May 24th. It is a special date. My mother's birthday. My son-in-law's birthday. Queen Victoria's birthday in 1819. The day my mother-in-law Winnie died. The day that Hull City first made it into The Premier League and of course it is also Bob Dylan's birthday. The great man is eighty years old today.
If you are reading this Bob, I just want to say "Happy Birthday" to you and thanks for being my companion from the early sixties right through to today. Your songs have meant so much to me and I for one still marvel at your genius - your special way with words and ideas, your passion for songs and life itself. What a life you have led - to touch so many millions - people just like me.
This is the first Dylan song I learnt to play on my guitar:-
A year or two later it always featured on the set list of the band I belonged to. With Jock's electric guitar we turned that song into something so different. The woman that the narrator met in "As I Went Out One Morning" was a slave. Several Dylan songs spoke up for Black America long before the Black Lives Matter movement was ever dreamt of.
Back in 1976 when I had spent the summer working on a summer camp in Ohio, I headed up to Minneapolis to see my old friend Richard. We drove up to the Canadian border for a long weekend at his parents' cabin.
On the way back to the big city, I asked if we might make a diversion and drive into Hibbing where Robert Zimmerman spent his childhood. We asked around in the centre of the hard-working iron town. Did anybody know where Bob Dylan had lived? Nobody seemed to have the slightest clue.
Leaving town feeling slightly dejected, we called into a bar for liquid refreshment and it turned out that the bartender knew exactly where Dylan had grown up. We drove back into town and found the very house. Richard took a photo of me outside it. I guess we were like pilgrims.
My husband has been gearing up for Dylan's 80th for the last several weeks and he shares your fondness for all things Dylan. So glad you found his home in Hibbings. We were fortunate to see him live several times over the years.
ReplyDeleteI have seen him live twice. Both concerts were disappointing but that did not affect my idolatry.
DeleteBob Dylan was one of the best.
ReplyDelete"Is" Red! "Is"!
DeleteOnce again I disappear down a Google rabbit hole. This time searching for the Tom Paine reference in Dylan's song and thence to his message to the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee following his Tom Paine Award in 1963 ( see Bob Dylan Letters/Speeches/Stories). Then I read A Fan Meets His Hero which you might relate to if you had encountered Dylan in person and not just his his home. How I wish I had taken a life changing Gap Year before University, but kiwis were still flightless birds back then and overseas travel a fantasy.
ReplyDeleteHey ho, I'm supposed to be decluttering a bedroom but my retirement freedom allows me to go off on a tangent and as your post tied in with me finishing Annie Proulx's epic novel Accordion Crimes over breakfast I couldn't help myself.
Adele
Go off on as many tangents as you wish Adele and explore those rabbit holes but watch out for the big buck rabbits. They tend to have only one thing on their mind. Thanks for the tip about "A Fan Meets His Hero".
DeleteThe Times They Area A-Changing. Bob was born in Duluth in Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteYes he was - at St Mary's Hospital - but almost his entire childhood was spent in Hibbing.
DeleteDylan is good for the Ukulele. lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
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You must be confusing Dylan with George Formby! An easy mistake to make.
DeleteI can't say that I ever enjoyed listening to Bob Dylan. Perhaps I was born too late to appreciate his talents.
ReplyDeleteAt least you are honest JayCee.
DeleteAnd he's a nobel prize winner too. Richly deserved I'd say.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Went to see Nomadland yesterday - superb cinematography. So rare I go the big screen but was worth the trip.
Oh that is a relief Mr Shed. So glad you enjoyed it. Did you have to travel to Swansea?
DeleteAnd my daughter May's birthday too. It's a good day to be born.
ReplyDeleteBob changed the world. No doubt.
You picked a good date to bring May into the world.
DeleteIt's hard to believe Bob Dylan is 80. Just like it's hard to believe Joni Mitchell is 77, Grace Slick is 81 and Judy Collins is 82. "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," indeed?
ReplyDeleteThe song you referenced was by an English folk legend - Sandy Denny who died in 1978.
DeleteThe video got blocked! Never been a Dylan fan, although I appreciate his genius at what he does. This is a memorable day for you for sure. :)
ReplyDeleteThe song was "As I Went Out One Morning" Margaret.
DeleteDid not know that Dylan spent his youth in Hibbing but having lived in Minnesota, I knew he was born there.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately due to copyright laws, I can't listen to whatever song you linked but I like most of them and love quite a few. Folk and folk rock songs have always been near and dear to me.
The song was "As I Went Out One Morning" Ed.
DeleteThanks for the name. That is one that doesn't get much airplay here for some reason. I'm fairly certain I've heard it but not on the radio. Many years ago, someone I knew gave me every Dillan song ripped onto a CD and I went through a phases where I listened to all of them through a few times before tucking it away.
DeleteI'll join in the celebrations, being an old Dylan-fan, too. It brings back memories of how in my mid teens a friend and I used to go the library and listen to records, Dylan among them, and also tried to understand the lyrics. (Note, this was the early 70s, we were around 16, and had only studied English for a few years in school.) I for one totally found him a worthy winner of the Nobel Prize in literature later on in life. (For once, I was able to brag about already having a volume of the winner's collected Lyrics (1962-2001) in my bookshelf!)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you "discovered" Dylan in that way Dawn Treader.
DeleteHow cool to have found your way to Dylan's home, partly by persistence and partly by good fortune in finding that bartender - and to have the photo, to boot.
ReplyDeleteI had the feeling that not many before us had sought out his childhood home.
DeleteI was never a disciple, just an admirer of some of his work.
ReplyDeletePoor Bob. Damned with faint praise.
Delete'It's a Hard Rain A Gonna Fall' is a poetic masterpiece of despair, and for that he should be remembered.
ReplyDelete