Talk:Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues

Statement about cutting "John Birch" from Freewheelin' is incorrect edit

I recently added the Recordings section but retained most of the existing information. However, I believe one of the statements, based on Nigel Williamson's Rough Guide, should be removed as incorrect or at least as an opinion without factual basis:

"Dylan recorded the song for his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but it was dropped as better songs were written and recorded."

I just wrapped up a rough draft of a new section on "Talkin' John Birch"'s role in Dylan's walking out of the Ed Sullivan Show. The controversy brought attention to the fact that "Talkin' John Birch" was on Freewheelin'. All the sources I'm using - Sounes, Heylin, Wilentz, Scaduto, etc. - indicate the reason the song was dropped was because CBS's lawyers ordered it. Furthermore, advance copies of the album, with "John Birch" on it, were already in circulation and had to be recalled. In light of the other reporting and the material fact of the album's initial song list, I doubt anyone will object, but I did want to put this "on record" since the statement has a citation and has been around a long time. Allreet (talk) 16:26, 7 December 2010 (UTC)Reply

GA Review edit

This review is transcluded from Talk:Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Drown Soda (talk · contribs) 20:05, 19 December 2018 (UTC)Reply

Composition The third paragraph of this section consists exclusively of critical commentary/analysis. I can see how it correlates to Dylan's writing of the song, but I do think it might make more sense to be part of its own section (i.e. "Analysis" or something of the sort). These sections are common in film articles on Wikipedia; not sure if this is common in music articles. Excising this paragraph would shorten the composition section slightly, but not to the point of leaving it too short in my opinion.

Critical reception

  • I think the Amanda Petrusich quote should be introduced as "wrote" rather than "said," unless the quote in its original form was spoken rather than written. From my scan of the Pitchfork article, her comment derives from a written review, so "wrote" makes more sense to me.

The Ed Sullivan Show controversy

  • Early copies of the record that feature "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" are worth as much as $20,000 — I think that this should be qualified with "Per a 2012 report, early copies of the record..." only because the value of the record among collectors is not static and will likely increase with time, or at least fluctuate.

References Footnotes and references all look good, and the book sources are adequately formatted. I tend to be of the opinion that providing archived links for web sources is important in the long run, but it is not necessary for an article to pass GA.

General comments: There are few reasons if any not to pass this in its current state, but I suppose my comments should be hashed out prior just for formality's sake. Let me know what your thoughts are on my observations. If you disagree or have another perspective, feel free to respond to them here. --Drown Soda (talk) 20:05, 19 December 2018 (UTC)Reply

@Drown Soda: I changed the wording of a few sentences thanks to your concerns. I changed the title of the "Composition" section to "Composition and analysis." I don't know how to archive links, so I will try to get a colleague to archive them. Thanks so much for your help!MagicatthemovieS (talk) 20:22, 19 December 2018 (UTC)MagicatthemovieSReply

Citation error message edit

There is a citation error message popping up for one of the sources. I tried fixing it myself but couldn't figure out the problem. MX () 14:38, 22 January 2019 (UTC)Reply

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion edit

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 19:39, 8 March 2020 (UTC)Reply