Sylwek Szweda

In this song, Desolation Row, Dylan is warning people that society is heading for destruction, an apocalype, if it continues in its then direction. With the US locked in a mortal embrace with Russia, teetering on a knife-edge of mutually assured nuclear destruction, it was reasonable for people to be concerned (more like scared half to death), but governments of the time characterised anyone who spoke out against the Cold War as unpatriotic, even traitorous. When we read the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it is horrifying to realise just how close the world came to letting the generals on both sides unleash a nuclear holocaust that would have likely destroyed much of the world as we know it.
That it didn”t happen was in part due to the American President at the time John F. Kennedy having read history and being aware that the reason the First World War was so appallingly wasteful of human life was that the technology for waging war had advanced (machine guns etc) while the mind set of the generals had stayed in the past when a bayonet charge against an entrenched enemy might have worked. Kennedy saw a parallel with the development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction, but the generals were still in a pre-nuclear mindset. It was a defining moment in history, and an illustration of the proverb „those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
In this song, Desolation Row, Dylan uses cultural and religious stereotypes as metaphors to describe this lunacy of main stream 1960”s American society. Desolation Row is the name he gives to the place where people have gone to opt out of the lunacy, and who are being punished by society for not wanting to participate in the lunacy. For example, the lines „They”re spoonfeeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured. Then they”ll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words. And the Phantom”s shouting to skinny girls „Get outa here if you don”t know, Casanova is just being punished for going To Desolation Row”
Desolation Row is a counter-culture destination, though more a state of mind than an actual place. In this example he is referring to the average wage slave who is made to work long hours doing dehumanising work until they have a heart attack and die: Now at midnight all the agents, and the superhuman crew (the FBI and other covert agencies looking for un-American activists), come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do (and who are therefore dangerous). Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine is strapped across their shoulders (the yoke of dehumanising work) and then the kerosene (to burn the midnight oil, to work long hours) is brought down from the castles (capitalist corporations) by insurance men (Actuaries who calculate how long someone is likely to live under these circumstances) who go check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row (no-one is opting out of the system)
It is possible that the name Desolation Row was influenced by an earlier land-mark book by writer John Steinbeck -- Cannery Row -- a place where the outcasts of society found a home. Cannery Row is an actual place in Monterey California. It refers to the derelect sardine cannery whose close environs was occupied in the book by homeless men and the town brothel. The cannery was derelect because the sardines had disappeared through a combination of over-fishing, agricultural run-off and unspecified pollutants from a nearby army base. For Steinbeck, what happened to the sardines was symbolic of the ruthlessly exploit until exhausted attitude that society and the military-industrial complex had for the environment and ordinary people. Wring all the goodness out of something, then when it worthless, toss on the rubbish-heap and give it to the worthless people who are no use to us.
Steinbeck”s influence and ideas on social justice for the economic underclass of American society can be clearly seen in the works of Dylan and others (Woody Guthrie, Billy Brag, Bruce Sprinsteen and many others). Steinbeck”s motivation derives from his experiences during the Great Depression and later when tens of millions of Americans became impoverished and suffered great hardship while the rest of American society who still had something did their best to ignore them. Steinbeck was a journalist who was one of the only haves who actually got down and dirty to experience first hand what it was like to be a have not. His work was intended to confront the same middle-class complacency that Dylan is challenging.
Finally, a quick note on my motivation for writing this. I happened to play Desolation Row to my seven year old son and five year old daughter as we drove to their school one morning recently. Both reacted to it quite strongly, saying they loved it. Now they request it every other day. I was surprised because I thought its fairly hefty themes might be beyond young children. As it turned out, its the harmonica that they liked. Since their mother also likes Dylan, they might also have some kind of genetic pre-disposition for liking nasal singing and strident harmonica. In any case, I personally find it a most inspired and moving piece of music.