Bob Dylan

Last night I dreamt a new Bob Dylan song
It was one he always meant to write but never got around to making
He listed all the horrifying newly commercialized street corners
Of New York, London, and Paris
Tribeca, Hudson Yards, Bedford Ave and 7th
Rue Charlot in the Marais
That canal that’s in East London

All these places had huge wheat pastes promoting his new album
It was a black and white photo of his face with big text that said: Dylan
Right next to an ad for the new Jack Harlow bowl at Sweetgreen
He thought about making a song about these places in order to prove to the listener
That all art eventually becomes part of the Machine
That everything Transgressive is bought and sold as a commodity
That being Transgressive is the least punk thing you could be
And maybe even that the most punk person on the block
Is Jack Harlow smiling on a billboard
Happily eating his custom salad from Sweetgreen
Maybe it’s cooler to not have that tattoo from that huge studio on Rivington
The one right by the plant store that sells monstera plants for like $70

Yeah, that’s where they’re promoting Dylan’s brand new album
He’s pissed about it
He’s not happy at all
He still has an excellent radar for who’s cool, who’s a poser
Who’s a rip-off, who’s a dreamer
He hasn’t forgot the Beats, the lessons he learned along the road
But when he’s in his Uber Black to Electric Lady Studios on 8th St
He passes the newly condemned McDonald’s that people used to only use as a bathroom
He passes Blank Street Coffee and gets nauseous
'Cause right outside that Blank Street Coffee on the sidewalk
Is a massive ad for his brand new album

He wants to stop the car, walk up, rip it off the walls
Sink his nails into the chipped green paint of the construction board behind it
Tear it all to shreds and shed a tear about where did he go wrong
Is this what success is?
To have your album promoted right by the Blank Street Coffee
Where there used to be a cool stoop that you smoked cigs on?
Tribeca, Hudson Yards, Bedford Ave & 7th
Rue Charlot in the Marais
That canal that’s in East London
Tribeca, Hudson Yards, Bedford Ave & 7th
Rue Charlot in the Marais
That canal that’s in East London