Clean Cut Kid
1985 · Columbia FC 40110 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- Bob Dylan
- Title
- Clean Cut Kid
- Release
- Empire Burlesque
- Year
- 1985
- Label
- Columbia # FC 40110
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Bob Dylan, iconic 1960s/70s contemporary folk singer, who composed many songs that became anthems of the civil rights, anti-war movement, and counter-culture. For example, the songs "Masters of War" and "Blowing in the Wind" became popular amongst protesters and demonstrators, for its opposition to war and promotion of peace through intelligent and poetic lyrics. However, while these played an important part in the cultural peace movement of the 1960s, they did not specifically deal with the Vietnam conflict. The song "Clean Cut Kid" (Columbia Records # FC 40110) which appeared on this 1985 album, directly addressed the Vietnam conflict. It told the story of a clean-cut American boy, who played on the baseball team, took part with the school's marching band, and sold watermelon on a street stand, until Uncle Sam called: "they sent him to a napalm health spa to shape up". There he had "dope to smoke", and a "jeep to drive, blood to spill". When he returned to the US he could not find a job and found it difficult to adjust to society. The narrative concluded with the kid committing suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He had "bought the American dream but it put him in debt". In the song Dylan protested against the US government and society for corrupting the innocent protagonist: "they made a killer out of him". Note the reference to Russian Roulette, a game in which a player places a single bullet into a revolver, spins the cylinder, and then pulls the trigger against their head. This became well-known in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, in which North Vietnamese fighters force their American prisoners to play the game, resulting in several deaths. While not documented as having taken place during the war, this sought to make a point about US involvement in Vietnam - an American soldier puts a gun to his head, pulls the trigger, and kills himself.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Everybody's asking why he couldn't adjust / Adjust to what, a dream that bust? / They took a clean-cut kid and they made a killer out of him / That's what they did / They said what's up is down / They said what isn't is / They put ideas in his head that he thought were his... / He was on the baseball team, he was in the marching band / When he was ten years old he had a watermelon stand... / They sent him to a napalm health spa to shape up... / They gave him dope to smoke, drinks and pills / A jeep to drive, blood to spill... / You got what it takes / They sent him back into the race without any brakes... / He bought the American dream but it put him in debt / Only game he could play was Russian roulette... / He drank Coca-Cola...he ate Burger Kings, he was well fed... / He could've sold insurance, owned a restaurant or bar / He could've been an accountant or a tennis star... / He was wearing boxing gloves, took a dive one day / Off the Golden Gate Bridge into China Bay... / His mama walks the floor, his daddy weeps and moans / They gotta sleep together in a home they don't own
About the artist
American singer-songwriter, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, 24 May 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota; the leading songwriter of the 1960s folk revival; long based in Malibu, California. [Source: Wikipedia]