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BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

If any songwriter has articulated the attitude of the American collective subconscious towards the
American Dream it is Bob Dylan. Throughout the 1960s Bob Dylan was the reluctant, informal
figurehead and spokesperson for social change. He revolutionized the idea of the popular song and
created the idea that rock music could encompass sophisticated and literate lyrics. My focus
question today will be: How is the American Dream portrayed in the lyrics of Bob Dylan? I will
also relate ideas presented in Dylans lyrics with the texts we have studied in class.
To give my speech some context, I will begin with a brief summary of Dylans life and
achievements. Dylan was born in 1941 and grew up in a Minnesota mining town called Hibbing.
Shortly after dropping out of college he hitchhiked to New York where he soon made a name for
himself singing folk covers. He began to release his own songs in 1962, beginning with folk music
where he was immediately labelled Spokesman of the Generation and considered by many to be a
prophet. In 1965 he began to play rock music, in the process alienating his fan base, and produced a
series of monumental albums. Since then he has released around 40 albums of varying quality and
in a diverse range of genres including country, gospel, folk, rock and blues. His creative peak is
considered to be the 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, the perennial consensus greatest album ever
made and what was even described by critic Howard Wenner as the peak artistic achievement of
Western civilization. Dylan is credited with bringing the intellectualism of classic literature and
poetry to popular music. Over the years Dylan has amassed many awards including Oscars, Golden
Globes, Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize for "his profound impact on popular music and American
culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power. And there is currently a
strong movement to have him honoured with a Nobel Prize for Literature for lifetime achievement.
Now, to assess the portrayal of the American Dream in Dylans lyrics, we must first define what the
American Dream is and what it represents. The American Dream is based on the ideals of freedom,
equality and the pursuit of happiness - these values being enshrined in the Declaration of
Independence. During the 20th Century the American Dream also came to encompass material
success and I will also look at Dylans take on the deficiencies of the upper class who, according to
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are the party responsible for this corruption of the
American Dream. For some themes I have chosen one song which I feel fully expresses Dylans
opinion and message, for others I have compiled a number of lines which I feel better represents his
views.
One of the key early songs Dylan wrote on the theme of freedom, equality and peace is the 1963
song Blowin in the Wind, his meditation on humanitys inhuman nature which I will now play
an excerpt of. Here Dylan deals a critique of social and political injustice in the form of a series of
profound rhetorical questions the answer to all of which is blowin in the wind meaning that, like
the green light on the end of the pier for the character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, the answer
is always seemingly within reach but never truly attainable. Dylan articulates the yearning of the
people for peace in the line How many seas must the white dove sail, before she sleeps in the
sand? - the dove being a symbol of peace - and in How many times must the cannonballs fly,
before they are forever banned? He also pushes for freedom and equality in the line How many
years can some people exist, before theyre allowed to be free? Here, he is referring the the plight
of black Americans who, though slavery had been abolished for almost 100 years, were still very
much second-class citizens in the 1960s. These pictures show Dylan performing at the March on
Washington.
To look further into the motif of freedom I will now play an excerpt of Subterranean Homesick
Blues, an anti-establishment song from 1965. In this song Dylan likens America to a totalitarian
police state with no liberty and no opportunity. Dylan establishes this when he references phonetapping and in saying Im on the pavement thinkin about the government. He carries forward
this idea in this stanza:
Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.

BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Look out, kid, its something you did,
God knows when, but youre doing it again,
You better duck down the alleyway, lookin for a new friend,
The man in the coonskin cap, in the big pen,
Wants eleven dollar bills, but you only got ten.
The character Dylan in describes in this song is being pursued by teachers, policemen, tax collectors
and the army even though they appear to have committed no crime other than being a young person
in a world where everyone is prejudiced against them. In the face of such a controlling government,
Dylan offers advice to the youth of America telling them to think for themselves in the line You
dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. As to the lack of opportunity in this
America - I think that this is summed up perfectly in the delightfully pessimistic line Twenty years
of schoolin and they put you on the day shift.
Dylan also looks at the hypocrisy and corruption of Americas biased justice system. In the song
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll he bemoans the unjust reality of America. This song is
very much centred on exposing the lack of equality of American society in both racial terms and
class terms. He tells the partially true story of an African-American maid being caused to die by the
actions of an aristocratic white man because she was taking too long to get his drink. The trial reads
as
In the courtroom of honour, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that alls equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books aint pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught em
And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom
Stared at the person who killed for no reason
Who just happened to be feelin that way without warnin
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance,
William Zanzinger with a six month sentence.
So here he clearly is lamenting the bias of the legal system citing the far too lenient sentence for the
wealthy white man.This, Dylan declares in the song Hurricane, which contains much the same
message, Couldnt help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game. This
story also brings to mind the carelessness and lack of responsibility of the aristocracy for crimes
against the common people seen in the actions of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.
Just as Dylan makes a mockery of the preconceptions about the Land of the Free so too does he
dispel the notions of success promised by the American Dream. He has a critical attitude even to
the idea of success, at least in material terms. Dylans take on success can be seen in these quotes:
Theres no success like failure, and failures no success at all, Up on housing project hill its
either fortune or fame, you must pick one or the other though neither of them are to be what they
claim, You find out when you reach the top, youre on the bottom. And in the phrase Money
doesnt talk, it swears. which I would particularly like to draw your attention to because I think
this very true for the character Jay Gatsby. With his gaudy mansion and ostentatious displays of
wealth in a vain effort to ascend into the privileged class he merely comes across as pretentious and
tasteless, for Gatsby money truly does not talk, it swears.

Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.

BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Dylan delivers devastating appraisals to the growing corruption of America as a nation and so too
the corruption of the American Dream as an ideal. His view on the growing corruption and
depravity is seen clearly in lines like The National Bank, at a profit, sells road-maps for the
soul., Theyre selling postcards of the hanging. and They make everything from toy guns that
spark to flesh-coloured Christs that glow in the dark, its easy to see without looking too far that
not much is really sacred.
In the 1965 song Like a Rolling Stone, the song voted the Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling
Stone magazine, we see the tale of a woman reminiscent of the character Blanche DuBois from
Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. As with all great pieces of writing it has
layered meanings but in a literal sense it is a tale of a woman who has grown up in luxury but has
now lost her wealth and is struggling to survive in the real world. Dylan delights in adding insult to
injury and criticizing the protagonists earlier attitudes and really saying that they deserve what they
got. This is Dylans critique of the indifferent, arrogant upper class. I will play a short excerpt of the
song now as it is as much about the delivery as the lyrics. So, as we heard Dylan says
Once upon a time you dressed do fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didnt you?
People call, said, Beware doll, youre bound to fall
You thought they were all kiddin you
He then really shows that he truly believes that the character deserves their fate.
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was a-hangin out
Now you dont talk so loud
Now you dont seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal
How does it feel?!
Later he goes on to say:
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
Theyre all drinkin, thinkin that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts, but youd better take your diamond ring
Youd better pawn it, babe
This last stanza evokes images of the decadence of Jay Gatsbys parties and Dylan condemns the
complacent and superior attitude of the privileged classes who attend such parties.
The last song I will look at is A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall which is one which I feel fully
expresses Dylans opinions of the shortcomings of the American Dream. Here, in a series of
perfectly phrased metaphors Dylan completely destroys the utopian notion of America promised by
the American Dream. The America of Hard Rain is a bleak and desolate one filled with crooked
highways, sad forests, and dead oceans. It is one without innocence I saw a new born baby
with wild wolves all around it, It is America that is spiritually dead I saw guns and sharp swords
in the hands of young children,, where the hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten. It is
an America with little opportunity for material success I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody
on it, I saw a white ladder all covered with water, - the latter line referring to the slippery
nature of Benjamin Franklins idea of the ladder of success - showing that the path to success is in
reality long, difficult and dangerous and so denying the rags to riches aspect of the American
Dream. It is an America where the upper class are careless and indifferent to the plight of the
Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.

BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

impoverished I saw one person starving, I saw many people laughing. It is a land of racial
segregation and white dominance I saw a white man who walked a black dog. An unjust country
where the executioners face is always well hidden. (Perhaps also a reference to the Ku Klux
Klan). In Dylans opinion the American Dream can only be achieved through widespread, radical
social reform and he vows to continue to advocate this, I will tell it and see it and think it and
breathe it, and reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it, and Ill stand on the ocean until I
start sinking. But holds little hope that anyone will take heed I heard ten thousand whisperin
and nobody listenin.
So there you have it - Bob Dylans take on the American Dream. Abraham Lincoln stated, at the
Gettysburg Address of 1863, Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal. It is for us the living to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us ... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedomand that
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. One
hundred years later Bob Dylan makes it absolutely clear that the work Lincoln refers to remains
unfinished - American society remains one of inequality, racial segregation and material decadence.
The American Dream, and the noble intentions it entails, has been long neglected, that much is
clear. But it is not irretrievably lost. As long as writers like Dylan continue to advocate the ideals of
liberty, equality and freedom of opportunity there remains hope for a society of the people, by the
people and for the people. There remains hope that if American society embraces liberty and
equality and rejects injustice and a culture of rampant materialism then the true ideals of the
American Dream may experience a renaissance.
Bibliography
Boucher, David & Browning, Gary (eds.) 2004, The Political Art of Bob Dylan, Antony Rowe, Chippenham.
Cott, Jonathan (Ed.) 2006, Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, Hodder & Stoughton, London.
Dettmar, Kevin J. H. (Ed.) 2009, The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dylan, Bob 1966, Blonde On Blonde (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York.
Dylan, Bob 1975, Blood On The Tracks (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York.
Dylan, Bob 1965, Bringing It All Back Home (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York.
Dylan, Bob 2004, Chronicles Volume One, Simon & Schuster, New York.
Dylan, Bob 1976, Desire (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York.
Dylan, Bob 1965, Highway 61 Revisited (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York.
Dylan, Bob, 1963, The Freewheelin Bob Dylan (Music CD), Columbia Records., New York.
Dylan, Bob 2006, Lyrics: 1962-2001, Simon & Schuster, New York.
Dylan, Bob 1964, The Times They Are A-Changin (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York.
Heylin, Clinton 2000, Behind the Shades Revisited, Harper Collins Publishers, London.
Heylin, Clinton 2009, Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 1: 1957-73, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne.
Heylin, Clinton 2010, Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2: 1974-2006, Chicago Review Press, Chicago.

Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.