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Refer to the lyrics at www.bobdylan.com
Paul Bullen wrote, interestingly:
It has seemed to be odd to find an encomium to Lenny Bruce on an album ostensibly devoted to Jesus (Shot of Love). Could someone comment on this? Was Bob Dylan sending some kind of subtle message (such, "despite my recent commitment to Jesus, I have not become a completely different person)? Does anyone have any insight on this matter?
Bill Parr wrote:
And, Dylan was obviously very proud of this album.
What is it that, in the song, Dylan emphasizes about Lenny Bruce? (Or, maybe, more precisely, what stands for FOR THIS LISTENER?)
1) That he (Lenny Bruce) came with a message the world was not ready to hear ("He just had the insight to rip off the lid before its time")
2) That he was badly received, rejected by the world
I think that, to some extent, Dylan saw his experience from 1979 to the writing of Lenny Bruce as being a bit similar to that of Lenny Bruce's experience. Dylan had a message to bring the world, and they responded . . .
When he said "What I can I do for you?"
They said "Anything Old!"
They decided he had "betrayed them" (as if he owed them whatever they now wanted, by virtue of having in the past offered them the inestimable gift of wonderful music) by his recent actions.
And, they were unable to see that his conversion fit into a pattern with his life thus far, and his concerns thus far.
These is something else which I think has significance. Dylan, according to many of the published reports and quotes (many of them provided on the Slow Train Coming Home Page) had the experience of running into not only a few professing Christians who proved to be similar to the Pharisees of Jesus' time - lovers of style and appearance over substance. I think I also see a little of Dylan thumbing his lyrical nose at them, by this encomium to Lenny Bruce.
Thanks for an extremely intriguing post, Paul.
Bill Parr
Robert wrote:
In the radio interview with Dave Herman in 1981, Dylan said that he had indeed once shared a taxi with Lenny Bruce. [Ed. note: a line in the song mentions riding in a taxi with Lenny Bruce.] They certainly had friends in common in the Village (Nat Hentoff, for instance); and they were known to be in the same places at the same time (Dylan was seen at a Lenny Bruce show at the Village Theater, which later became the Fillmore East); and New Yorkers share taxis everyday. So, it's not implausible.
But it's true that the taxi line would also apply to John Lennon. [Ed. note: many have argued that the song is about John Lennon instead of Bruce.]
I remember an intensely literal critic once deriding the song and mentioning the taxi line as being particularly banal, and I thought the damned fool had entirely missed what a great metaphor that taxi ride really is. A taxi is a vehicle in which you're only ever situated for a short period of time; you're side by side with your fellow passenger, sharing the same direction, but it's utterly impermanent.
The mention of sharing that taxi "only for a mile and a half, seemed like it took a couple of months" is something of a metaphor for the sixties. For a time, some people shared the same trip, and due to the intensity of the experiences, it seemed like it took much longer than it really did. And after that short yet eventful ride, people wound up in different destinations. Some survived, some didn't.
I've always thought "Lenny Bruce" was a great song which has been overlooked by those who can only see it in its most literal sense. And every now and then Dylan revives it, so it seems he finds something in it beyond a simple recitation of fact.
Dan Levy wrote:
Just last week, I saw a new documentary at the Film Forum in New York City called "Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell The Truth." It's certainly the best thing I've seen about Lenny Bruce's life and career and I recommend it if it comes to your town.
Lenny Bruce's life was essentially ruined by zealous prosecutors and policemen who found it fashionable to bust him and prosecute him for obscenity. As a number of people say in their filmed interviews, Lenny Bruce was really being prosecuted for blasphemy, not obscenity, as there had been plenty of comedians and burlesque shows with far more obscene content at the time in cities across the country.
Lenny Bruce really liked to make fun of organized religion at a time when it was really not popular to do so. A strong case is made in the film that many prosecutors who leaned on Lenny Bruce were devout Christians who were defending the dignity of their church.
He may not have robbed any churches, but he was the enemy of almost any organized religion.
Eventually, Lenny Bruce found it almost impossible to get bookings in nightclubs because the club owners were afraid of getting nailed. The dozen or so prosecutions took up all of Bruce's money and time. He became so obsessed by his legal dilemma that he took to expounding upon the U.S. constitution in his performances. As he told Paul Krassner, he was no longer a comedian, he was just Lenny Bruce.
All of his friends were forced to deal with Lenny's consitutional obsessions. It is easy to imagine being in a cab with him at this point in his life and having it feel like a couple of months.
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