One thing that stuck out to me in this song, is that it revolves around a very normal man (like the first post mentioned Ph.D. and all that stuff) in a setting where HE is isolated. Mr. Jones is a very normal man who becomes extremely abnormal in an enviromnent with geeks, midgets, and sword swallowers.
All these people he considers as lower class make sarcastic comments at him of his arrogance (you're a cow, give me some milk or else go home) and Mr. Jones doesn't really get it, though he knows "something is happening".
I remember when I was younger I went with my family to the town of Berkeley, in California. I'd grown up in a nice, white community, and was incredibly naive. As we walked down the street I was gaping at a lady dressed in rags. This homeless guy with a long beard and scraggly clothes came up to me and said "she's cute ain't she?" Shocked, i responded "yea i guess". He then continued "Yea, I like to travel to 3rd world countries and take pictures of poor people and go home to watch them all. Poor people are adorable". It took me a couple of days to realize his incredible sardonicism and how he had been making fun of my naive arrogance. When I heard this song, the image of that man popped into my head. I don't think I could have understood it better at that point.
The geeks, midgets, and sword swallowers are all Dylan in his trippy tale of a biting attack on one poor sap of a news reporter. It is Dylan, through these disguises, who is making fun of this reporter, and any other one who might want to pry into every meaning of every one of his tunes.
The geeks, midgets, and sword swallowers are all Dylan in his trippy tale of a biting attack on one poor sap of a news reporter. It is Dylan, through these disguises, who is making fun of this reporter, and any other one who might want to pry into every meaning of every one of his tunes.
One thing that stuck out to me in this song, is that it revolves around a very normal man (like the first post mentioned Ph.D. and all that stuff) in a setting where HE is isolated. Mr. Jones is a very normal man who becomes extremely abnormal in an enviromnent with geeks, midgets, and sword swallowers.
All these people he considers as lower class make sarcastic comments at him of his arrogance (you're a cow, give me some milk or else go home) and Mr. Jones doesn't really get it, though he knows "something is happening".
I remember when I was younger I went with my family to the town of Berkeley, in California. I'd grown up in a nice, white community, and was incredibly naive. As we walked down the street I was gaping at a lady dressed in rags. This homeless guy with a long beard and scraggly clothes came up to me and said "she's cute ain't she?" Shocked, i responded "yea i guess". He then continued "Yea, I like to travel to 3rd world countries and take pictures of poor people and go home to watch them all. Poor people are adorable". It took me a couple of days to realize his incredible sardonicism and how he had been making fun of my naive arrogance. When I heard this song, the image of that man popped into my head. I don't think I could have understood it better at that point.
The geeks, midgets, and sword swallowers are all Dylan in his trippy tale of a biting attack on one poor sap of a news reporter. It is Dylan, through these disguises, who is making fun of this reporter, and any other one who might want to pry into every meaning of every one of his tunes.
The geeks, midgets, and sword swallowers are all Dylan in his trippy tale of a biting attack on one poor sap of a news reporter. It is Dylan, through these disguises, who is making fun of this reporter, and any other one who might want to pry into every meaning of every one of his tunes.