music.wikisort.org - Composition

"Tombstone Blues" is the second song on Bob Dylan's 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited.[2] Musically it is influenced by the blues, while the lyrics are typical of Dylan's surreal style of the period, with such lines as "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken".

"Tombstone Blues"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Highway 61 Revisited
Released	August 30, 1965 (1965-08-30)
Recorded	July 29, 1965
Studio	Columbia, New York City
Genre	Garage rock[1]
Length	5:56
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Bob Dylan
Producer(s)	Bob Johnston

Lyrics

The lyrics fit the surreal style of the era, while being scathing of society and authority. The song contains several direct and indirect allusions to biblical characters as well as historical references.[3] For instance to John the Baptist, to which Dylan dedicates four lines:

John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, “Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?”".[4]

A live recording of the song, made for MTV in November 1994, was released on MTV Unplugged in 1995.

The song was performed by Marcus Carl Franklin and Richie Havens in I'm Not There, the film based on Dylan's life.[5] The soundtrack version is performed solely by Havens. Two lines from the song, spoken by the "Commander in Chief" – "Death to all those who would whimper and cry" and "The sun's not yellow; it's chicken" – are spoken by a digitally manipulated Lyndon B. Johnson in another scene in the film.

Stephen King quotes from the song at the end of his first published novel Carrie. He uses the lines:

Now I wish I could write you a melody so plain
That could hold you dear lady from going insane
That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain
Of your useless and pointless knowledge

[6]

And again quotes from the song with the line "You will not die, it's not poison" in chapter eleven of the novel Gerald's Game.[7]

References

External links

• "Tombstone Blues" review at AllMusic

На других языках

---

- [en] Tombstone Blues

---

[es] Tombstone Blues

«Tombstone Blues» es una canción compuesta por Bob Dylan y publicada en el álbum Highway 61 Revisited en 1965. Musicalmente, la canción es un blues rápido, aunque la letra es típica del periodo surrealista de Dylan, con frases como "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken" (literalmente "el sol no es amarillo, es pollo").

---

---