Fans Examine Meaning of Title, Cover of Bob Dylan's "Together Through Life"

Bob Dylan fans are busy dissecting every morsel of info released from his forthcoming album Together Through Life. Some think the title is drawn from a line in the Walt Whitman poem "When I Peruse The Conquer'd Fame." New Mexico disc jockey Scott Warmuth makes a pretty convincing case that the line "I'm pretty sure she'll make me kill someone" is appropriated from David Wright's translation of The Canterbury Tales. Dylan's 2006 album borrowed at least 16 lines from the first century Roman poet Ovid and many others from the Confederate poet Henry Timrod. Dylan's process of threading together disparate sources into a unique song is, of course, as old as songwriting itself.

What's drawing the most attention is the cover photo, which was taken by legendary photographer Bruce Davidson. The shot was also used in the 2005 Dylan documentary No Direction Home and, as Baltimore Magazine points out, it was on the cover of Larry Brown's book Big Bad Love. Dylan is apparently a big fan of Brown and has claimed to have "read every word the man's ever written." Check out more of Davidson's photos here. The Dylan album cover is drawn from the Brooklyn Gang series.

A tip of the hat to Expecting Rain.

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