Bob Dylan: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (1965)

"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" by Bob Dylan is the greatest song of all time.  Without a doubt.

In theory, it's one of the worst songs ever.  It doesn't have a chorus.  Heck, it hardly even has a hook-- there's no refrain here, a la "MISTER JONES" or "Won't you come see me, Queen Jane," nor any guitar or organ riff of note.  It goes on forever-- something like five minutes-- and its lyrics are mostly inscrutable, with none of the fun put-downs that Bob loved so much in the mid-60s.

So... what does this song have, you ask?  Well, I respond, it's got Bob's voice.  Bob's beautiful, magical, soaring, five-octave voice.

...I'm only partially kidding.  Everyone knows Bob has a unique voice, but I think it's more than that.  I think Bob's voice is one of the great voices in rock and roll.  And not just because he's "influenced" people, or whatever.  I could give a shit about that.  No, I think Bob's voice is great because it always keeps me engaged.  There's not one song on Highway 61 Revisited that really "changes"-- once you've heard the first minute of "Tombstone Blues" or "Desolation Row," you've kind of heard the whole thing.  Only, you haven't.  Because unless you hear Bob sing all of his ridiculous nonsense, you haven't heard nothin.

Bob's name comes up often in the race for the Nobel Prize in Literature, something I think is a joke.  The Nobel Prize in Lit recognizes a body of written work, and there's no way Bob's lyrics on their own can compare to the work of Philip Roth or Cynthia Ozick or Obscure Eastern European Dramatist Never Translated Into English.  Bob's lyrics can stand alone, but they only really work magic when the man himself is singing them.  The "mysterious everyman" persona Bob cultivated in the 60s digs deep into the ambiguities of his words; I'd argue that a more typical "mystery man" (like, say, Captain Beefheart) or "everyman" (like Springsteen) cannot as easily tap into the poetic potential of any of these verses.

Up on housing project hill, it's either fortune or fame

You must pick on or the other though neither of them are to be what they claim

If you're looking to get silly, you better go back to from where you came

Because the cops don't need you and man they expect the same

I imagine that if you haven't heard "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," that verse means nothing to you.  On the other hand, if you have heard Bob sing that verse, it's rich with possibility.  Bob's voice, part yell, part whine, part mumble, all-American, straddles the line between "epic" and "ordinary."  It turns a seemingly nothing song like "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" into a stunning evocation of mid-60s confusion.

"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is the greatest song of all time.

(I couldn't find the original on Youtube... so enjoy this rather touching version played by Bob, George Harrison, Charlie Daniels, and others): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBshqWuaAWM