Reading this passage from L’Education Sentimentale I started thinking of Dylan and of particularly Desolation Row:
Perched on the piano stool, the only place where her wings allowed her to sit, the Angel was placidly munching away without a pause.// ‘What an appetite!’ the choirboy said wonderingly ‘What an appetite!’ // The Spinx was drinking brandy, shouting at the top of her voice and flinging herself about like a madwoman
The Sphinx was drinking brandy shouting at the top of her voice, I could particularly see as a line in that song.
All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they’re quite lame / I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
I think Desolation Row is about — the singer responding to a letter he has received asking about the condition of mutual acquaintances.
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 