In his Chronicles (2004) Dylan remarks that growing up in Minnesota he responded with great feeling to Harold Arlen’s songs. Woody Guthrie ruled Dylan’s universe, and Arlen worked in a different genre altogether, but Dylan wanted it known that he loved Harold’s bluesy sound.
Am I crazy to hear an echo of "Blues in the Night" (Arlen music, Johnny Mercer lyrics) in "Memphis Blues Again"? Listen:
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again?
That’s Dylan. Mercer’s lyric, which begins with "My mama don’ told me," concludes with these lines:
From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe, wherever the four winds blow
I been to some big towns, an heard me some big talk, but there is one thing I know,
A woman’s a two face, a worrisome thing who’ll leave you to sing the blues in the night.
Blues, Mobile, Memphis. What do Dylanologists think?