Bob Dylan and Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan uses the song "Ballad of the Thin Man" in The Medium is the Massage. McLuhan uses this song because it comments on the inherently biased nature of media and mediums: told via song, literally titled a ‘Ballad’ as in a narrative set to verse, often times passed down – looking critically at journalism and reporting – and referencing the theater of circus ‘freakshow’ acts. So, song, journalism, and theater. In the same way, the song lends itself to three major interpretations as to the identity of Mr. Jones and the events occurring: Mr. Jones could be a reporter (media), Mr. Jones could represent the ordinary Joe (society), Mr. Jones is representative of a ‘straight’ man in a queer space (queer/sexual). The openness to interpretation is key: Mr. Jones could represent media, Mr. Jones could represent society, or the whole song could be about sex, or be utterly nonsensical. Dylan delights in the duality of both meaningful and meaningless music, where every song has the potential to be loaded with meaning from the artist – or meaning could come entirely from the listener, with the artist having created nonsense.