[The Soup Nazi]

It's hard to find a real precedent for this brilliant song in Dylan's work. Yes, we all know the long ones, from "Desolation Row" to "Tempest" -"Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands", "Joey", "Brownsville Girl", "Highlands"- but this time there's no semblance of a chorus, it's not a waltzy tune, the vocal phrasing is different, and it's incredibly atmospheric without the need of a Lanois-esque sound; it's all anchored by that gorgeous, unpredictable piano and the whoosh of the cymbals, basically. And this is just "an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting"? Jesus Christ.

Now... does anybody else find the first part of the minimal press release a bit eerie? "Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years". Could be just a way of saying "I'm stuck like all of you, had to cancel my Japan tour, sorry, here's a tune for a buck". But it also sounds like something Bowie could have said before Blackstar came out. Fuck that - may Bob live on 'til he's 150 at least.