Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. It was originally released on the album Highway 61 Revisited. It was recorded on August 2, 1965, the same day as Dylan recorded Ballad of a Thin Man, Highway 61 Revisited and Queen Jane Approximately.^[1][2][3] It is considered one of Dylan's 1960's masterpieces, and a comic tour de force.^[4]

Lyrics

"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" continues on the road weariness from the album's previous song, "Highway 61 Revisited".^[5] The singer finds himself in Juarez, Mexico at Easter time, amidst sickness, despair, whores and saints.^[6] While there, he encounters shady women like Saint Annie and Sweet Melinda, as well as corrupt authorities, and drinks and drugs his way into helplessness.^[4] The song establishes a nightmare vision as the singer is pulled by gravity, negativity, drink, illness, remorse and memories.^[7] But in the surprising final verse, the singer has had enough finds the means to pick up and leave it all behind and head back to New York City, where things may be better.^[6]

Like many songs on Highway 61 Revisited, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is overflowing with literary references, including images recalling Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano,^[6] a street name taken from Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue,"^[6] and the title's reference to Rimbaud's "My Bohemian Life (Fantasy)," in which Rimbaud refers to himself as "Tom Thumb in a daze."^[8]

Music

Musically, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" has no chorus, but six AABA verses, each with an AAAA rhyme scheme, sweetened and deepened by a handful of chords and Dylan's vocal emphasis. Keyboards, drums and vocals provide texture.^[9] The keyboard parts are particularly notable, making innovative use of two different pianos, with Al Kooper playing an electric Hohner Pianet and Paul Griffin adding a bar room feel on tack piano.^[8]

Other Appearances and Acclaim

"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' was included on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II (also known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits in Europe) and on a different compilation album released only in Europe called Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2. An alternate take of the song is included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack.^[10]

It has also been popular live in concert. A live version recorded at a concert in Liverpool on May 14, 1966 was released as the B-side to the release of the I Want You single,^[9] and later in Masterpieces. The song was also part of the famous and controversial electric set with The Band at the so called 'Albert Hall' concert, which was in fact at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in Manchester, May 17th 1966, that was released on the album The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert.

In a 2005 reader's poll reported in Mojo, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" was listed as the #13 all time Bob Dylan song.^[11] In 2002, Uncut listed "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" as the #38 all time Bob Dylan song.^[12] The aggregation of critics' lists at acclaimedmusic.net did not place this song in its list of the top 3000 songs of all time, but rated it as one of the 1965 songs "bubbling under" the top 3000.^[13]

Cover versions

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was the first to cover the song, shortly after the release of Highway 61 Revisited. Issued as a non-LP single in early October 1965, Lightfoot's version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" was a #3 hit in Canada.

The song has also been covered many other times. A live cover by Neil Young is included on the album The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration. Others who have covered the song include Judy Collins, Frankie Miller, The String Cheese Incident, Nina Simone, Bryan Ferry (on the 2007 album Dylanesque), Linda Ronstadt^[4] and the Grateful Dead, who have covered it extensively live in concerts such as View From the Vault. Nina Simone's version differs in tone from Dylan's. While Dylan's version is someone sympathetic, if sneering, towards the foolish subject, Simone's version is an intense, first-person account of illusions being crushed, until at the end she is helpless in the hands of fate.^[14]

The Beastie Boys sampled the lyric "I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough" for their song, "Finger Lickin' Good", on the Check Your Head album. Bob Dylan requested $2000 for use of the sample, but Mike D managed to barter him down to $700.^{[citation needed]}

In the middle of a live version by X of their song "Devil Doll", singer John Doe breaks into "I started out on Burgundy" and ends his Dylan homage with "I'm going back to Los Angeles, I do believe I've had enough". The song is on the X anthology "Make the Music Go Bang" (2004).

References

External links

• Lyrics