Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast

For the first time ever, Henry and Erin Callahan welcome you to a crossover episode with Infinity Goes Up On Trial! In this very special episode Henry and Erin are joined by a panel of experts to discuss the 25th anniversary of "Love & Theft" and September 11, 2001, which famously (in the Dylan world) occurred on the same day.Our expert panel of Michael Glover Smith, Roberta Rakove, Adam Selzer share their thoughts, memories and feelings about both the album and that day. What were your memories from that day? Did you buy "Love & Theft" when it came out? Tag @songsofbob on Instagram with your thoughts! Follow us on Instagram @songsofbob,If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, & Linda Maultsby over on Substack.Email us at [email protected]: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

Welcome to Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast, where we explore the man and the music one song at a time. In this episode, Henry welcomes back his bestie Erin Callahan to talk about Goodbye Jimmy Reed and the finale of the Long Hot Summer 2026 in Nashville!  Goodbye Jimmy Reed Written by: Bob Dylan I live on a street named after a Saint Women in the churches wear powder and paint Where the Jews and the Catholics and the Muslims all pray I can tell a Proddy from a mile away Goodbye Jimmy Reed - Jimmy Reed indeed Give me that old time religion, it’s just what I need For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory Go tell it on the Mountain, go tell the real story Tell it in that straight forward puritanical tone In the mystic hours when a person’s alone Goodbye Jimmy Reed - Godspeed Thump on the bible - proclaim the creed You won’t amount to much the people all said ‘Cause I didn’t play guitar behind my head Never pandered never acted proud Never took off my shoes and threw them into the crowd Goodbye Jimmy Reed - goodbye and goodnight I’ll put a jewel in your crown - I’ll put out the light They threw everything at me, everything in the book Had nothing to fight with but a butcher’s hook They have no pity - they don’t lend a hand And I can’t sing a song that I don’t understand Goodbye Jimmy Reed - goodbye and good luck Can’t play the record ‘cause my needle got stuck Transparent woman in a transparent dress It suits you well - I must confess I’ll break open your grapes I’ll suck out the juice I need you like my head needs a noose Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye and so long I thought I could resist her but I was so wrong G-d be with you, brother dear If you don’t mind me asking, what brings you here? Oh, nothing much, I’m just looking for the man I came to see where he’s lying in this lost land Goodbye Jimmy Reed and with everything within ya Can’t you hear me calling from down in Virginia     Check out Erin's new book! https://bookshop.org/p/books/bob-dylan-in-the-1980s-a-reconsideration-erin-c-callahan/1f54f866c253f95d  And her fabulous podcast: https://infinitygoesupontrial.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram @songsofbob,If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, & Linda Maultsby over on Substack.Email us at [email protected]: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

Welcome to Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast, where we explore the man and the music, one song at a time. In this episode, Henry welcomes renowned scholar and author of "About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan," Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff to discuss a top 3 song, of Henry's from the legendary, Highway 61 Revisited, 1965's DESOLATION ROW.  Listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUvcWXTIjcU Desolation Row Written by: Bob Dylan They’re selling postcards of the hanging They’re painting the passports brown The beauty parlor is filled with sailors The circus is in town Here comes the blind commissioner They’ve got him in a trance One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker The other is in his pants And the riot squad they’re restless They need somewhere to go As Lady and I look out tonight From Desolation Row Cinderella, she seems so easy “It takes one to know one,” she smiles And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning “You Belong to Me I Believe” And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place my friend You better leave” And the only sound that’s left After the ambulances go Is Cinderella sweeping up On Desolation Row Now the moon is almost hidden The stars are beginning to hide The fortune-telling lady Has even taken all her things inside All except for Cain and Abel And the hunchback of Notre Dame Everybody is making love Or else expecting rain And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing He’s getting ready for the show He’s going to the carnival tonight On Desolation Row Now Ophelia, she’s ’neath the window For her I feel so afraid On her twenty-second birthday She already is an old maid To her, death is quite romantic She wears an iron vest Her profession’s her religion Her sin is her lifelessness And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah’s great rainbow She spends her time peeking Into Desolation Row Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood With his memories in a trunk Passed this way an hour ago With his friend, a jealous monk He looked so immaculately frightful As he bummed a cigarette Then he went off sniffing drainpipes And reciting the alphabet Now you would not think to look at him But he was famous long ago For playing the electric violin On Desolation Row Dr. Filth, he keeps his world Inside of a leather cup But all his sexless patients They’re trying to blow it up Now his nurse, some local loser She’s in charge of the cyanide hole And she also keeps the cards that read “Have Mercy on His Soul” They all play on pennywhistles You can hear them blow If you lean your head out far enough From Desolation Row Across the street they’ve nailed the curtains They’re getting ready for the feast The Phantom of the Opera A perfect image of a priest They’re spoonfeeding Casanova To get him to feel more assured Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence After poisoning him with words And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls “Get Outa Here If You Don’t Know Casanova is just being punished for going To Desolation Row” Now at midnight all the agents And the superhuman crew Come out and round up everyone That knows more than they do Then they bring them to the factory Where the heart-attack machine Is strapped across their shoulders And then the kerosene Is brought down from the castles By insurance men who go Check to see that nobody is escaping To Desolation Row Praise be to Nero’s Neptune The Titanic sails at dawn And everybody’s shouting “Which Side Are You On?” And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot Fighting in the captain’s tower While calypso singers laugh at them And fishermen hold flowers Between the windows of the sea Where lovely mermaids flow And nobody has to think too much About Desolation Row Yes, I received your letter yesterday (About the time the doorknob broke) When you asked how I was doing Was that some kind of joke? All these people that you mention Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame I had to rearrange their faces And give them all another name Right now I can’t read too good Don’t send me no more letters no Not unless you mail them From Desolation Row Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music Follow us on Instagram @songsofbob,If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, & Linda Maultsby over on Substack.Email us at [email protected]: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

In this weird Episode, Henry veers off course to talk to Bob Dylan scholar, writer & expert, Ray Padgett, about Weird Al Yankovic's 2003 pastiche of a Bob Dylan song, "Bob." Come for Ray Padgett, stay for the best palindromes you'll hear today! I promise, next month, back to a Bob Dylan song!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIty7RqbF9o  I, man, am Regal, a German am I Never odd or even If I had a Hi-Fi Madam, I'm Adam Too hot to hoot No lemons, no melon Too bad I hid a boot Lisa Bonet ate no basil Warsaw was raw Was it a car or a cat I saw? Rise to vote, sir Do geese see God? Do nine men interpret? Nine men I nod Rats live on no evil star Won't lovers revolt now? Race fast safe car Pa's a sap Ma is as selfless as I am May a moody baby doom a yam Ah Satan sees Natasha No devil lived on Lonely Tylenol Not a banana baton No X in Nixon O stone, be not so O Geronimo, no minor ego "Naomi" I moan A Toyota's a Toyota A dog, a panic, in a pagoda Oh no, Don Ho Nurse, I spy gypsies, run! Senile felines Now I see bees, I won UFO tofu We panic in a pew Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo God, a red nugget, a fat egg under a dog Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog   Follow us on Instagram @songsofbob,If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, & Linda Maultsby over on Substack.Email us at [email protected]: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

Welcome to Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast, where we explore the man and the music one song at a time. Henry brings in Professor Jon Lasser to teach us all about the early 60's Bob Dylan song that didn't see the light of day till the mid 90s, "John Brown." Learn more from Jon at @teachingbobdylan! Listen and follow along with the song here: John Brown Written by: Bob Dylan John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore His mama sure was proud of him! He stood straight and tall in his uniform and all His mama’s face broke out all in a grin “Oh son, you look so fine, I’m glad you’re a son of mine You make me proud to know you hold a gun Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get And we’ll put them on the wall when you come home” As that old train pulled out, John’s ma began to shout Tellin’ ev’ryone in the neighborhood: “That’s my son that’s about to go, he’s a soldier now, you know” She made well sure her neighbors understood She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile As she showed them to the people from next door And she bragged about her son with his uniform and gun And these things you called a good old-fashioned war Oh! Good old-fashioned war! Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come They ceased to come for about ten months or more Then a letter finally came saying, “Go down and meet the train Your son’s a-coming home from the war” She smiled and went right down, she looked everywhere around But she could not see her soldier son in sight But as all the people passed, she saw her son at last When she did she could hardly believe her eyes Oh his face was all shot up and his hand was all blown off And he wore a metal brace around his waist He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she did not know While she couldn’t even recognize his face! Oh! Lord! Not even recognize his face “Oh tell me, my darling son, pray tell me what they done How is it you come to be this way?” He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move And the mother had to turn her face away “Don’t you remember, Ma, when I went off to war You thought it was the best thing I could do? I was on the battleground, you were home . . . acting proud You wasn’t there standing in my shoes” “Oh, and I thought when I was there, God, what am I doing here? I’m a-tryin’ to kill somebody or die tryin’ But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close And I saw that his face looked just like mine” Oh! Lord! Just like mine! “And I couldn’t help but think, through the thunder rolling and stink That I was just a puppet in a play And through the roar and smoke, this string is finally broke And a cannonball blew my eyes away” As he turned away to walk, his Ma was still in shock At seein’ the metal brace that helped him stand But as he turned to go, he called his mother close And he dropped his medals down into her hand Copyright © 1963, 1968 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1996 by Special Rider Music Follow us on Instagram @songsofbob,If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, & Linda Maultsby over on Substack.Email us at [email protected]: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.