"On the Road Again" is a song written and recorded by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

for his album '' Bringing It All Back Home''. The song appears on the album's electric A-side, between " Outlaw Blues" and " Bob Dylan's 115th Dream". Like the rest of ''Bringing It All Back Home'', "On the Road Again" was recorded in January, 1965 and produced by Tom Wilson. Musically, "On the Road Again" is a simple

rhythm & blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

rock number with a twelve-bar structure. The music is untidy, with a thrusting beat,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

breaks, and an opposing

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

Meaning

The song's lyrics continue to address the myth of sensitive artist versus venal society that informs several other songs from A-side of the album, such as " Maggie's Farm", "Outlaw Blues", and "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream". The song also reflects other songs on the album, such as "Maggie's Farm" in that resistance to society is enacted through self-exile, removal and denial. This is particularly reflected in the lyrics: The song also previews the comic grotesques that will become more prominent on songs in later albums. The song reflects a paranoid version of dread of dealing with in-laws. The narrator wakes up in the morning and has to face a surreal world where his mother-in-law hides in the refrigerator, his father-in-law wears a mask of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and the grandfather-in-law's cane turns into a sword, the grandmother-in-law prays to pictures and an uncle-in-law steals from the narrator's pockets, in lyrics such as: Frogs live in the narrator's socks, his food is covered in dirt, and deliverymen and servants have a sinister presence.

Title inspiration

The song's title echoes the title of

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

's novel ''

On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonis ...

'', which was a defining work of the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

. Dylan has acknowledged being influenced by Kerouac. However, it seems more likely that the title, and the song in itself, is a response to the song "On the Road", a traditional blues performed by the

Memphis Jug Band The Memphis Jug Band was an American band (music), musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late-1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard (musical instrument), washboard, w ...

with more serious lyrical content concerning an unfaithful woman.Memphis Jug Band
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References

External links

Lyrics from Official Bob Dylan site
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