Song of the Day 2/15: The Wallflowers, “Sleepwalker”
Since I featured Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” yesterday I felt I had to follow it up with Jakob Dylan’s oblique answer song, which drew a bit of attention when it was released as the lead single from the Wallflowers’ “Breach” LP in 2000.
Bob Dylan’s son stepped out of his father’s shadow with the band’s multi-platinum album “Bringing Down the Horse” in 1996. Dylan was accustomed to attention, but found his new level of fame and his packaging as a commodity rather alienating. The songs on “Breach” constitute his response.
One couplet in particular triggered a good deal of discussion.
Cupid, don’t draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn’t know what I know
Critics who gave it a shallow reading thought he was claiming to be bigger than Sam Cooke, but the next line – “I’ll never be your valentine” – makes it read more like a response to fans in love with a celebrity, or more properly, the star’s public image. Cooke, notoriously, caroused with many, many women, and was killed with his pants off. Just my read, but I think what Dylan is telling Cupid not to let him fall in love with celebrity, and what he knows is to avoid using fame as power.
“Breach” was released at the height of Napster’s file-sharing revolution, so its sales fell well short of its predecessor even though “Sleepwalker” was a No. 1 Adult Alternative Airplay hit. Because Billboard’s Hot 100 at the time listed only songs physically released as singles, their hits from “Bringing Down the Horse” never that chart. So “Sleepwalker” became their only appearance on the Hot 100 when it eked in at No. 73.
An acoustic version of the song was released on a bonus disc that was included with the CD version of the album.
