Bob Dylan Drops New Social Commentary Single, ‘I Contain Multitudes’

Bob Dylan - Photo by Xavier B
Bob Dylan - Photo by Xavier Badosa

By JOHN DALY

Bob Dylan has released a new song called “I Contain Multitudes,” a social commentary track that references writers and creatives, characters and heroes from Anne Frank to Indiana Jones.

The track is a tip of the hat to Walt Whitman, whose poem “Song of Myself, 51” contains the lines:

“Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidel of the evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a
minute longer.)
“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
I am large, I contain multitudes.”

Bob Dylan - Photo by Xavier Badosa
Bob Dylan – Photo by Xavier Badosa

“I Contain Multitudes” is a slow and thought-provoking piece comparing and contrasting society’s most prized icons, including references to today and tomorrow, skeletons and nudes, tragic holocaust survivor Frank, adventure character Indiana Jones and The Rolling Stones.

Dylan most recently released a surprise track “Murder Most Foul,” that covered our country’s state of affairs against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination.

Bob Dylan – I Contain Multitudes