B-side "Oh, Sister" Format Single Length 3:00 | Released February 17, 1976 Genre Folk rock | |
Recorded July 30, 1975 at Columbia Studios, New York City | ||
"Mozambique" is a song written by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy that was originally released on Dylan's 1976 album Desire. It was also released as a single and reached #54 on the Billboard Hot 100.
At the time of the song's release, the titular country of Mozambique had just emerged from a ten-year insurgency war against Portugal which led to Mozambique's independence. As a result, some left wing supporters wanted to see the song as lending support to the newly independent country. However, the lyrics of the song don't support such an interpretation, being slight and treating the country as merely a place for a romantic getaway in the sun, apart from a fleeting reference to "people living free". This angered some of Dylan's fans. Music critic Paul Williams suggests that "Mozambique" may have had its genesis in Dylan's desire to write a song about Marseilles.
The melody received more praise than the lyrics. Robert Shelton describes the tune as "playful." Authors Oliver Trager and John Nogowski both describe the melody as "great" and particularly praise the violin playing of Scarlet Rivera.
Author Oliver Trager describes "Mozambique" as "a light love song with lighter political overtones." Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls it "effervescent" and "Dylan at his breeziest." Paul Williams considers "Mozambique" to be one of several songs on Desire with "wonderful, inventive, pleasure-giving" music which nonetheless fails to reach the intensity and unity of the other songs because the lyrics are "a little too vague, too clever" and "too distanced." Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin considers the song to be a "ditty dredged up from the bottom of the barrel," "ghastly" and "the weakest song on Desire."
"Mozambique" was also released as a single as a follow up to the Top 40 hit "Hurricane" and it reached #54 on the Billboard Hot 100. Heylin suggests that Dylan may have released it as a single over songs fans might have preferred—particularly "Sara"—to spite fans who criticized the song for its slight lyrics trivializing the conflict in Mozambique. The song also appeared on the compilation album Masterpieces. A live performance was included in the television special Hard Rain but not on the associated album.