The Blood Brothers’ “The Salesman, Denver Max” and Joyce Carol Oates

From the very beginning, Joyce Carol Oates brings music to the forefront of her widely anthologized short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” with the dedication that simply reads, “For Bob Dylan.” Other people have written on the ways that Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” from Bringing It All Back Home (1965) work in relation to the story. Others, such as Tom Quirk, have discussed “The Pied Piper of Tuscon” Charles Schmid and the ways that he inspired Oates to write the story and construct the character Arnold Friend.

I mention these aspects not to rehash what has already been said; instead, I point out these threads to look at how we can use The Blood Brothers’ “The Salesman, Denver Max” (2003) in relation to Dylan’s songs and Schmid’s crimes to help us explore Oates’ story. Today, I want to take the time to look at The Blood Brothers’ song and discuss the ways that it creates, like I would argue Dylan’s songs do, a soundtrack that ebbs and flows with the action that takes place within the story.

Music physically appears throughout Oates’ story in the form of the XYZ Sunday Jamboree and Ellie holding a transistor radio to his ear and elsewhere. At other times, it seeps in as part of the description of Connie’s thoughts and mindset, almost as if within her…