Well in context. Its from Desolation Row by Bob Dylan. Basically its a song saying the point from which song - folksong if you like - works - is isolation. The individual forced to look to his own resources. Rather than the chaps fighting in the captain's towers, or vying for places on the university library bookshelf. It starts off with a montage of horrifying images from the newspapers - they're selling postcards of the hanging.....

In 1964/5 - Dylan must have felt very isolated after his rejection by folksong buffs. He wanted to keep his mind focussed on this world and look for ways of expressing that. His folksong fans wanted him to keep rewriting traditional themes like Franklin, Scarboro Fair, and Who'll Count Your Chickens?

To me and and thousands like me, his search for expression has a perfectly honourable place within the tradition. We don't need an academic formula for folksong. It can only diminish what is already patently there.

Big Al whittle