to write and record an even more scathing song in the form of “Positively 4th Street”. As per usual when it came to Dylan, the lyrics were as enigmatic as ever, though filled with a fair amount of rage; and the title is never mentioned in the lyrics. But given its length (not to mention that of its immediate predecessor), “Positively 4th Street” managed to hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1965, and influence later singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell. Dylan would continue to write and record many songs that touched on folk, blues, and even a touch of country-and-western. But one example of how “Positively 4th Street” influenced others well into the 21st century could be seen in the equally scathing 2006 Dixie Chicks’ smash “Not Ready To Make Nice”, which, like Dylan’s, was basically an “Up Yours” to their detractors (though, in the case of the Chicks, their detractors were the right-wing country music fan base that “cancelled” them in 2003 over lead singer Natalie Maines’ anti-war comments in London).
POSITIVELY 4TH STREET (Bob Dylan; CBS: 1965)—For much of the early 1960’s, Bob Dylan was considered the successor to icons like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger when it came to the modern American folk music movement. Beginning in 1962, he wrote and recorded many rhythmically simple but at times quite biting songs that were to become American standards, folk and otherwise: “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall”; “Blowing In The Wind”; “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”; and many others. He was also present, along with fellow folk music icons Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary for the March on Washington of August 28, 1963, which was led by the great Martin Luther King. By 1964, however, the Beatles and their British Invasion counterparts, along with the emergence of Beat poetry, were causing Dylan to expand his songwriting horizons into a million weird directions. He was also moving away from pure acoustic folk to a more electrified sound, which would spawn the folk-rock movement. The first indication of this was in early 1965 when, inspired by the Byrds’ recording of his “Mr. Tambourine Man”, he got together with keyboaridst Al Kooper and members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to record the epochal “Like A Rolling Stone”. This song would become Dylan’s all-time biggest hit, reaching #2 in August 1965. But even before that, his appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with an electric band was widely derided by folk music fans and colleagues, who felt that Dylan had stiffed and betrayed them. Perhaps in response to such a reaction, Dylan went on to write and record an even more scathing song in the form of “Positively 4th Street”. As per usual when it came to Dylan, the lyrics were as enigmatic as ever, though filled with a fair amount of rage; and the title is never mentioned in the lyrics. But given its length (not to mention that of its immediate predecessor), “Positively 4th Street” managed to hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1965, and influence later singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell. Dylan would continue to write and record many songs that touched on folk, blues, and even a touch of country-and-western. But one example of how “Positively 4th Street” influenced others well into the 21st century could be seen in the equally scathing 2006 Dixie Chicks’ smash “Not Ready To Make Nice”, which, like Dylan’s, was basically an “Up Yours” to their detractors (though, in the case of the Chicks, their detractors were the right-wing country music fan base that “cancelled” them in 2003 over lead singer Natalie Maines’ anti-war comments in London).