Desolation Row: which lyrics hit note of global gloom?

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — The global economic downturn has inspired one British property boss to cite Bob Dylan to describe the market turmoil -- and triggered a debate about other songs evoking the credit crunch crisis.

Tim Wheeler of London-based Brixton Estates raised eyebrows by using apocalyptic lyrics from Dylan's 1967 classic "All Along the Watchtower" in his latest quarterly results this week.

"There must be some way out of here/said the joker to the thief/There's too much confusion/I can't get no relief," runs the opening line of the song, cited in the more usually dusty-dry accounting update.

"The apocalyptic opening lines seem to capture the beleaguered mindset of the UK commercial real estate market," wrote Wheeler, who reinforced the point by putting a...