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Bob Dylan and Oxford Town

by Emily Glaser

Oxford, Mississippi

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1962. A nation on the brink of war, a people enwrapped in civil unrest. And in the midst of it all, a generation determined to change it all. With such incomparable conditions disturbing the recent quietude of the country and emotions ranging from anxiety to anger gripping her people, the youngest generation of Americans learned to fly under new banners and to thrive within the chaos.

Bob Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, included such famous protest songs as “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” and “Oxford Town”

Bob Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, included such famous protest songs as “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” and “Oxford Town”

One young songwriter, Bob Dylan, came to define that generation and their revolutionary sentiments. Dylan, just twenty-one, used the turmoil of 1962 as creative inspiration, penning nearly forty songs throughout the year. Many of these tunes found their way to his eponymous second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

Dylan’s development as a musician, lyricist, and artist throughout 1962 was magnified by the magnitude of and crisis surrounding global and national events. So many of the songs on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan were intentionally crafted and easily adopted as protest anthems; no longer was Dylan merely the author of pretty folk tunes but the philosophical and musical master of a generation.

Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” for example, was espoused as the ultimate anti-war anthem. Written in reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the seemingly-imminent war with the Central American powerhouse (and her new ally found in the Soviet Union), Dylan’s subtle lyricism warns of the dangers and consequences of nuclear war. But Dylan’s employment of lyrics like “What will you do now, my blue-eyed son?” also endow the song with local, racial undertones. To this day, critics and students of Dylan associate “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” with such racially-attuned ballads as Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” as well as the mythical wanderings of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno.

Even though he was accompanied by Chief U.S. Marshal James McShane (left) and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Doar (right) of the Justice Department, riots still broke out at James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss

Even though he was accompanied by Chief U.S. Marshal James McShane (left) and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Doar (right) of the Justice Department, riots still broke out at James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss

Another track on the album, “Oxford Town,” hailed from a specific, stateside event. On October 1, 1962, James Meredith enrolled at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, as the university’s first black student. His enrollment was the result of multiple applications and denials, and finally, following an appeal to the Supreme Court, the federal approval of his admission into the college. Despite the approval of the country’s highest power, the community responded with passion; riots broke out across the city, resulting in hundreds of injuries and two deaths.

Shortly following the riots of Oxford, Broadside, an instrumental underground magazine centered around the folk revival, issued an open invitation for songs about James Meredith. Inspired by the call to action, Dylan composed “Oxford Town.” The song appeared in the December 1962 issue of Broadside and was released in May 1963 alongside other protest anthems like “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

Unlike many of the other songs on his second album, “Oxford Town” employs a simple, sparse lyricism and easy picking pattern. The directness and simplicity of his lyrics seem to suggest how ostensibly obvious the problem is and how easy it should be to fix. “He went down to Oxford Town/Guns and clubs followed him down/All because his face was brown.” Dylan highlights the nonsensical and unnecessary violence of the situation, with the suggestion that it all resulted from something as simple and, in his eyes, inconsequential, as his skin tone.

Bob Dylan’s ’60’s-era protest anthems were accompanied by real protesting, as seen at the March on Washington August 28, 1963.

Bob Dylan’s ’60’s-era protest anthems were accompanied by real protesting, as seen at the March on Washington August 28, 1963.

Except for the repetition of “Oxford Town,” Dylan never specifically refers to Meredith or Ole Miss; his words could as easily apply to any racial conflict. In an interview with Studs Terkel the following year, Dylan said, “It deals with the Meredith case, but then again it doesn’t. . . . I wrote that when it happened, and I could have written that yesterday. It’s still the same. ‘Why doesn’t somebody investigate soon’ that’s a verse in the song.” The ambient implications of Dylan’s lyrics make it not just an anthem of an event, but of an era.

Bob Dylan went on to become an icon of his generation, carrying the torch of a people no longer willing to bow down to popular opinion. As Rolling Stone wrote of the artist in the ’60’s, his purpose in life was “to sing out against darkness whenever he sees it.” The light Dylan shone on a season of unrest helped transform such bitter beginnings into happy endings.

Bob Dylan continued to battle racial injustice through his music; here he performs with Pete Seeger perform at a civil rights event in Greenwood, Mississippi

Bob Dylan continued to battle racial injustice through his music; here he performs with Pete Seeger perform at a civil rights event in Greenwood, Mississippi

And as happy of an ending as possible followed the release of “Oxford Town.” Meredith graduated from Ole Miss in 1963 with a degree in political science, and Dylan returned to the University in 1990, performing “Oxford Town” under the shining, welcoming lights of Ole Miss’s Ted Smith Coliseum. A new era was born, ushered in and heralded by the words of Bob Dylan.

HEAR BOB DYLAN PERFORM “OXFORD TOWN”

SEE MORE “OXFORD TOWN” PHOTOS HERE

James-Meredith-statue-Ole-Miss bob-dylan-pete-seeger-greenwood-ms james-meredith-ole-miss Dylan-March-on-Washington-28-August-1963 bob-dylan
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Even though he was accompanied by Chief U.S. Marshal James McShane (left) and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Doar (right) of the Justice Department, riots still broke out at James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss
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Emily Glaser

A native of North Carolina, Emily graduated from Davidson College in 2012 and immediately embarked on a years-long Californian adventure. With an undying habit of threading Southernisms into conversation and an aversion to eternal sunshine, she knew she would never feel at home in San Diego. And so Emily returned to the South. She now lives in her favorite town in America, Asheville, where she delights in antiquing, discovering coffee shops, and exploring the real outdoors—without all those palm trees.

Read more stories by Emily Glaser

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4 Comments

  1. Gibbs Kinderman
    Posted January 24, 2016 at 6:46 am | Permalink

    Nice article – but use of “eponymous” is unnecessary – adds no meaning to the sentence and is a ponderous locution (to be ponderous)

    Reply
    • Bill Izard
      Posted January 25, 2016 at 11:55 am | Permalink

      Thanks so much for reading! And thanks for your opinion re: eponymous as well, but I have to say I think it is actually a lovely use of the word–when else are we going to use it? Would Dylan use it himself? Probably not. But there you go–one man’s unnecessary is another man’s just right.

      Thanks again for your comments!

      Reply
  2. Abi Jenkins
    Posted May 18, 2016 at 12:18 pm | Permalink

    Hi, Love this article and would love to quote some pieces in my university degree project that I’m doing on Dylan. Just wondering if you know the rough date that this was written? As long that its ok ?

    Reply
    • Bill Izard
      Posted May 18, 2016 at 12:37 pm | Permalink

      Hey! So glad you enjoyed the article, and we’d be more than happy to have you quote it for your project. If you would, please include a reference to the link (which is probably standard anyway for what you are doing). Publication date for the piece is January 18, 2016, and it was written shortly before that. Thanks so much for writing in, and we hope you’ll be back for more. Good luck with your Dylan project!

      Reply

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