Desolation Row#My Chemical Romance version

Although the album version of "Desolation Row" is acoustic, the song was initially recorded in an electric version. The first take was recorded during an evening session on July 29, 1965,{{harvnb|Heylin|2009|p=250}} with Harvey Brooks on electric bass and Al Kooper on electric guitar. This version was eventually released in 2005 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack.{{harvnb|Gorodetsky|2005}}

On August 2, Dylan recorded five further takes of "Desolation Row".{{Cite web |last=Bjorner, Olof |date=November 17, 2010 |title=Columbia Recording Studios, 2nd August, 1965 |url=http://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20(65).htm#DSN01090 |access-date=February 14, 2011 |publisher=Bjorner's still on the road |archive-date=November 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122082827/http://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20%2865%29.htm#DSN01090 |url-status=live}} The Highway 61 Revisited version was recorded at an overdub session on August 4, 1965, in Columbia's Studio A in New York City. Nashville-based guitarist Charlie McCoy, who happened to be in New York, was invited by producer Bob Johnston to contribute an improvised acoustic guitar part and Russ Savakus played bass guitar.{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|pp=141–142}}{{Cite web |last=Bjorner, Olof |date=November 17, 2010 |title=Columbia Recording Studios, 4th August, 1965 |url=http://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20(65).htm#DSN01100 |access-date=February 14, 2011 |publisher=Bjorner's still on the road |archive-date=November 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122082827/http://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20%2865%29.htm#DSN01100 |url-status=live}} Author Mark Polizzotti credits some of the success of the song to McCoy's contribution: "While Dylan's panoramic lyrics and hypnotic melody sketch out the vast canvas, it is McCoy's fills that give it their shading." Outtakes from the August sessions were released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 in 2015.{{Cite web |title=Bob Dylan – The Cutting Edge 1965–1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 |url=http://www.bobdylan.com/us/news/bob-dylan-cutting-edge-1965-1966-bootleg-series-vol-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207000434/http://www.bobdylan.com/us/news/bob-dylan-cutting-edge-1965-1966-bootleg-series-vol-12 |archive-date=February 7, 2016 |access-date=November 22, 2015}}

When asked where "Desolation Row" was located, at a TV press conference in San Francisco on December 3, 1965, Dylan replied: "Oh, that's some place in Mexico, it's across the border. It's noted for its Coke factory."{{harvnb|Cott|2017|p=77}} Al Kooper, who played electric guitar on the first recordings of "Desolation Row", suggested that it was located on a stretch of Eighth Avenue, Manhattan, "an area infested with whore houses, sleazy bars and porno supermarkets totally beyond renovation or redemption".{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|p=133}} Polizzotti suggests that both the inspiration and title of the song may have come from Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac and Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.

When Jann Wenner asked Dylan in 1969 whether Allen Ginsberg had influenced his songs, Dylan replied: "I think he did at a certain period. That period of... 'Desolation Row,' that kind of New York type period, when all the songs were just city songs. His poetry is city poetry. Sounds like the city."{{harvnb|Wenner|2017|p=158}}

The southwestern flavored acoustic guitar backing and eclecticism of the imagery led Polizzotti to describe "Desolation Row" as the "ultimate cowboy song, the 'Home On The Range' of the frightening territory that was mid-sixties America".{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|pp=139–141}} In the penultimate verse the passengers on the Titanic are "shouting 'Which Side Are You On?'", a slogan of left-wing politics, so, for Robert Shelton, one of the targets of this song is "simpleminded political commitment. What difference which side you're on if you're sailing on the Titanic?"{{harvnb|Shelton|1986|p=283}} In an interview with USA Today on September 10, 2001, the day before the release of his album Love and Theft, Dylan claimed that the song is "a minstrel song through and through. I saw some ragtag minstrel show in blackface at the carnivals when I was growing up, and it had an effect on me, just as much as seeing the lady with four legs."{{Cite web |last=Gunderson |first=Edna |date=October 9, 2001 |title=Dylan is positively on top of his game |url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2001-09-10-bob-dylan.htm#more |access-date=March 2, 2011 |website=USA Today |archive-date=April 4, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404091821/http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2001-09-10-bob-dylan.htm#more |url-status=live}}

The song opens with a report that "they're selling postcards of the hanging", and notes "the circus is in town". Polizzotti, and other critics, have connected this song with the lynching of three black men in Duluth.{{Cite news |last=Pisarro |first=Marcelo |date=June 19, 2020 |title=Bob Dylan y el rescate de una vieja historia de racismo |language=es |work=La Nación |url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/opinion/dylan-y-el-rescate-de-una-vieja-historia-de-racismoel-pasado-en-una-cancion-nid2381897 |access-date=June 20, 2020 |archive-date=November 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122084622/https://www.lanacion.com.ar/opinion/dylan-y-el-rescate-de-una-vieja-historia-de-racismoel-pasado-en-una-cancion-nid2381897 |url-status=live}} The men were employed by a traveling circus and had been accused of raping a white woman. On the night of June 15, 1920, they were removed from custody and hanged on the corner of First Street and Second Avenue East. Photo postcards of the lynchings were sold.{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|pp=134–135}} Duluth was Bob Dylan's birthplace. Dylan's father, Abram Zimmerman, was eight years old at the time of the lynchings, and lived two blocks from the scene. Abram Zimmerman passed the story on to his son.Hoekstra, Dave, "Dylan's Duluth Faces Up to Its Past," Chicago Sun-Times, July 1, 2001. "The family lived a couple of blocks away from the lynching site at what is now a parking lot at 221 Lake Ave. North." The connection is also made by Andrew Buncombe in a June 17, 2001, article in The Independent (London): "'They're Selling Postcards of the Hanging...': Duluth's Day of Desolation Remembered."In The Bootleg Series Volume 7 recording, Dylan changes the lyric "On her 22nd birthday she already is an old maid" to "On her twentieth birthday she was already an old maid." Irene Tusken, the supposed victim of the alleged rape that was the catalyst for the Duluth Lynchings was 19 years old at the time. (Fedo, Michael (2000). The Lynchings in Duluth. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press)

"Desolation Row" has been described as Dylan's most ambitious work up to that date.Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 219. In the New Oxford Companion to Music, Gammond described "Desolation Row" as an example of Dylan's work that achieved a "high level of poetical lyricism." Clinton Heylin notes that Dylan is writing a song as long as traditional folk ballads, such as "Tam Lin" and "Matty Groves", and in that classic ballad metre, but without any linear narrative thread.{{harvnb|Heylin|2009|p=248}}

When he reviewed the Highway 61 Revisited album for The Daily Telegraph in 1965, the English poet Philip Larkin described the song as a "marathon", with an "enchanting tune and mysterious, possibly half-baked words".{{harvnb|Larkin|1985|p=151}} For Andy Gill the song is "an 11-minute epic of entropy, which takes the form of a Felliniesque parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of iconic characters, some historical (Albert Einstein, Nero), some biblical (Noah, Cain and Abel), some fictional (Ophelia, Romeo, Cinderella), some literary (T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound), and some who fit into none of the above categories, notably Dr. Filth and his dubious nurse."{{harvnb|Gill|1999|p=89}}

According to the music historian Nicholas Schaffner, "Desolation Row" was the longest popular music track, until the Rolling Stones released "Goin' Home" (11:35) in 1966.{{Cite book |last=Schaffner |first=Nicholas |title=The British Invasion: From the First Wave to the New Wave |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=1982 |isbn=0-07-055089-1 |page=69 |author-link=Nicholas Schaffner}}

In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked "Desolation Row" at number 187 on their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list;{{Cite magazine |title=The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row" |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/bob-dylan-desolation-row-59656/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121211110958/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/bob-dylan-desolation-row-20110526 |archive-date=December 11, 2012 |access-date=September 25, 2023 |magazine=Rolling Stone}} the song was re-ranked at number 83 in the 2021 revision of the list.{{Cite magazine |date=September 15, 2021 |title=Desolation Row #83 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/bob-dylan-desolation-row-2-1225255/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=September 18, 2021}} In 2020, The Guardian and GQ ranked the song number five and number three, respectively, on their lists of the 50 greatest Bob Dylan songs.{{Cite web |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |date=April 9, 2020 |title=Bob Dylan's 50 greatest songs – ranked! |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked |access-date=April 17, 2022 |website=The Guardian |archive-date=April 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200409235447/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last1=Burton |first1=Charlie |last2=Prince |first2=Bill |date=June 15, 2020 |title=The 50 best Bob Dylan songs of all time |url=https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/bob-dylan-songs |access-date=April 17, 2022 |website=GQ |archive-date=April 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220412100112/https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/bob-dylan-songs |url-status=live}}

Dylan played the Isle of Wight Festival 1969, and "Desolation Row" was the name given to the hillside area used by the 600,000 ticketless fans at the 1970 event, before the fence was torn down.Message to Love documentary, 1995, DVD

Dylan debuted "Desolation Row" at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, New York, on August 28, 1965, after he "controversially went electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. It was part of the acoustic set Dylan played before bringing on his electric band. Of the performance, music critic Robert Shelton stated that "the song, another of Mr. Dylan's musical Rorschachs capable of widely varied interpretation ... It can best be characterized as a "folk song of the absurd."Shelton, Robert. "Folk Singer Offers Works in 'New Mood' at Forest Hills". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2018. The displaced images and Kafkaesque cavalcade of historical characters were at first greeted with laughter.Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 219-226.

Live versions are included on Dylan's albums MTV Unplugged (1995; recorded November 1994), The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998; recorded May 1966), The 1966 Live Recordings (2016 boxed set; multiple recording dates, with one concert released separately on the album The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert), and Live 1962–1966: Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections (2018; recorded April 1966). The song has been featured in live performances as recently as November 19, 2012.{{Cite web |date=November 19, 2012 |title=Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center |website=The Official Bob Dylan Site |url=http://www.bobdylan.com/us/tour/2012-11-19-wells-fargo-center |access-date=July 25, 2013 |archive-date=August 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130804162654/http://www.bobdylan.com/us/tour/2012-11-19-wells-fargo-center |url-status=live}} The song is included on some set lists on Dylan's current tour and was played in Bournemouth on May 4, 2017. Dylan once again performed the song at the Outlaw Music Festival Tour in 2024, a performance that gained media notoriety for his use of a small wrench, which he rhythmically tapped to the side of his microphone.{{cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Andy |title=Watch Bob Dylan Resurrect ‘Desolation Row’ While Clanking a Tiny Wrench |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-desolation-row-tiny-wrench-1235105396/ |access-date=5 March 2025 |work=Rolling Stone |date=18 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250217171606/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-desolation-row-tiny-wrench-1235105396/ |archive-date=17 February 2025 |url-status=live}}

{{Infobox song

| name = Desolation Row

| cover =

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = My Chemical Romance

| album = Watchmen: Music from the Motion Picture

| released = {{Start date|2009|01|26}}

| recorded = 2008

| studio =

| genre = Punk rock{{Cite web |title=My Chemical Romance "Desolation Row" |url=http://www.mtvu.com/music/music-blog/my-chemical-romance-one-of-the-best-punk-bands-in-the-business/publisher=MTVU |website=MTVU |access-date=January 18, 2017 |archive-date=July 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230717212939/https://www.mtv.com/ |url-status=live}}

| length = 3:01

| label = Reprise, Warne Sunset

| writer = Bob Dylan

| producer = My Chemical Romance

| prev_title = Teenagers

| prev_year = 2007

| next_title = Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)

| next_year = 2010

}}

My Chemical Romance recorded a cover of "Desolation Row"{{Cite web |title=My Chemical Romance video for Desolation Row |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9VaVukLtfg |access-date=June 28, 2009 |publisher=Youtube |archive-date=June 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140626074029/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9VaVukLtfg |url-status=live}} for the 2009 soundtrack of the film Watchmen.{{Cite web |title=My Chemical Romance Release Bob Dylan Cover Next Month |url=http://www2.kerrang.com/2009/01/my_chemical_romance_release_bo.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821035020/http://www2.kerrang.com/2009/01/my_chemical_romance_release_bo.html |archive-date=August 21, 2009 |access-date=June 16, 2009 |publisher=Kerrang}} The song peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in March 2009.{{Cite magazine |title=Artist Chart History – My Chemical Romance |url={{BillboardURLbyName |artist=my chemical romance |chart=all}} |magazine=Billboard |access-date=June 16, 2009}} The first chapter of the comic on which the film is based ("At Midnight All the Agents") takes its name from a line in the song. This line is also quoted at the end of the chapter.

The music video for My Chemical Romance's version was directed by Zack Snyder, who also directed the Watchmen film and, as a result, features similar effects to that of the film, though no actual footage of the film appears. It features the band playing in an old-school punk arena, with visual similarities to the "Pale Horse" concert referenced in the graphic novel. The show is sold out yet more fans want in. A riot ensues as the band plays. The police arrive but are powerless to control the crowd in the venue and outside. A SWAT team arrives, arrests the band, and disperses the rioters.

Throughout the video, multiple elements of Watchmen imagery are seen, such as Rorschach's mask and The Comedian's smiley face button. The pink elephant balloon from both the comic and the film is also seen at the beginning of the video.

The band also are shown playing punk-esque instruments such as a Fender Stratocaster, Epiphone Les Paul, and Fender Precision Bass, all finished in black and covered in spray paint, warnings, etc.

The song marks the last music video appearance of Bob Bryar before his departure from the band in 2010, although he would be featured again in the songs of the Conventional Weapons compilation album.

The Grateful Dead performed a version of "Desolation Row" from the mid-1980s onwards.{{Cite web |title=Grateful Dead Desolation Row |url=https://www.dead.net/song/desolation-row |website=Grateful Dead |date=March 21, 2007 |access-date=November 20, 2019 |archive-date=June 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602190421/https://www.dead.net/song/desolation-row |url-status=live}} The song is included on their 2002 release Postcards of the Hanging, the album name alluding to the lyrics of "Desolation Row". The album features a recording from March 24, 1990, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York. The song was frequently abbreviated in Dead set lists to "D-Row."{{Cite web |title=Grateful Dead Greatest Stories Ever Told – "Desolation Row" |url=https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-desolation-row |access-date=January 5, 2021 |website=Grateful Dead |date=October 23, 2014 |language=en |archive-date=January 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117061022/https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-desolation-row |url-status=live}}

Chris Smither recorded the song on his 2003 album Train Home with Bonnie Raitt providing backup on vocals and slide guitar.{{Cite web |last=Choates |first=Rick |year=2003 |title=Chris Smither's Long Train Home |url=http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/music.asp?id=174 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217113701/http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/music.asp?id=174 |archive-date=February 17, 2007 |access-date=January 1, 2009 |publisher=Northern Express}} It has also been recorded by Robyn Hitchcock on the album Robyn Sings.{{Cite web |last=Downing |first=Brian |title=Robin Sings: Review |url=http://allmusic.com/album/robyn-sings-r614586 |access-date=March 2, 2011 |website=Allmusic |archive-date=January 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110129031304/http://www.allmusic.com/album/robyn-sings-r614586 |url-status=live}}

Old 97's singer Rhett Miller borrowed "Desolation Row"'s melody for a new song, "Champaign, Illinois". It was recorded with Dylan's blessing and appears on Old 97's 2010 album The Grande Theatre, Volume One, with Dylan and Miller sharing writing credit.{{Cite web |last=Ferguson |first=Jon |date=September 9, 2010 |title=Old 97s' Rhett Miller found unexpected inspiration in 'Desolation Row' |url=http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/287485 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105235208/http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/287485 |archive-date=November 5, 2010 |access-date=September 18, 2010 |website=Lancasteronline.com}}

Italian singer-songwriters Fabrizio de André and Francesco De Gregori wrote "Via della Povertà", an Italian translation of "Desolation Row", and included it on 1974 album Canzoni.

Laura Branigan's 1985 single "Spanish Eddie" mentions the song in its chorus, "The night Spanish Eddie cashed it in / they were playin' "Desolation Row" on the radio" {{Cite web |title=Laura Branigan – Spanish Eddie |url=https://genius.com/Laura-branigan-spanish-eddie-lyrics |access-date=January 23, 2022 |archive-date=January 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123221823/https://genius.com/Laura-branigan-spanish-eddie-lyrics |url-status=live}}

A line from the song "At midnight, all the agents and the superhuman crew, go out and round up everyone that knows more than they do." is the closing quotation in chapter 1 of "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.{{Cite web |title=Bob Dylan comic book references |date=May 24, 2022 |url=https://www.cbr.com/bob-dylan-comic-book-references-81/ |access-date=October 11, 2022 |archive-date=October 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221011175920/https://www.cbr.com/bob-dylan-comic-book-references-81/ |url-status=live}} In a foreword for the collected editions of the series, Dave Gibbons claims "it began with Bob Dylan", that the lyrics reproduced for chapter 1 were the "spark that would one day ignite WATCHMEN."{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Alan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/73994755 |title=Watchmen |date=2005 |others=Dave Gibbons, John Higgins |isbn=978-0-930289-23-2 |location=New York |oclc=73994755}}

The same line is evoked in Bruce Springsteen's 4th of July, Asbury Park as follows: "Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie, for telling fortunes better than they do".

The title track of The War on Drugs' fifth album I Don't Live Here Anymore contains the lyrics, "Like when we went to see Bob Dylan/ We danced to "Desolation Row"".{{cite web |url=https://genius.com/The-war-on-drugs-i-dont-live-here-anymore-lyrics |title=The War on Drugs (Ft. Lucius) – I Don't Live Here Anymore | access-date=November 29, 2022 | archive-date=November 29, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129130008/https://genius.com/The-war-on-drugs-i-dont-live-here-anymore-lyrics | url-status=live}}

In the sixth part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, "Desolation Road" is one of the 14 phrases that are uttered by antagonist Enrico Pucci in order to activate the Green Baby and acquire the Stand C-Moon.{{Cite web |title=DIO's Notebook |url=https://jojowiki.com/DIO's_Notebook |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia - JoJo Wiki |language=en}}

;Explanatory notes

{{Reflist|group=a}}

;Citations

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

;Bibliography

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |editor-last=Cott |editor-first=Jonathan |editor-link=Jonathan Cott |title=Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews |last= |first= |chapter=Television Press Conference, KQED, San Francisco, December 3, 1965 |pages=65–86 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-5011-7319-6}}
• {{Cite book |last=Gill |first=Andy |title=Classic Bob Dylan: My Back Pages |publisher=Carlton |year=1999 |isbn=1-85868-599-0}}
• {{Cite AV media notes |first=Eddie |last=Gorodetsky |year=2005 |publisher=Columbia Records |location=New York |title=No Direction Home: The Soundtrack—The Bootleg Series Volume 7 |others=Bob Dylan |type=booklet}}
• {{Citation |last=Heylin |first=Clinton |title=Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited |year=2000 |publisher=Perennial Currents |isbn=0-06-052569-X}}
• {{Citation |last=Heylin |first=Clinton |title=Revolution In The Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Volume One: 1957–73 |year=2009 |publisher=Constable |isbn=978-1-55652-843-9}}
• {{Cite book |last=Larkin |first=Philip |title=All What Jazz |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=1985 |isbn=0-571-13476-9}}
• {{Cite book |last=Polizzotti |first=Mark |title=Highway 61 Revisited |publisher=Continuum |year=2006 |isbn=0-8264-1775-2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Shelton |first=Robert |title=No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan |publisher=Ballantine |year=1986 |isbn=0-345-34721-8}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Cott |editor-first=Jonathan |editor-link=Jonathan Cott |title=Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews |last=Wenner |first=Jann |chapter=Interview with Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone, November 29, 1969 |pages=148–171 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-5011-7319-6}}

{{refend}}

• [http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/desolation-row "Desolation Row", complete song lyrics]

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