There’s a new video on YouTube of Bob Dylan, from 1990, performing Masters of War. The noteworthy thing to some seems to be the fact that he is singing the song on this occasion at the West Point Military Academy, beside New York’s Hudson river. It may be that some see this as Dylan sticking it to the military right where it hurts. Putting that spin on it is, in reality, so absurd that I didn’t initially think it merited a response, but, after some considering, I guess it is in the job description around here, so here goes.

Firstly, on West Point: We know from Dylan’s memoir Chronicles that he once dreamed of going there, of becoming a general and “dying in some heroic battle.” His passage about this also has one of the best punchlines in the book.

I asked my father how to get into West Point and he seemed shocked, said that my name didn’t begin with a “De” or a “Von” and that you needed connections and proper credentials to get in there. His advice was that we should concentrate on how to acquire them. My uncle was even less forthcoming. He said to me, “You don’t want to have to work for the government. A soldier is a housewife, a guinea pig. Go to work in the mines.”

The idea that Dylan has anything other than respect and admiration for those who fight with the U.S. Armed Forces is without basis. In the mountain of interviews Dylan has done through the years, where he has been asked questions on every conceivable topic and some inconceivable ones, I would dare anyone to find him putting down the U.S. military. The idea that he went to play in West Point and sang Masters of War in order to diss his audience is a perverse one. (By the way, there is also this little story regarding a member of the military, Bob Dylan, and Masters of War.)

Reading anything at all into Dylan’s performance of the song on that day is a little bit of a stretch, considering that he has sung the song on so many hundreds of occasions. However, if you insist on finding a special reason that the song may have found its way into the setlist that night, you would not need to look any further than the name of the venue he was playing in: Eisenhower Hall Theater. Dylan has explicitly credited the inspiration of that song to Eisenhower’s words about the potential dangers of a military-industrial complex, from his farewell speech of January 1961. Maybe it tickled Dylan’s fancy to play it in a hall named after Ike. Or maybe he was going to play it anyway, for the umpteenth time, and for the simple reason that he enjoys playing the song.

Interestingly, there is another military-themed song that Dylan and his band performed on several occasions during that tour in 1990. That would be the Marines’ Hymn, which was used to kick off 17 different shows (although not the West Point gig). Dylan didn’t sing it, but being the student of music that he is, he no doubt knows the words.

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.

And here is a clip from the Boone, North Carolina gig on Ocotober 30th, 1990.

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(And just by the way, one of Fred Thompson’s recent opinion pieces for the ABC radio network reflected on the history behind that “Shores of Tripoli” line.)

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Correction: Thanks to Steve for his e-mail:

Say, the name is not “West Point Military Academy” but United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. The 30th reunion of my class, USMA 1977, is this September.

Ike Hall was built while I was a cadet A great venue for a concert, with very good acoustics.

All the best and Happy Fourth!

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