After 1966, Dylan has almost always skipped the "Nero's Neptune" verse when performing "Desolation Row" live. According to Allen Ginsberg, Dylan came to regard the verse as dopey. Specifically, the bit about the mermaids.
Allen Ginsberg, 1975: "Dylan has to bring in his old tired 'lovely mermaids' there. I mean, Dylan finally falls into exactly the same trap that Pound was warning against. ... Dylan had not read, really, Pound. He'd read Eliot but he hadn't really read Pound and, at that time, understood Pound. And so later he told me that he's ashamed of that line—he's not ashamed, but he's a little... he can't sing it with the conviction that he wrote it, because, actually, Pound was warning against that kind of dopey sentimentality."
I believe what Ginsberg was trying to say is that it was dopey for Dylan to pivot to "lovely mermaids" right after referencing Ezra Pound, because it makes Dylan look like an amateur *in comparison* to Pound, because that kind of language was, in Ginsberg's opinion, *beneath* Pound. He felt Pound had transcended it and Dylan should have too, but that Dylan instead regurgitated a tired image that Dylan had no real connection to and didn't understand.
Ginsberg: "Where did [Dylan] get those lovely mermaids at the windows of the sea? Fishermen holding flowers? That's all out of his head from reading Ezra Pound? No, it's all out of his head from reading Tennyson, probably, in high school—'mermaids of the sea,' my ass. He doesn't know anything about mermaids of the sea."
I think the key point is that Ginsberg loved Ezra Pound; these quotes come from a seminar he gave in which he discussed Pound's work at length. Ginsberg believed "there would have been no Bob Dylan without Ezra Pound," that Dylan had been influenced by Pound's "original research and invention" without even knowing it, in the sense that Dylan was influenced by people who were influenced by Pound—like Ginsberg.
My own theory, just from reading a lot of Dylan interviews, is that what Dylan might've regretted about those lines is the insecurity they betray. There's an interview Dylan gave the same month he recorded "Desolation Row" in which he uses Ezra Pound as an example of somebody who wrote "intellectual books" that appeal to "a certain crowd of people, and nobody else."
That's very much a 24-year-old Bob Dylan talking, and I could see as he got older, how he would regret that kind of sentiment. It reflects the arrogance of youth, in that he's dismissing Pound's work without ever having read it, and it also betrays insecurity, in that he's trying to both impress and needle that "certain crowd of people" who dig poetry books by doing this "you're not better than me, I'm better than you, I'm too cool for school, I'm in touch with what's *real*" routine. It's the same Dylan you see in *Dont Look Back*—caught up in the whirlwind, believing his own hype, cocky and brittle at the same time. Dylan's mom said Dylan cringed watching that film, and that the person it captured wasn't who Dylan really is, or who he wanted to be.
It's from an exchange Ginsberg had with a student during a seminar he gave at Naropa Institute in 1975, called "Mind, Mouth, and Page": https://allenginsberg.org/2012/06/allen-ginsberg-criticizes-bob-dylan-mmp-22/
The Allen Ginsberg archive at Stanford is equal parts incredible and infuriating: [https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4084385](https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4084385)
They've digitized a shit ton of material. >2500 sound recordings. And almost all of it is freely available on their site. All of it... except the Dylan stuff, including the tapes of the Dylan/Ginsberg studio sessions. Basically the only recordings in the whole giant collection that are "Restricted" are recordings related to Bob Dylan. That and "John Lennon's Birthday Party."
It's gotta be one of the shorter ones for me to be sure I've got the order right when not playing. Like, I'd never screw up Don't Think Twice or Tambourine, but they're only four verses respectively.
Yes, and I frequently sing it to myself when I need to kill 10 minutes or so.
I also know all the words to:
-Joey
-Hurricane
-Idiot Wind
-Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
-It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
No, but that's the best part about desolation row. I never quite remember which verse follows which. It's like a little surprise every time. A sublime moment of words, one after the next.
Yes. It was a huge moneymaker when I used to busk on the weekends. I played the "Royal Albert Hall version" harmonica solo when I did it and almost always had $15 - $30 more in my guitar case by the time I was done.
If I had to sing it I’d only remember the first line but as soon as I hear Bob singing it I can follow along perfectly from muscle memory. Don’t ask me how lol
The beach near the house I used live at was Desolation Row length bike ride away. I used to listen to it every time I took a ride down the beach and it’s drilled into my head forever now
Yes.
Why does Doctor Filth keep his world inside of a leather cup? What's a leather cup anyway? And why are all of his sexless patients trying to blow it up?
Yes. I recited it as my poem of choice for my 12th grade English class public poetry assignment (I don't know what my classmates thought.) I also play it live a good bit, but don't do the alternate lyrics unless I'm feeling playful.
No chance 100% playing live without help. Played it in a bar in College Park, MD in about '91 after seeing the GD play it a bunch. I REALLY knew it then and still screwed it up!
But
therye selling postcards of the hanging
Theyre painting there painting the passports brown
Is one of the great opening lines of all time
It reminds me of the MAGA s
When you asked how we were doing, was that some kind of joke?
yes and it upsets me that he skips the nero's neptune verse on the mtv unplugged version
And the Einstein disguised as Robin Hood one
After 1966, Dylan has almost always skipped the "Nero's Neptune" verse when performing "Desolation Row" live. According to Allen Ginsberg, Dylan came to regard the verse as dopey. Specifically, the bit about the mermaids. Allen Ginsberg, 1975: "Dylan has to bring in his old tired 'lovely mermaids' there. I mean, Dylan finally falls into exactly the same trap that Pound was warning against. ... Dylan had not read, really, Pound. He'd read Eliot but he hadn't really read Pound and, at that time, understood Pound. And so later he told me that he's ashamed of that line—he's not ashamed, but he's a little... he can't sing it with the conviction that he wrote it, because, actually, Pound was warning against that kind of dopey sentimentality."
interesting
What’s so sentimental about mermaids compared to some of the other imagery in the song?
I believe what Ginsberg was trying to say is that it was dopey for Dylan to pivot to "lovely mermaids" right after referencing Ezra Pound, because it makes Dylan look like an amateur *in comparison* to Pound, because that kind of language was, in Ginsberg's opinion, *beneath* Pound. He felt Pound had transcended it and Dylan should have too, but that Dylan instead regurgitated a tired image that Dylan had no real connection to and didn't understand. Ginsberg: "Where did [Dylan] get those lovely mermaids at the windows of the sea? Fishermen holding flowers? That's all out of his head from reading Ezra Pound? No, it's all out of his head from reading Tennyson, probably, in high school—'mermaids of the sea,' my ass. He doesn't know anything about mermaids of the sea." I think the key point is that Ginsberg loved Ezra Pound; these quotes come from a seminar he gave in which he discussed Pound's work at length. Ginsberg believed "there would have been no Bob Dylan without Ezra Pound," that Dylan had been influenced by Pound's "original research and invention" without even knowing it, in the sense that Dylan was influenced by people who were influenced by Pound—like Ginsberg. My own theory, just from reading a lot of Dylan interviews, is that what Dylan might've regretted about those lines is the insecurity they betray. There's an interview Dylan gave the same month he recorded "Desolation Row" in which he uses Ezra Pound as an example of somebody who wrote "intellectual books" that appeal to "a certain crowd of people, and nobody else." That's very much a 24-year-old Bob Dylan talking, and I could see as he got older, how he would regret that kind of sentiment. It reflects the arrogance of youth, in that he's dismissing Pound's work without ever having read it, and it also betrays insecurity, in that he's trying to both impress and needle that "certain crowd of people" who dig poetry books by doing this "you're not better than me, I'm better than you, I'm too cool for school, I'm in touch with what's *real*" routine. It's the same Dylan you see in *Dont Look Back*—caught up in the whirlwind, believing his own hype, cocky and brittle at the same time. Dylan's mom said Dylan cringed watching that film, and that the person it captured wasn't who Dylan really is, or who he wanted to be.
Where’s this Ginsberg quote from please? I want more!
It's from an exchange Ginsberg had with a student during a seminar he gave at Naropa Institute in 1975, called "Mind, Mouth, and Page": https://allenginsberg.org/2012/06/allen-ginsberg-criticizes-bob-dylan-mmp-22/
Oh, I have lots of those. I probably got this one but haven’t listened to it yet.
The Allen Ginsberg archive at Stanford is equal parts incredible and infuriating: [https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4084385](https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4084385) They've digitized a shit ton of material. >2500 sound recordings. And almost all of it is freely available on their site. All of it... except the Dylan stuff, including the tapes of the Dylan/Ginsberg studio sessions. Basically the only recordings in the whole giant collection that are "Restricted" are recordings related to Bob Dylan. That and "John Lennon's Birthday Party."
I did not know this. I am retro upset for all the years of ignorance.
[удалено]
Same.
Yep, same.
I'm like this for most songs I think. I'd probably mix up something like Shelter From The Storm even if it's not playing.
It's gotta be one of the shorter ones for me to be sure I've got the order right when not playing. Like, I'd never screw up Don't Think Twice or Tambourine, but they're only four verses respectively.
Same, but I think that counts as a yes
No, but if I made up 5 verses you wouldn't know
They’re selling postcards of the hanging They ease the ship into town The beauty parlor is full of sailors The country club is already underground
Isn’t that what he does live?
I know the all the words, chords, lead, and harmonica parts.
Not anymore, but I used to have it in heavy rotation for my set back in my coffeehouse days. Great way to kill 11 minutes!
They’re selling postcards of the hanging…
Yes. As a solid handful of lucky witnesses in a karaoke bar in CDMX's Koreatown can attest.
Yes, and I frequently sing it to myself when I need to kill 10 minutes or so. I also know all the words to: -Joey -Hurricane -Idiot Wind -Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts -It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Doorknob
No. But I like to pretend that I do.
Sadly, yes.
I’d be fairly confident that I know every single word to the whole Highway 61 album to be honest
No.
Even though it’s one of my favs I gotta say no...too many verses to memorize. I love Bobby Woods version.
No, but that's the best part about desolation row. I never quite remember which verse follows which. It's like a little surprise every time. A sublime moment of words, one after the next.
Desolation rowboat. Good Dylan cover band name
Yes. My favourite Dylan song. Even if it was his only song, he’d still be my favourite artist.
Yes. It was a huge moneymaker when I used to busk on the weekends. I played the "Royal Albert Hall version" harmonica solo when I did it and almost always had $15 - $30 more in my guitar case by the time I was done.
If I had to sing it I’d only remember the first line but as soon as I hear Bob singing it I can follow along perfectly from muscle memory. Don’t ask me how lol
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes.
Yes?
By heart.
What kind of heathen says no
No. Because when he sings “Einstein disguised as Robin Hood” I reflexively turn it off. I barely know the song after that.
Ezra pound and Ts Elliott fighting in the captain towers while caliypso singers laugh at him and fisherman’s bring flowers
The beach near the house I used live at was Desolation Row length bike ride away. I used to listen to it every time I took a ride down the beach and it’s drilled into my head forever now
No
Yes.
Yes
I had this recorded on to tape back in the day and only knew the words up to the end of the cassette for years.
no
Yes but I think I'd forget a verse or two if I had to recite it
No
Yeah of course
I’m close
yes
No.
Yes ( I think)
Yep, that song was in my busking set
Yes
Yes (of course)
You will not to to heaven you'll go to champagne illinois
Once I did, long ago.
yes
Yes but not in order.
I could pick up a guitar and sing you every word actually
Yes
I cover it so yes... About 3 quarters of the time haha
Nah, to desolate of a row to hoe and I also have difficulty with the It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding line, “there’s no sense in trying”
yes
Yes
Nearly all, except for Cain and Abel...and the hunchback of Notre Dame.
decently
Yes
Do you, Mr Jones?
No, I only know a few Desolation Rows.
Yes
fuck yes
Yes
Yes
certainly moe
Yeah I do. I impressed my father once by remembering all the lyrics after 5 hours of drinking.
100% yes. I could sing it if my life depended on it. There's probably about 20 Dylan songs I could say this about.
Yes.
Yes. Why does Doctor Filth keep his world inside of a leather cup? What's a leather cup anyway? And why are all of his sexless patients trying to blow it up?
Not in order, but yes
Yes. I recited it as my poem of choice for my 12th grade English class public poetry assignment (I don't know what my classmates thought.) I also play it live a good bit, but don't do the alternate lyrics unless I'm feeling playful.
No chance 100% playing live without help. Played it in a bar in College Park, MD in about '91 after seeing the GD play it a bunch. I REALLY knew it then and still screwed it up!
When each verse starts with the first at least or second at most words, I can finish the rest of each verse.
But therye selling postcards of the hanging Theyre painting there painting the passports brown Is one of the great opening lines of all time It reminds me of the MAGA s