Bob Dylan's birthday, May 24th was always one of the best days of the year, when I lived in Rochester, NY. A band named Hunu hosted all the musicians in town who wanted to sing one Dylan song. The night was long and rich and full. I had about 15 of his albums and a bunch of CD's but I loved discoverung some of the lesser known cuts people chose to sing. I had to stop going when I lost my hearing but those nights are deep in my heart. I saw him with the Rolling Thunder Review & a couple other times too. Thank you for honoring him this week.
I am constantly intrigued by poets/songsters trying to explain their product and their process. Without exception they seem to be approximating, reflecting and making things up because they really do not know. To me, creativity is a delivery system for a gift. - Dwight Lee Wolter
Poetic Outlaws has once again arrived on my virtual doorstep with uncanny prescience. For six and half years, I've been consumed with work on a feature-length documentary about Berkeley poet, Julia Vinograd. These Dylan quotes help ease my ongoing "plough sharing":
"Things grow at night" reminds me that the womb of darkness has always best nurtured my imagination--so why keep castigating myself for my near inability to make significant creative progress during the day?
"Constantly in a state of becoming" helps me embrace the fact that, despite my most conscious efforts, I cannot corral my life into set routines, be it exercise, meals, or meditation.
And best of all: "To be creative you’ve got to be unsociable and tight-assed. Not necessarily violent and ugly, just unfriendly and distracted. You’re self-sufficient and you stay focused." Thank you Bob Darlin', for inspiring me to re-frame what I've always referred to as 'the loneliness of the long distance artist' as impassioned commitment.
Lastly, please check out this list of my most essential Bob Dylan recordings:
Thank you, Erik, for uncovering all these comments on creativity from Bob Dylan and honoring him as he turns 85 and continues to perform for us. Dylan is my favorite artist.
After decades of living in Hibbing and wondering about young Robert Zimmerman as he grew up here, I finally had opportunities to spend time in the house he where he grew up and in the Duluth house where Abe and Beatty lived when he was born. I closed my eyes in the front room at the top of the stairs in Duluth and could almost see the tow headed toddler, finally able to peer over the window sill and look towards Lake Superior with curiosity as the fog horns boomed their mournful warning.
In the Hibbing house, I stood in the bedroom he shared with his brother, David, and imagined him reading, reading, reading as he listened to his parents albums playing on the big gramophone in the downstairs dining room.
Dylan's songs have helped me stay true to myself since I was given "John Wesley Harding" at 16 years old in 1968.
I guess you could say they weren’t commercial. Bob Dylan never stopped reinventing himself. From one of the historic American songwriters who prided himself on being uncommercial, to becoming a corporate shill doing commercials for IBM, Pepsi, Chrysler, Cadillac, Victoria's Secret, etc. I will always be moved and inspired by the work of the former artist Bob Dylan, but he lierally sold out.
Nice to have been on the road at the same time as Bob Dylan...fortunate to have tapped into the moment at his 1st Carnegie Hall concert, Newport 1965 and others...Happy Birthday, Bob.
I saw Bob Dylan in Atlanta at the Omni where he performed to a packed and appreciative audience who all raised their tiny lights in greatest tribute to such a beloved artist. Enjoyed this article about his creative process.
I like how he claims his best songs were written quickly. It reminds me of something Jeremy GIffit said when he explains his little scribble art. He claims that his best little drawings are the ones that he just draws rather quickly. Also, I can relate to seeing the the world as a circus. Each of us playing our parts.
This is good, really good. I was born the same year as Bob Dylan. The times, they have really changed. Thank you for honoring him this week, one of our all-time most important poets.
Couldn’t have said it any better. Bob Dylan’s muses aren’t high perfumed ladies acceding to the tilt of his eyes but the wild, ragged, toothless and forgotten, never allowed inside.
Bob Dylan's birthday, May 24th was always one of the best days of the year, when I lived in Rochester, NY. A band named Hunu hosted all the musicians in town who wanted to sing one Dylan song. The night was long and rich and full. I had about 15 of his albums and a bunch of CD's but I loved discoverung some of the lesser known cuts people chose to sing. I had to stop going when I lost my hearing but those nights are deep in my heart. I saw him with the Rolling Thunder Review & a couple other times too. Thank you for honoring him this week.
Lucky you. Plus, Rochester is heavenly in the springtime. I was blessed to live there for a short time a couple of years ago
It is, indeed! 500 varieties of Lilacs, right after stunnung Magnolias, a tough act to follow.
I am constantly intrigued by poets/songsters trying to explain their product and their process. Without exception they seem to be approximating, reflecting and making things up because they really do not know. To me, creativity is a delivery system for a gift. - Dwight Lee Wolter
Poetic Outlaws has once again arrived on my virtual doorstep with uncanny prescience. For six and half years, I've been consumed with work on a feature-length documentary about Berkeley poet, Julia Vinograd. These Dylan quotes help ease my ongoing "plough sharing":
"Things grow at night" reminds me that the womb of darkness has always best nurtured my imagination--so why keep castigating myself for my near inability to make significant creative progress during the day?
"Constantly in a state of becoming" helps me embrace the fact that, despite my most conscious efforts, I cannot corral my life into set routines, be it exercise, meals, or meditation.
And best of all: "To be creative you’ve got to be unsociable and tight-assed. Not necessarily violent and ugly, just unfriendly and distracted. You’re self-sufficient and you stay focused." Thank you Bob Darlin', for inspiring me to re-frame what I've always referred to as 'the loneliness of the long distance artist' as impassioned commitment.
Lastly, please check out this list of my most essential Bob Dylan recordings:
https://www.kenpaulrosenthal.com/writings/positively-bob-dylan-on-his-83rd-birthday/
(*Erik, I'm sending you a couple of coffees for this post, cheers!!!)
Thank you, Erik, for uncovering all these comments on creativity from Bob Dylan and honoring him as he turns 85 and continues to perform for us. Dylan is my favorite artist.
After decades of living in Hibbing and wondering about young Robert Zimmerman as he grew up here, I finally had opportunities to spend time in the house he where he grew up and in the Duluth house where Abe and Beatty lived when he was born. I closed my eyes in the front room at the top of the stairs in Duluth and could almost see the tow headed toddler, finally able to peer over the window sill and look towards Lake Superior with curiosity as the fog horns boomed their mournful warning.
In the Hibbing house, I stood in the bedroom he shared with his brother, David, and imagined him reading, reading, reading as he listened to his parents albums playing on the big gramophone in the downstairs dining room.
Dylan's songs have helped me stay true to myself since I was given "John Wesley Harding" at 16 years old in 1968.
I love when he describes that mysterious part of creativity, that only trusting intuition can show us.
I guess you could say they weren’t commercial. Bob Dylan never stopped reinventing himself. From one of the historic American songwriters who prided himself on being uncommercial, to becoming a corporate shill doing commercials for IBM, Pepsi, Chrysler, Cadillac, Victoria's Secret, etc. I will always be moved and inspired by the work of the former artist Bob Dylan, but he lierally sold out.
Nice to have been on the road at the same time as Bob Dylan...fortunate to have tapped into the moment at his 1st Carnegie Hall concert, Newport 1965 and others...Happy Birthday, Bob.
I saw Bob Dylan in Atlanta at the Omni where he performed to a packed and appreciative audience who all raised their tiny lights in greatest tribute to such a beloved artist. Enjoyed this article about his creative process.
I like how he claims his best songs were written quickly. It reminds me of something Jeremy GIffit said when he explains his little scribble art. He claims that his best little drawings are the ones that he just draws rather quickly. Also, I can relate to seeing the the world as a circus. Each of us playing our parts.
Hey! This is Ann. I saw one post of yours where you asked for poems to read.
https://substack.com/@annie1117/note/c-285963070?r=8h8y63
How about you give this one a read and drop your views? Have a good day💌
This is good, really good. I was born the same year as Bob Dylan. The times, they have really changed. Thank you for honoring him this week, one of our all-time most important poets.
Couldn’t have said it any better. Bob Dylan’s muses aren’t high perfumed ladies acceding to the tilt of his eyes but the wild, ragged, toothless and forgotten, never allowed inside.
Thanks for this. Going to hear Dylan live for the first time on July 3 in Arkansas.
Saw Dylan recently in Asheville and it was pure experience of creative energy exchange. Dylan continues to cross creative Rubicons!
This is really good and useful stuff you're doing here, Keep it up!
“Poets live on the land. They behave in a gentlemanly way. And live by their own gentlemanly code.
And die broke. Or drown in lakes. Poets usually have very unhappy endings…”
Guess I'm doing it right.