I love the song (off course) & Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a one of the great northern renaissance painters.
From youtube comment:
This 10 minute film is a collage of music and imagery set down by two artists who lived 450 years apart in history. The unexpected union of these visionaries was a chance encounter late one night while perusing through an old book of engravings by the Flemish artist, Peter Bruegel the Elder while listening to the song “Desolation Row” by Bob Dylan. In an instant an uncanny collaboration was taking place. The wildly strange visual imagery of Bruegel was illustrating the equally bizarre lyrics of Dylan. They were in tandem. Yet neither medium violated the unique vision of the other. This unusual film captures this creative apparition through the use of marionettes, engravings and music.
Bob Dylan: As I look back on it now, I am surprised that I came up with so many of them. At the time it seemed like a natural thing to do. Now I can look back and see that I must have
written those songs “in the spirit,” you know? Like “Desolation Row” – I was just thinkin’ about that the other night. There’s no logical way that you can arrive at lyrics like that. I don’t know how it was done.
KL: It just came to you?
BD: It just came out through me.
~Bob Dylan – Kurt Loder interview, Oct 1987
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“Desolation Row” also focuses on scene, but in a more purposeful way: the images build up powerfully, propelled by the vocal and instrumental performances. The song makes a statement: this scene is important, it needs·to be paid attention to, there is a reality in this life which may not be cheerful but which, once discovered, shows everything else to be a
pose. Desolation Row” is an anthem; it proclaims and forever defines a certain place, certain state of being… ..And finally I can say about “Desolation Row” only that I am in awe of it.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973)
Performances:
262 times acoustic w/ band – top year 2000 (42 times)
19 times acoustic – top year – top year 1966 (13 times)
166 times w/band – top year 2011 (32 times)
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First performance: Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, New York – Aug 28, 1965
Last performance: Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena, Vancouver – July 25, 2017
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
~Desolation Row
Bob, where is Desolation Row? Bob Dylan: Where? Oh, that’s someplace in Mexico. It’s across the border. It’s noted for it’s coke factory. Coca-Cola machines are… sells -… sell a lotta Coca-Cola down there.
~San Francisco Press Conference – Dec 3, 1965
Bob Dylan: As I look back on it now, I am surprised that I came up with so many of them. At the time it seemed like a natural thing to do. Now I can look back and see that I must have
written those songs “in the spirit,” you know? Like “Desolation Row” – I was just thinkin’ about that the other night. There’s no logical way that you can arrive at lyrics like that. I don’t know how it was done.
KL: It just came to you?
BD: It just came out through me.
~Bob Dylan – Kurt Loder interview, Oct 1987
The final show of the 1966 world tour. Thankfully the entire acoustic half has emerged on acetate. CBS in fact recorded both nights at the Royal Albert Hall for a possible live album. Before performing “Visions of Johanna,” Dylan launches into a verbal attack on those critics who accuse him of writing drug songs, informing them the next song, “is not a drurg [sic} song. It’s just vulgar to think so.” But the highlight of this, the final 1966 acoustic set is a six-and-a-half minute “Just Like a Woman,” Dylan veering in and out of control of his phrasing. During the electric set, tempers, both on and offrhe stage, become frayed. Before “I Don’t Believe You,” Dylan announces, “I get accused of dismissing my old songs. That’s not true. I luuurve my old songs.” At the time critics are divided as to the merits of the two London shows. Ray Coleman, in Disc and Music Echo, felt that Dylan, “insults his own talents … [with} a shamble of noise.” The London Times reviewer, writing up the first London show, much preferred the acoustic set, entitling his article, “The Better Half of Dylan.” After Dylan· s motorcycle accident, though, the shows will quickly achieve mythic status.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Royal Albert Hall London, England 27 May 1966
Musicians:
Bob Dylan (vocal & electric guitar)
Robbie Robertson (electric guitar)
Garth Hudson (organ), Rick Danko (bass)
Richard Manuel (piano)
Mickey Jones (drums)
The last three songs of the May 27 acoustic set at Royal Albert Hall are good enough to stand next to the best work of any twentieth century artist (performer, painter, poet, mathematician… )
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973)
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