POD DYLAN
Episode 122 - Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie
Rob welcomes back fellow Bobcat Tara Zuk to discuss the one and only poem Bob Dylan has ever performed live, 1963's "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie."
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Hi everyone! I just wanted to add here what I wrote about ‘Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie’ in my 2017 article about Bob Dylan’s voice, ‘Beyond an Angel’s Art’. Full article available at my website listed above.
“This is a spoken poem, not a song. The words here tumble quickly and to the edge of breath in parts. Dylan’s accent, his use of contractions, his beautiful imagery, assimilation and elision, His youthful voice rolling from one phrase to another, sometimes running lines together without pause, taking breaths whenever possible, pausing in unusual places, vocally jumping from one idea to the other, the beat and rhythm pounding like the rattle of the ‘fast flyin’ train on a tornado track’, seeking the answers to the questions and despair talked about in the verse. The journey takes us from rural idylls to the slums and ‘trash can alleys’ of urban decay, and it is incredible to hear someone who was only 22 years old at the time so artfully dissect the materialist society and the way that we are duped into seeking for answers in all the wrong places. The voice appears to have lived longer than the body it inhabits.”
As always a fine podcast from Tara and Rob.
Al Aronowitz’s article Family Album in the journal Cheetah is possibly where you read “Am I mixed up too much, am I mixed up too hard” repeated in a response echoing the line in Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie from years earlier. Does anyone have a reference to that or can they scan in the article? 1967? 1968?
Tara may be too shy or modest to mention that she is involved in a book too, if you like her ideas try a read of
Bob Dylan’s Hibbing. Hibbing : EDLIS Café Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781091782891
Never Ending Reading to substitute for the pause in the Never Ending Tour.
Third song from the album Rough And Rowdy Ways (2020) is out, False Prophet, when will Tara tackle it?
This was a marvellous listen. Maybe even my favourite thus far, though that may be unkind to other contenders from Tara,