Bob Dylan – Positively 4th Street

Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes, You’d know what a drag it is to see you

This song sent me down the path of being a Dylan fan. The raw, angry, emotional way Dylan spits out the lyrics sounds true. There’s no chorus. No bridge. Just verse after verse of contempt, all wrapped in a breezy organ and guitar.

The song never lets up…Bob just keeps hammering away at someone relentlessly. The song was rumored to be about people rather than one person. We will probably never know because I don’t see Dylan opening up about it. I always thought of this song as the sister song to Like a Rolling Stone. It, in fact, was the follow-up song to Like A Rolling Stone. It was a stand-alone single. 

But where Like A Rolling Stone is grand and sweeping, this song is really petty in the best possible way. This is a man lashing out at a specific circle of coffeehouse artists and Greenwich Village gatekeepers, likely in the folk community that once kissed his feet but now curses his loud amplifiers.

The beauty of this song is that it’s a protest song, but a personal one. It’s about betrayal, the smiling face that masks a knife in the back. It’s a story as old as you can get, and sung by a guy who was about to leave the folk scene in the rearview mirror.

There is a kind of glee to be had in hearing Dylan go full scorched-earth. This isn’t peace-and-love Bob, or even cryptic-poet Bob. This is “I-know-you-and-I-see-right-through-you” Bob. He’s less interested in making sense than in making you squirm. It’s brutal. 

The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #7 on the Billboard 100, and #8 in the UK in 1965.

Positively 4th Street

You’ve got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin’
You’ve got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that’s winnin’

You say I let you down, ya know its not like that
If you’re so hurt, why then don’t you show it?
You say you’ve lost your faith, but that’s not where its at
You have no faith to lose, and ya know it

I know the reason, that you talked behind my back
I used to be among the crowd you’re in with
Do you take me for such a fool, to think I’d make contact
With the one who tries to hide what he don’t know to begin with?

You see me on the street, you always act surprised
You say “how are you?”, “good luck”, but ya don’t mean it
When you know as well as me, you’d rather see me paralyzed
Why don’t you just come out once and scream it

No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief perhaps I’d rob them
And tho I know you’re dissatisfied with your position and your place
Don’t you understand, its not my problem?

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is to see you

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

32 thoughts on “Bob Dylan – Positively 4th Street”

    1. I would have loved to have heard that! The only two I ever did in my life were Gloria and Brown Eyed Girl….but I was cheating…I sang them with our band.
      They are different but I always thought they were slightly related…

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      1. I remember the joint was mostly packed, but I don’t remember having an audience. So put two and two together lol
        They are good picks you chose with your band Max. My desert Island pick from the Van is ‘Carrying the Torch’. I like ‘And it Stoned Me’ a lot as well, not that I’m widely across his music.

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  4. Pingback: Bob Dylan – Positively 4th Street – MobsterTiger

  5. One of my top Dylan songs, venomous though it is. Took me a while to find out what the name of the song was, because of course it’s not in the lyrics. Great organ.

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  6. This is one of these songs where the album cut is so much better than the live version. This song is widely interpreted as a direct attack on the Greenwich Village folk scene and its perceived hypocrisy, and that makes it resonate with many listeners. Nice post, Max as it was great to hear this again.

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    1. Thanks Jim….this one is not played like….Like a Rolling Stone…I have never got tired of it. I agree…the live version on this doesn’t match the studio one.

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  7. another good piece of writing from Bob and another one of the rare (to me) songs of his that he does better than anyone covering it. Certainly agree that it is a companion piece to ‘Like a Rolling Stone’… and thanks for the plug, btw!

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    1. No problem Dave! Yea it’s up there with Like a Rolling Stone no doubt. When I read your post…I thought…I need to post this one.

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  12. I love Dylan but guess it could be about the folks who didn’t like him going electric. But even more I imagine it was/is about Joan. She was a Folk Queen when she met him and she parasitized his songs and then he left her in the dust. My opinion only.

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  16. This is the song that I think he wrote about himself. I think it might be things people had said to him in anger, and he turned it into lyrics that turned out to be really powerful.

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