In “Absolutely Sweet Marie,” Bob Dylan sings, “to live outside the law, you must be honest.” This line, from the 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde, suggests that individual freedom is often counter to or at odds with many of society’s constructs. The tension between individual freedom, society’s laws, and justice is one that Dylan has frequently explored throughout his career. Whether it was through his finger-pointing songs focused on the inequities of laws and policies in American society or songs that touched on personal liberty in conflict with social institutions, these themes have been central to Dylan’s oeuvre. His most concentrated focus on them and the tensions that arise from them is arguably 1967’s John Welsey Harding. Through sparse lyrics that are dense with Biblical and literary allusion, Dylan wrestles with the honesty required to live freely and according to one’s principles against the institutions that oppress that freedom. In this episode, scholar and literature professor Robert Reginio discusses his thoughts on how Dylan addresses these tensions and Dylan’s poetics on John Wesley Harding, both of which he focuses on in his forthcoming book, Bob Dylan Outside the Law: The Poetics of John Wesley Harding.
Bio:
Rob Reginio is Professor of English at Alfred University where he currently serves as the Margaret and Barbara Hagar Professor of the Humanities. He has published widely on Bob Dylan, including essays in The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances: Play a Song for Me (Routledge, 2023) and Multitudes: Teaching Bob Dylan (Bloomsbury, 2024). He has presented his work on Bob Dylan at several international conferences and symposia and serves on the editorial board of the journal The Dylan Review.
Links:
Bob Dylan Outside the Law: The Poetics of John Wesley Harding:
The Dylan Review: https://thedylanreview.org/content/
The Dylantantes: https://open.substack.com/pub/thedylantantes
