| "Positively 4th Street" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 US picture sleeve | ||||
| Single byBob Dylan | ||||
| B-side | "From a Buick 6" | |||
| Released | September 7, 1965 (1965-09-07) | |||
| Recorded | July 29, 1965 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:54 | |||
| Label | Columbia (43389) | |||
| Songwriter | Bob Dylan | |||
| Producer | Bob Johnston | |||
| Bob Dylan singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Positively 4th Street" is a song written and performed byBob Dylan, first recorded inNew York City on July 29, 1965.[4] It was released as a single byColumbia Records on September 7, 1965, reachingNo. 1 on Canada'sRPM chart,No. 7 on the U.S.Billboard Hot 100, andNo. 8 on theUK Singles Chart.[5][6][7][8]Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song asNo. 203 in their500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.[9]
The song was released betweenHighway 61 Revisited andBlonde on Blonde, as the follow-up to Dylan'shit single "Like a Rolling Stone", but was not included on either album.[10] The song's title does not appear anywhere in the lyrics. There has been much debate over the years regarding the significance and whereabouts of the 4th Street mentioned in the title, and which person or group is addressed in the song.
An unreleased promo spot of the song can be found on theNo Direction Home DVD special features.
The master take of "Positively 4th Street" was recorded on July 29, 1965, during the mid-June to early Augustrecording sessions that produced all of the material that appeared on Dylan's 1965 album,Highway 61 Revisited.[11] The song was the last to be attempted that day, with Dylan and a variety of session musicians having already successfully recorded master takes of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and "Tombstone Blues".[4][12] The studio band on "Positively 4th Street" featuredBobby Gregg (drums),Russ Savakus[13] (bass), Frank Owens[14] (piano),Al Kooper (organ) andMike Bloomfield (guitar), with the song initially being logged on the studio's official recording session documentation under theworking title of "Black Dally Rue".[15]
Although the song was recorded during theHighway 61 Revisited sessions, and shares much stylistically with the tracks on that album, it was saved for a single-only release, eventually charting in the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic.[7][8] 17,000 early copies of the "Positively 4th Street" single were mis-pressed,[16] with anouttake version of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" (a song that Dylan later released as his next single) appearing on theA-side in place of "Positively 4th Street".[11] CriticDave Marsh praised the song as "an icyhipster bitch session" with "Dylan cutting loose his barbed-wire tongue at somebody luckless enough to have crossed the path of his desires."[17] The song was later included on the U.S. version ofBob Dylan's Greatest Hits, as well as the compilation albumsMasterpieces,Biograph, andThe Essential Bob Dylan.[18] It also was used in directorTodd Haynes's 2007 filmI'm Not There.
Joni Mitchell has cited the song as one of her biggest inspirations at the dawn of her career: "There came a point when I heard a Dylan song called 'Positively Fourth Street' and I thought 'oh my God, you can write about anything in songs'. It was like a revelation to me".[19]
In 1989, aBristol music promoter purchased an old KB Discomaticjukebox that had once belonged toJohn Lennon during the mid-1960s. A copy of Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" single was found among the 417" singles loaded onto the machine.[20] As a result, the song appears on theJohn Lennon's Jukebox compilation album, which was released to coincide with the publicity surrounding the jukebox's unveiling and aSouth Bank Show documentary about the jukebox.[21]
The song, like most of Dylan's, is composed of a simple harmonic, or chordal, and melodic structure; the verse has a I-ii-IV-I progression followed by I-V-IV-vi-V. The song is in the key of F# Major.
While the lyrics are distinctly negative, the organ-dominated backing music is that of carefree folk-rock.[18] The melody is somewhat repetitive and does not deviate from the harmonic progression set up during the first four lines of the song.[18] Additionally, the song has no recognisable, repeatingrefrain, and does not feature its title anywhere in the song's lyrics.[4]
Dylan begins by telling the unspecified target of the song that they have a lot of nerve to say that they are his friend and then goes on to list a multitude of examples of their backstabbing duplicity.[18]Paul Williams, the founder ofCrawdaddy! magazine, noted that the song's lyrics are uncharacteristically straightforward and devoid of the poetic imagery present in the majority of Dylan's contemporaneous material.[4] Thus, the song can be seen as an open letter to Dylan's intended target, with theTop 40 airwaves serving as Dylan's means of communication.[4]
The lyrics are bitter and derisive, which caused many, at the time of the song's release, to draw a comparison with Dylan's similarly toned previous single "Like a Rolling Stone". Indeed, journalist Andy Gill described it as "simply the second wind of a one-sided argument, so closely did it follow its predecessor's formula, both musically and attitudinally".[22]Robert Christgau called the song "righteously nasty".[23]
Cash Box described it as a "throbbingly bittersweet funky affair in which Dylan attacks those people who wouldn’t accept him when he was an unknown."[24]
There is uncertainty about which "4th Street" the title refers to, and many scholars and fans have speculated that it refers to more than one.[25] New York City's4th Street is at the heart of the Manhattan residential districtGreenwich Village, where Dylan once lived.[25] This area was central to the burgeoningfolk music scene of the early 1960s, which centered around Dylan and many other influential singer-songwriters.[26] For example,Gerde's Folk City was originally located at 11 West 4th Street. However, the song also may concern Dylan's stay at theUniversity of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where 4th Street S.E. is one of the two main roads crossing through the part of campus known asDinkytown, where Dylan lived and performed.[25]
The song is generally assumed to ridicule Greenwich Village residents who criticized Dylan for his departure from traditional folk styles towards the electric guitar and rock music.[4] Many of the Greenwich Village folk crowd, who had been good friends of Dylan's, took offense and assumed that the song carried personal references.[18] Noted Village figureIzzy Young, who ran the Folklore Center, had this to say of the accusation:
At least five hundred came into my place [the Folklore Center] ...and asked if it was about me. I don't know if it was, but it was unfair. I'm in the Village twenty-five years now. I was one of the representatives of the Village, there is such a thing as the Village.Dave Van Ronk was still in the Village. Dylan comes in and takes from us, uses my resources, then he leaves and he gets bitter. He writes a bitter song. He was the one who left.[25]
Other possible targets of the song's derision includeIrwin Silber, editor ofSing Out! magazine and a critic of Dylan's move away from traditionalfolk styles,[4] andTom Paxton, who had criticized the emergingfolk rock scene of the period in aSing Out! magazine article titled "Folk Rot" (although Dylan wrote and recorded "Positively 4th Street" months before the "Folk Rot" article was published in January 1966).[27]
In the bookDylan: Visions, Portraits, and Back Pages, compiled by the writers of the UK'sMojo magazine, there is some speculation that "Positively 4th Street", like other Dylan compositions of the time, was influenced by Dylan's experimentation withLSD. The book alleges that Dylan's feeling was that "LSD is not for groovy people: it's for mad, hateful people who want revenge." This allegation is supported by the derisive, attacking tone of many of the songs onBringing It All Back Home andHighway 61 Revisited, as well as the harsh and powerful textures of Dylan's electric sound.[28]
Living Voices were the first tocover the song in 1966, on theirPositively 4th Street and Other Message Folk Songs LP.
Johnny Rivers recorded the song, using it as the closing track on hisRealization album in 1968.[29] Dylan said in his best selling bookChronicles: Volume One that he preferred Johnny Rivers' version of "Positively 4th Street" to his own recording of the song.[30] "Positively 4th Street" was also rehearsed bythe Beatles during theLet It Be recording sessions, but they never recorded a complete version of the song.[31]
In 1970,the Byrds included a live version of the song, recorded at theFelt Forum, on their(Untitled) album.[32] TheJerry Garcia Band also covered the song in their live shows and a live recording appears onThe Very Best of Jerry Garcia compilation album.[33] AMerl Saunders and Garcia live performance at theKeystone inBerkeley, California, in July 1973 was included inLive at Keystone in 1973 and re-released in September of 2012 as a part ofKeystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings. The punk bandX released a version of "Positively 4th Street" on their "4th of July" single in 1987.[34]Antiseen also covered this song on their 1989 LP,Noise for the Sake of Noise.[35]
Other musicians and bands that have covered the song, includeLucinda Williams, on the live compilation albumIn Their Own Words, Vol. 1,[36]Charly García on his 1995 albumEstaba en llamas cuando me acosté, theStereophonics on their 1999 EP,Pick a Part That's New, theViolent Femmes on their 2000 album,Freak Magnet, andSimply Red on their 2003 album,Home.[37][38]
Larry Norman released a version of "Positively 4th Street" (with slightly altered lyrics) on the 2003 albumRock, Scissors et Papier[39] andBryan Ferry covered the song on his 2007 album,Dylanesque.[37] A recording of the song bySteve Wynn appeared on the 2009 album,Steve Sings Bob.[40]
David Hajdu used the title of the song in the title of his 2002 book,Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña.
On July 22, 2015, theSt. Paul, Minnesota, city council renamed a street nearCHS Field "Positively 4th Street" after the song.[41][42]
ComedianJimmy Fallon performed a parody version of the song in 2016 with the lyrics replaced by those ofDrake’s "Hotline Bling".[43]
Bob Dylan's Favorite Bob Dylan Cover Melanie Davis -- discusses the Johnny Rivers cover version of "Positively 4th Street"
