Bob Dylan’s Pronouns (Bob Dylan Hotline #9)

This week on the Bob Dylan Hotline Laura and Rebecca are talking about Bob Dylan's pronouns!

In 1978, Bob Dylan told Craig McGregor,

"Tangled Up In Blue [was] the first [song] I ever wrote that I felt free enough to change all the... what is it, the tenses around, is that what it is? [...] The he and the she and the I and the you, and the we and the us–I figured it was all the same anyway – I could throw them all in where they floated right – and it works on that level."

How does this changing around of pronouns affect how we hear the song? And why does Dylan favour writing in the second person rather than the first? Joni Mitchell has something to say about that.

You can listen to Rebecca talk about "Like a Rolling Stone" on the Pod Dylan podcast here.

Find the Substack version of Graley Herren's essay on "Sweetheart Like You" here.

In case anyone's interested in what I did end up talking about at the conference about Bob Dylan and Masculinity conference, you can watch my talk here.

The line from "I Contain Multitudes" about "four pistols and two large knives" is from Shelby Foote's history of the Civil War, as James Adams (bob_notes on Twitter/X) noted here.

If you have a question for us, send us a voice memo to bobdylanhotline[at]gmail.com.

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Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.

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Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.