I Contain Multitudes

Dylan has long been fascinated by the concept of the multiplicity of the self, evident in everything from his fondness for Arthur Rimbaud's phrase "Je est un autre" ("I is another"), which he said caused bells to go off when he first read it in the 1960s,[8] to the lyrics of his Rastafari-influenced 1983 song "I and I".[9] Dylan's constantly-changing persona, which became the explicit subject of Todd Haynes' unconventional 2007 biopic I'm Not There (with its subtitle "Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan"),[10] has caused critics to use Whitman's line "I contain multitudes" in relation to Dylan long before he ever wrote the song.[11] Dylan himself quoted the line in an interview for the 2019 film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.[12]

When asked about writing the song by historian Douglas Brinkley for an interview in The New York Times to promote the release of Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan noted that he "didn’t really have to grapple much. It’s the kind of thing where you pile up stream-of-consciousness verses and then leave it alone and come pull things out. In that particular song, the last few verses came first. So that’s where the song was going all along. Obviously, the catalyst for the song is the title line. It’s one of those where you write it on instinct. Kind of in a trance state. Most of my recent songs are like that. The lyrics are the real thing, tangible, they’re not metaphors".[13]

Brinkley also asked Dylan about the surprising inclusion of Anne Frank's name in the song, to which Dylan responded: "You could just as well ask, 'What made you decide to include Indiana Jones or the Rolling Stones'. The names themselves are not solitary. It’s the combination of them that adds up to something more than their singular parts. To go too much into detail is irrelevant. The song is like a painting, you can’t see it all at once if you’re standing too close. The individual pieces are just part of a whole...Somewhere in the universe those three names must have paid a price for what they represent and they’re locked together. And I can hardly explain that. Why or where or how, but those are the facts."[14]

While reviewing Rough and Rowdy Ways in his Substack-published "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau said the track "provides exactly the right thematic sendoff" within the context of the album's "elegiac retrospective".[15] Mark Beaumont of NME called it a "sanguine personal exposé" and "a kind of literary folk 'My Way', a porch chair portrait of a life fully lived", in which Dylan "peels away the details of his journey with the grace and conciliation of a master making his peace".[16]

Several critics have commented on Dylan's surprising use of humor in the song, including NPR's Lauren Onkey who noted that the lyrics contain "a list of sometimes funny (we often forget that Dylan is funny) and preposterous brags of the singer's power and prowess that evoke the blues",[17] and USA Today's Patrick Ryan who, in an article about the "Best Songs of 2020", referred to it as both "cheeky" and "quietly heartbreaking".[18]

Simon Vozick-Levinson, writing in a Rolling Stone article where the song placed 13th on a list of "The 25 Best Bob Dylan songs of the 21st Century", noted that it functions as a "bookend of sorts" to "Murder Most Foul" in that, in both, "Dylan seems to be considering his place in the constellation of great musicians and artists through the ages".[19]

As with "Murder Most Foul", "I Contain Multitudes" contains many references to other artists and works of art over the past few centuries. The line "I rollick and I frolic with all the young dudes...I contain multitudes",[20] for example, is a reference to David Bowie's song "All the Young Dudes", which became a hit for Mott the Hoople in 1972. In an article about "I Contain Multitudes" at Forward, Seth Rogovoy suggested this particular line "could be read as a similar nod toward queerness contained in the Bowie-penned original".[21]

The song also contains numerous references to Irish poetry and songs, in particular the work of W. B. Yeats, Antoine Ó Raifteiri and the song "Danny Boy". Although allusions to Irish poetry and song are nothing new in Dylan's work, some have speculated that these particular references were inspired by an evening Dylan spent in the company of fellow songwriter Shane MacGowan in Dublin while on tour in 2017.[22]

The song was covered by Australian singer/songwriter Emma Swift on her 2020 album Blonde on the Tracks.[24]

Norwegian pop singer Sondre Lerche released a cover as a Christmas single on December 20, 2020 via Stereogum.[25]

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• Lyrics