Bob Dylan And William Saroyan: A Thousand Miles From Sure
By Larry Fyffe
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott performs the satirical song ‘Acne’ with the young Bob Dylan on radio. Elliott’s well known for a rendition of a traditional folk song that a country singer makes a big hit with – Bobby Bare sings the following words in a live performance:
Can't remember when I ate It's just thumbs and walk and wait And I'm still five hundred miles away from home If my luck had just been right I'd be with them all tonight But I'm still a five thousand miles away from home
(Bobby Bare: Five Hundred Miles Away From Home)
The song’s quite similar to the following fiddle and blue grass tune:
Oh me, oh my, you could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles Last night I lay in jail, had no money to go my bail Lord, how it sleeted, and it snowed Oh me, oh my, how it sleeted, and it snowed I've been to the East, I've been to the West I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow
(Doc Watson: Reuben’s Train)
Singer/ songwriter writer Bob Dylan takes a word sample:
Well, I been to the East, and I been to the West And I been out where the black winds roar Somehow though I never did get that far With the girl from the Red River shore
(Bob Dylan: Red River Shore)
And from the same song:
If you miss the train I'm on Count the days I am gone You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles A hundred miles, Lord, Lord, Lord You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles (Bob Dylan: I Was Young When I Left Home)
The folk song begins:
Ol' Reuben made a train, and he put it on the track He ran it to the Lord knows where Oh me, oh my, ran it to the Lord know knows where
(Reuben’s Train)
You can hear its echo in the Wilf Carter-like yodelling song below:
I thought I heard that steamboat whistle blowin' And she blowed like she never blowed before I'm afraid my little lover's on that boat I'm afraid my little lover's on that boat And it will take her to the Lord's knows where
(Shirkey and Harper: Steamboat Man)
And in the Dylan song:
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing Blowing like she never blowed before .... Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing Blowing like my woman's on board (Bob Dylan: Duquesne Whistle ~ Dylan/Hunter)
Likely a coincidence, Bobby Bare’s “five thousand miles away from home’ appears in the a one-act play ‘My Heart’s In The Highlands’ by William Saroyan. The drama is a romantic comedy with an Existentialist absurdist bent, featuring a struggling and moneyless poet, and his son Johnny. Also, orphaned Henry, the adopted, aways whistling, newspaper boy, and Macgregor, an ever-hungry, singing Scotsman who says he’s forever dreaming of his homeland:
"I reckon I'm five thousand miles from home. Do you think we could eat a little bread and cheese to keep my body and spirit together?"
(My Heart’s In The Highlands: William Saroyan)
Saroyan’s an optimistic humanist in the days of the Great Depression, and his creative works impact Dylan’s own. Below is a famous aphorism by the writer and dramatist :
"Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know."
(William Saroyan)
Sings Bob Dylan:
Some speak of the future My love, she speaks softly She knows that there's no success like failure And that failure's no success at all
(Bob Dylan: Love Minus Zero)
And then there’s the absurdly humourous:
I said, "Tell me what I want" She say, "You probably want some hard-boiled eggs" I said, "That's right, bring me some" She say, "We ain't got any, you picked the wrong place to come"
(Bob Dylan: Highlands)
* just thumb and ….
*steamboat whistle a-blow…