Bob Dylan's 115th Dream

About Bob Dylan's 115th Dream

"Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home. In 2005, Mojo magazine rated the song as the 68th greatest Bob Dylan song. The title is an allusion to a Dylan number from two years prior: "Bob Dylan's Dream". The track commences with an early take of Dylan beginning to play the song alone before producer Tom Wilson is heard bursting into laughter and signalling for a start-over. The track is then transitioned into a later take played by the full band. The song is a satirical and highly surrealistic story that gleefully jumbles together historical and literary and narrative reference points from the voyages of Columbus to Moby Dick to the present day. A protagonist, "Captain Arab" (making reference to Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick) is in the narrator's mind for much of the tale. Numerous bizarre encounters and happenings take place in a highly sardonic, non-linear dreamscape parallel cataloguing of the discovery, creation and merits of the United States. more »