Chekhov's Mistress
More from the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
If you’re a Dylan fan, you’ve probably pre-ordered his memoir Chronicles, Vol. 1 to be released on October 5th.
I have about eight hours of his songs on my iPod, so I think the memoir is a must; besides who wouldn’t want to see the last forty or so years through the eyes of someone who lived it like few others.
You may also know about a book of poems, or at least a book of word play and rambling thoughts that only a mind like Dylan’s (or maybe a few people) could have written, from late in the sixties:
Tarantula: Poems
I found this one day while rummaging around a used bookstore. Reading it I could hear that inimitable voice saying the words in the back of my head. Here’s an example from “Cowboy Angel Blues:”
meanwhile back in texas – beautiful texas – Freud paces back & forth – struggling with his boot & trying to finish his Vermouth – “fraid you got the wrong idea Mr. Clap – if i was you, i’d give in & go chop those trees down for my mother – after all, there’s a little mother in all of us” “yes but i mean why do you think i do it? why do you think i intentionally set fire to my bed everytime she asks me to cut down those trees? why?” “yes – well – Mr. Clap – perhaps it is the womb calling-you know – perhaps when you were a little boy, you heard a tree falling & the sound of it went WOOOOM & now as you are older – everytime you hear that sound – in one form or another of course – you just want to – oh shall we say – light it up?” “yes that seems logical- thank you very much – i feel to go chop those trees down no” ah but remember son – a tree falling in the forest without any sound has nobody to hear it!”…
The poem goes on from there. Typing it, I had only intended to put down a few lines, but had a hard time stopping.
I think this book shows thoughts that are, as are his lyrics, mockingly funny, sad, bitter, sometimes profound and always open to interpretation. Of course, that interpretive quality may be his bane. Dylan is quoted in this Reuters article (link thanks to Maud) saying, “I was sick of the way my lyrics had been extrapolated, their meanings subverted into polemic and that I had been anointed as the Big Bubba of Rebellion…” Ah, the price of greatness.
It seems that The Rake knows about Tarantula too, and he points out this article in Newsweek with an excerpt of the memoir.
Tarantula is out of print, but it looks like it’s widely available on the web.
Read widely, think well, and write often.
comments
No CommentsCreative Commons License Deed Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
You are free:
- to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
-
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
-
No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
- For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
- Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
- Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.
This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license):
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/legalcode
This site employs rank-denial and other anti-spam measures.
Your link here will do nothing for your rankings or traffic. Off-topic comments will be deleted.
Previous entry: Things are going to start happening to me now
About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: September 27, 2004
- Filed Under:
Wise Men Fish Here: Literature
- Comments:0
- Links to this Post: Technorati
