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A Bob Dylan expert has revealed the meaning behind one of Tim Walz’s favourite songs, after Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate in the US election.
In 2021, the Democratic vice presidential nominee contributed to a feature in the Minnesotan Post to mark the legendary singer-songwriter’s 80th birthday by choosing what he believed was one of his best songs.
“As a dad, ‘Forever Young’ has always been my favorite Dylan song,” he wrote. “A timeless message from a dad to his son.”
The song, from Dylan’s 1974 album Planet Waves, describes a father’s hopes for his child’s future and was written as a lullaby for his son, Jesse.
Harvard University professor Richard F Thomas is one of the foremost experts on Dylan, having written a number of books on the musician including 2017’s Why Bob Dylan Matters, which was listed by The Independent has a music book of the year. He also teaches a course about Dylan, the latest of which is due to begin this autumn.
Thomas told The Independent that he had been reading about Walz following his nomination and was “unsurprised” to learn that he is a Dylan fan.
“[’Forever Young’] is about the hope of a parent for a child, or the hope we have for anyone we love,” he explained. “Behind its simple and clear beauty, part of that beauty is the sadness that informs great art, the knowledge that youth is fleeting.
“Bob Dylan has always known that. Listen to ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’, reflecting on the friends of his youth – whom he saw a year or two before. In “Bob Dylan’s Dream”, the then-21-year-old sings: “We never thought we could ever get old.”
“Dylan is still performing still writing and singing about the human condition, aged 83,” Thomas said. “’I wanna do things for the benefit of all mankind,’ as he wrote in a 2020 song.
“Walz seems to share that sentiment, a version of the line on the Nobel Literature Prize medal [that] Dylan rightfully owns. It comes from Virgil’s Aeneid, which I’m also teaching this term.”
The governor of Minnesota has already attracted a wave of new fans thanks to his “Midwestern dad” charm and his “all-American” profile: a former National Guard, schoolteacher and football coach. He has managed to rile up Donald Trump and his team, simply by branding them: “Weird.”
Much has also been made of Walz’s music taste. He’s a dedicated Swiftie, and was behind the recent “Taylor Swift bill”, introduced in a bid to guarantee more transparency and protection for people buying tickets online to concerts and sporting events.
He proclaimed April 2019 as Minnesota Music Month, where he again paid tribute to Dylan’s songwriting prowess.
“Having produced artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Prince, The Replacements, Dess, Atmosphere and Lizzo, the Minnesota music scene is a vibrant part of our cultural landscape,” he said.
“It is important to recognise the impact of Minnesota artists on our entire state and we are grateful for their contributions that have advanced our understanding of one another.”
