Bob Dylan / 3:53
SINGLE
RELEASE DATE
Positively 4th Street / From a Buick 6
September 7, 1965
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA 4-43346)
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Mike Bloomfield: guitar
Frank Owens: piano
Al Kooper: organ
Russ Savakus: bass
Bobby Gregg: drums
Bruce Langhorne: finger cymbals
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: July 29, 1965
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
Sound Engineers: Frank Laico and Ted Brosnan
Fourth Street is located in the middle of Greenwich Village. Bob Dylan rented an apartment there, at number 161 (second floor), a little less than a year after moving to New York. “You got a lotta nerve / To say you are my friend / When I was down / You just stood there grinning.” So who was hiding behind the “you” who caused all the narrator’s troubles? The title of the song left little doubt as to his or her location. The song, which was recorded four days after the scandal in Newport, targeted the entire folk movement and, more specifically, a few major figures: Irwin Silber, the editor of Sing Out! magazine who never accepted the explosive entrance of the creator of “Blowin’ in the Wind” into the world of rock; folksinger Tom Paxton, who in Sing Out! wrote an article entitled “Folk Rot”; even ex-girlfriends Suze Rotolo and Joan Baez. This explained the lines that went, “I used to be among the crowd / You’re in with.” But Dylan remained enigmatic and in 1985 denied having written this text against his critics: “I couldn’t write a song about something like that. I don’t write songs to critics.”54
“Positively 4th Street” was an example of the development of Dylan’s writing in the mid-sixties. The personal attacks, for instance, in “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” (on The Times They Are A-Changin’) were now a thing of the past: from now on, the songwriter raises his speech to another level by using allusions. Because behind this diatribe against an intellectual movement that he found corrupt, Dylan expressed a universal resentment that he felt bitterly: friendship betrayed (by self-interest)—basically human baseness. This was the source of the grievances throughout the song: “You say I let you down / You know it’s not like that,” “You say you lost your faith / But that’s not where it’s at / You had no faith to lose / And you know it,” “And now I know you’re dissatisfied / With your position and your place.” Johnny Echols, the guitar player of the group Love, said, “I immediately connected with Dylan’s take on humanity and the nature of hypocrisy. He spoke to me. It’s a very New York song, but it made perfect sense out on the West Coast. After Dylan went over big you could feel the style of music changing everywhere…”56
In 1965, Dylan answered a journalist who asked him what was the meaning of this angry attack—was it to change the lives of the people involved or to point out their errors? “I want to needle them.”20
Frank Laico, one of the album’s engineers, remembered the special way the songwriter recorded: “I would talk to the musicians themselves and see how they want things set up. Dylan wanted everyone close together—in fact, he wanted to be on the top of the drums, which was unique!”57
“Positively 4th Street” could be considered the little brother of “Like a Rolling Stone”: same atmosphere, same energy, and the same identifiable gimmick on the organ. Bob Johnston, who began producing on July 29, got the group to create a slightly tighter sound, a bit more specific, with less reverb than Tom Wilson had added. Once again, Al Kooper stood out with a Hammond organ part that was very catchy and really gave the song its color. Since “Like a Rolling Stone” he was clearly more at ease, especially because he had been at Newport on July 25. Mike Bloomfield remained very discrete, playing rhythm close to Dylan (who played lead on his Stratocaster). Only a very few solos were heard at the end of the song. Bloomfield gave the impression that he wasn’t too sure how to express himself in this harmony. On piano, Frank Owens brought the honky-tonk approach that was indispensable for the overall sound. As for the great Bobby Gregg, supported on bass by Russ Savakus, he seemed to beat the skins with brushes. Finger cymbals or a triangle could also be heard, no doubt played by Bruce Langhorne.
“Positively 4th Street” came out on September 7, 1965 (with “From a Buick 6” on side 2), and reached seventh place on the charts on October 9. In Canada, the song hit first place, and in the United Kingdom, eighth place. Since then, it has been classified as number 206 among the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” by Rolling Stone magazine.