My name is Martin Mc Carthy, and I am so thrilled that Poetic Outlaws have put together this amazing tribute to the great Bob Dylan, on his 83rd birthday. I'm a poet and a contributing editor to the American poetry website, the HyperTexts , and last year I wrote and published my own epic tribute to him, titled The Perfect Voice (32 pages) - a copy of which is now on permanent display in the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, OK. I am such a fan of Bob Dylan that I wish to add to your tribute by posting an extract from my poem here for all to read, if that's okay? And I really hope it is because it's meant in the spirit of celebrating a true genius while he's still with us.
Thank you, Mike, for saying that. I really appreciate it. Bob Dylan has been for me a really sane and steady voice in a world that's beginning to look more and more like desolation row.
Thanks for your your interest, Ken. I'm travelling in the north country right now, where the wind is blowing heavy on the borderline, but I'll just stop a moment to tell you that you can read the entire poem on my website at mccarthypoet.com
There is also a SoundCloud recording me reciting the whole thing. But please remember not to use it for any purpose without my permission.
Thank you kindly, Martin. I'll certainly respect your wishes and look forward to reading your piece in its entirety. I was going to contact you thru your website regarding my in-progress documentary on Berkeley poet, Julia Vinograd. Will be in touch...
Bob Dylan inspires me more than any artist, in any medium. Had I begun listening to his songs in high school, I have no doubt the course of my own creative work and my life would have deepened, broadened, and elevated considerably at that impressionable age. After decades of imbibing his music as if tethered to an IV, I can step away for months, or what sometimes feels like a year without listening only to return and be nourished anew.
For me, the multi-hued complexity of his writing edges out other cherished musicians such as Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, and Joni Mitchell. What mostly sets him apart is his singing. Not his disrespectfully maligned voice (the grain of which I adore) but his beguiling delivery. Listen carefully to which syllable he emphasizes or extends, how rarely he breaks a line in the same place--where he breathes. He swings like a jazz singer and there's no better example of this than his song, 'My Own Version of You' from the album, Rough and Rowdy Ways. I cherish his Christian period more than any other from his oeuvre because his new found passion is profoundly embodied in the vocals, as if the words are less carriers of meaning and more vehicles for spirit. The proof is in the grooves. Check out 'I Believe in You' and 'When He Returns' from his album, Slow Train Coming. And the opening song from his Hard to Handle tour video on You Tube, 'In The Garden', performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
I once dreamt that Bob was standing in a telephone booth in his bare feet and all his toenails were painted different colors. I was in my 20s and can see that image just as vividly today at sixty-two. That's how deeply he's embedded in my being.
Here are my most essential Dylan recordings, listed in no particular order, where the performance is as compelling as the words:
- Every Grain of Sand (from Shot of Love)
- My Own Version of You (from Rough and Rowdy Ways)
- It's Not Dark Yet (from Time Out of Mind)
- Mr. Tambourine Man (from Bringing It All Back Home)
- When He Returns (from Slow Train Coming)
- I Believe In You (from Slow Train Coming)
- Visions of Johanna (from Blonde on Blonde, favorite version on Live 1966 The Royal Albert Hall Concert, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4)
- It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (from Bringing It All Back Home, favorite version on Live 1966 The Royal Albert Hall Concert, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4)
- It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding (from Bringing It All Back Home, favorite version on Hard to Handle tour video on You Tube)
- Blind Willie McTell (no album release, favorite version on The Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3)
- Tangled Up in Blue (from Blood on the Tracks)
- Simple Twist of Fate (from Blood on the Tracks)
- Shelter from the Storm (from Blood on the Tracks)
- Man in the Long Dark Coat (from Oh Mercy)
- Jokerman (from Infidels)
- License to Kill (from Infidels)
- Dignity (from Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3, favorite version on the live album, Bob Dylan MTV Unplugged)
I checked out the great work you are doing, Ken, and I tried to contact you earlier through your hotmail address simply to say how impressed I was with it. Being a poet, I don't have much money, so I can't make a donation. But I'd really like to give you a copy of my Dylan chapbook, The Perfect Voice, for being on the side of the poets - the true angels and seers of this world. And what a wonderful calling that is! Please contact me through me through the Contact box on my website.
Again, I wish to thank Poetic Outlaws for posting this great birthday tribute to Bob Dylan, and for including all those wonderful black and white images of him. The minute I saw them, this line by Dylan jumped into my head, so I'll leave you with it: 'You come back to me in black and white when we were made of dreams.'
What a wonderful tribute to Bob Dylan! The way you capture his journey from a scruffy young musician in Greenwich Village to a legendary figure is truly engaging. Your reflections and the excerpts you chose highlight his depth as a character and timeless relevance. Thanks for sharing this insightful piece and celebrating his legacy. 🎉
Happy Birthday Bob! Dylan fans who are celebrating the Bard’s birthday may be interested in reading my recently posted essay, I Sing The Solid Body Electric. This essay presents my take on the cultural consequences of Dylan’s controversial appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
I have just read your article, Patrick, and I've subscribed to your Substack site on the strength of it. I hope more good articles follow in due course. With a name like yours, you must be Irish, like myself. I have a comment in the comment box near the top if you want to find out a bit more about me.
My father introduced me to Dylan when I was in my mother’s belly by playing him next to us. As I grew older, some of his songs felt attached to an era I wasn't a part of, but many of his lyrics hold no bounds to time. What you chose to highlight put a pit in my throat.
That's why I'm so grateful to follow you online in a scrolling world that often leaves me empty; you always show and reflect on what fulfills me.
'Ain't it just like the night to play tricks on you when you're trying to be so quiet. We sit here stranded though we're all doing our best to deny it.'....one of my favourites, there are so many...bobs birthday, thanks outlaw.
Happy Birthday. Turns out he has been more than a skinny 19 year old, but became one of the greatest poet's of our time. A part of the bigger picture and cosmos, for all of us. A gift.
Bob Dylan has indeed been a very great gift to us all for so long now, and what's more he's still with us. Thank God for him and for keeping us a bit sane and in a world that's beginning to look more and more like desolation row.
Touches on the history of all who lived through the Vietnam War, the sexual Revolution and just waking up after the candy coated numbness of the 1950’s. We wanted more than to be lulled to sleep; we wanted to explore who we are and Bob D and Joan B helped immensely in that endeavor.
I just had to take a moment to tell you how much your music means to me. Your lyrics, your voice, your everything—they’ve shaped my world in ways I can’t even begin to describe. Every time I listen to "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Blowin' in the Wind," it’s like I’m hearing them for the first time all over again. Your words are pure magic.
I hope you’re having the best day, surrounded by love and joy. Thank you for sharing your incredible talent with us and for being such an inspiration.
My name is Martin Mc Carthy, and I am so thrilled that Poetic Outlaws have put together this amazing tribute to the great Bob Dylan, on his 83rd birthday. I'm a poet and a contributing editor to the American poetry website, the HyperTexts , and last year I wrote and published my own epic tribute to him, titled The Perfect Voice (32 pages) - a copy of which is now on permanent display in the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, OK. I am such a fan of Bob Dylan that I wish to add to your tribute by posting an extract from my poem here for all to read, if that's okay? And I really hope it is because it's meant in the spirit of celebrating a true genius while he's still with us.
The Perfect Voice
for Bob Dylan
I
What can I say about Bob Dylan?
That some strange, authentic light
passed into him from blind bluesmen
on corners, singing their stories
of trains and chains and hope;
blind bluesmen, miles from any college
or guitar academy, with the wind
at their backs, or their backs
against some wall in East Texas,
playing sublime bottleneck guitar
with the necks of broken bottles.
That he was light-hearted and free
and only twenty,
when he first took to the road,
with ten dollars, a harmonica,
and his guitar;
that he saw Woody Guthrie
signposting the way to go …
and went, with little inclination
to look back on old Duluth,
dying in the moonlight.
That he enrolled early in that authentic,
beaming and screaming college
of real life, and never left it,
because all he needed – all the diverse,
sounds and colours of that authenticity –
met him there and filled his spirit;
that his America was always a place
in which unwanted migrants moved
across railway tracks and truck yards,
seeking somewhere to remain.
That he was young when he left home –
young and ready to change the world forever,
if only he could elude
the Rising Sun’s beckoning sirens;
that he could look north to where the wind
was blasting against the borderline,
yet pluck from his heart
the gentlest of chords …
or walk, arm in arm, with his girl
down the boulevard of broken dreams.
(from The Perfect Voice by Martin Mc Carthy)
I'm a fan of Martin Mc Carthy's tribute poem to the great Bob Dylan, and I'm sure other Dylan fans will like it as well.
Thank you, Mike, for saying that. I really appreciate it. Bob Dylan has been for me a really sane and steady voice in a world that's beginning to look more and more like desolation row.
Let's hope the world comes to its senses and in the meantime Dylan fans can enjoy your wonderful tribute poem.
Thanks again. I really appreciate it.
Hi Martin, Can you share a link to your entire piece?
Thanks for your your interest, Ken. I'm travelling in the north country right now, where the wind is blowing heavy on the borderline, but I'll just stop a moment to tell you that you can read the entire poem on my website at mccarthypoet.com
There is also a SoundCloud recording me reciting the whole thing. But please remember not to use it for any purpose without my permission.
Thank you kindly, Martin. I'll certainly respect your wishes and look forward to reading your piece in its entirety. I was going to contact you thru your website regarding my in-progress documentary on Berkeley poet, Julia Vinograd. Will be in touch...
I'd love to hear about your documentary in due course. I would also appreciate a link to some of Julia's poetry so that I can check her out.
Bob Dylan inspires me more than any artist, in any medium. Had I begun listening to his songs in high school, I have no doubt the course of my own creative work and my life would have deepened, broadened, and elevated considerably at that impressionable age. After decades of imbibing his music as if tethered to an IV, I can step away for months, or what sometimes feels like a year without listening only to return and be nourished anew.
For me, the multi-hued complexity of his writing edges out other cherished musicians such as Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, and Joni Mitchell. What mostly sets him apart is his singing. Not his disrespectfully maligned voice (the grain of which I adore) but his beguiling delivery. Listen carefully to which syllable he emphasizes or extends, how rarely he breaks a line in the same place--where he breathes. He swings like a jazz singer and there's no better example of this than his song, 'My Own Version of You' from the album, Rough and Rowdy Ways. I cherish his Christian period more than any other from his oeuvre because his new found passion is profoundly embodied in the vocals, as if the words are less carriers of meaning and more vehicles for spirit. The proof is in the grooves. Check out 'I Believe in You' and 'When He Returns' from his album, Slow Train Coming. And the opening song from his Hard to Handle tour video on You Tube, 'In The Garden', performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
I once dreamt that Bob was standing in a telephone booth in his bare feet and all his toenails were painted different colors. I was in my 20s and can see that image just as vividly today at sixty-two. That's how deeply he's embedded in my being.
Here are my most essential Dylan recordings, listed in no particular order, where the performance is as compelling as the words:
- Every Grain of Sand (from Shot of Love)
- My Own Version of You (from Rough and Rowdy Ways)
- It's Not Dark Yet (from Time Out of Mind)
- Mr. Tambourine Man (from Bringing It All Back Home)
- When He Returns (from Slow Train Coming)
- I Believe In You (from Slow Train Coming)
- Visions of Johanna (from Blonde on Blonde, favorite version on Live 1966 The Royal Albert Hall Concert, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4)
- It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (from Bringing It All Back Home, favorite version on Live 1966 The Royal Albert Hall Concert, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4)
- It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding (from Bringing It All Back Home, favorite version on Hard to Handle tour video on You Tube)
- Blind Willie McTell (no album release, favorite version on The Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3)
- Tangled Up in Blue (from Blood on the Tracks)
- Simple Twist of Fate (from Blood on the Tracks)
- Shelter from the Storm (from Blood on the Tracks)
- Man in the Long Dark Coat (from Oh Mercy)
- Jokerman (from Infidels)
- License to Kill (from Infidels)
- Dignity (from Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3, favorite version on the live album, Bob Dylan MTV Unplugged)
- Sugar Baby (from Love and Theft)
- Ain't Talkin' (from Modern Times)
- One More Cup of Coffee (from Desire)
Happy Be-day, Bob Darlin'.
I checked out the great work you are doing, Ken, and I tried to contact you earlier through your hotmail address simply to say how impressed I was with it. Being a poet, I don't have much money, so I can't make a donation. But I'd really like to give you a copy of my Dylan chapbook, The Perfect Voice, for being on the side of the poets - the true angels and seers of this world. And what a wonderful calling that is! Please contact me through me through the Contact box on my website.
Again, I wish to thank Poetic Outlaws for posting this great birthday tribute to Bob Dylan, and for including all those wonderful black and white images of him. The minute I saw them, this line by Dylan jumped into my head, so I'll leave you with it: 'You come back to me in black and white when we were made of dreams.'
You're too kind. Is that Dylan quote from, 'Born in Time'?
Yes, you got it straight away.
“who is not busy being born is busy dying.”
"Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred."
lyrics are literature /
Bob Dylan /
The Nobel Prize
in Literature 2016.
Exactly! So well deserved!
What a wonderful tribute to Bob Dylan! The way you capture his journey from a scruffy young musician in Greenwich Village to a legendary figure is truly engaging. Your reflections and the excerpts you chose highlight his depth as a character and timeless relevance. Thanks for sharing this insightful piece and celebrating his legacy. 🎉
I agree, Neuzen. To see Poetic Outlaws paying tribute to the genius that is Bob Dylan really made my day.
Happy Birthday Bob! Dylan fans who are celebrating the Bard’s birthday may be interested in reading my recently posted essay, I Sing The Solid Body Electric. This essay presents my take on the cultural consequences of Dylan’s controversial appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
I have just read your article, Patrick, and I've subscribed to your Substack site on the strength of it. I hope more good articles follow in due course. With a name like yours, you must be Irish, like myself. I have a comment in the comment box near the top if you want to find out a bit more about me.
"Positively 4th Street" is a great book, and this is a great birthday tribute. Thanks for this one.
My father introduced me to Dylan when I was in my mother’s belly by playing him next to us. As I grew older, some of his songs felt attached to an era I wasn't a part of, but many of his lyrics hold no bounds to time. What you chose to highlight put a pit in my throat.
That's why I'm so grateful to follow you online in a scrolling world that often leaves me empty; you always show and reflect on what fulfills me.
Thank you.
'Ain't it just like the night to play tricks on you when you're trying to be so quiet. We sit here stranded though we're all doing our best to deny it.'....one of my favourites, there are so many...bobs birthday, thanks outlaw.
Happy Birthday. Turns out he has been more than a skinny 19 year old, but became one of the greatest poet's of our time. A part of the bigger picture and cosmos, for all of us. A gift.
Bob Dylan has indeed been a very great gift to us all for so long now, and what's more he's still with us. Thank God for him and for keeping us a bit sane and in a world that's beginning to look more and more like desolation row.
'True, like ice, like fire'
Touches on the history of all who lived through the Vietnam War, the sexual Revolution and just waking up after the candy coated numbness of the 1950’s. We wanted more than to be lulled to sleep; we wanted to explore who we are and Bob D and Joan B helped immensely in that endeavor.
Hey Bob,
Happy Birthday to the legend himself! 🎉🎂
I just had to take a moment to tell you how much your music means to me. Your lyrics, your voice, your everything—they’ve shaped my world in ways I can’t even begin to describe. Every time I listen to "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Blowin' in the Wind," it’s like I’m hearing them for the first time all over again. Your words are pure magic.
I hope you’re having the best day, surrounded by love and joy. Thank you for sharing your incredible talent with us and for being such an inspiration.
LOTS OF LOVE TO YOUUUU
Mo
“ I was born here and I’ll die here against my will”
“But I'll know my song well before I start singing”
“ Yesterday's just a memory
Tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be”
“ Now he worships at an altar of a stagnant pool
And when he sees his reflection, he’s fulfilled”
You chose such great quotes. Some of my favorites. Thanks for that dose of him.