"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan. It was originally recorded on August 2, 1965, and released on the album Highway 61 Revisited. The song was later released on the compilation album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II and as two separate live versions recorded at concerts in 1966: the first of which appeared on the B-side of Dylan's "I Want You" single, with the second being released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. The song has been covered by many artists, including Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Power, Nina Simone, Barry McGuire, Judy Collins, Frankie Miller, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, The Black Crowes, Townes Van Zandt, and Bryan Ferry. Lightfoot's version was recorded only weeks after Dylan's original had been released and reached #3 on the Canadian RPM singles chart.
"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" has six verses but no chorus. The song's lyrics describe a vision of the narrator's experiences in Juarez, Mexico, where he encounters poverty, sickness, despair, available women, indifferent authorities, alcohol and drugs before finally deciding to return to New York City. The lyrics incorporate literary references to Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels, while the song's title references Arthur Rimbaud's "My Bohemian Life (Fantasy)". Music journalist Toby Creswell included it on his list of the 1001 greatest songs of all time, and music critic Dave Marsh ranked the live version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" from Liverpool, released as the B-side of "I Want You", as the #243 greatest single of all time. (Full article...)