Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

"Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" has received a positive reception from critics, who have variously praised Dylan's lyrics, his vocal performance, and its musicianship.

[4] Dylan went to Nashville in February 1966, with Al Kooper and Robbie Robertson from the New York sessions also making the trip.

[4] "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" was written by Dylan,[5] who sang and played harmonica on the song, with Kooper on organ, and members of the A-Team of studio musicians that had been engaged for the album sessions: Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss and Joe South (guitars), Hargus Robbins (piano), Henry Strzelecki (electric bass) and Kenneth Buttrey (drums).

[16] The song has nine verses, each, according to critic Andy Gill, providing "an absurd little vignette illustrating contemporary alienation".

[17] Musicologist Wilfrid Mellers described the song as strophic;[18] Literature scholar Timothy Hampton felt that Dylan's "technique of varying the chorus as a way of isolating the singer from the listener" as he employed on some of the Blonde on Blonde tracks is in evidence on "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", where the chorus is sung differently by Dylan each time.

[19] Journalist Oliver Trager suggested that, like other Dylan songs of the time, the themes were "suspicion of authority figures, solicitous females, and a confused, persecuted, and possibly intoxicated narrator".

The journey from one to the other is constantly obstructed.The sociologist John Wells argued that the song "cannot possibly be wholly experienced as a truly remarkable work of art" from reading the lyrics alone, but only when listening to Dylan's performance.

"[24] Communication studies scholar Keith Nainby wrote that Dylan "enacted an alienated, tumultuous narrative persona that was troubled, not comforted, by his place and time".

[26] In the Record Mirror review, Norman Jopling wrote that the song was "jolly .. with a teen-beaty backing" and was "quite amusing".

He described it as "a brilliantly funny portrait in black velvet of a world gone mad", and one of Dylan's "most perfectly realized songs".

[31] The first live performance was at the University of West Florida, Pensacola, on April 28, 1976,[32] during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

[33] The performance at Tarrant County Convention Center Arena, Fort Worth, Texas, on May 16, 1976, was included on the live album from the tour, Hard Rain, released on September 10, 1976.