The Bob Dylan Archives of Tony Glover to be Up for Auction Beginning November 12

The Minnesota music scene has produced some sensational talent through the years. Rock, folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass and even gospel music circles have developed exceptional performers and recording artists. One of these was David Curtis Glover, better known as Tony "Little Sun" Glover. A harmonica player with the folk group Koerner, Ray and Glover (inducted into the MN Music Academy Hall of Fame in 1983) he was also a notable rock critic who wrote for many of the best-known music mags including Crawdaddy, Sing Out, Creem and Rolling Stone.

When young Bobby Zimmerman left Hibbing to "attend" college in the Twin Cities, Tony Glover's friendship there in the Dinkytown music scene made an impression on the kid from the North Country, so much so that Dylan dedicated a prose poem to Glover at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, calling Glover "a best friend in the highest form." 40 years later Dylan made note of Glover's importance in his life by referencing him in Chronicles: Volume One. ‘I couldn’t play like Glover or anything and I didn’t try to. I played mostly like Woody Guthrie and that was about it. Glover’s playing was well known and talked about around town, but nobody commented on mine.’ 

All this to say that the late Tony Glover (1939-2019) had a real connection to Dylan, as can be seen in the kind of material that is going up for auction on November 12 at the RR Auction House in Boston.

Rolling Stone, on October 21, published a story about Tony Glover and this collection to be auctioned off. The article is designed to whet the appetites of collectors while simultaneously giving Dylan fans a glimpse of still another side of Bob Dylan. The article, by Douglas Brinkley, begins like this:

On March 18th, 1971, Bob Dylan sat down in his Manhattan office, put his feet up on a table, strummed a guitar, and opened up like he rarely, if ever, had before. He was talking to his old friend Tony Glover, the first of four interviews they conducted that year. At various moments Dylan reacts to being booed at Newport in 1965 (“It was a strange night”), recalls writing “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (“story of a mad kid”), remarks on his craft (“My work is a moving thing”), and dismisses his honorary doctorate from Princeton (“a strange type of degree — you can’t really use it for anything”). Feeling unfairly dissected by dimwitted critics who milked his lyrics for autobiographical information, he fired back. “Do you think Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno?”

The actual title of this auction is Marvels of Modern Music. 169 of the items fall under the sub-category Tony Glover Archives. Posters, original photos, hand written and typed/autographed documents, and reel-to-reel tape recordings of interviews and various other valuables. 

It was especially fun to see all these Scotch reel-to-reel tapes because I had an old Estey tape recorder that my father went to Manhattan to buy for me on my 12th birthday. He saw an ad in Pop Mechanics and driving into the City after supper we managed to locate this little electronics store. I recorded all kinds of music on these 7-inch reels and forty years later made a CD of the mid-60s hits I'd recorded from the radio. All this to say that seeing Glover's tapes brought back warm memories. 

Tony Glover's tapes have more value than mine, obviously. He has recorded interviews with Dylan and other contemporaries, including a Jimi Hendrix concert and aftermath. But for most collectors it's my understanding that original documents have the greater value.

Glover's interests and connections were vast, so the collection offers a nice cross-section of what was happening in the 60s music scene. Rolling Stones memorabilia, Allman Brothers, the Doors (whom he shared the stage with at one time), Bowie, Robbie Robertson, and so on. 

The 12th is when they open things up for bidding; November 19 is the culmination. 

Most of what we see her is affordably priced, unless you get into a bidding war with someone who's "gotta have it." We're not talking about the original lyrics to Like A Rolling Stone, for example, which went for a cool two million.

To give you an idea, here are some examples.

1998 Western Union telegram from Bob to Tony Glover. Starting bid: $200. 

21 original photos of The Doors by Mike Barich. Starting bid: $200.

I would share more examples, but then I'd be drawing attention to them and collectors like Bill Pagel would prefer to have less competition. I have my eye on something, too, so let's do some misdirection at this point. 

OK, here's the description for one more: Desirable 1/4-inch reel-to-reel tape marked on the box, "Hendrix Interview + Concert / Noel Redding Int. - Nov. 2, 1968," containing audio of Tony Glover's backstage interview with Hendrix plus a recording of the concert at the Minneapolis Auditorium on November 2, 1968. Includes Glover's five-page transcript of the interview, in which he and Hendrix discuss audiences in America and Europe ("They're the same, once you get into it"), the production of Electric Ladyland.  $400-$600 

I may have to hawk my silver dimes from my childhood paper route days. 

For sure it's a veritable stew of memories here. Post cards from Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone archives, a letter to Tony from Donovan, letters from Joan Baez, a Jimmy Reed 45... There's even one lot of 20 Marlon Brando photos and booklets that someone is sure to snatch.

* * * 

The recent article in Rolling Stone focuses on Dylan's "lost letters" among other things. You can rummage through the listing here, though, simply for the personal nostalgic value, as you lift the lid and peer into your past.

HERE's the link: https://rrauction.com/preview_gallery.cfm?Category=629&SortOrder=HP&SearchCrit=&ByItem=

And finally, Tony Glover's Obit from the NY Times last year. 

Peter Tork's Passing Brings Back Memories

Peter Tork. Public domain.

While visiting my cousin in Hamilton, Ohio in July, 1967 we went to see a Cincinnati Reds game at Crosley Field. As we drove South from Hamilton to the game we were surprised at the traffic that seemed to be backed up more than half a mile at one of the exits along the way. I distinctly recall asking what was happening that would draw such a mob.

The next day we found out. The Monkees had been performing at Cincinnati Gardens.

At this point in time I had a hard time taking the Monkees seriously. It was well-known that they were assembled for pop television, did not play on their recordings and only sang songs written by others. They were pretending to be a serious band, but were little more than entertainers. At least this was the perception.

I, being the oldest of four boys, went off to college in 1970 and considered it amusing to find my two youngest brothers to have been Monkees fans. They had all the albums from the beginning. One day, as luck would have it, I found myself listening to their Headquarters album and recognized that there was more substance than I'd originally realized.

The song that snagged me was "Shades of Gray,"leading me into a deeper listen. In short order I was reading the liner notes on all their albums and realized that Hollywood, or someone, had hired a lot of first-rate songwriters to create the music, including Chuck Berry among others.

Opened at #1 on the Billboard charts.

It wasn't till Michael Nesbitt did a gig at Baker Center while I was at Ohio U that I realized that the four guys in this group weren't all just actors. Peter Tork, it turns out, had also been a musician.

Interestingly enough Peter Tork got the call (to become a Monkee) as a result of a recommendation by Stephen Stills who initially auditioned for the role. Can you imagine? Had he gotten the assignment there would probably never have been a CSN&Y.

The Monkees television show only ran from 1966 to 1968, but they continued to record and do concerts thru 1971. Their album Headquarters opened at #1 on the Billboard charts, which shows the power of television. The following week Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, muscling its way into the #1 slot and remaining there for near three months, which shows the power of the Beatles.

* * * *

One of the most interesting chapters in the Monkees story had to do with Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix, who had played guitar with a variety of groups, had gone to England for a while and ended up forming his own group, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. When he finally came back to the States, his first road tour placed the Jimi Hendrix Experience as opening act for The Monkees.

After seven shows, Hendrix and his crew packed up and called it done. No one in the audience had come to see a cutting edge opening act. "We want Davy!" the girls were shouting. Total mismatch. But as they say, "That's show business."

* * * *
Here are the opening lines from Shades of Gray, a reflective song set to a poignant melody.

When the world and I were young
Just yesterday
Life was such a simple game
A child could play
It was easy then to tell right from wrong
Easy then to tell weak from strong
When a man should stand and fight
Or just go along

But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray

* * * *

Related Links
--Setlist for that 1967 Monkees concert at Cincinnati Gardens, which I missed because I had an alternate tune in my head: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
--The NYTimes Obituary for Peter Tork.
--Article about when Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees.

Peter Tork, R.I.P.

Who's the Greatest Guitarist of All Time?

It happened that about a dozen years ago or more I was asked to settle a dispute between two co-workers. One claimed Eddie Van Halen should get the nod, the other placed Hendrix on that ultimate pedestal. It was up to me to choose the tie-breaking vote. It wasn't really that hard for me. I first made my case for Eric Clapton. But ultimately, for innovation, influence and mastery, well Hendrix really was one of a kind.

It's the kind of debate that has gone on in every field of endeavor no doubt. Who is the greatest boxer? Who was the most influential writer? Who is the most talented magician? What is the best jazz album of all time?

These kinds of debates are probably fairly meaningless in one sense. What I have to think of say about it doesn't influence much of anything. But when a magazine like Rolling Stone weighs in... well, it may not settle the debate for some people but it does reveal how many talented rock and roll guitarists there have been out there. And if nothing else, it gives the publication a chance to sell a lot of magazines. If you're into rock 'n roll guitar, the December 8, 2011 Rolling Stone just might be the ticket.

Before going any further I should note that the electric guitar and the guitar are two different animals. The wonderfulness of a guitar used to be that you could take it anywhere. You could bring it to a remote village or a family reunion or to the beach for a serenade. You can lead choruses or make solitary revelry anywhere in the world with nothing more than a guitar.

Rock and roll music as we know it requires amps and electricity and sound systems. When Dylan was in Duluth in 1998, the team running the sound system was on the floor of the DECC in the midst of parallel 100 foot longs tables covered with dials and wires and assorted equipment designed to control volume, pitch, yaw and all the rest. This kind of music is not something you bring to a mountaintop except on your iPod.

The Rolling Stone special edition is fun because most of the writers are themselves guitarists or rock musicians. The Eric Clapton profile is written by Eddie Van Halen. The George Harrison piece is penned by Tom Petty. Keith Richards writes about Chuck Berry and Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band writes about Richards. It just adds a dimension that you won't find in most other places.

So let's cut to the chase.

Rolling Stone pretty much settled that one debate between my co-workers by placing their selection for numero uno on the cover. There was only one Hendrix. I still remember the incredible sounds that his three-man band produced on their first album, Are You Experienced? As Tom Morello writes, "He manipulated the guitar, the whammy bar, the studio and the stage." Where he came from and how he accomplished the things he achieved are a book length story. Suffice it to say, few would argue with placing him first and foremost in this list.

I won't be listing all one hundred here, but we really do need to comment on a few of them. Eric Clapton did rock the world with his guitar. Van Halen writes, "Eric Clapton is basically the only guitar player who influenced me – even though I don't sound like him. There was a basic simplicity to his playing, his style, his vibe and his sound. He took a Gibson guitar and plugged it into a Marshall, and that was it. The basics. The blues. His solos were melodic and memorable – and that's what guitar solos should be, part of the song. I could hum them to you."

I myself had all the Cream albums. The live jams on side three of Wheels of Fire never ceases to satisfy.

Number three on the list is Jimmy Page. I remember being in Scott Homan's basement when we heard the first Led Zeppelin album with songs like Dazed and Confused. Page, whose roots had been with the Yardbirds, lived the rock and roll dream and has survived to tell about it. Joe Perry writes, "He had this vision of how to transcend the stereotypes of what the guitar can do... He was writing the songs, playing them, producing them – I can't think of any other guitar player since Les Paul that can claim that."

Times of have changed in the music scene, but rock and roll is intimately woven into the Sixties. Much like the atmosphere that sustains life on earth, it nourished imaginations, and comforted a lot of souls during a time of great upheaval.

Time will not permit more than mentions of the rest of the top ten, as selected by Rolling Stone. There is Keith Richards of the Stones weighing in at #4, Jeff Beck #5, B.B. King at #6, Chuck Berry #7, Eddie Van Halen #8, Duane Allman next, and rounding out the top ten is the irrepressibly intense Pete Townshend of The Who.

One of the names on this list (#92) is Dimebag Darrell, who was shot to death while performing in Columbus in 2004. I mention this only because it's proof that going on stage really can be hazardous to your health. Fame isn't the only killer of rock stars.

Much more can be told here, but... I'm on a deadline. If you're favorites are not here, check out the full Greatest Guitarists list at Rolling Stone.

Photos at top of page by Andrew Perfetti

Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music

Imagine that you have been invited to a huge party, and when you get there everyone is a somebody... a Somebody in the history of pop music. Who do you talk to first? Do you walk around looking for your favorites first? Or do you just saunter around talking with whoever you run into next?

That's what it's like to pick up the book Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music.

Obviously a party like that can only be assembled by someone with connections. In this case the author is Joe Smith, who happened to be president and CEO of Capitol Industries-EMI (the same ones who signed the Beatles, Dylan and so many more.) Before this he had been president of Warner Bros./Reprise and Elektra. A Yale grad who became a popular and successful disc jockey, Smith seems like just the right guy to gather all these other pop celebs under one roof.

The book is handled just right. There are no long interviews. Like the party, you can bounce around for a brief spell with Tom Petty, then George Harrison, Little Richard, Ray Charles. Over here is Dylan and is that Yoko Ono? Oh yes, talking with Joni Mitchell, Phil Collins and Ella Fitzgerald. Joan Baez, Robert Plant and James Taylor seem to be enjoying themselves over there with Tina Turner and David Bowie. Then you see the jazz guys, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz and Dave Brubeck staring out the window onto the lawn where Quincy Jones is listening to Robbie Krieger, Mary Travers, Frankie Valli, Al Kooper and Herbie Hancock. Donovan pensively listens to John Fogerty and David Lee Roth. Judy Collins seems to be reminiscing with Graham Nash and Stephen Stills. I Lou Rawls and Tom Petty can't seem to get enough of Henry Mancini.

O.K., you get the picture. And the stories they tell are fascinating because pop culture has played a role in all of our lives.

My bedtime reading ended with Mike Nesmith talking about the Monkees. They were not a music group, they were characters on a television show. The purpose of the show was not to end up with hit records, he says. But one day they're driving along in the car and hear that their song Last Train to Clarksville is #2 on the national charts. Nesmith says the very notion of it was bizarre. Suddenly everything changed.

The Monkees were shipped to London to prepare for a road tour as a music group, but they weren't really sure about how they really felt, nevertheless they followed through. One strange quirk about the tour was having Jimi Hendrix open for them. Mickey Dolenz had heard Hendrix in a London club and made the recommendation, which Nesmith off handedly thought was O.K., sight and sound unseen. When they arrive in Raleigh, North Carolina, to do their first gig, the Hendrix trio is mind blowing, even in appearance, but the teeny bopper screamers are there only for one purpose, and it's not the Experience of Jimi Hendrix.

Nesmith says he disguised himself and went into the crowd to snatch a listen. He'd never heard anything like it. "It was the most exhilarating, the most majestic, the most entertaining, the most fulfilling music I'd ever heard," said Nesmith.

But the mismatch was self-evident and after eight gigs Jimi had had it. The girls were chanting, "We want the Monkees," and in the middle of a song the most incredible guitar player of a generation left the stage in the middle of a song, disgusted.

For the record, this book offers a lot. It's real, it's intimate, up close and personal. Recommended.

Was It Suicide or Was It Murder?

When I was a kid, and actually to this day since I am doing it now, I used to ask a trivia question about the Rolling Stones' 1965 hit single Satisfaction. "What was the name of the song on the B-side?" If you guessed, The Under-Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" you win. The 45 had a blue label with the London imprint.

It's a long time ago, but the original front man in the group was not Mick Jagger or the Jagger-Richards combo. The man, a youth actually, who put the Stones into the spotlight was Brian Jones. More than just a pretty face, he was a quite talented musician in his own right. He plays at least seventeen different instruments over the course of several early Stones albums.

Early on, however, their manager Andrew Loog Oldham felt that Jagger and Richards should be pushed closer to the spotlight and Jones accepted this re-arrangement of significance. In watching the Beatles rise to prominence he recognized that there were financial benefits to writing your own music. (Oldham proved influential in helping another famous rock star emerge, bringing Jimi Hendrix home to England at the urging of Keith Richards' girl friend. Hendrix's career ignited overseas.)

The flamboyant Jones was also a notorious party animal and did all the drugs that were in vogue at the time. He was highly visible in "the scene" and could be seen with all the top draws both East Coast and West Coast. In '67 he had a high profile relationship with Nico of the Velvet Underground, for example, and introduce Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Music Festival.

Ultimately, these "no boundaries" lifestyles take a toll, and Jones ended up at the bottom of a swimming pool after binging on alcohol and barbituates. Within a few short years, Jimi, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison would all join him on "the other side." Rock star self-destruction is undoubtedly a side effect of too much fame when mixed with the right concoction of personal instability, taking down many famous names. Just a few from the short history of Rock 'n Roll... John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Tim Buckley, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Rick Grech (Blind Faith), Brian Epstein (manager of the Beatles), Keith Moon (The Who), Kurt Cobain, Billy Holiday, Sid Vicious, and so many more.

When they found Jones in the bottom of that pool, the arc of his career had already declined. That it was a self-destructive act, or accident, seemed self-evident. His estrangement from the band, mood swings, and drug excesses led to an easy conclusion.

In the 1990's, however, a builder who had been present at that time, allegedly made a deathbed confession that he had killed Brian Jones. This led to a book, and then another. And yesterday, two months and forty years since that drowning, police re-opened the investigation of Brian Jones' death.

Was it suicide or was it murder? Will we ever really know?

EDNOTE: Most of the paintings and illustrations on my blog are available for sale. If you see something here that makes you say, "I gotta have it," be sure to let me know and we can negotiate a price. Feel free to click on images to enlarge.

Battle of the Brands

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr

About a month ago I read that Barbie turned fifty this year. In my opinion, she still looks pretty good for her age. A little nip and tuck along the chin line and some exercise to keep the muscle tone hasn't hurt any. She never seems to put on an ounce of weight, unlike a lot of other dolls, so apparently fame never led her to change her values, or or diet.

Back in the early Sixties my mom used to sew Barbie clothes for my cousins as well as other girls in the 'hood. For the purpose of fitting the clothes she sewed she had a couple Barbies we dressed for success, for the beach or for the ball at my mother's whim. Because it seemed unseemly to her, she eventually bought a Ken doll to keep her boys from playing with Barbie.

Barbie eventually became the unrivalled brand champion in the international toy category.

One of the hallmarks of capitalism is the manner in which companies battle for marketshare and top-of-mind awareness in consumers. In marketing, companies seek not only to define their brand, its name and assets, but also to place it in the center of the consumer's mind.

Branding is a way in which a company differentiates itself from the competition. You can see this in the variety of flavors in which rock and roll came to America in what is known as "the British Invasion." The Animals, Beau Brummels, Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix were groups which crossed the seas to win the hearts of young Americans, with varying degrees of success. (Hendrix himself was from Portland, but his group originated across the big pond.)

Over time, with the onslaught of fame and the music scene tabloids, the individuals within these groups became brands in and of themselves, again with varying degrees of success. Each of the Beatles went this route, Eric Burdon of the Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton. If you said Jagger, everyone would know what you meant. He was clearly defined -- the androgynous guy with big lips and hip walk -- and even became a caricature of himself. Keith Richards represented everything you didn't want your daughter to associate with. The Beatles played up their innocence and charm, though eventually their various personas emerged.

Brand images are not always a positive. The Standard Oil Company spent a great deal of money trying to come up with a unique company name that had no liabilities in any language. They came up with the word Exxon. Unfortunately for Exxon, the image that pops immediately to mind when much of the environmentally conscious public hears the word is Exxon Valdez. The 1989 oil spill off Alaska's Prince William Sound continues to rankle.

The top five global brands of 2008 were Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, General Electric and Nokia, in that order. Number six on the list was Toyota, the highest ranked automobile company. In 2001, Ford was the world's top automotive brand, listed eighth, one slot behind Disney. But today, slotted at 49, Ford exemplifies the U.S. auto industry which has slipped badly.

When we say beer, Anheuser-Busch wants you to think of Budweiser, the King of beers. Ranked #33 in the 2008 list of Best Global Brands, Budweiser is now being challenged by a Chinese beer of all things.

Actually, Budweiser's number one seller is Bud Lite, which proves the company made a good move back in the Seventies when they saw the lite beer trend coming and fought hard to establish their cred in that arena. But SABMiller claims it sells more of its branded product Snow and has now become the world's best selling beer.

Well, back to Barbie, who in 2001 was ranked 84 in the list of Best Global Brands. Times have changed. In the current top one hundred, Barbie failed to make the cut. That's why she's recently been spotted in several Manhattan taverns crying in her beer. And rumor has it she's also been cited for drunk driving on Long Island. Twice. Fortunately, by keeping it out of the tabloids it hasn't done too much damage to her brand image... unlike some other ditzy blondes in the news, for better or worse, though in that celebrity culture, sometimes even bad news is good, as long as they're still talking about you.

PHOTO: While in Sedona we noticed that MacDonald's, home of the Golden Arches and the world's eighth-ranked global brand, was sporting Green arches, a very chic, New Age attire.

Famous Lefties

Unless you’re in a minority, you can easily take it for granted that all are like you. I remember the first time I knew someone whose parents were divorced (that I knew about) and it seemed so unusual. And for most of us who are right handed, it is quite strange to find that a portion of the world is unlike ourselves… or that their needs might be different from ours.

Take the guitar, for example. Jimi Hendrix did not have the luxury of owning a guitar designed for lefties, so he learned to play a right handed guitar the opposite way, with the bass string on the bottom instead of the top.

There are actually whole stores for left-handed people. There are even scholarships for lefties, as if their minority status required our support, I suppose. Maybe some rich lefty wanted to make sure left handers got a fair shake.

In baseball I remember that one of the great pitchers of all time, Sandy Koufax, was a southpaw (nickname for left handed pitchers.) Being one of the greatest Jewish baseball players, he stands out as a double minority.

Allegedly, the following presidents were all left handed: James A. Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton. It’s remarkable how four of the next five post-Nixon presidents were lefties. Bet you didn’t know that. (In researching, I learned something else about Mr. Hoover, our Roaring Twenties president who ushered us into the Great Depression. He died in 1964, a year after John F. Kennedy, who ushered us into the Sixties.)

Here’s a smattering of other left handers: King Louis XVI of France, Queen Victoria of England, Prince Charles of England, Fidel Castro, Henry Ford, David Rockefeller, Helen Keller, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, astronauts Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Wally Schirra, Jay Leno, Dave Barry, Edward R. Murrow and Ted Koppel. Some interesting characters in my book.

A few left-handed authors you might be familiar with include: James Baldwin, Peter Benchley, Lewis Carroll, Marshall McLuhan, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells and Eudora Welty.

The list of lefty musicians is longer still. Here’s but a portion: David Byrne, Glen Campbell, Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins, Bela Fleck, Judy Garland, Isaac Hayes, Chuck Mangione, Robert Plant, Cole Porter, Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Lou Rawls, Paul Simon, Tiny Tim and Rudy Valee.

Artists of the left hand persuasion include Albrecht Dürer, M.C. Escher, Paul Klee, Michelangelo, LeRoy Neiman, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci... an auspicious group.

And of left handedness in the acting profession there seems no end, much too long to list here.

I get the impression that being left handed has a somewhat negative connotation, as if a person is somehow underhanded for being a lefty. This is a strange notion, but it's born out in a number of ways. For example the Chinese character for "left" means improper.

It's no doubt a bummer that many tools and implements are designed for righties, making many activities just that much more challenging. Seven to ten percent of all people are left handed, and yet we have failed to accommodate for them in so many ways. Thank goodness for left handed teacups when we have company.

No Guarantees

Quitters never win, and winners never quit.

That's the way it is. Without persistence, we are guaranteed to fail. The reverse, however, isn't necessarily true. Sometimes we persist, we finish the race, and yet we don't get the prize. This can be a hard nut to swallow.

I love the verse in Ecclesiastes that says, "The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong... but time and chance happen to them all." (Eccles. 9:11) Why do I love this saying? Because it gives us a much needed reminder that things don't always work out. That's reality.

For example, there are no guarantees that if I say all the right things I will "close the deal" in business. Or get the job. Nor am I guaranteed to win the big race at the track meet if I prepare better this year than last. Nor am I guaranteed to become a famous novelist by writing lots of books. In all of these examples there are many factors outside of our control. Illness, strong competition, a car accident, even death - the list of things outside our control is limitless. As we all know, none of us is God. We are finite creatures with limited capabilities.

Nevertheless, there is one thing that is in our control. We can choose to give up, to quit, or we can choose to keep going. Those who quit pursuing their goals or dreams are certain never to reach them. Those who keep going, who persist, will find that the dream inspires and strengthens them.

Whether we reach our dreams or whether we don't, we can be an inspiration to others to go after their own dreams. This is why we continue to the end and finish the race with our heads held high.

All Along the Watchtower

If anyone is interested in simply studying the poetry of Bob Dylan, that is, to study his songs and their lyrics as poetry, I highly recommend John Hinchey's Like A Complete Unknown. Hinchey at one time taught literature at Swarthmore College. He brings insights at times that often might escape the casually listener, especially in the more surreal and ambiguous songs.

What Dylan does that many if not most great writers do, is to derive insight and imagery from direct observations of literal, concrete things. His language, however, explodes with splashes and starbursts of creative exuberance.

Hinchey himself is a vibrant writer, so writer-critic meets songwriter-artist in this 270 page overview of Dylan's poetry from 1961-1969. Hinchey stated his intention to write four subsequent volumes, a decade by decade panoramic overview of the tapestry that Dylan has woven with words.

Hinchey called Dylan's John Wesley Harding album "the comeback of all comebacks." It is an album very different from his previous series of in your face snarl and vim, following on the heels of Blonde On Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited. This was not my favorite Dylan album at the time, in part because I didn't care for the recording quality. It felt thin. But the songs have a lot to them.

The most evocative song in this collection, and most memorable in part because of Jimi Hendrix's wonderfully haunting rendition, is All Along the Watchtower. From the first line, it carries you into a vivid sandstorm of expectation.

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

"There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief.
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief

Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth

None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”

"No reason to get excited", the thief he kindly spoke.

"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke;

But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,

So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view

While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,

Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Copyright ©1968; renewed 1996 Dwarf Music

So, what does it mean? Here we are forty years later and the song still intrigues. Who are the joker and the thief? What is the moment in time that is being defined here?

There are a variety of websites where song meanings are discussed. Some of the interpretations of songs are quite amusing, but a brisk read often unveils new glimmers of light for previously shadowed text. Songs like Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harem or Horse Latitudes by the Doors will bring on interesting comments. So does this song, wrapped in mystery as it is.

Hinchey sees the joker and the thief as representing the sacred and profane parts of his Dylan the trickster, "mythic master of limits and boundaries." Hinchey writes that the difference between the two, both here and elsewhere in Dylan's work, "is that the joker merely evades limits; the thief finds ways to render them permeable."

The commentary in Hinchey's book is too lengthy to re-record here. Needless to say that he and others writing of the song see in it an "apocalyptic moment" toward which this scene is leading. I myself get mesmerized by how much vivid content this tightly coiled song contains while still remaining shrouded.

What follows here is an alternative shade of interpretation from one of the websites I noted where people share their attempts to explain lyrics. This was posted by someone with the handle eveland on 11-30-2004.

I remember reading an article about this song when it first came out (I believe 1968) by Paul Williams in Crawdaddy magazine, which was a cheaply produced, but very serious, intellectual magazine published by Williams. The thing that stuck with me from the article was that Williams compared the structure of the song to a moebius strip (because the starting point of the lyrics is actually in the middle of the song & the song opens with the middle part of the lyrics) & felt it gave the song a claustrophobic feel (because you come into it & leave it in the middle). The starting point would be "All along the watchtower" & then after the line "Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl", the next line would be "There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief", the joker & the thief being the two riders who were approaching, of course. This makes perfect sense to me & seems right. As far as the actual meaning, my own opinion is that it's a philosophical piece about how one finds meaning in a chaotic & very imperfect world. The joker sees this world & can't take it seriously because it's so false & is depressed because he can't find a way to make sense of it. The thief has come to this same realization in his past, but has found a way to move beyond it & create his own meaning. So it is, in effect, a parable about existentialism. Or maybe I'm totally wrong...