Day 6 & 7 – ‘All’ In
Day 6 & 7 ‘All’ In
The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.
Business Notes: I have telling a small fib about the setlists. The reality is that this is on “Tape Delay” so I am actually 1 week ahead of what I am writing about today. It gives me a little time to craft the items that I am writing about. Secondly, since I typically do not listen to as much of my iPod during the weekend, there might be times I will just submit a combined “Weekend Edition”. This might vary from week to week.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming where our writer just opened an old homebrew that he should have drunk a long time ago and it exploded in the sink….
I guess it is somewhat coincidental that my son’s name “Dylan” is the pen surname of Robert Zimmerman, i.e. Bob Dylan. It was never a conscious decision by either my wife or myself to name him this. I had recognized the coincidence but I cannot remember having any types of conversations with Lisa prior to Dylan being born, which is, in itself, pretty hilarious because we did spend quite a bit of time talking over and delving over the names.
We had a small whiteboard of names hanging listing possible male and female first and middle names. We allowed our close family during Thanksgiving to vote on several selections both male and female. Of course with our family, many opted to select their own write-in/third party candidates. I think that we just realized that serious votes such as this should be taken prior to anyone partaking in alcoholic beverages.
After he was born and the paperwork all filled out, it was one of those “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that!” moments. Now, we are not a huge Bob Dylan household. I have several of his albums and if there were ever a song that would represent Dylan (My Son), it was always “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”.
“All Along the Watchtower”, is one of those “Oh Shit!”, moments in rock and roll. Bob Dylan is arguably the greatest lyricist of his generation and I bet you could make the case for all time in the annals of Rock and Roll. If you consider the structure of the lyrics and how they are written as well as the meaning in three verses, with the different characters (Joker, Thief, Princess, .etc) representing specifics within the hierarchy of society.
And then 6 months later, someone by the name of Jimi Hendrix takes this work and “Fucks that Shit Up”.
Obviously, I did not grow up in the 60’s. At the same time what I have seen, and I could be wrong because I do not see everything is that we are at an information overload. We are focused on our phones, our texts, our social media. It needs to hit us immediately, become an internet meme or break it entirely.
I have run into similar scenarios with music that, if it does not grab me immediately, it might end up getting played again. I think about this because you hear about it amongst musicians who might pick up a piece of music and listen to it ad nauseam to gain some type of greater philosophical understanding of the world.
I think back to Dylan (My Son) in writing this. At his age he has access to more information than I ever had. Will there be another one like Dylan? Will there be songs that are written on the same level but musically and lyrically like “All Along the Watchtower?” Have we taken our eyes off the prize?
• PJ Harvey – All & Everyone
• Dream Syndicate – All Along The Watchtower
• Nirvana – All Apologies
• The Walkmen – All Black and White