People, people, people. You're all obviously TOO YOUNG to have the faintest idea what's going on. And maybe ignorance is not your fault, but if I read one more person saying "It's about Larry King" or "It's about a gay swinger party", I'll start swinging an axe. The song was written in the mid-60s, so it's all about the counter-culture movement Bob Dylan was part of, centered around NYC's village.
"You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand"
Reporters in the ye olde days before recorders and iPhones with a voice recording option used to wander around with a notepad and pencil and make notes.
"You see somebody naked"
In the 1960s counter-culture movement, the leading wave before the hippies, it was nothing to see people naked in a commune or house shared by young people. If you weren't bothered, you were cool. Mr Jones, however, a reporter, is not cool, is trying to find out why someone is naked, is confronted by it all.
"Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mister Jones"
Mr Jones, the reporter, is mystified completely by the midget shouting "NOW!", the sword-swallower returning his throat, the geek who thinks HE's the freak, and so on. Sounds a lot like a circus, huh? That's because to an outsider that's what it is, a weird circus Mr Jones simply does not understand. But, he knows he needs to, because it's becoming relevant.
It's all about the media's inability to comment accurately on or to even understand the counter-culture movement of the time, but knowing they had to comment because it was the new big deal.
@aragond totally agree mate, the archetypal take down of the media so used to taking down something they can't or won't try to understand or comprehend so dismiss it, and this is coming from a music journo.
By the way if you want a really good update 40 years later check out stereophonics "Mr Writer" about the backstabbing british press, ironically written by a Mr (Kelly) Jones....
@aragond totally agree mate, the archetypal take down of the media so used to taking down something they can't or won't try to understand or comprehend so dismiss it, and this is coming from a music journo.
By the way if you want a really good update 40 years later check out stereophonics "Mr Writer" about the backstabbing british press, ironically written by a Mr (Kelly) Jones....
People, people, people. You're all obviously TOO YOUNG to have the faintest idea what's going on. And maybe ignorance is not your fault, but if I read one more person saying "It's about Larry King" or "It's about a gay swinger party", I'll start swinging an axe. The song was written in the mid-60s, so it's all about the counter-culture movement Bob Dylan was part of, centered around NYC's village.
"You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand" Reporters in the ye olde days before recorders and iPhones with a voice recording option used to wander around with a notepad and pencil and make notes.
"You see somebody naked" In the 1960s counter-culture movement, the leading wave before the hippies, it was nothing to see people naked in a commune or house shared by young people. If you weren't bothered, you were cool. Mr Jones, however, a reporter, is not cool, is trying to find out why someone is naked, is confronted by it all.
"Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mister Jones" Mr Jones, the reporter, is mystified completely by the midget shouting "NOW!", the sword-swallower returning his throat, the geek who thinks HE's the freak, and so on. Sounds a lot like a circus, huh? That's because to an outsider that's what it is, a weird circus Mr Jones simply does not understand. But, he knows he needs to, because it's becoming relevant.
It's all about the media's inability to comment accurately on or to even understand the counter-culture movement of the time, but knowing they had to comment because it was the new big deal.
@aragond totally agree mate, the archetypal take down of the media so used to taking down something they can't or won't try to understand or comprehend so dismiss it, and this is coming from a music journo.
By the way if you want a really good update 40 years later check out stereophonics "Mr Writer" about the backstabbing british press, ironically written by a Mr (Kelly) Jones....
@aragond totally agree mate, the archetypal take down of the media so used to taking down something they can't or won't try to understand or comprehend so dismiss it, and this is coming from a music journo.
By the way if you want a really good update 40 years later check out stereophonics "Mr Writer" about the backstabbing british press, ironically written by a Mr (Kelly) Jones....