| The Beatles – Rocky Raccoon Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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If you doubt this song mocks Bob Dylan, check out http://www.morethings.com/music/beatles/rockyraccoon.html There's a nice analysis of this song with an actual comparison of some features to Dylan's work. In my opinion, it makes very much sense. |
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| Simon and Garfunkel – American Tune Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I'd like to point out that the melody is exactly like the church tune "O Sacred head now wounded" which was originally written in German as "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" by Paul Gerhardt in 1607 and is based on a german middle-age love song "Mein Gemüt ist mir verwirret". Hence, we have a german secular love song transformed into a religious anthem transformed into a "American tune". Given that Simon has a Bachelor degree in Music Science, I suppose he knew this. The history of this melody thus very nicely mirrors the "mistaken" and "confused" mood in the lyrics. Far away from home, the "american-ness" of tunes is just as uncertain as the age and especially the singer himself. | |
| Simon and Garfunkel – A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I definitely agree that this song is a parody of Dylan's style in almost any conceivable way (music, lyrics, instrumentation, accent). Nonetheless, I don't think it is a malicious one. Note that Simon and Garfunkel covered Dylan's "The times they are a-changing" - they must have found something valuable in Dylan's work after all. This song is thoroughly crafted in a way that reminds me of a mixture between tongue-in-cheekly exposing Dylan's idiosyncrasies and simultaneously kind of commending him. In order to imitate someone at this level, you must know him extremely well and spend a lot of time practising. I understand the song as a way of saying "Hey, you do have some obvious peculiarities, but they are worth a whole song of mine". Otherwise, this would have been a complete waste of early album space at a point in time where Simon and Garfunkel just started rising. A different, yet interesting analysis of the song can be found at http://www.morethings.com/music/beatles/rockyraccoon.html |
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