Bob Dylan's 115th Dream: Difference between revisions

'''"Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"''' is a song by [[Bob Dylan]], released on his fifth album, ''[[Bringing It All Back Home]]''. In 2005, ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'' magazine rated the song as the 68th greatest Bob Dylan song.<ref>{{cite web|title=The 100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs|work=Mojo Magazine|date=September 2005|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/mojo_p4.htm#Bob%20Dylan%20Songs|access-date=May 27, 2009}}</ref>

==Themes==

The title alludes toanearlier Dylan song, "[[Bob Dylan's Dream]]", released in 1963. The song is a satirical and surrealistic story that jumbles together historical and literary and narrative references from the [[voyages of Columbus]] to the ''[[Mayflower]]'' to ''[[Moby Dick]]'' to the present day. The narrator calls his ship's captain "Captain Arab", referring to [[Captain Ahab]] from ''Moby-Dick''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cotkin |first1=George |title=Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-998672-9 |pages=254–255 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jer_G-C9UPEC&dq=%22bob+dylan%27s+115th+dream%22&pg=PT325 |language=en}}</ref> several times during the telling of the tale.

Historian [[Sean Wilentz]] described the song as "a six-and-a-half-minute roller-coaster ride, more joyful than scary" in which Dylan constructs a manic journey through American history:『a hipster sailor travels across a historical landscape where it’s sometimes 1620, sometimes 1851, sometimes 1492, but always 1965 as well—and could just as easily be America today, which is really the point.』For Wilentz, the song amounts to a portrait of America as "a newfound land that is frantic, exasperating, jumbled, and irrational beyond the point of absurdity".<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2021/06/19/bob-dylan-historian/

| title = Bob Dylan, Historian | author = Wilentz, Sean| date = June 19, 2021| accessdate = July 5, 2021| work = The New York Review of Books}}</ref>

Dylan recorded an acoustic version on January 13, 1965, the first day of the ''Bringing It All Back Home'' sessions. He recorded what would become the final album version a day later, with [[Bobby Gregg]] on drums, [[Bill Lee (musician)|Bill Lee]] on bass, and [[Paul Griffin (musician)|Paul Griffin]] on piano.<ref name="McNally">{{cite book |last1=McNally |first1=Dennis |title=On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom |date=2014 |publisher=Counterpoint |isbn=978-1-61902-449-6 |pages=408 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0esZBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22bob+dylan%27s+115th+dream%22&pg=PA403 |language=en}}</ref> He did not perform the song live until October 13, 1988, then went on to play it during the final six concerts of his 1988 tour.<ref name="Williams">{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Paul |title=Bob Dylan: Performance Artist 1986-1990 And Beyond (Mind Out Of Time): The Life and Music of Bob Dylan |date=2009 |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-0-85712-118-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lR71505tznwC&dq=%22bob+dylan%27s+115th+dream%22&pg=PT201 |language=en}}</ref>

The track commences with an early take of Dylan beginning to play the song alone before producer [[Tom Wilson (record producer)|Tom Wilson]] is heard bursting into laughter<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Browne |first1=David |title=Remembering Bob Dylan's Pioneering Producer Tom Wilson |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/remembering-bob-dylan-and-velvet-undergrounds-pioneering-producer-43187/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=1 August 2020 |date=4 November 2015}}</ref> and signalling for a start-over. The track is then transitioned into a take played by the full band the next day.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marcus |first1=Greil |title=Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads |date=2006 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-0-7867-3658-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gvBPPSmRr6kC&q=%22Bob%20Dylan%27s%20115th%20Dream%22%20laugh |language=en}}</ref>

The song was covered by [[Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal]] on the Dylan tribute album ''[[Chimes of Freedom (album)|Chimes of Freedom]]''.<ref name="Dickerson">{{cite magazine |last1=Dickerson |first1=John |title=A Weird and Wooly New Mix of Bob Dylan Imitations and Tributes |url=https://slate.com/culture/2012/02/chimes-of-freedom-reviewed-amnesty-international-s-uneven-bob-dylan-cover-album.html |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|access-date=1 August 2020 |date=7 February 2012}}</ref>

[[Category:Music based on novels]]

[[Category:Songs about dreams]]

[[Category:Songs about sailors]]