Tummetott i Dylans värld

Bob Dylan då det begav sig.

“I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough”, sjöng och diktade Bob Dylan i Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 1965. Han var ung då, bara 24 år gammal, när han skrev den insiktsfulla, dystopiska texten som när den kom på LP:n Highway 61 revisited fick ett omfattande genomslag.

 

Skulle vi förvånas av det, då eller nu? Absolut inte, den unge Dylan satte ribban högt och liksom Leonard Cohen hade han med stor medvetenhet och beslutsamhet röjt väg för den sångens diktkonst som bara barden är förmögen. Sara Danius hade blick för det, och det kom att ha stor betydelse.

 

Tom Thumb är förstås han vi här kallar Tummeliten eller Tummetott.

 

Här är hela texten:

 

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez, and it's Easter time too
And your gravity fails, negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there, and they'll really make a mess outta you

 

If you see Saint Annie, please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move, my fingers they are all in a knot
I don't have the strength to get up and take another shot
And my best friend, the doctor, won't even tell me what it is I've got

 

Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English, invites you up into her room
And you're so kind and careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice and leaves you howling at the moon

 

Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame
You must pick one or the other, neither of them are what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly, you better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you, and man, they expect the same

 

All the authorities, they just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms into leaving his post
And picking up Angel, who just arrived from the coast
Who looked so fine at first, but left looking just like a ghost

 

I started out on Burgundy, but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they're right behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even to call my bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough

 

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues © Special Rider Music, Universal Tunes