First Howl: Bob Dylan Values

First Howl represents a curious amalgamation of the Bob Dylan music I was listening to at the time, and its characters and scenarios hearken back to the tropes in his songs. For instance, Wally is clearly "The Joker" spoken about in All Along the Watchtower. Bob Dylan's music also has a healthy suspicion of wealth and power and pseudo-intellectualism, such as that in "Ballad of a Thin Man", "The Times they are a'changin'", "The Ballad of Poor Miss Hattie McCarroll", "Man of Peace" and "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" etc. and that is personified by Lord Goddard. You can even see echoes of "Big Jim" in "Lily, Rosemary..." in the character of Sir Pleasance.

In terms of the characters themselves, of course Sylvia's brother, Bobby, is directly named after Bob Dylan and his wayward, adventurous self hearkens back to the Bob Dylan of the Freewheelin' era. Sylvia? In many ways she is both "The Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" and "Just like a Woman".