This song describes group of American gangsters called the Early Roman Kings, alluding also to decadence and criminality of the kings of the Roman era in ancient Europe. Of the release “Tempest”, “The Early Roman Kings” is one of the songs Bob Dylan most often plays live. The music is a blues in the style of Muddy Water’s “Mannish Boy”, with an accordion mimicking the harmonica. The lyrics are wry and relish in wrong-doing, drawing on the folk tradition of bad man ballads such as “Stagger Lee”.