Bob Dylan and US History

 

 

By Larry Fyffe

“Tarantula”, a small book by Bob Dylan, bears the marks of Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, James Joyce, and other somewhat obscure postmodernists.  But a good knowledge in reference to the history of the United States of America helps garner the real facts that are  found mixed in with its pages.

From a letter therein by a talking “Mouse” to “Fang” {a cat?}):

(D)ear fang, how goes it old buddy? long time no see. guess what? was gonna vote for goldwater cause you know he was the underdog but then i found out about this jenkins thing, & i figger it aint much but it’s the only thing he does have going for him so i’m changing my vote to johnson 

(Bob Dylan: Tarantula).

At the time, a Republican politician, conservative Barry Goldwater, runs aganist Democratic President  Lyndon B. Johnson; Walter Jenkins, an aide to the President, is caught in a sex act with a man which the skittery mouse believes could well be turned against Johnson by the moralistic Goldwater:

Now I'm liberal to a degree
I want everybody to be free
But if you think I'll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I'm crazy 

(Bob Dylan: I Shall Be Free, no. 10)

On the other hand, President John F. Kennedy gets presented in a humorous light:

Well, my telephone rang, it would not stop
It’s President Kennedy calling me up
He said, ” My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow?”
I said, “My friend, John, Brigitte  Bardot”
(Bob Dylan: I Shall Be Free)

Vice-President Johnson takes over when President Kennedy is murdered;
in spite of his support for civil rights, President Johnson’s standing is undone by the Vietnam War; he resigns. The times they are a-changing ~ at least metaphorically, these days are depicted in ‘liberal’ lyrics as the start of the rule of the biblical AntiChrist:
Air Force One coming in through the gate
Johnson sworn in at two thirty-eight
Let me know when you decide to throw in the towel
(Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul)

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