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by Jochen Markhorst (Author)
KB: OK. If you would like to choose a last, final song for this interview.BD: You choose it.KB: There's none in particular that you would like more than another one?BD: No. Well, I'd rather have you play, you know, Tombstone Blues than Pretty Peggy-O But, other than that, you know, I'll let you make your own choice.(Klas Burling interviews Dylan for Swedish radio, May 28, 1966)Poor Klas Burling struggles with admirable decency through a hellish "interview" with a reluctant, obstinate Dylan, who answers hardly any question seriously and in between makes anarchic asides and nonsensical statements ("you know my songs are all mathematical songs").But at least Dylan's very last answer has some credible content; "Pretty Peggy-O" is an age-old folk song that Dylan recorded for his debut album, "Tombstone Blues" is ten months old and the blueprint for the songs of the mercurial period, the Big Bang that led to brilliant songs like "Desolation Row" and "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again", "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Visions Of Johanna" and all those others, to songs at the crossroads of Chuck Berry, Arthur Rimbaud, Bo Diddley, William Burroughs, medieval folk songs, the Bible and Sinatra, Robert Johnson and Wiliam Blake.In "Tombstone Blues. Dylan's lookin' for the fuse", Dylan scholar Jochen Markhorst delves into the kaleidoscopic lyrics, irresistible musical accompaniment, rich music-historical roots and literary brilliance of one of Dylan's groundbreaking masterpieces - demonstrating why the song belongs in the outer category of songs like "Desolation Row", "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Mississippi".
