Happy Dylan Day

The man himself. Image by way of wikipedia

 

Today is Bob Dylan's birthday. It's kind of hard for me to believe that the person who has provided the soundtrack of my life (which isn't an unmixed blessing) just turned 80. 

My first Bob exposure that I recall happened when I was 9 or 10 when my brother came home from college and played Blowin' in the Wind on an acoustic guitar. I'd have a strong reaction every time I'd hear him on the radio, not necessarily because he had a pretty voice, although I didn't mind it. It was more like the power of the word. 

When I first heard Tangled Up in Blue, I just froze in my tracks. It got to the point for a few years that I'd check out a new Dylan album the way some people consult the I Ching. Sometimes I gauge how I'm doing in terms of Dylan albums (right now I'm somewhere between Oh Mercy and Love and Theft).

Sometimes I wonder whether he consciously wrote some of those lyrics or was just a channel of the Muses. In any case, I think Arlo Guthrie was right when he said that "Songwriting is like fishing in a stream; you put in your line and hope to catch something. And I don't think anyone downstream from Bob Dylan ever caught anything."

I saw a sign there

El Cabrero has been musing lately about how sometimes I've been deeply influenced by brief and random conversations. It kind of makes me wonder how much more I might have learned if I'd been paying attention...

When I was in junior high, there was an art teacher who was the master of random comments. Come to think of it, the making of random comments is one reason why we keep art teachers around.

Somehow, when the topic or Arlo or Woody Guthrie came up, he told me that there were some verses of "This Land is Your Land" that didn't make into the school music books. I was curious and looked them up and have since been a big fan of musical subversion.

These are the ones he was talking about:

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tresspassin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

HARD TIMES FOR COLLEGES and for people trying to go.

WHERE'S JOE THE PLUMBER WHEN YOU NEED HIM? Here's economist Dean Baker on the bailout, which is spreading the wealth around to those who don't need it.

HERE WE SIT, BROKEN HEARTED. The U.S. Supreme Court refused an appeal from Massey Energy to overturn a $260 million verdict won by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.

WORKING WEST VIRGINIA. El Cabrero was one of the co-authors of a new report from the WV Center on Budget and Policy looking at the state of working people in West Virginia over the last 30 years. Here's the press release with a link to the full report.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED