English through music · Bob Dylan · B2. Guarda il video, leggi l’analisi della canzone, poi rifletti sulle domande. Gli esempi e gli spezzoni citati sono in inglese, con traduzione.
Closing the 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, “Desolation Row” is one of Bob Dylan’s longest and most ambitious songs. Over eleven strange, dreamlike minutes, it paints a vast picture of a broken, carnival-like world.
The song introduces a long parade of famous and imaginary figures — from history, literature and legend — all wandering through a strange place called Desolation Row. Each verse presents new characters who behave in surprising, often absurd ways.
Dylan does not tell a simple story; instead he builds a huge, moving picture, like a painting full of tiny scenes.
Beneath the surreal images, many listeners feel a serious meaning: a portrait of a confused, unfair society, where ordinary values have been turned upside down. “Desolation Row” becomes a symbol of the edge of society, a place for those who do not fit in.
The song asks us to look honestly at a world that often seems mad.
With its length, its endless images and its literary references, “Desolation Row” shows how far Dylan was willing to push the idea of what a song could be. It feels closer to a long poem than to ordinary pop music.
For many fans, it is proof that popular song can carry the ambition of great literature.
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The song is full of characters described in detail, so it is an excellent place to study relative clauses, which give more information about a person or thing.
We use who for people, which for things, and that for both: the man who lives here / the song which changed music / the people that he describes.
A relative clause comes straight after the noun it describes: Dylan writes about characters who do strange things. Combine these two sentences with “who”: “I met a woman. She loves Bob Dylan.”
Surreal describes something strange and dreamlike, not realistic. A character is a person in a story or song. To wander means to walk with no clear direction.
A reference is a mention of another book, person or idea. Society is the people of a community seen as a group. Absurd means very silly or completely unreasonable.
- The song is full of strange characters; do you enjoy this dreamlike style, or do you find it confusing?
- Many listeners see a serious meaning under the surreal images; what do you think the song is really about?
- “Desolation Row” is very long and poetic; can a song be a work of literature?
- Describe three people you know using relative clauses with “who”.
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