Don't feel so alone --
You cannot escape stoning.
It's a fact of life.
The song that brought us the famous phrase "Everybody must get stoned" is so clearly not a drug song that it has given Bob Dylan plenty of room to grouse about never having written a drug song, given how much people call it a drug song. But you can't write a song with that line in every verse and give it a brass marching band arrangement without knowing how people are going to react to the otherwise cryptic lyrics. Anyway, about the song: to me, I read it as stoning like the Bible or Shirley Jackson, but also as a more metaphorical stoning, an idea that you're going to be compelled by the rest of society to do what they do whether you like it or not, and there's no way you can escape from so many people, especially when they're against you doing the thing that you want to do.
Regarding stoning and things you might do that will result in stoning (a partial list):
- Trying to be good
- Hearing them say it once, and then holding up their promise
- Trying to go home
- Being at home
- Walking down the street
- Trying to keep your seat
- Walking
- Approaching your door
- Eating breakfast
- Being young
- Working
- Just being done being stoned the first time
- Playing guitar
- Driving your car
- Walking alone
- Being brave
- Being dead
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