![]() Of Uncle Dave Macon’s “ Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy,” first recorded for Vocalion Records in 1924, he writes, “In this song your self-identities are interlocked, every one of you is a dead ringer for the other. . . . (The entry for Chubby Parker’s “King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O,” a novelty song about a frog and a mouse getting hitched, reads, “ ZOOLOGIC MISCEGENY ACHIEVED IN MOUSE-FROG NUPTIALS, RELATIVES APPROVE.”) Dylan is less literal and more prone to allegorical second-person screeds. ![]() The book reminded me, at times, of the liner notes to Harry Smith’s “Anthology of American Folk Music,” in which Smith cannily summarizes each song’s narrative arc as though it were a newspaper headline. ![]() Earlier this month, Bob Dylan released “ The Philosophy of Modern Song,” a nimble, Surrealist compendium of sixty-six songs, detailing their existential weight and, on occasion, explaining what a given track might mean or do. ![]()
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