It is a humorous talking blues, which Dylan wrote after Noel Stookey gave him a press clipping about how the sale of forged tickets for a Father's Day picnic trip to Bear Mountain State Park had led to overcrowding and injuries.
In 1961, Dylan was often inspired in his songwriting by newspaper articles that he had read, and "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" was written after he was given a news clipping by Noel Stookey.
[2] Stookey was a stand-up comic and master of ceremonies, working at The Gaslight Cafe in New York where Dylan performed,[3] and later became a member of Peter, Paul and Mary.
"[3] Stookey gave Dylan a clipping from the New York Herald Tribune of June 19, 1961, thinking that it might provide material for a song.
[2] The news story related how a Harlem social club had hired a boat, the Hudson Belle, for a Father's Day picnic trip to Bear Mountain State Park, but after numerous forged tickets had been sold and the boat arrived late, more than twenty people were injured in a fracas.
[12] In 2012, Sony issued The 50th Anniversary Collection, in an edition of only 100 CD-R discs, in order to extend the copyright in Europe of the songs included.
[2] In Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia (2004), author Oliver Trager says that the song "not only lampoons avarice, but paints an uproarious portrait of the debacle.
[15] In the Orlando Sentinel, reviewer Parry Gettelman described "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" as a highlight of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, finding it "particularly astonishing" and adding that "The lyrics are double-edged, and slapstick details carry darker implications.
[18] Terry Atkinson, in the Red Deer Advocate, called it "gloriously goofy" and the funniest of three talking blues on the album which together "show that Dylan used to be as capable of wild humor as of dour denunciations and prophecies.