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Talk:Highway 61 Revisited

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by TUF-KAT (talk | contribs) at 21:04, 11 November 2002 (response to ortolan). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The markup on this article is not in line with the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. Album titles are supposed to be in italics, Highway 61 Revisited and song titles are supposed to be in quotes, "Desolation Row". I jujst went through and fixed all the markup, but got caught by an editing conflict and I don't feel like doing it again tonight, but I will get back to it. It's important that all the articles in the Wikipedia use the same markup style so any reader can look at an article and say, "That's a song" or "That's an album title". Ortolan88

Oops, I could've sworn it was the reverse. Thanks. Tokerboy 19:01 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

You really can't put the lyrics to a whole long verse in the Wikipedia, I do't think. Dylan, through his nasty manager, has been a complete hard-ass about anybody quoting his lyrics, but even if he hadn't been so, this is copyrighted material. You should only quote a few characteristic lines, but a whole verse is over the line, I believe. Ortolan88 18:49 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

I'll try and do some summary, but it's hard to summarize lyrics that don't make any sense anyway. Does the length of the original song affect things? "Desolation Row" is extremely long, and the part quoted isn't a huge section of it, IIRC. I'll go back in a little while and fiddle. Tokerboy 19:01 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

I'm being eaten alive by copyright freaks who insist that Hitler has only got one ball is copyrighted. Believe me, you'll never avoid the same treatment here. I can suggest some wording if you like. The lyrics are evocative, vague and surrealistic, but probably not actual nonsense.

Let's see, how about this:

The lyrics to "Desolation Row" are delivered in a laconic tone and sound like a description of a surrealist painting or a film by Federico Fellini, with references to "postcards of the hanging", a "beauty parlor filled with sailors" and the "blind commisioner", who has "one hand tied to the tight-rope walker" and "the other is in his pants". All these strange characters "need somewhere to go" and the place turns out to be Desolation Row.

Or something like that. Ortolan88

I am still wondering whether our friend TMC is going to dig up some Anglo-Saxon dude's progeny with a claim on the lyrics to Beowulf... user:sjc

I changed the song Desolation Row to include no large sections of quoted material. I'm keeping the one verse at Highway 61 Revisited (at least for now) because I think that's much more clear-cut fair use. Quoting one verse from one song on the album the article is about because that verse effectively sums up the lyrical thrust of the entire album seems okay to me. Tokerboy 21:04 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

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