"From a Buick 6"

"She walks like Bo Diddley and she don’t need no crutch"

In some weird alternate universe, this seems to be a complement. The structure of the songs suggests that the woman being described is a girlfriend & each verse explains one of her positive characteristics. It rings of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130; lyrics that, on the surface, don't seem complementary, but when compared to the bubbly pop songs of its time, present a portrait of a believable woman rather than the simplistic perfection so common in the lyrics of his contemporaries.

Of course, one needs to envision what it means to "walk like Bo Diddley." Walking to the "Bo Diddley beat"? Maybe. We possibly have a veiled jab at people like Mick Jagger who were coping that beat left & right. The idea of referring to Jagger as a woman is funny, but not likely. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of footage of Bo Diddley literally walking (at least not back then), but maybe she walks her fingers up & down the neck of a guitar like Bo Diddley. Then again, she could be walking her fingers up and something else, namely his phallus. Apparently, a good woman is one who is willing to dole out an HJ on a regular basis.

The second half of this line needs a bit of discussion too. Most people don't require crutches, so his need to point that out is strange. This leads us back to the idea that he's actually talking about a man. Someone who needs no crutch because he already has a third leg. Perhaps the woman is a transvestite. As Foucault (and to a more boring extent, Stanley Fish) suggests, when a subsequent text alters our reading of a previous text, the shifting meaning forces us to confront the structures of power in a society. In this case, we are lead back to the Mick Jagger reading thanks to his performances in movies like Bent (see the transvestite link above). We are left wondering if Dylan really is commenting on Jagger's role in pop music. And then, the following line has to do with the woman's loaded shot-gun. If not Jagger, it's quite possible that Dylan is singing about a man. Besides, a woman doesn't have the proper gear between her legs to "walk like Bo Diddley."

On the other hand, her ability to walk w/o a crutch could again be simply a weird complement. She stands upright on the ground. Good for her. Maybe he's just suggesting that she is sober. That's not a bad characteristic in a person... though still not too rare. Either way, we've got some fantastic connections to Shakespeare & Bo Diddley... awesome!