‘Motorpsycho Nitemare,’ also known as ‘Motorpsycho Nightmare’, was released in 1964, at a point when Bob Dylan was leaning away from his politically charged material.
While this song only mentions one film by name, La Dolce Vita, the legendary singer-songwriter prominently spoofs a different movie from the era, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
The song opens to a narrator knocking on a farmhouse after a long day at work, only to be accused of being a travelling salesman. After convincing the farmer he’s not a salesman but a doctor, the farmer offers him a bed beneath the stove.
But while the narrator sleeps, the farmer’s daughter Rita sneaks in, “lookin’ just like Tony Perkins”, the actor who played the chilling Norman Bates in Psycho.
Rita offers him a shower, but Dylan sings, “Oh, no, no, I’ve been through this movie before“, alluding to the famous shower scene from the Hitchcock classic where Marion Crane is stabbed while washing.
Trying to escape the farmer and his daughter, the narrator shouts the most offensive thing he can think of: “I like Fidel Castro and his beard!” This elicits the response he hopes, and the farmer scares him away with a gun.
Then the farmer’s daughter takes a job at a motel, another nod to the setting of Psycho, the Bates Motel, where he hopes to catch the narrator.
Dylan sings that if it weren’t for free speech, “he might be in a swamp”. Unlike the protagonist in Psycho, the narrator gets away and doesn’t end up in their car in a swamp.
“Ultimately it wouldn’t be a song from the ‘spokesman of a generation’ if it didn’t work in some sort of political statement as Dylan, unlike Marion in Psycho, is saved by the freedom of speech act and its necessary power to antagonise.” Far Out Magazine wrote about the track.
As previously mentioned, Dylan mentions that the daughter just stepped out of the “La Dolce Vita” (which translaes as “the sweet life”). The influential Italian director Federico Fellini made a film with that title, which around the time was hugely popular with artsy crowds. Using this analogy hints that Rita is an atractive bombshell, as Fellini’s films often include these types of actresses.
Both Psycho and La Dolce Vita were released in 1960 are considered pivotal moments in cinematic history, inspiring the world of film, music, and fashion.