Comments in Response to Dylan Singing Hard Rain at Town Hall, 1963

Painting by the author. Acrylic on panel, 36"x 24" $300

For sheer entertainment value, one of the best features of many online publications is the "Comments" section that follows many articles we read. Reason magazine, The Unherd and others have some pretty invigorating tussles. 

YouTube likewise enables comments as well. Reading them can tell you a lot about an an artist and his work. Last night I was listening to a few of Dylan classics from the early 60s and reading the comments. Here are some comments I gleaned from the 1148 comments on the video A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall {Live at Town Hall 1963}, one of Dylan's most significant concerts from his early career.

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I'm a 17 year old from England and I think Dylan is simply the greatest and no one will ever come close to him in terms of song writing. I saw him live back in November and it was one of the best experiences of my life (see a video on my channel). Long live Bob

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73 years old and I still get chills listening to his lyrics and the comfort knowing that there are people who actually see what is in front of them.

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"I met one man who was wounded in love, I met another man who was wounded in hatred." My favorite lyric of all time.

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I was there in Newport sitting on the wall at Freebody Park in '63 when he sang "Blowin' in the wind" for the first time on stage. Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seger and all accompanied him. It turned out to be so monumental. He dedicated it to Megar Evans. I was 12.

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the most visionary song ever and fifty years later it's still one of the greatest poems ever sung

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He was only 22 years old... How can you write such a masterpiece this young ? Definitely one of his top work in terms of poetry.

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My Gosh. I love some of Bob Dylan's later stuff but his early stuff is so raw and soulful. His voice is amazing. I don't know why people say he can't sing. Gives me shivers.

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The first time I heard the last verse from "And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it.." to the end it gave me chills down my spine to the tips of my toes. The clarity and vividness of his vision takes my breath away every time. The song up to that point is like waves slowly building, one greater than the one before, until it all comes crashing down as Dylan brings us from the past into the present, him standing in front of us "reflecting from the mountain."

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No matter when this song was written, its significance is residual and always relevant. Bob is such a genius.

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When i hear the applause at the end of this song, those folks had witnessed an event. Not an event like a concert or other gathering of people, but an historical event. A summary point in time usually reserved for great leaders to give a needed oratory of inspiration. Instead a young poet/troubadour steps up and delivers a performance so important they just don't clap, they are cheering. I can hear incredulity in their voices as not believing what they have just seen and heard they go bananas.

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It never fails to amaze & send shivers down my spine when i hear this recording, amazed that Bob wrote this at such a tender young age, it's no wonder that the force of nature that was/is Jimi Hendrix held him in such awe, Peace.

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Related Link 51 Years of Hard Rain

There's an immense quantity of Dylan material on YouTube. If you've never scanned the comments, this aim here is to prod you to do so. I especially enjoy seeing both teens and seniors sharing the same enthusiasm for Dylan's work.

EdNote: I do not know the protocol with regards to sharing other peoples' comments, whether I am supposed to identify them or leave them anonymous. I hotlinked the name of the video when I identified it above. Fwiw, it was posted by Jack Frost's alter ego Elston Gunn.

Bob Dylan’s “With God On Our Side” Addressed A Fundamental Divide In American Culture, and Still Does

Painting by the author.

The times today are turbulent, but some of the issues dividing us have deep roots. The role of religion in the public square has been wrestled with since before the original Colonies were even real colonies. And the manner in which our country has wielded its military might has made many ashamed while producing a patriotic pride in others.

In my own lifetime the Vietnam War has revealed how deep the gulf is that divides many of us. I've just finished read Seymour Hersh’s Reporter and the book reveals much about the cancers at the heart of our nation. Even after Hersh discovered the horrors of My Lai, editors were afraid to touch the story because any negative (that is, truthful) story about what was going on was feared to be “aiding and abetting the enemy.” As a result, the public was totally oblivious to the horrors taking place in the name of “freedom” and patriotism.

The lies. The horrors. It was all too easy for Francis Ford Coppola to re-configure Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness into a Viet Nam context as Apocalypse Now.

When Bob Dylan wrote “With God On Our Side” JFK was still president and LBJ’s escalation of the Viet Nam War had not yet happened. It was brewing though. What weighed on everyone, and it had become the lens through which all global events were interpreted, was the Cold War. But the song contains a clear and present warning.

It begins with the writer identifying himself, as just another person who was brought up to live by the rules and that the land he grew up i
n was the good guys. He then, verse by verse, summarizes our history of foreign wars as we were taught in our schools. (By-passed: War of 1812, Mexican War and Civil War.)

Here are the lyrics, with a few comments, followed by a video of Dylan performing the song live in 1963.

With God on Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side

Here he turns to our present (1960s) situation.

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side

One of the sections of Sy Hersh’s remarkable book was about the amount of spending our Defense Department was doing on chemical and germ warfare. Anthrax and all kinds of experimental chemical and biological agents were being developed and stores in underground “igloos” and what frightened Hersh was how secret this all was, as well as the quantity.

The next verse is one that was quite controversial. May people stumbled when he asks the question about Judas Iscariot. Perhaps it was made more complicated because of the rock opera which became a film, Jesus Christ Superstar. But when this was written, that particular red herring had not been invented yet.

Rather, the answer here is not blowing in the wind. It’s straightforward matter. Judas betrayed Jesus but believed he was doing the right thing, which is the point of this song. We always have rationalizations for what we do as a country, and then write the history books afterwards justifying our wars and atrocities.

Through many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side

The summing up is an appeal.

So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war

Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

Here’s a live performance at  the famous Town Hall concert in 1963, NYC.

He was a month shy of 22 here. Catch the response to his pointed missive.

Right on target, so direct.