If you want Bob Dylan‘s life story, the best place to look is within his songs. You’ll find the victories, defeats, loves gained, loves lost, and every important emotion that’s ever roiled inside him. That’s the important stuff. What you won’t find much of are the specifics, as Dylan usually cloaks those with the expertise of a world-class spy.
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Now and again in his catalog, he has let the curtain down just enough to where we can tie songs to specific instances in his life. For example, “Day of the Locusts” from his 1970 album New Morning found him recalling, with wry humor, an afternoon where he received a major accolade from one of America’s most prominent universities. At least from Dylan’s perspective, it didn’t go well.
Doctor Robert
In June 1970, Bob Dylan was reeling from the critical savaging of his just-released album Self Portrait. He had already begun recording a new batch of songs. Although he always claimed the timing was coincidental, many have since speculated his urgency with the album that would become New Morning (only about four months from conception to its release in October 1970) was an attempt to quickly wipe away the bad mojo of Self Portrait from the public consciousness.
He did take the time at the end of the month to head to a ceremony at Princeton University to receive an honorary doctorate. But it was a battle all the way. David Crosby, who accompanied Dylan and wife Sara, had to convince him at every step of the process. Dylan nearly fled when the university wanted him to wear a cap and gown, and by all accounts was visibly uncomfortable.
In his book Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan talked about his unease with the whole scenario:
“I couldn’t believe it. Tricked once more. … The sunlight was blocking my vision, but I could still see the faces gawking at me with such strange expressions. I was so mad I wanted to bite myself.”
As for the title, that came from an incident during the ceremony in which Dylan noticed a swarm of locusts making a high-pitched buzzing sound in the trees at the university. Considering that Dylan and Crosby had been smoking marijuana on the way to the ceremony, the sound of the bugs probably added to the general paranoia Dylan was already experiencing.
Exploring the Lyrics to “Day of the Locusts”
Dylan does an amazing job on “Day of the Locusts” of setting the surreal (at least from his point of view) scene. Oh, the benches were stained with tears and perspiration. His distrust of the university officials bestowing the honor on him comes to the fore in the second verse: I glanced into the chamber where the judges were talkin’ / Darkness was everywhere, it smelled like a tomb.
Comparing them to judges is doubly effective, both because the honorary robes made them look that way, and because Dylan somehow felt like he was being sentenced. Later, Dylan hints at his addled state. He mentions the man standin’ next to me (that would be Crosby) and how his head was explodin’. Whoa, I was prayin’ the pieces didn’t fall on me, he exclaims.
In the final verse, Dylan speaks of his relief at being able to hustle out of there: Took hold of my sweetheart and away we did drive / Straight for the hills, the black hills of Dakota / Sure was glad to get out of there alive. Granted, he’s being a big melodramatic for effect (that’s quite the drive from New Jersey to South Dakota), but he certainly conveys just how out of place he felt.
The funny thing about “Day of the Locusts” is, like much of New Morning, it’s accompanied by easygoing, upbeat music. In the chorus, when he recalls the locusts singing, it almost feels like gospel testifying. It’s that kind of juxtaposition that renders the song so fascinating.
Dylan, a college dropout himself, has expressed his distaste for academics elsewhere in his catalog in much harsher terms. From “Foot of Pride”: They take all this money from sin, build big universities to study in / Sing “Amazing Grace” all the way to the Swiss banks. Compared to that, “Day of the Locusts” is a bit of a lark. But it’s one that still conveys Dylan’s feelings of otherness amidst the halls of honor and privilege.
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