Sure, you have the screamo champions out there, yelling at the top of their lungs about how a girl just stomped their heart into the ground. And for an older folk like me, it was Trent Reznor, singing about how he's now a "fading f*%*ing reminder of who I used to be" thanks to a woman in "Something I Can Never Have." And of course, if you're REALLY ticked off, your garden variety gangsta rap song will do for some quick catharsis.
But, to steal the cliche, time does heal wounds. And what would make a woman or man who wronged you angrier: Someone who is yelling and screaming in tears on the phone about how they ruined their life, or someone saying flatly, almost logically "You just kinda wasted my precious time..."
"Sugar Baby" is the second "epic" closer in Bob Dylan's phenomenal one-two punch (Time Out of Mind and Love And Theft) in the late '90s/early '00s. In "Highlands", the character summed up "the sun is beginning to shine on me, but it's not like the sun that used to be." On "Sugar Baby", the character has his back to the sun because "the light is too intense."
True, if they were sung by a lesser artist, critics wouldn't give a pass to a chorus like "Sugar baby get on down the road / you ain't got no brains nohow / you went years without me / 'might as well keep going now." But Dylan's grizzled, haunted voice, which sounds like wind whistling through the floorboards, packs a whallop.
Dylan's got bigger themes to tackle than just a breakup. Even if you're not a Dylan fan, I challenge anyone not to nod in agreement after a horrible day in their life when he says "every moment of existence seems like some dirty trick." He holds on to "dirty", giving it a bit of a growl. Then he flatly says "Happiness can come suddenly then leave just as quick."
Had a crap day? This song's for you.
Yes, he has a licence for that mustache
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