Bob Dylan broke my heart

My friend L. is an attorney who grew up in Greensboro. She's now retired, living on a lake outside of New York, where she had practiced. It was she who explained to me the why of Bob Dylan's appearances in TV commercials when I was distraught over his Super Bowl commercial Sunday. This participation, which is a horror to me, began 10 years ago when he let Victoria's Secret use a song and his image for a spot on American Idol. I never saw it because I never once watched American Idol. I don't apologize for that. I'm bragging about it. And he's dabbled in selling himself for other product commercials since then.

But there is something vastly different about Super Bowl commercials from all other commercials. That is not dabbling. That is the Big Time for commercials. I was broken-hearted by Dylan's Super Bowl ad, whether you interpret it as urging us to Buy American or Buy Chrysler or Keep Outsourcing. I saw countless articles about his fall from "counterculture hero" to what I would call a carnival barker. Why? He can't need the money that badly. Was he always a fraud or did he just finally sell out? I guess I feel as some did when he first went electric, but I won't tear anything up. I just dedicated "Positively 4th Street" to him."

L. says it's all best explained by the song for which he won the Academy Award in 2001 from the film "Wonder Boys:" 

"I used to care, but things have changed."

That 'bout says it.

Ya know, it's a damn fine song.

Good movie, too.







Lyrics:

A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There’s a woman on my lap and she’s drinking champagne
Got white skin, got assassin’s eyes
I’m looking up into the sapphire-tinted skies
I’m well dressed, waiting on the last train

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

This place ain’t doing me any good
I’m in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood
Just for a second there I thought I saw something move
Gonna take dancing lessons, do the jitterbug rag
Ain’t no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag
Only a fool in here would think he’s got anything to prove

Lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff too
Don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I’ve been walking forty miles of bad road
If the Bible is right, the world will explode
I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can’t win with a losing hand

Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet
Putting her in a wheelbarrow and wheeling her down the street

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I hurt easy, I just don’t show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get low down, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
I’m in love with a woman who don’t even appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I’m not that eager to make a mistake

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

Copyright © 1999 by Special Rider Music