Songs move through time, seeking their final form. What happens on that path is only partly up to the writer, the singer, the musicians. It may be partly up to the audience hearing the songs, watching them as they are performed, with the response of the audience, even of a single member of the audience, coming back to the performers and, in ways that can be felt but never determined, reshaping the song. That is why, perhaps, it is the fact of Bob Dylan’s songs moving through time, and the way they have taken on elements of those times as they moved through them, that matters most on this interesting occasion.
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there’s nothing really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind
I played the video and remembered that if there are 6 different you tube videos of the same Dylan song then there are 6 sets of lyrics and 6 different musical arrangements. Not the same as Blonde on Blonde but still good.
- Curious - Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 1:24 pm:
Great call.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 1:58 pm:
Hmmm…again I was fooled, when I see “Bob” here I am thinking Illinois/Arizona Bob has made an appearance.
- train111 - Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 2:37 pm:
Quoted from that one yesterday I believe. One of my all time faves.
- train111 - Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 2:44 pm:
I played the video and remembered that if there are 6 different you tube videos of the same Dylan song then there are 6 sets of lyrics and 6 different musical arrangements. Not the same as Blonde on Blonde but still good.
- illini - Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 2:44 pm:
@SixDegrees - yeah, we have not heard from him for some time. Kind of miss his fairly predictable comments.
But I would much prefer to contemplate the Dylan lyrics than to try to understand some of the “logic” we sometimes read on this site.
- pool boy - Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 2:55 pm:
Obviously Mr Miller, you are a huge Lucky Wilbury fan. I think Hurricane was one of his best efforts.
- Anonymous - Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 4:02 pm:
As Johnny Cash said on album cover of Nashville Skyline…”he can rhyme the tick of time…”.