Bob Dylan, I Want You, 2006

Lithograph on paper

102.87 x 74.93 cm (40.5 x 29.5 in)

Edition of 495

Hand-signed by the artist

The voice in this soliloquy is ‘on the pavement/Thinking about the government’ and warning a nameless ‘kid’ about sinister forces abounding in a world of wiretapping, plainclothes police and furtive characters in trench coats – a stacked deck in which ‘They keep it all hid’. The lyrics, and the electric rock background to which they were set in the early-1965 recording, resonated with young people who were beginning to question government policies and tactics as the Civil Rights movement and American involvement in Vietnam started to reach boiling point.

First album release: Bringing It All Back Home, 1965.