POSITIVELY 4TH STREET
“Positively 4th Street” is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, first recorded by Dylan in New York City on July 29, 1965. It was released as a single by Columbia Records on September 7, 1965, reaching #1 on Canada’s RPM chart, #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and #8 on the UK Singles Chart. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song as #206 in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. The song was released between the albums Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde, as the follow-up to Dylan’s hit single “Like a Rolling Stone”, but wasn’t included on either LP. The song’s title does not appear anywhere in the lyrics, and there has been much debate over the years as to the significance or which individual the song concerns. (More from Wikipedia)
Mouse and the Traps later backed a singer named Jimmy Rabbitt on a cover of “Psychotic Reaction”, a hit song recorded by Count Five. The song was released under the name Positively 13 O’Clock; this is a Bob Dylan reference as well: The band name was adapted from his hit song “Positively 4th Street”. It was quite a thrill when we moved to New York in early 1990, and I found that our first apartment was within sight of the western end of the street mentioned in this Dylan hit, West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village. Their version of “Psychotic Reaction” was included on the very first Pebbles album.
(September 2013)
