The 1 Song Bob Dylan Said He Wrote About Past Relationships

Bob Dylan is known for his introspective songwriting that has influenced many other artists, including John Lennon and Mick Jagger. His songs had a personal touch that managed to express his experience and views, while also being relatable for a mainstream audience. While Dylan was an open book, he tried not to air out his grievances in his music, except for one song that was about being betrayed by others. 

Bob Dylan said ‘Positively 4th Street’ is a song about past relationships that fell apart

“Positively 4th Street” was released as a single by Dylan in 1965, with “From a Buick 6” as the B-side. The song is one of Dylan’s more bitter and nasty songs, with many critics being turned off by how resentful the singer was coming across. 

In a 1985 interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan said he avoids addressing authentic relationships within his music. However, “Positively 4th Street” does take aim at specific people, but he doesn’t reveal who. 

“Outside of a song like ‘Positively 4th Street,’ which is extremely one-dimensional, which I like, I don’t usually purge myself by writing anything about any type of quote, so-called, relationships,” Dylan explained. “I don’t have the kinds of relationships that are built on any kind of false pretense, not to say that I haven’t. I’ve had just as many as anybody else, but I haven’t had them in a long time. Usually, everything with me and anybody is up front. My-life-is-an-open-book sort of thing. And I choose to be involved with the people I’m involved with. They don’t choose me.”

Who is ‘Positively 4th Street’ about?

While it has never been confirmed, the song is supposedly aimed at many of Bob Dylan’s colleagues from Greenwich Village in New York, where the folk-rock genre flourished in the 1960s. 

Much of this community was critical of Dylan when he decided to leave and go electric. Many saw this as the “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer abandoning the folk genre and selling out by catering to mainstream rock n’ roll. Dylan was upset that so many of his friends turned on him, and that’s evident in the lyrics within “Positively 4th Street”. 

There has been much speculation about specifically who Dylan addresses within the song. One person is Izzy Young, who ran the folklore center. Young once addressed the accusation, saying he didn’t know who it was about but found the song “unfair.”

“At least five hundred came into my place [the Folklore Center] …and asked if it was about me,” Young said. “I don’t know if it was, but it was unfair. I’m in the Village twenty-five years now. I was one of the representatives of the Village, there is such a thing as the Village. Dave Van Ronk was still in the Village. Dylan comes in and takes from us, uses my resources, then he leaves and he gets bitter. He writes a bitter song. He was the one who left.”

Others believe that the song isn’t about Greenwich Village but refers to his time at the University of Minnesota. At the University, Dylan lived on and performed in Dinkytown, located on 4th Street S.E. No matter who it was about, the track was a top 10 hit for Dylan, reaching No. 8 on the U.K. Singles chart and No. 7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.