Dylan's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" Quiz

Answer: Phil Ochs

Schumacher reports the scene in "There But for Fortune: The Life of Phil Ochs" (1996), where Dylan is quoted as telling Ochs, "You're not a folk singer. You're a journalist." Rolling Stone magazine repeats the story.

According to the "Life of a Rebel" blog, however, this version of events does not quite reflect reality. Ochs later told Schumacher and "Rolling Stone" that his objection was to another song recorded during the same session ("One of Us Must Know Sooner or Later") and was not made while in a limousine. "The story as usually told at least captures the sentiment correctly," reports the blog. "Ochs felt that Dylan was losing his songwriting clarity in the material recorded for Blonde On Blonde."

Answer: Levon and the Hawks

"Rolling Stone" magazine describes the backing band's contribution thusly: "The driving, no-frills style came courtesy of Levon and the Hawks, who were backing Dylan in the studio for the first time after playing only a handful of live shows with him." They became known simply as "the Band" by 1969, when "Rolling Stone" magazine referred to them as "the band from Big Pink."

Answer: Highway 61 Revisited

"Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" was released on December 21, 1965 with "Highway 61 Revisited" on the B-side. It peaked at number 58 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at number 17 on the UK singles charts.

Answer: tacks

"He sits in your room, his tomb, with a fist full of tacks
Preoccupied with his vengeance
Cursing the dead that can't answer him back."

Holding a fistful of tacks sounds painful. This metaphor may suggest that preoccupation with vengeance can hurt the one seeking revenge. Meanwhile, the woman in this song hurts herself by being too preoccupied with the man, whom Dylan paints as highly unlikeable.

Answer: inventions

The man in the song is depicted as a user, who has no concern for the woman unless and until he needs her for something. The "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" single was included in its original mono form on the 1978 compliation "Masterpieces" as well as on "Biograph" in 1985 and yet a gain in the "A Musical History" box set that was released in 2005.

Answer: haunt

"Hey, crawl out your window
Come on, don't say it will ruin you
Come on, don't say he will haunt you
You can go back to him any time you want to."

The song depicts a woman who is moaning over a man who is not worth her attention in the first place. "The message is clear," writes Tony Attwood on the "Untold Dylan" blog. "From the lyrics the singer is obviously saying, 'he's useless, and you are being stupid by moaning about him.'" "Rolling Stone" magazine describes the song as a distilled "torrent of contempt."

Answer: business-like

"He looks so truthful, is this how he feels?
Trying to peel the moon and expose it
With his business-like anger and his bloodhounds that kneel
If he needs a third eye, he just grows it
He just needs you to talk or to hand him his chalk
Or pick it up after he throws it."

Here, "business" is alliterative with "blood." The man in this song is depicted somewhat like a tantrum-throwing child who hurls objects.

The song was produced by Bob Johnston and released on the Columbia label.

Answer: box

"Why does he look so righteous while your face is so changed?
Are you frightened of the box you keep him in
While his genocide fools and his friends rearrange
Their religion of little ten women?"

While the official single version of this song including backing by the Hawks, another version recorded during the Highway 61 Revisited sessions used session musicians Bobby Gregg on drums, Mike Bloomfield on guitar, Harvey Brooks on bass, Paul Griffin on piano, and Al Kooper on bell piano.

Answer: bruised

These lines may imply that the man the woman is spending her time bemoaning is actually both physically and emotionally abusive. Her face is "bruised," and the man and his friends practice a religion of manipulating women like "little tin" soldiers that can be moved around and "rearranged" as they please. Yet the woman doesn't seem to have the power to leave him with confidence, as the song concludes with the line, "Come on out, the dark is beginning."

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

The song, recorded live by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was released on June 2, 1998. Hendrix was christened Johnny Allen but renamed James Marshall four years after his birth.