Hello, my name is Ben Burrell and welcome back to Bob Dylan album by album, a podcast that takes

an in-depth look at each Bob Dylan studio recording record by record, although this episode is a little

bit different. Thanks for your follows on Instagram and Twitter over the last couple of weeks.

You can find us, if you haven't done so already, at Bob Dylan Podcast. This is a special episode, all about

the 1975 single Hurricane. When talking about the album Desire on episode two, I felt there

was more to say on this song, but I didn't want it to dominate that episode. Apologies,

there's going to be some slight repetition here from that episode, but I think we need to

look at this song in more detail.

It's a swirling epic that would not only become one of Dylan's most famous singles, but one of his most important ones too.

Pistol shots ring out in a bar room night, into Betty Valentine from the upper hall.

She sees a bartender and a pool of blood. Coming out, my God of Blood Crys out my god dead

Kill them all

Coming out at the end of 1975

And preceding its parent album Desire by a couple of months

Hurricane saw Dylan return to the protest song.

What I particularly enjoy about this return is how very Dylan it is.

This genre, if we can call it that, is what

he's most famous for amongst more casual fans. And of course, you would think an artist

returning to the thing their most famous for would be a safeguard or a back-to-basics approach

to please a disgruntled fan base. That's definitely not the case here. Dylan just found a subject

matter he wanted to write a song about,

and it just so happens to be in the form of a protest-type song. Even then, this feels more like a

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