Positively 4th Street
September 7, 1965
Positively 4th Street is a rock song by Bob Dylan, which was produced by Bob Johnstone and was released in September 1965 on Columbia Records as a single.
The song was recorded 61 Revisited on July 29, 1965 during the sessions for the album Highway, but was not used for the album. The second piece was by Like A Rolling Stone Dylan's hit single in the U.S. charts and made it to number 7 in the UK, he was ranked 8th in Canada made it the number even No. 1 on the singles chart. As a B-side was sought From A Buick 6 from the Highway 61 album.
Today, the song is considered one of the best Dylan ever recorded, even though the musician according to his own words, the cover version of Johnny Rivers was better than his own, as he wrote in his memoir Chronicles Volume I. In the list of Rolling Stone 's 500 best songs of all time Positively 4th Street is ranked 203
2002 created the Uncut Magazine a list of the best Dylan songs, where the song peaked at # 12. The Mojo Magazine listed the song in their Dylan song list from the 2005 behind Like A Rolling Stone ranked second
Content
The text is a biting and sarcastic accounts, which makes the narrator with another person. He accuses him of getting to work only for his own gain, and he is not a real friend. In addition, he was trying to portray themselves as victims, and would only ever be with the winners.
Towards the end the narrator mentions that he wishes his opponent could see the way he sees it, so it knows that it is anything but gratifying to see him him once.
The title Positively 4th Street ( to dtsch: Definitely the fourth street ) does not appear in the entire song, which led to debates among listeners, where the title herrühre. Many see an autobiographical significance, as Dylan once lived in Manhattan in the fourth street.
Cover versions
Like almost all the hits from Dylan, Positively 4th Street was also recorded by other artists. The first was Johnny Rivers. Moreover, inter alia, attempted The Beatles, The Byrds, The Jerry Garcia Band and Larry Norman in the piece. Other cover versions there are of Bryan Ferry and Simply Red addition Spoken published a song called 4th Street, which, however, does not make direct reference to Dylan's piece.