‘Romance in Durango’: Bob Dylan’s musical acid western
In the 1960s, Bob Dylan was busy pioneering a new form of songwriting. His mix of both political and personal matters brought a new depth to pop music. But a decade later, he was ready to try new things. So, amid the ambitious era of the ’70s, the folk troubadour tried his hand at a timeless songwriting form: narrative songwriting.
However, his stories were not your typical little tales, he found a way to toss more information into them. This was largely driven by one of his finest assets: his knack with melody. His songs are so effortlessly listenable that he was able to string them along with a sense of repetition that refuses to get tired. This meant he could twist his narrative tracks into roving epics rather than neat little sojourns.
One of the prime examples of this development as his poetry headed closer to prose is ‘Romance in Durango’. It’s a song that not only showcases Dylan’s expansive new style but also his keen ability to assess culture. Acid westerns were an emerging cinematic genre at the time. The likes of Alejandro Jodorowsky had taken the stark landscape of the Old West and tossed happening counterculture tales into this ancient land.
‘Romance in Durango’ similarly delves deep into the drama of the rugged old world and weaves a rather timeless tale within it. It is this cinematic approach where the anthem triumphs. It appeals to the poet within us all. In fact, it is one of John Cooper Clarke’s favourite songs of all time. The punk poet told us, “’Romance in Durango’ from that magnificent album Desire.“
He continues: “I like those ones that seem to be set in a border town. He does that real well. I think that’s what got him the part in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, he looked dead right in that. He seems to write a lot about Spanish-speaking chicks, and Spanish leather, he seems to have this thing about it, the Catholic world of Mexico, all that fatalism. And the Aztec ruins. ‘Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people, Hoofbeats like castanets on stone,’” he sings. ”It’s a great number!”
As it happens, Durango is where Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid had been filmed back in ’72 and ’73. Dylan was clearly inspired by the romance of the place and Sam Peckinpah’s grand narrative for the film. In typical Dylan style, the story of his song is about two young outlaws on the lamb, but they crux of the tale is that they can quite easily cope with the pursuing sheriffs; it is the saying of the lead character’s best friend that truly haunts them.
Once again, Dylan puts his finger on something prescient. The track was released in ’76 when America’s exploits in Vietnam were truly being reconciled. Almost 60,000 US soldiers had died, and many more would never be the same again once they returned. So, while it was the authorities that the counterculture thought they were kicking against in the revolutionary years that preceded ’76, now the true damage done was coming home to roost.
In its own little way, Dylan’s tale seems to be cognizant of such matters while welcoming the listener into something familiar. There is so much drama and poetry in ’Romance in Durango’ that you’re easily drawn into it, but then there is the sucker-punch of what is really at play.
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