The one who tries to hide what he don't know to begin with

 

Positively 4th Street.

Bob Dylan

You've got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin'
You've got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that's winnin'

You say I let you down, ya know its not like that
If you're so hurt, why then don't you show it?
You say you've lost your faith, but that's not where its at
You have no faith to lose, and ya know it.

I know the reason, that you talked behind my back
I used to be among the crowd you're in with
Do you take me for such a fool, to think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide what he don't know to begin with?

You see me on the street, you always act surprised
You say "how are you?", "good luck", but ya don't mean it
When you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once and scream it

No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief perhaps I'd rob them
And tho I know you're dissatisfied with your position and your place
Don't you understand, it's not my problem?

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is to see you

Blogger's note. OK then. This is often cited as the nastiest, cruellest, most heartless song ever written, with a lyric that would peel paint off the walls, not to mention 20 layers of wallpaper. But that's what it's supposed to do.

Think of it. If you've never in your life been in this position, then you are truly blessed. You see someone coming toward you, grinning, glad-handing, full of righteous hot air and foul gas, bustling up to slap you on the back and make you thoroughly nauseated with their complete insincerity. . . well, you get the picture. If you've ever had an old high school classmate (the one who used to humiliate you at every opportunity) come surging up to you to say, "Hey, remember me?" - if you've ever had someone try to "friend" you on Facebook who was never any friend of yours. . . 

This song is FAIR. It's about someone who stabbed Dylan in the back repeatedly, pretended to be his friend, sucked up to him, basked in his reflected glory - then betrayed him, attempted to destroy him, and came back smiling to ask for a favor.

The other "unforgiveable" Dylan lyric is Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - which MAY live up to the assumption of meanest song lyric of all time. But look more closely, and you'll see why he feels so bitter:

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal

Like you never did before

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal

I can’t hear you anymore

I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ walkin' down the road

I once loved a woman, a child I’m told

I give her my heart but she wanted my soul

But don’t think twice, it’s all right

Though this song is invariably described as being "about" his forlorn and hopeless love for the free-spirited artist Suze Rotolo, it is just as much about Joan Baez, the arrogant and opportunistic Baez who wanted to be the first to "discover" Dylan's genius, to present him to the world on a silver platter of her own making, and bask in his reflected glory - only to fall into bitter ranting when Dylan failed to return the favor and ask Baez to climb onto the stage with him. 

But soft, what could this sudden contradiction mean?  It's the fact that things were totally different by then. I mean totally. Bobby was no longer singing Woody Guthrie songs with a sailor cap on. He was kicking ass with rock masterpieces such as Like a Rolling Stone, while Baez was still warbling away about Mary Hamilton. Nothing had changed with her. Not only that - Baez was so established when they met that she already had her first gold record before Dylan ever recorded a thing. Helping her up onstage when he had already remade himself  several times over would clang so badly that it would not work for either one of them, and he knew it.

There is another song which more closely linked to Rotolo, and in this case there is very little ambiguity about it.  Ballad in Plain D, one that I felt an unusual attachment to back in the day, was starkly and literally autobiographical, a rarity for Dylan both then and now. That song actually happened. It went down just the way he wrote it. With Dylan's propensity for wearing layers of masks and evading analysis, it's a shocking and singular example of unmasking himself. People were hurt by this lyric, even devastated, and in public - but that is its power. Even now, so many decades later, Dylan's songs ignite a light bulb of recognition, a powerful sense that you have lived this, but never knew how to express it. It inspires that quick intake of breath, the near-baffled gasp which is one of the more spontaneous reactions to the emotional ambush that is genius.