Song for Bob Dylan

I think considering this song follows the song "Andy Warhol" on the 1972 album "Hunky Dory," released one year after Edie Sedgwick's death, I see some refences to Warhol's Factory years and the involvement both Edie and Dylan had in it in those days.

When the chorus goes "Here she comes again/ the same old painted lady/ from the brow of a superbrain" I think is a reference to Edie as the fake "painted" lady that was created by Warhol (the superbrain). I think the use of the word painted is clever, being that Warhol was a painter of sorts.

Then the part that goes "She'll scratch this world to pieces/ as she comes on like a friend/ but a couple of songs/ from your old scrapbook/ could send her home again" is a reference to how Edie is falling apart from the heroin (amongst other substances) and creating havoc around her and if Dylan would talk to her and remind her of how great things use to be, then maybe he could save her

Another in a line of songs - Joan Baez's "To Bobby" and Country Joe & The Fish's "Hey Bobby" spring to mind - seeming to think that Dylan had some sort of responsibility to lead the people ("Give us back our unity, Give us back our family" - what is he, Jesus?) and sing about social injustice rather than his own experiences. "Judas!" indeed.

"I was sick of the way my lyrics had been extrapolated, their meanings subverted into polemics and that I had been anointed as the Big Bubba of Rebellion, High Priest of Protest, the Duke of Disobedience, Leader of the Freeloaders, Kaiser of Apostasy, Arch-bishop of Anarchy, the Big Cheese. What the hell are we talking about? They were songs - not sermons." - Bob Dylan

But a nice song nonetheless, and the "voice like sand and glue" line is great.

(Oh, and incidentally, Dave: Dylan legally changed his name to Robert Dylan in 1962.)

i see this as a tribute to him, dylan. like david's asking him to come back and sing words of wisdom again. "you're every nation's refugee". great song.

This was written during Dylan's 'Hiatus' after his motorcycle crash. It was a callout to him to come out of 'retirement'. He (Dylan) eventually did.

This song is really trash-talk aimed at God, the Bob Dylan bits are a smoke screen. Clearly, the chorus is not about Bob Dylan. My take: "Painted Lady" = sex worker (Ref. Sweet Painted Lady - Elton John) "Super Brain" = God

"Here she comes again Same old painted lady from the brow of the super brain" Translation: Here she comes again Same old whore from God (Preaching temperance like in the 1920s) She hates the devil's music but we'll shut her down with some zingers from Bob Dylan.

The above, I believe, are the words of a demon muse Bowie acquired after he started paying tribute to Alister Crowley ( see "Quicksand" also from Hunky Dory).

I like that Bowie seems to use the Dylan voice in spite of noting that it sounds like "sand and glue". I also wanted to note that Dylan is doing some sort of XM Radio situation now, so he hasn't fallen out of music just yet: www.xmradio.com/bobdylan

Bowie sounds like dylan I noticed on some parts of the album.

So far as I know the song is just saying: start "protesting" again, Bob - 'cause if you don't someone else will, and your career will never recover! As to the chorus - well, I've never heard that theory about Edie before, but I don't know why he would be identifying her with Pallas Athena (which is where the "brow of the superbrain" imagery stems from).

I prefer the live BBC version (bootleg only) where most of the lead vocal is by George Underwood - who does a much more convincing Dylan impression than Bowie!

Parallels with the Dylan song 'Song to Woody' maybe?

Can someone explain why Bowie uses the reference 'Here SHE comes...'? Who or what is SHE?