Ah, yes, ze Shatner connection....Vell, it iss all becomink clear to me now. Ze Bobster's mind vas temborarily, shall ve zay, unhinged by ze great Shatner's vunderbar sexual aura, und he vent off und wrote zis veird sonk as a sort of catharsis...yah, zat must be it...

Ze only problem iss, ze Shatner/Dylan sessions, zay did not occurr until ze late 70's, und "Ballat of a Sin Man" vas recorded in '65. Verrrry strange...

Could it be some sort of time varp phenomenon? Mental transference? Or is it oedipus complex? Fascinatink! Vere iss Herr Liebenscheiss ven I need to discuss zese sings mit annuder great mind?

Yeah. Well, we've got a start on it here, but I can't stay up any later tonight to pursue it. Thanks, guys. Good comment there, Rick. Ha! Bob's thievery of "Home On The Range" is almost as heinous as the way he stole the words "the" and "at" from "The Star Spangled Banner" and used them to get a monster hit with "Like A Rolling Stone"! Check the lyrics if you don't believe me. Unforgivable. No wonder Dick and Sandy get so upset with him.

Michael - Yes! You're naive...or else you're just a bit unfamiliar with Dylan's use of symbols in his lyrics...he's far more subtle than is customary in pop music, but the implications are there. The only verse that doesn't have an absolutely clear homosexual connotation is the 2nd one.

I have heard about the young journalist whom Dylan sarcastically referred to as "Mr. Jones" ("Gettin' it all down, Mr. Jones?"), and I think the song was partly directed toward him all right, but that's not the whole story. With Dylan, one simple angle is very seldom the whole story. He's almost incapable of not hitting multiple targets with every shot, and I don't think he premeditates it either, it just happens instinctively. You can't write material that good by planning it out ahead of time.

- LH