Dylan reportedly later said that he was a “real schmuck” to write the song, although probably for the girl in question, not the off-handed slur on birds. Really, birds have it made! They can fly! It doesn’t get much better than that.
Flyin' Away
The conclusion to one of Bob Dylan’s most tortured, grind-it-out songs, “Ballad in Plain D” (1964), reads: “Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me/’How good, how good does it feel to be free?’/And I answer them most mysteriously/’Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?’” More after the jump.
