"On the Road Again" is a song written and recorded by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

for his album ''

Bringing It All Back Home ''Bringing It All Back Home'' is the fifth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in April1965 by Columbia Records. In a major transition from his earlier sound, it was Dylan's first album to incorporate electric inst ...

''. The song appears on the album's electric A-side, between " Outlaw Blues" and " Bob Dylan's 115th Dream". Like the rest of ''Bringing It All Back Home'', "On the Road Again" was recorded in January, 1965 and produced by Tom Wilson. Musically, "On the Road Again" is a simple

rhythm & blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

rock number with a twelve-bar structure. The music is untidy, with a thrusting beat,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

breaks, and an opposing

riff A riff is a short, repeated motif or figure in the melody or accompaniment of a musical composition. Riffs are most often found in rock music, punk, heavy metal music, Latin, funk, and jazz, although classical music is also sometimes based ...

Meaning

The song's lyrics continue to address the myth of sensitive artist versus venal society that informs several other songs from A-side of the album, such as "

Maggie's Farm "Maggie's Farm" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 15, 1965, and released on the album ''Bringing It All Back Home'' on March 22 of that year. Like many other Dylan songs of the 1965–66 period, "Maggie's Farm" is based on electr ...

", "Outlaw Blues", and "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream". The song also reflects other songs on the album, such as "Maggie's Farm" in that resistance to society is enacted through self-exile, removal and denial. This is particularly reflected in the lyrics: The song also previews the comic grotesques that will become more prominent on songs in later albums. The song reflects a paranoid version of dread of dealing with in-laws. The narrator wakes up in the morning and has to face a surreal world where his mother-in-law hides in the refrigerator, his father-in-law wears a mask of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

and the grandfather-in-law's cane turns into a sword, the grandmother-in-law prays to pictures and an uncle-in-law steals from the narrator's pockets, in lyrics such as: Frogs live in the narrator's socks, his food is covered in dirt, and deliverymen and servants have a sinister presence.

Title inspiration

The song's title echoes the title of

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

's novel ''

On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagoni ...

'', which was a defining work of the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...

. Dylan has acknowledged being influenced by Kerouac. However, it seems more likely that the title, and the song in itself, is a response to the song "On the Road", a traditional blues performed by the

Memphis Jug Band The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late-1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. They played slow blues, ...

with more serious lyrical content concerning an unfaithful woman.Memphis Jug Band
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References

External links

Lyrics from Official Bob Dylan site
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