That's a thoughtful point, Rich. I don't disagree but I think the context - that is, WHEN he wrote it with civil rights, the March on Washington, etc., is really significant. I don't know that there were a lot of "elites" for lack of a better word, the "protest types" you talk about, who saw her death as a point for social reform. On the contrary, as Frazier's article points out, she would have been forgotten had Bob Dylan NOT written the song. As a young white man from you-would-think mostly white Minnesota, I saw this as Bob stepping up and saying something that needed to be said about race and justice, which seems prophetic, looking at what's happened in American courtrooms over the time since. But again, I can certainly see your point and you know, Bob is not about to explain it to us. There's room for both interpretations, isn't there? Thanks for taking the time to write - and read my Substack.
so -- and bear with me -- I have a different take on this song. This song is not a protest against the justice system although it certainly takes a swipe at it. It's a song protesting against the protest types that refuse to mourn the death of an innocent woman. ("now aint the time for your tears") and use her death as a vehicle to try to make some greater social point. The time for our tears should have been at the time of her death. That is the tragedy. Sure it's also bad that the justice system failed her, but her death is the tragedy. And that fact is often lost to people who try to use events to make political points. And that is what the song is decrying. And what a perspective that is and likely why he stopped writing these types of songs.
That's a thoughtful point, Rich. I don't disagree but I think the context - that is, WHEN he wrote it with civil rights, the March on Washington, etc., is really significant. I don't know that there were a lot of "elites" for lack of a better word, the "protest types" you talk about, who saw her death as a point for social reform. On the contrary, as Frazier's article points out, she would have been forgotten had Bob Dylan NOT written the song. As a young white man from you-would-think mostly white Minnesota, I saw this as Bob stepping up and saying something that needed to be said about race and justice, which seems prophetic, looking at what's happened in American courtrooms over the time since. But again, I can certainly see your point and you know, Bob is not about to explain it to us. There's room for both interpretations, isn't there? Thanks for taking the time to write - and read my Substack.
so -- and bear with me -- I have a different take on this song. This song is not a protest against the justice system although it certainly takes a swipe at it. It's a song protesting against the protest types that refuse to mourn the death of an innocent woman. ("now aint the time for your tears") and use her death as a vehicle to try to make some greater social point. The time for our tears should have been at the time of her death. That is the tragedy. Sure it's also bad that the justice system failed her, but her death is the tragedy. And that fact is often lost to people who try to use events to make political points. And that is what the song is decrying. And what a perspective that is and likely why he stopped writing these types of songs.