Brownsville Girl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Brownsville Girl" is an 11-minute epic song from the often-condemned 1986 Bob Dylan album Knocked Out Loaded. It is often considered the only saving grace of the poorly received album. It is notable for its length and being co-written by playwright Sam Shepard.

The song is a dreamy recollection of a man's journey in the American southwest, in which he constantly recalls his time watching a film starring Gregory Peck. Clues in the song appear to refer to the 1950 western The Gunfighter. The song wanders through memories and settings yet is always centered on the narrator's doomed love affair that takes him from a trial in Corpus Christi, Texas, to the Rocky Mountains and beyond. The song returns at the end to being again in line for a movie, this one also starring Gregory Peck. The narrator doesn't know the plot, but claims that anything starring Peck is worth watching.

There are no known covers of "Brownsville Girl". An early version of the song exists, recorded for his previous album 1985's Empire Burlesque, is occasionally found in bootleg recordings and is called "New Danville Girl".

[edit] Trivia

Bono from U2 was quoted in Q Magazine that this is one of six songs from the past 20 years he wished he could have written.

.