The baseball player that inspired a classic Bob Dylan song
In 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. As an octogenarian with such an award to his name and an unrivalled legacy as the greatest songwriter of our times, it’s difficult to picture Dylan with modern tastes or sources of inspiration that fall far beyond poetry, politics, old-school folk-rock music and fine art.
Alas, in a rare interview with the Wall Street Journal towards the end of 2022, Dylan revealed himself to have all manner of quirks and unlikely fascinations. Proving that he’s no stick in the mud, Dylan revealed that he’s “a fan of” rap artists, naming Eminem and Wu-Tang Clan as favourites. He praised both for their “feeling for words and language” and added that he enjoys “anybody whose vision parallels mine.”
“Some I’ve seen live,” Dylan added. “The Oasis [Gallagher] brothers, I like them both, Julian Casablanca [sic], the Klaxons, Grace Potter. I’ve seen Metallica twice. I’ve made special efforts to see Jack White and Alex Turner. Zac Deputy, I’ve discovered him lately. He’s a one-man show like Ed Sheeran, but he sits down when he plays.”
Perhaps the most intriguing quirk Dylan identified during this interview was an attachment to the British soap opera Coronation Street. “I recently binged Coronation Street, Father Brown, and some early Twilight Zones,” he said. “I know they’re old-fashioned, but they make me feel at home. I’m no fan of packaged programmes or news shows. I never watch anything foul-smelling or evil. Nothing disgusting, nothing dog ass.”
Throughout his career, Dylan has created significant music inspired by cultural and political presences such as John F. Kennedy, Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, and too many romantic muses to list. His songs that reference celebrities nearly always involve a sociopolitical agenda of one sort or another, making ‘Catfish’, an outtake from his 1976 album Desire, an anomaly. It appears that Dylan can add baseball to his list of unlikely extra-curricular interests.
Desire was best known for its epic lead single ‘Hurricane’, which focussed on the civil rights case surrounding Ruben Carter, a boxer and wrongly convicted murderer. On the other hand, Dylan wrote ‘Catfish’ about the baseball player James ‘Catfish’ Hunter, simply because he was a great sportsman.
Hunter pitched for the Kansas City Athletics, Oakland Athletics, and New York Yankees between 1965 and ’79 to become one of the century’s most celebrated players. In 1976, he became the first pitcher since 1915 to win 200 games; this feat ostensibly inspired Dylan and the song’s co-writer Jacques Levy to write this uncharacteristically unambiguous track.
“Lazy stadium night/ Catfish on the mound/’Strike three,’ the umpire said/ Batter have to go back and sit down/ Catfish, million dollar man/ Nobody can throw the ball like catfish can/ Used to work on Mr. Finley’s farm/ But the old man wouldn’t pay/ So he packed his glove and took his arm/ An one day he just ran away,” the opening lyrics read.
Levy, a clinical psychologist, English professor, songwriter, and theatre director, met Dylan through the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn and also co-wrote ‘One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)’ and ‘Sara’. These two tracks fared a little better, making the cut for Desire.
Eric Clapton was present during the bustling Desire sessions from which ‘Catfish’ materialised. “He [Dylan] was just driving around, picking musicians up and bringing them back to sessions,” Clapton told Rolling Stone. “It ended up with something like 24 musicians in the studio, all playing these incredibly incongruous instruments – accordion, violin… It was very hard to keep up with him. He wasn’t sure what he wanted. He was really looking, racing from song to song.”
“I had to get out in the fresh air ’cause it was just madness in there,” he continued. “The topper is that the next day, he cut all the songs again with just a bass player and a drummer. He told me on the phone later that those are the ones he wants to use. But the songs were amazing. It was very difficult to play and not listen to what he was saying at the same time.”
Listen to Bob Dylan’s ‘Catfish’ below.
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