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"MTV Unplugged", Track #6

BILL COHEN: This is a song of confusion and dispair. Dylan' fame, all the yes men following him, thinking that he was the The Jesus of rebellion was overwhelming. This was a young man from a gentile town in Minnisota. His family were the only Jews in this God forsaken part of the country. Iron ore, mines, freezing cold. He had read all about New York, Listened to Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Cisco Huston, Blind Lemmon Jefferson, black folk singers and the real messages they had to offer about life and the suffering. To read about it, and dream about is is one thing. To actually come to New York is overwhelming for any Midwest person .It is like shock therapy. As he became successful, he became upset, ripped apart, and depressed. The song talks about confusion, a mixture of people, an avalanche of confusion, and aloneness. He is talking about trying to get away from it all. He says - yea, I know them all, they are all quite lame. The message of the song is just don't contact me, leave me alone. Don't write to me except from Desolation row. In oher words, if you don't understang what I am feeling and that you are feeling the same, leave me alone. I need to get away from this chaos and sort things out. (03/22/06)

NINA: I'm with whoever also rated this performance a 5. What's really magical about this performance is the way it grows from a pretty unremarkable opening into an amazing, riveting, terrifying vision/sound by the last verse. By the time he's singing"...unless you mail them from desolation row.." I find myself just gaping. (05/15/05)