Bourbon is a totally different drink, made with a different grain, corn vs. barley for scotch. Bourbon has a touch of sweetness and...I don't know, it's hard to describe tastes, but I'd call it sharp in comparison to the thick taste of scotch. It's true that scotch doesn't mix well, just as Dylan doesn't harmonize with anybody.

I got that lp out after having written this post and listened to the first two songs. The first song confirmed my memory, the second, a talking blues, was amusing. Might listen to the rest later.

2nd. This is the one about New York. It's amusing. "You sound like a hillbilly. We want folk singers here."

Terms are very subjective, of course. I wouldn't describe scotch as "airy" at all. But "syrupy" for bourbon--well, yeah, you could say that, although a non-drinker would be pretty irritated if you got him to sample it by describing it that way. Also "flat", but not in a bad way--it's a less complex taste than scotch, which is what I mean by "sharper". I should say that I am not a connoisseur of either.

I've never really liked Dylan's voice much but I don't find it unlistenable the way I do some others -- Geddy Lee, for instance, or Robert Plant. I just find them annoying. I'm not a Dylan fan, and I tend to think him overrated, but I don't loathe him or anything.

My son at 15 had a friend with Down's. He said the friend "sounds like Bob Dylan when he sings." perfect

There's at least one song in which Dylan tries to sing in a straightforward manner: "Lay Lady Lay".

Re Robert Plant's recent collaboration: that's Alison Krauss, fiddler and vocalist for the band Union Station. She also appears on Richard Thompson's latest album (which I have yet to get), and has done a lovely rendition of "Dimming of the Day".

Speaking of Thompson and Dylan...they've been touring together recently.

Alison Krauss on Thompson's album doing a rendition of "Dimming of the Day" may be lovely, but it just plain makes me sad.

AMDG

I think I have a comment in the spam filter.

AMDG

90% of RT's songs are on the gloomy side. The one that really gets me is the somewhat similar "Withered and Died." And there's one I really can't bear to listen to, "[redacted]". I'll tell you the name if you really want to know, but don't say I didn't warn you (I think we had this conversation once before).

Yes, we have. But what I meant was that the idea of Alison K. replaacing Linda T. for DotD makes me sad. If it wasn't on an album with Richard, it wouldn't bother me. I really like that song, sad as it is.

AMDG

Like in that Willie Nelson movie.

AMDG

Look at his picture here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Plant

Boy, if there is ever anybody I wouldn't want to look at me.

AMDG

Heh. I'm sure there are much less troll-like pictures of Robert Plant around. Haven't seen Honeysuckle Rose. Just as soon not, I guess.

I'm willing to entertain the possibility that there are some good things on it, but--$98?!? I'm glad I was instrumental in changing your mind about that. There's probably a smaller edition, if you're really curious. That's the way they seem to be doing these outtake sets.

About Self-Portrait being a joke -- there's this in a 1984 Rolling Stone interview:

Interviewer: It always seemed to me that you were sort of infallible in your career up until Self Portrait, in 1970. What's the story behind that album?

Dylan: At the time, I was in Woodstock, and I was getting a great degree of notoriety for doing nothing. Then I had that motorcycle accident, which put me outta commission. Then, when I woke up and caught my senses, I realized I was just workin' for all these leeches. And I didn't wanna do that. Plus, I had a family, and I just wanted to see my kids.

I'd also seen that I was representing all these things that I didn't know anything about. Like I was supposed to be on acid. It was all storm-the-embassy kind of stuff — Abbie Hoffman in the streets — and they sorta figured me as the kingpin of all that. I said, "Wait a minute, I'm just a musician. So my songs are about this and that. So what?" But people need a leader. People need a leader more than a leader needs people, really. I mean, anybody can step up and be a leader, if he's got the people there that want one. I didn't want that, though.

But then came the big news about Woodstock, about musicians goin' up there, and it was like a wave of insanity breakin' loose around the house day and night. You'd come in the house and find people there, people comin' through the woods, at all hours of the day and night, knockin' on your door. It was really dark and depressing. And there was no way to respond to all this, you know? It was as if they were suckin' your very blood out. I said, "Now, wait, these people can't be my fans. They just can't be." And they kept comin'. We had to get out of there.

This was just about the time of that Woodstock Festival, which was the sum total of all this bullshit. And it seemed to have something to do with me, this Woodstock Nation, and everything it represented. So we couldn't breathe. I couldn't get any space for myself and my family, and there was no help, nowhere. I got very resentful about the whole thing, and we got outta there.

We moved to New York. Lookin' back, it really was a stupid thing to do. But there was a house available on MacDougal Street, and I always remembered that as a nice place. So I just bought this house, sight unseen. But it wasn't the same when we got back. The Woodstock Nation had overtaken MacDougal Street also. There'd be crowds outside my house. And I said, "Well, fuck it. I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can't possibly like, they can't relate to. They'll see it, and they'll listen, and they'll say, 'Well, let's go on to the next person. He ain't sayin' it no more. He ain't givin' us what we want,' you know? They'll go on to somebody else," But the whole idea backfired Because the album went out there, and the people said, "This ain't what we want," and they got more resentful. And then I did this portrait for the cover. I mean, there was no title for that album. I knew somebody who had some paints and a square canvas, and I did the cover up in about five minutes. And I said, "Well, I'm gonna call this album Self Portrait."

Interviewer: Which was duly interpreted by the press as: This is what he is . . .

Dylan: Yeah, exactly. And to me, it was a joke.

Not sure I buy that though.

This account of Dylan's view of the late '60s is very much in line with what he says in Chronicles, if my memory is reasonably accurate.

I had pretty much forgotten "All the Tired Horses" until I read a couple of reviews of this new collection. Bizarre, as I recall.

But the very worst Dylan song ever is "Wiggle Wiggle".

I haven't heard the new Patty Griffin, either. Didn't know there was one.

In general that book was a whole lot better than I expected, although I don't remember a lot of details now. The account of the Woodstock period is one thing that stuck with me, though.

It's not a great book or anything, but I think anyone interested in Dylan would enjoy it.

Yes, I remember that early days part, too. Especially where he's staying with those friends, and reads and reads and reads. Sounds like such a great moment. That, and the Woodstock years, and something towards the end about some eccentric roadside flea market type of thing--in Louisiana, maybe?--those are the parts I remember. Don't remember the story about the sound effects man.

I've often wondered what it would be like if the thing you were most interested in (or close to most, anyway) was the thing you made your living by. I remember many years ago reading Coleridge's advice to a would-be writer to find some non-literary occupation and do his writing in the evening. I think his main reason was the financial insecurity of writing as a trade. As I recall he painted this idyllic portrait of the writer coming home to the smiling faces of wife and children, seeing them off to bed, and working away, refreshed and content, in the silent house after they were all asleep. I have often remembered that, and laughed. But I'm sure there's also a definite drawback to having your intellectual interest also be your job, something you need relief from rather than something you turn to for relief.

And his wife is not saying a word, right? so as not to disturb his concentration.

I should know that work is work even when you like it. I was about to say writing is like that but I don't know if I even like it. I like having done it.

"a clerical romantic conception of marriage" Indeed. Definitely not based on experience.

Well, it was very close to being the end for me. You read about people like John Grisham who get up at 4 and write for 2 or 3 hours, then go off to a regular job. I've actually tried that and couldn't make it work. I almost fell asleep on the way to work after a week or so of it.

Neither can I.

Yes, and she won't be able to leave him alone because she is crazy and complex. ;-)

ADMG

Before life beats it out of them. :-(

Although, I have to say that many homeschooling mothers have this kind of image.

--C-C-C-craaaazzzzyyyyy! QED :)

Yes, that's how they trap you.

AMDG

Or Steubenville.

That's a joke. I'm quite sure I would like Steubenville in most ways. But your mention of Jonestown made me think of a recent discussion on Daniel's blog about the evolution of communities like that, which apparently a significant number of people have found stifling.

That book by Sertillanges (The Intellectual Life) is actually pretty good, on balance, but the section on "being an intellectual with a family" is more than a tad too rosy. I remember him asking his family-man reader who thinks he's too busy to do anything intellectual: "Have you two hours a day?"

No, no, no. I don't.

I've seen the book recommended by Fr. Schall and, recently, by R.R. Reno. I've actually read it, years ago, and it is a good book.

I have two small servants, but somehow they never seem to do what they're told.

A servant class perhaps bought them two hours of leisure a day?

I used to laugh when I would read English novels about the time of WWII. All these middle class women so worried about whether or not they will be able to find someone to make their beds and wash their dishes.

AMDG

I haven't heard of him either, Craig.

Re your two servants: have I ever mentioned Horton's Law regarding help from children? Their willingness to help is in inverse proportion to their ability.

I don't want to be too discouraging, but, yes, the phenomenon has been reported.

I think it's more likely by specific function. Nanny, gardener, cook, etc. Or maybe, collectively, "the help".

It's always sobering to me to realize how much the gracious leisured life has always depended on the usually ill-paid labor of others.

But not as servants, I expect.

This is a very amusing discussion. Although it's true that the servants are pretty poorly paid and they have to work hard. I always made sure I paid any helpers above the minimum wage, which is much higher in Australia than here. Here, I like to make sure they are paid above that rate too - we have a gardener and he earns a reasonable amount, but he does work very hard in the heat. :(

I agree, Maclin, about their various titles - nanny etc. But I was thinking of the collective term. In Pollyanna, Miss Harrington referred to her "staff." But I think you're right about "the help." In Australia, they might be called "employees" but since I don't know anyone who has more help than a weekly gardener or cleaner, I don't really know.

"Help" sounds very southern and pre-Civil Rights movement to me, although we didn't use that term.

I thought about that. The only one that's close enough really has her hands full.

AMDG

I'm paying her--it's her business.