by Larry Fyffe
Often overlooked is the influence of the ironic humour of pre-Beat scat-singer Lord Buckley on the song lyrics of Bob Dylan;
Dylan takes the above Mark Twain-tinged burlesque on Charles Dickens’ “Christmas Carol”, and gives it a just-a-minute Dylanesque twist:
(Bob Dylan: Mr. Tambourine Man)
Then Dylan picks up on Buckley’s critique of materialism unbound:
(Bob Dylan: Blowin’ In The Wind)
Lord Buckley records a version of Joseph Newman’s (Paul Newman’s uncle) anti-racist poem:
(Lord Buckley: Black Cross)
Dylan performs ‘Black Cross’ under the title ‘Hezekiah Jones’ on the bootleg “Ode For Barbara Allen” (1974).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0x5x8lyON8
Below, a Buckley-like humourous snap at religion with a Dylanesque spin:
Quite serious at other times is Dylan at the hypocrisy of religious leaders and followers concerning the plight of the poor:
There are a couple of Dylan recordings of Barbara Allen on You Tube:
What else is on the site
1: 500+ reviews of Dylan songs. There is an index to these in alphabetical order on the home page, and an index to the songs in the order they were written in the Chronology Pages.
2: The Chronology. We’ve taken the songs we can find recordings of and put them in the order they were written (as far as possible) not in the order they appeared on albums. The chronology is more or less complete and is now linked to all the reviews on the site. We have also produced overviews of Dylan’s work year by year. The index to the chronologies is here.
3: Bob Dylan’s themes. We publish a wide range of articles about Bob Dylan and his compositions. There is an index here.
4: The Discussion Group We now have a discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link
5: Bob Dylan’s creativity. We’re fascinated in taking the study of Dylan’s creative approach further. The index is in Dylan’s Creativity.
6: You might also like: A classification of Bob Dylan’s songs and partial Index to Dylan’s Best Opening Lines and our articles on various writers’ lists of Dylan’s ten greatest songs.
And please do note The Bob Dylan Project, which lists every Dylan song in alphabetical order, and has links to licensed recordings and performances by Dylan and by other artists, is starting to link back to our reviews
*They say lose your inhibitions….
I would imagine Lord Buckley would be rather surprised at seeing “The Nazz” described as a ‘burlesque’ of a sermon. It IS a sermon, pure and simple. Lord Buckley was a preacher. He entered through a different door, true, but a preacher none the less.
I appreciate your comment but whether you consider Buckley a comical hipster ‘preacher’ or a burlesque ‘preacher’ in a speakeasy, I fail to see any significant difference.
Buckley said stuff like “I don’t know about that Jehovah guy…I can’t reach him….I think people should worship people.”
He greatly influences the so-called Beat Generation – poets, and musicians like Ginsberg, Corso, and Dylan too. Buckley is noted for making black-humoured fun of the H-Bomb.
In ‘Scrooge’ – Buckley: “with jingle-jangle bells all over” –
alluded to by Dylan in ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’.