PODCAST: BOB DYLAN - A HEADFUL OF IDEAS Season Two 9) Key West: Extract from 'Determined to Stand'

Chris talks about BOB DYLAN’s long and meditative KEY WEST from ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS

The details we are given of Key West are highly impressionistic. Time and space seem to bend in miraculous ways. The song meanders through its fourteen verses, as if the narrator is throwing out random thoughts at us as he drives through the streets, sometimes taking on the role of a ‘tourist guide’. He informs us that he is listening to a ‘pirate radio station’ which is …coming out of Luxembourg and Budapest… It is highly unlikely that he could be picking up European radio stations from Florida and neither Radio Luxembourg or Radio Budapest – though both famous broadcasting institutions – are illegal ‘pirates’. But this, of course, is a dream. The ‘pirate radio station’ is an imaginary construct, a channel through which our protagonist picks up signals that may emanate from anywhere in the universe. The first song being played on his car stereo appears to be White House Blues, first recorded in 1926 by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, which includes the lines ...McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled/ Doc said to McKinley “I can’t find that ball’ … In Chronicles Dylan recounts how he meets the owner of the Greenwich Village Folklore Center, Izzy Young, who plays him this song. The narrator hears these words, which describe the murder of President William McKinlay at the 1901 World’s Fair in Buffalo, New York by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz, slightly differently:…McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled/ Doctor says to McKinley ‘Death is on the wall’…

….Key West is fine and fair… the narrator assures us …If you lose your mind, you can find it there… The island is thus not only a place to rediscover inspiration but also to regain sanity. What follows seems to be the authentic voice of Dylan himself …I was born on the wrong side of the railroad track… he sighs…like Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac… so identifying himself clearly with the Beat poets, ‘philosopher pirates’ all. Then he recounts some musical heroes: …Like Louis and Jimmie and Buddy and all of the rest… He seems to be referring to Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Rodgers and Buddy Holly, all of whom he has paid much tribute to in the past. He assures us that, like these ‘mythical heroes’, he has a firm grip on reality: …I got both my feet planted square on the ground… But this is just a rhetorical trick …Got my right hand high with the thumb down… he asserts, as if he is a Roman Emperor making a negative judgement during gladiatorial games …Such is life… he cries wistfully …Such is happiness…

Key West…

As the narrator drives on, he continues to alternate between giving random snatches of ‘tourist information’ and making philosophical pronouncements …Key West is the place to go, down by the Gulf of Mexico… is fairly straightforward, but this is followed by: …Beyond the sea, beyond the shifting sand/ Key West is the gateway key to innocence and purity/ Key West is the enchanted land… ‘Innocence and purity’ are clearly qualities that he is trying to recover in his life. Yet he denies that he is indulging in fantasies: …I’ve never lived in the land of Oz… he insists …or wasted my time with an unworthy cause… Yet he recounts how he is becoming increasingly intoxicated by elements of the flora and the climate: …Hibiscus flowers grow everywhere here.. he tells us …If you wear one, put it behind your ear… The image is both colourful and sensuous. He is becoming overwhelmed by the sights and smells of this ’magical’ place. He insists that ...It’s hot down here and you can’t be overdressed… and then claims that …The tiny blossoms of a toxic plant, they can make you dizzy…. and …The fishtail palms and the orchid trees/ They can give you that bleeding heart disease….