By Tony Attwood
We were having one of our little discussions about Dylan’s greatest moments in his career, when one of my pals said “we’ve done a series on this”. And on her laptop she typed in the search box the word “greatest” and around 20 different articles appeared.
And it struck me we had never brought these concepts of “greatest” together before – and that was rather remiss of all of us.
“Remiss” because it struck me that what draws us all to Bob Dylan and makes us want to listen to his music, go to the shows, and indeed discuss his work, is that it is so varied.
Indeed nothing brings this to the fore more than the number of articles we have published across the years. In fact even if I just restricted myself to articles which have the word “greatest” in the article headline, there are loads of them.
Now I am not going to publish that list below, as I appreciate that this might seem as a somewhat self-indulgent thing to do, but it does strike me very clearly that what does give Bob the claim to be the best songwriter of the past 100 years is the fact that he can be called the “greatest” in so many different ways.
So my intention became to write a bit about Bob’s “greatness” was abandoned as I came across Six of Bob Dylan’s greatest internal lines: words from inside the poet’s thoughts and the idea emerged.
People do have their favourite Dylan lines, and often they are from within a specific song, and some of these choices are incredibly special to that person, perhaps not meaning so much to the rest of us.
And I think taking individual lines of Bob’s is something I have benefitted from dramatically across the years. Maybe I have lost the meaning of the song through doing this, but time and again I found myself moving into another world where I can find new thoughts and dreams, and new ideas from which I can write my music.
But I chose
“Some people will offer you their hands and some won’t”
when I wrote the article, and I must say coming back to that line today still really knocks me out. It was about nine years ago I chose that line and I think my view on the kindness and thoughtfulness of others has if anything intensified. There are indeed some who will go out of their way to help, and others who just feel that their world is far too important to be interrupted by the trivia of those around them.
Now what made me particularly reflect on the “some people” line is that I have found, as I am in my 80th year that I do notice people’s kindness more than I used to, and that has turned me back to thinking about whether I have managed to be kind, not just to friends but to those I come across in life.
And I think I had similar reflecting thoughts with
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
in relation to the people around me. I have mentioned my age several times in these pages of late, and the implication that I have not retired from work. That’s been quite a jolt, but I was lucky as some ten or so years before I retired I moved into the most beautiful country house I have ever had the privilege to inhabit. It’s where I sit and write these lines each day.
Now that is my “highway of diamonds” because it is through sitting here that I have written some works that I think are rather nice and which I would like my daughters to keep when I am going. That is not to say they are great songs akin to the works of Bob, but they are personal pieces from me to them, for them to remember me by after I am gone. It is my very personal highway of diamonds.
Everyone is wearing a disguise
So although before I have noted the “disguise” line particularly strongly when thinking of Dylan quotes, maybe because of age, maybe because of the diversity of my reading and listening, I am not sure about this any more. Yes many people are wearing a disguise and not letting us see who they really are, but I think my real friends are not disguised. They, like me, have learned to be a little bit more open and honest, and the disguises have been put away.
There’s a black Mercedes rollin’ through the combat zone
I owned a Merc for part of my life (although not black) and I played this song often as I have driven, seeing the world around me not as peaceful villages and small towns but as a combat zone. It is a very weird but informative experience. For yes my life was a combat zone for many years, but now toward the end, I am delighted to say it no longer can be caleld that.
But there is another big (at least big for me) point here. I am still enjoying my life – and I can still relate to these images and memories. And that seems to best bit of all.
Well, it's always been my nature to take chances My right hand drawing back while my left hand advances Where the current is strong and the monkey dances To the tune of a concertina