You're the Special

I've been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately, and while he and Robert Pollard share little beyond prolificacy and a first name, songs like "You're the Special" highlight the fact that both are part of a long songwriting tradition. It's a short outtake that features just Pollard and an acoustic guitar. He plays the same guitar strum over and over and again, singing dense lyrics that build on themselves like some of Dylan's best early songs like "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."

Before she or he or me or you
or them and us and them
and you and knowin it
You're showing it
'Cause you're blowing it
Very gradually
Very sadually
'Cause we won it
And we grab it
But it's slipping away from it.

It's not exactly on par with lines like "He not busy being born is busy dying," but it is a rare occasion when the music seems sublimate to the lyric in Pollard's catalog, a song derived more from folk music than the pop, punk, psych and prog that typically inspire him.