Editing Desolation Row (section)

== Interpretation ==
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 [[Coca-Cola|Coke]] factory."<ref>{{harvnb|Cott|2017|p=77}}</ref> 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)|Eighth Avenue, Manhattan]], "an area infested with [[brothel|whore houses]], sleazy bars and porno supermarkets totally beyond renovation or redemption".<ref name="Polizzotti133">{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|p=133}}</ref> Polizzotti suggests that both the inspiration and title of the song may have come from ''[[Desolation Angels (novel)|Desolation Angels]]'' by [[Jack Kerouac]] and ''[[Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row]]'' by [[John Steinbeck]].<ref name = Polizzotti133 />

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."<ref>{{harvnb|Wenner|2017|p=158}}</ref>

The [[Southwestern United States|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".<ref name="Polizzotti139">{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|pp=139–141}}</ref> In the penultimate verse the passengers on the [[RMS Titanic|''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''?"<ref>{{harvnb|Shelton|1986|p=283}}</ref> In an interview with ''[[USA Today]]'' on September 10, 2001, the day before the release of his album ''[["Love and Theft"|Love and Theft]]'', Dylan claimed that the song is "a [[Minstrel show|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."<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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 [[1920 Duluth lynchings|lynching of three black men in Duluth]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Polizzotti|2006|pp=134–135}}</ref> [[Duluth, Minnesota|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.<ref>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."</ref><ref group="a">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)</ref>