The 2021 A to Z Dylan Digression

Bob Dylan Way Manhole Cover

I recently visited the blog of a friend from Texas who had an interesting "concept" for her blog themes for a period of time and a half time. That theme was called the 2021 A to Z Challenge. It worked the way prompts do for writers. In her case the first day of the challenge was to write about some that began with the letter A, followed the next day by a B themed topic. 

This triggered the notion that I should do an A to Z Dylan Challenge. The problem for me would be that I have so many other things I want to share that I was certain to deviate from any plan that stretched more than a few days.

This led me to conceive of the 2021 A to Z Dylan Digression. Instead of writing 26 blog posts going forward, I thought maybe it would be fun to come up with 26 topics from the past. Most of these are things I've written over the years. A few are links to songs themselves. The letters are my fetters.

A -- Art -- Dylan Mural in Minneapolis

B -- Bootleg: More Blood, More Tracks

C -- Changes

D -- Duluth Dylan Fest

E -- Every Grain of Sand

F -- Freewheelin'

G -- Grateful Dead: Influence

H -- Heaven's Door

I -- I Shall Be Free #10

J -- John Bushey, Host of Highway 61 Revisited

K -- Knockin' On Heaven's Door

L -- Love & Theft 

M -- Masked & Anonymous

N -- Nashville Cats

O -- Oh Mercy

P -- Performed Literature  

Q -- Queen Jane Approximately

R -- Ramona

S -- Shakespeare

T -- Twist of Fate 

U -- Umbrella

V -- Visions of Johanna

W -- Watchtower

X -- Extras*

Y -- You Angel You 

Z -- Zanzinger

* Wasn't sure what to do with the X. Got any ideas?

Duluth Dylan Fest is 11 days away. Here is a link to the schedule.

More Blood, More Tracks -- The Bootleg Series Thunders On

In January I had the privilege of being a guest on Highway 61 Revisited, the Dylan-themed radio program hosted by the late John Bushey which aired on KUMD for more than 26 years. Every once in a while he would ask listeners for theme ideas for future programs and as a regular listener I always enjoyed making lists of ideas that might capture his imagination. His part would be to look at my list and then pull an unusual take from a concert in Paris or a rare outtake from a bootleg.

I don't recall what the theme of that specific evening was, but the experience we shared that evening was unforgettable. The song was "Idiot Wind" from Blood on the Tracks. The selected take was straight from the album. We were each wearing a pair of super-sensitive KUMD studio headphones so that every breath, every note, every subtle aspect of the song was radiantly sharp and crisp, with Dylan's vocals impossibly anguished, as if his whole inner self had been unshuttered. When the song finished playing John and I just stared at each other, in awe of what Dylan had created. Kevin Odegard, in the book Simple Twist of Fate (about the Minneapolis sessions for Blood on the Tracks) called it "an agonizing poetic tantrum."

This memory emerged foremost when I got the news that the BOTT Bootleg had finally been released, or would be available soon. There had been buzz circulating in the Northland since spring, if not sooner, that the next bootleg series from the vault would be Blood on the Tracks.

I pulled my copy of the book A Simple Twist of Fate off the shelf to brush up on details surrounding the making of this album that many rank as one of Dylan's finest. The story, by Andy Gill and Kevin Odegard, gives an insider's view of how Dylan re-recorded several of the tracks at the Sound 80 studio in Minneapolis three months after doing the initial recording in New York with producer Phil Ramone and musicians there. Dylan's brother David assembled the local talent in Minnesota, one of them being the guitarist Odegard. To say it must have been a rush is, as you can imagine, an understatement.

Unfortunately, after the new tracks were laid and approved for the finished vinyl, the Minneapolis musicians learned that 100,000 album covers had already been printed so that they would not get credit for the work they'd done, at least not initially. Purportedly when the first 100K sold there would be an edited revised version produced, an agreement that got lost in the shuffle of other more pressing things.

Such a revision may not have had much importance in New York, but for the guys in Minnesota it would have been a form of validation. To just "say" they were the musicians for classics like "Tangled Up In Blue" and "Idiot Wind" but not have it documented felt hollow.

Ironically, some of the New York musicians were even more upset. Their attitudes varied in degree, but ultimately could be summed up like this: "Why didn't Bob just tell us he didn't like the sound on some of those songs. We're pros. We would have been happy to give him what he wanted."

So with the release of More Blood, More Tracks, Bootleg Series #14, there's a sigh of relief that the hometown team is being acknowledged. Even so, there's still a bit of controversy. The single CD version which I already placed an order for features only New York sessions. To own the Minneapolis sessions you'll need to acquire the "strictly limited Deluxe 6 CD Set."

The late Paul Williams, a music journalist who befriended the author Philip K. Dick the last 14 years of the sci-fi writer's life, weighed in on the two versions of the album saying without reservation he liked both the New York sessions and the Minneapolis versions of the songs. Nevertheless, his take, as stated in his book Performing Artist, was that Dylan made the right choices for the album.

Even so, when it came to "Idiot Wind" Williams noticed two significant differences. First, and of less importance, was that there had been revisions in the lyrics. The second observation was that the New York version conveyed less rage and a more ominous or threatening tone.

Despite being removed from the official release, the New York studio sessions were soon on the street as an underground bootleg album called Joaquin Antique.

It won't be long before we all get the chance to compare the sessions. And whatever the outcome of that comparison, there will be nothing (for me) that quite compares to that moment last winter in the John Bushey Studio at KUMD...

Related Links
The Story Behind the Music: The Recording of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks
A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks
A Simple Twist of Fate Revisited
The Principle of Cognitive Dissonance as Illustrated by Dylan's Simple Twist

Principle of Cognitive Dissonance Illustrated by Dylan’s Simple Twist

In modern psychology cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort one has when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel "disequilibrium", out of balance, off kilter.

The phrase was coined by Leon Festinger in his 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, which chronicled the followers of a UFO cult as reality clashed with their fervent belief in an impending apocalypse, a scenario that has played out quite frequently over the past half century. Festinger subsequently published a book called A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance in which he outlines the theory. Cognitive dissonance is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.

There are numerous situations which, as they play out, leave us at odds with ourselves. Sometimes there is a dissonance between how we see ourselves and our behavior. Sometimes the dissonance is with regard to our desires and our convictions. In Dylan’s A Simple Twist of Fate, which I wrote about in December, the most telling line is, “He told himself he didn’t care.”

It’s a small dismissive line that is filled with ever so much. It’s clear that he is lying to himself. He cares immensely, but the reality is so foreign from what he wants and he knows it is an impossibility, so he lies to himself. He tells himself he doesn’t care. He’d hoped to find her there when he woke, because he wants to be near her. But this is not a girl friend. It’s a “working woman” whose occupation involves men down by the waterfront.

The gulf between his life and hers is immense. We don’t know what that life is, but we see plainly what hers is. They meet, go to a dingy hotel and she goes on to her next client.

The dissonance is apparent in the opening stanza as well.

They sat together in the park 
As the evening sky grew dark 
She looked at him and he felt a spark tingle to his bones 
’Twas then he felt alone and wished that he’d gone straight 
 And watched out for a simple twist of fate

"Wished that he’d gone straight" indicates his recognition that he’s playing a game with his own mind. He initially hopes for this encounter, but once set in motion he is immediately aware this relationship was inappropriate and untenable. Maybe he sees her as a human being and believes he can rescue her. Maybe she’s been down this path so many times that she knows he’s smoking too much dope.

But dissonance can be over principles like patriotism and war. Many people have strong convictions about the value and importance of patriotism while being at odds with the behavior of their country in its relations to the larger world, or its own citizens. I am opposed to American militarism and have pacifist convictions yet see that in a world where there are Hitlers and Stalins it would not be in our national interest to disarm our military forces. Would that everything were black and white, but... it's not.

For a more in depth introduction to this principle, it's history and related psychological themes, a good place to start is Wikipedia.

A Simple Twist of Fate

Yesterday when I wrote about short stories, I mentioned that many of Dylan's songs are themselves stories in lyric form. I cited several examples and wanted to go a little deeper here by shining a light on A Simple Twist of Fate, the second cut from what some critics call his greatest album, Blood on the Tracks.

Even the album's title has a double meaning. The initial image for most people might be railroad tracks. But in writing school there's a saying that to really produce great work you need to slit a vein and let what's inside you bleed out. The second meaning here is just this, this album comes from a place where there has been deep wounding, and the album's tracks have Dylan's blood on them.

A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE

They sat together in the park 
As the evening sky grew dark 
She looked at him and he felt a spark tingle to his bones 
’Twas then he felt alone and wished that he’d gone straight 
And watched out for a simple twist of fate 

The first stanza really tells the whole story. He is meeting a woman and things are going to happen, but it is not going to be a joyous moment of shared exhilaration. The way she looks at him lights him up and depresses him simultaneously, and he is fully aware of the emptiness that will come later in the story. He's been down this road before and wishes he'd avoided it.

They walked along by the old canal 
A little confused, I remember well 
And stopped into a strange hotel with a neon burnin’ bright 
He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train 
Moving with a simple twist of fate

What impresses me here is the elegant manner in which he describes their intimacy. With a few deft strokes it's done. He doesn't dwell on any of the details. It's a contrast to the explicitness in so many films today. "He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train." Simply smashing.

A saxophone someplace far off played 
As she was walkin’ by the arcade 
As the light bust through a beat-up shade where he was wakin’ up, 
She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate 
And forgot about a simple twist of fate

There it is. The deed is done, she's already gone... because for her this is not a love affair, it's a financial transaction. The tough life a street walker. No glamor here. But notice her sensitivity displayed toward another down-and-outer like herself. Once again, there is so much contained in the details.

He woke up, the room was bare 
He didn’t see her anywhere 
He told himself he didn’t care, pushed the window open wide 
Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate 
Brought on by a simple twist of fate

He told himself he didn't care. But he was lying to himself. It hurt, because he was lying to himself going into it. Truth can be painful and inelegant.

He hears the ticking of the clocks 
And walks along with a parrot that talks 
Hunts her down by the waterfront docks where the sailors all come in 
Maybe she’ll pick him out again, how long must he wait 
Once more for a simple twist of fate 

I was surprised to learn how much prostitution there was in our region's history here in Duluth and Superior. Then again, I grew up in suburbia, not a port town "where the sailors all come in." According to one very elderly bar owner whom I spoke with in Superior, many years ago the north end of Tower Avenue would see limos from Duluth's East End on Friday nights, the moneyed men supporting working girls. One of the most popular restaurants here in Duluth takes it's name from a grand dame of the trade.

And so, in this stanza our desperate hero has returned to find her again. How long must he wait?

People tell me it’s a sin 
To know and feel too much within 
I still believe she was my twin, but I lost the ring 
She was born in spring, but I was born too late 
Blame it on a simple twist of fate

He still wants to believe she's his soul mate. He still wants to believe that he's a victim of bad timing. He still wants to believe that his problem is not his own making. The problem had been created by fate. It could not be his fault. And maybe it's true. And maybe not. The pain is real in either case. 

A Simple Twist of Fate is Copyright © 1974 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2002 by Ram’s Horn Music.