The protest song Bob Dylan “couldn’t help but write”
There are some songs that take time and active work to craft. There are some that seem to just fall out of an artist like the easiest thing in the world. But in Bob Dylan’s case, this one early track demanded to be written, defying all his previous rules and thoughts on songcraft as its message demanded to be heard.
That sense of a song having a clear purpose was a common thing in Dylan’s early years. When he first broke onto the scene, popping up on stages around the folk circuit with Joan Baez, the words they were singing held clear and loud moral messages. He was a passionate artist who believed that artistry served a purpose in the world and had a responsibility to bring awareness to things, fight against wrong and give world to the right path.
In his early days, songs like ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, ‘The Times They Are A Changin’’, ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’, ‘Desolation Row’ and many more had clear meanings. Dylan was looking out at the world and using his pen and his voice to tackle topics of inequality, racism, poverty, the ongoing Vietnam War and other global conflicts. He’d later deny all this, stating, “I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world.” However, the songs say something different as his passion for his subject matter is heard on every note.
Whether Dylan still sees himself as a mouthpiece for important messages is a whole other story. But back in 1963, it seemed to be that whether he liked it or not, these messages flowed out of him. Sometimes, songs would be crafted in the heat of passion over a certain injustice he saw, but sometimes, they’d come about with a kind of internal fight, landing on the page in a strange form that the artist himself barely recognised as his own.
‘Master Of War’ was one of them Dylan sat back from his notepad and found the song there with a tone that didn’t feel like his own. The song seemed to arrive with a strange sense of violence and anger that he’d always kept out of his music. But this time round, the rage found its way in.
“I’ve never really written anything like that before. I don’t sing songs which hope people will die, but I couldn’t help it with this one,” he said in the liner notes to The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
It’s by far Dylan’s bluntest and most damning protest song. In the final moments, after several verses condemning how politicians insight violence and let their people die from it, he sings plainly, “And I hope that you die And your death will come soon.” He pictures himself standing over their graves in a grime final image after a heavy track about the human impact of warfare. Unlike his more metaphorical contemplations on violence and political injustice, this one is brutal.
But it seemed that the singer couldn’t help it. As the Cold War era worsened and the Vietnam War raged on, Dylan, like many of his peers, became angry, and he couldn’t hold off on his anger from his lyricism. He said, “The song is a sort of striking out, a reaction to the last straw, a feeling of what can you do?”
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