The authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon assert that the title of the song refers to
Tombstone, Arizona, but literature scholar Richard Brown is more equivocal, suggesting that the title could represent "a rather doomy or morbid joke, an existential melancholy produced by an awareness of the inescapable condition of human mortality". The song contains several direct and indirect allusions to historical and characters and events.
Paul Revere's horse,
Belle Starr,
Jack the Ripper,
Galileo,
Cecil B. DeMille,
Ma Rainey, and
Beethoven are all mentioned in the lyrics. Dylan's biographer Robert Shelton writes that the song references the Vietnam War throughout, especially the title and the third and fourth verses. This interpretation is shared by other critics. In an early version, the song refers to a "blacksmith with freckles"; as the song develops in later takes, this becomes "John the blacksmith" and eventually "John the Baptist". The third verse includes: The fourth verse includes: Shelton sees President
Lyndon Baines Johnson as the subject of the phrase "King of the Philistines". The political scholar Andrew Gamble remarked that this verse is "often been taken to be a direct reference to the escalating war in Vietnam". David Boucher, an international relations scholar, describes the song as "not a narrative but instead a series of metaphors whose inspiration happens to be the Vietnam war". Political science scholar Jeff Taylor and historian Chad Israelson suggest that although "Tombstone Blues" is not overtly political, its theme is the mockery of authority. For the critic
Mike Marqusee, the repetitive and routine lives of the narrator's parents in the choruses contrast with the "cruel antics of the rich and powerful" laid out in the verses. The scholar of English Neil Corcoran reasons that as
John the Baptist's commander-in-chief is
Jesus Christ, the song is
blasphemous; the same description was applied by
Record Mirror reviewer Norman Jopling in his 1965 review. ==Critical comments==