It took three recordings (including the track on Highway 61) for Bob Dylan to arrive at this 1965 version of ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’. He recorded the song several more times, and landed on the final version on his 16th recording.
This particular rendition is tinted with emotion and despair, as the song is filled with literary references and despondent flashbacks of road-life folklore. Searching for truth from the back of a car, Dylan stares blankly into the musty future of whatever he meets next, unphased by the stages he meets and the people he greets. It is times like these that perhaps inspired some of the more revolutionary thoughts Dylan is known to share.
“Up on Housing Project Hill
It’s either fortune or fame
You must pick up one or the other
Though neither of them are to be what they claim”
Created by Damian Rodriguez, this newly produced music video uses footage from Dylan’s tour of the British Isles in 1965 (black and white) and 1966 (color).
[H/T NPR]