Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues

The narrator decries Betsy Ross as a communist and four U.S. Presidents as Russian spies, while lauding Adolf Hitler and George Lincoln Rockwell.

Dylan was given the opportunity to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show and wanted to sing "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" on the program.

He joins the John Birch Society, an anti-communist group[4][5] which asserted that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a "dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.

[7] The narrator believes Betsy Ross was a communist because she designed the American flag with red stripes[8] and accuses U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and "that Roosevelt guy" of being Russian spies.

Rogovoy theorizes that Dylan could be referencing the alleged association between Jews and communism or the fact that Exodus was scripted by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten who were blacklisted for being communists.

"[10] The Houston Chronicle's Chris Gray felt that "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" prefigures later satirical songs like Green Day's "Holiday," St. Vincent's "Los Ageless" and Kendrick Lamar's "Humble".

Murphy said that, given the Society's newfound relevance, perhaps Dylan should have played the song when he performed at the White House earlier that year.

[6] In a 2017 article for The American Conservative, Scott Beauchamp writes that the track is a "great example" of Dylan "skewering the diffuse paranoia of the time by lending articulation to the logic of a situation."

Beauchamp also opined that "Half a century later, the humor of this muddy, paranoid thinking persists, albeit in reverse political polarity," wherein people will use the term "fascist" to refer to conservatives, President Donald Trump, or anything they dislike; he added that "the definition [of 'fascism'] should be deeply grounded in historical and political specificity, lest we come to believe that what made the Nazis fascist was their rude demeanor or failure to vote for Hillary Clinton.

[25] In addition to "Talkin' John Birch Society", he dropped three of his other older songs, including "Let Me Die In My Footsteps", "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie" and "Rocks and Gravel".

[30][31] Dylan's first concert performance of the song was on September 22, 1962 at folk musician Pete Seeger's annual hootenanny at Carnegie Hall in New York.

[32][33] After The Ed Sullivan Show incident, he played the song at his solo appearances through the end of 1964, often making fun of CBS's decision in the introduction.

The last of Dylan's live recordings of the song was during his 1964 Halloween concert at New York's Philharmonic Hall, which appeared on The Bootleg Series Vol.

[34][35] Steve Buscemi covered "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" at a Dylan tribute concert in honor of the singer's 77th birthday.