The fifth track on Under the Red Sky, a story song delivered in a half-spoken style over a loping groove.
The words
At a London speakers' corner, a man rails against television until the crowd turns ugly and the scene ends up on the news.
The narrator wanders into a park where a street preacher is warning a crowd about the evils of television and what it does to families and minds. As the speech goes on, the audience grows restless and a riot breaks out. In a closing twist, the narrator later watches the whole commotion broadcast on TV. Told with deadpan humour, it is both a satire of media and a gentle mockery of the preacher himself.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗Listen
The words
At a London speakers' corner, a man rails against television until the crowd turns ugly and the scene ends up on the news.
The narrator wanders into a park where a street preacher is warning a crowd about the evils of television and what it does to families and minds. As the speech goes on, the audience grows restless and a riot breaks out. In a closing twist, the narrator later watches the whole commotion broadcast on TV. Told with deadpan humour, it is both a satire of media and a gentle mockery of the preacher himself.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗The same year · 1990
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