Ballad of a Thin Man - Bob Dylan (Highway 61 Revisited)

Do you, Mr.Jones?

The song is sexy, smooth, and melodic, not as crass and playful as Dylan’s other ramblings, and it just crawls under your skin. Besides the pervasive instrumental, the lyrics are eerily biting. “Somethings going on here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” encapsulates the uncanny fear of perceiving something inexplicable. It also represents the paradigm shifts in generational relations and attitudes during the 60s. The Silent Generation, the parents of the Baby Boomers, were losing touch with their children who were raising interest in eastern ideologies and religions, experimental drugs, and the sexual revolution begun by birth control. They knew something was going on amongst their children, the verve of sex, drugs and rock and roll was beginning to take root but they just couldn’t quite get what it was… Which made it all the more electrifying to the young people.