Throwback Thursday: Bob Dylan's Tarantula, Revisited

So, I decided to give Tarantula another chance this week. What prompted me was that marvelous scene in I'm Not There in which Cate Blanchett, as Dylan, is in in the middle of a hotel room with white walls upon which a giant tarantula in silhouette is crawling. It's an unforgettable scene. The book itself less so. And yet, it remains in circulation, in spite of itself.

Tarantula has been compared to Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg (The Beats) and Rimbaud, but my first impressions upon re-reading it were James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake and Andy Warhol's proclamation, "Art is whatever you can get away with."

If I were asked when I first picked up a copy of this book I would have said it was when I was in high school in the 60s. The reality is that the book was never "officially" in print till 1971, proof that memory is a faulty and unreliable creature. So I must have been in college at the time. The cover was cool, and the title was cool. But the content? It depends on what lens you assess it through.

It wasn't till later that I became acquainted with Finnegans Wake, Joyce's 14-years-to-produce language game that made little sense to anyone and struck most common folk as a massive inside joke. Was it a joke on the readers or on his publisher?

So it is that Dylan produced a bit of prose here that was supposed to be something important. Was it also an inside joke? A joke on readers or on McMillan, his publisher?

What probably happened, no doubt, was that in 1966 Dylan had become such a hot commodity that anyone who published anything he wrote would be guaranteed a profit. A pitch was made, contract signed and the deal set in motion.

"Something's happening but you don't know what it is, eh?"

I dunno.

It's a book of historic significance only for the fact that Dylan wrote it, and it has an iconic photo on the cover (I already said that, I know). The back cover (of my copy) says this book "captures the tone and spirit of the turbulent times in which it was written."

Straight up, that's McMillan's marketing copy. His songs did, but nothing in this book really does that.

To capture the times I would suggest Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five or Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Reading James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time is a bracing read as well, and no joke. Michener's Kent State is on point at the end of the decade.

Dylan's Tarantula was an insignificant blip on the period's literary scene and even less in retrospect. It's easy to imagine him saying, "I was funnin' you." Something akin to his 115th dream, though even there there's serious satire taking place. The rambling tripe on most of these pages seems to have no real aim other than to fill pages with ink.

Perhaps it could be said that this was a foreshadowing of Seinfeld, which was essentially about meaninglessness.

Here are the book's opening lines, after the initial chapter heading Guns, the Falcon's Mouthbook & Gashcap Unpunished.

aretha/ crystal jukebox queen of hymn & him diffused and drunk transfusion round wound heed sweet soundwave crippled & cry salute to oh great particular el dorado real and ye battered personal god but she cannot she the leader of whom when ye follow, she cannot she has no back she cannot ... beneath black flowery railroad fans  etc.

Alas. I'm sure there is some backstory on all this, of which I've forgotten or am unfamiliar. It doesn't really matter. Here are a few of the more critical reviews of this book on Amazon.

Three Star Review
If you need to read a review of this before you buy it , you must have no idea about Bob Dylan and this particular book. Investigate thoroughly before you commit. All Dylan fans will want to have it , whether they read it or not is up to them. I tried and couldn't really do it - but I had to "own" it.

Two Star Review
Dylan is by far the greatest songwriter of all-time and perfectly deserving of a noble [sic] prize in literature if ever one is bestowed upon him. However this stream of consciousness book is pure crap. It will be a highly collectible book if you have the first edition, first printing in good condition in about 50 years. Till then read Lyrics 1961-2001 or Chronicles vol.1 instead.

One Star Review
Is Bob Dylan now the pen name of a machine learning software fed hastily written assignments from a one hundred level poetry class? Tarantula is what the software produced.

One Star Review
I really couldn't make sense of this book. I am old enough to blame myself when this happens. I like his lyrics, but this book is unreadable. I wonder if he wrote it deliberately to mock those who say they get it. It is as if you hold up a toddler's doodle to art critic, who compliments it as some work of genius.

* * * *
On the flip side there are many like these five star reviews:

A Masterpiece
Spontaneous bebop prose poem. As with Naked Lunch, I can only absorb 10 pages at a time and then my head hurts gloriously. If you love Dylan, buy it, dog ear it, highlight, and rave.

Good book by Dylan when he was 23
I enjoy reading this as much as I did when I got my first copy in the early ‘70s. As dazzling as Bob’s music.

* * * *
It's probably significant that when you go to Bob Dylan Wikiquote, itself an exceptionally long Wikiquote entry, there are no quotes from Tarantula.

But that's OK. I own it, read it again and am happy to have it on my bookshelf. Do you have it on yours?

Making Note of Some Aretha-Dylan Connections

When Jackie Kennedy Onassis, the former First Lady, passed away in May 1994 I was in a chat room on America Online when a person announced that Jackie O was dead, that she had died "20 minutes ago." It came from a nurse who was there, sharing news that had not yet been officially announced, producing a sense of immediacy. This confiding of that historical passing drew us in, even though we were strangers, and moved us in some uncanny way.

Nowadays when we see familiar names in Twitter's Trending feeds or headlines of other social media, though we don't know what happened we know something has happened. Prince, Bowie, Robin Williams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman... You see the name and it gives you pause.

So it was that on Tuesday or so I saw a notice that the First Lady of Soul was in hospice. My thoughts and prayers went out to her. Something inside me said it would be soon, and Thursday "Aretha Franklin" was trending.

No question she had a powerful impact on the music scene, was a force as a Black female vocalist in the Sixties. So many great songs she gave us, so many great memories.

Eulogies have been appearing everywhere because there are ample numbers of writers and publications desirous to acknowledge her achievements. "Stellar" is a suitable description. Some have focused on the hardships she had to overcome. I thought I'd draw attention to a few connections between Aretha and our Nobel laureate from Minnesota.

Bob Dylan's first reference to Aretha Franklin, that I know of, appeared in his experimental prose poem titled Tarantula: “aretha with no goals, eternally single & one step soft of heaven/ let it be understood that she owns this melody along with her emotional diplomats & her earth & her musical secrets”  This was written in 1965 or '66, an early nod to the great lady, who was born only a year after he was, both so very young.

The second connection that caught my eye was the connection both these great artists had to producer Jerry Wexler. Steve Chatterton's account on Medium gives backstory on one of Franklin's most iconic songs. "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me."

Chatteron tells how "Respect" was an Otis Redding song that Franklin transformed into her own. He writes, In 1967, Franklin started working with Jerry Wexler, a producer at Atlantic Records. He suggested she try a version of “Respect,” thinking it would be a good fit for her voice. He wasn’t wrong, but the lyrics weren’t right, either.

By re-working the lyrics, the song took on new meaning.

“I don’t care how much money you bring in,” she seemed to be saying, “It doesn’t mean a thing if you think it gives you the right to boss me around.” She turns the tables, demanding respect in the words of a song originally written for a man. “Give me my propers when you get home,” she sings.

November 1979, Dylan at the Warfield in SF.
Photo credit: Bill Pagel. Used with permission.

Jerry Wexler began his career as a journalist, writing for Billboard magazine in the early 1950's. He's been credited for coining the phrase "rhythm and blues." In 1953 he became a partner at Atlantic Records, contributing significantly to its success. Over time he signed or produced some of the biggest names in the business including Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits, Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles and the Allman Brothers. He was the force behind the Muscle Shoals recording studio sound where he worked with Aretha Franklin and contributed to her career success.

Bob Dylan first met Wexler in the early part of the 70's . Later in the decade Dylan sought out Wexler to produce what would be the first of three albums in the new phase of his life after his conversion to Christianity. When he received the Grammy for his hit single "Gotta Serve Somebody" he proceeded to thank "the Lord, Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett, who believed."

According to Wikipedia, Dylan approached Wexler to produce the upcoming sessions. Wexler, who referred to himself as a Wandering Jew, had no idea at their initial meeting that the album was going to be wall-to-wall Gospel.

According to Scott Marshall, author of Bob Dylan, A Spiritual Life, Barry Wexler's phone call to co-producer Barry Beckett was "Bear, we're screwed. Dylan's gone Christian." Becket wasn't phased by the news, replying, "I think it will work out Jerry, if he doesn't get too schmaltzy on the lyrics."

Matt Wake of Alabama Entertainment goes on to share the role Mark Knopfler and Pick Withers of Dire Straits played in bringing Dylan and Wexler together.

For more insights on the production of Slow Train, check out this interview with Jerry Wexler upon the release of Trouble No More, Bootleg Series #13 featuring live performances from 1979-1981 and other material of that era.

To dive any further into all this would be a distraction from the real impetus for this blog post, to acknowledge the passing of another luminary. Thank you, Aretha, for all your gave, and for your resilience in the face of hardship, for all you overcame to make it happen.

Related Links
Aretha noted in Dylan's Tarantula
The Aretha-Wexler Connection 
Slow Train Coming Backstory

Aretha, you will be missed.