Bob Dylan on Ricky Nelson..

[AdamH]

From Chronicles. I'll have to pick up this book because that Facker can write!

On Ricky Nelson: One afternoon I was in there pouring Coke into a glass from a milk pitcher when I heard a voice coming cool through the screen of the radio speaker. Ricky Nelson was singing his new song "Travelling Man." ... Nelson had never been a bold innovator like the early singers who sang like they were navigating burning ships. He didn't sing desperately, do a lot of damage, and you'd never mistake him for a shaman... but it didn't matter. He sang his songs calm and steady like he was in the middle of a storm, men hurling past him. His voice was mysterious and made you fall into a certain mood.

I had been a big fan of Ricky's and still liked him, but that type of music was on its way out. It had no chance of meaning anything. There'd be no future for that stuff in the future. It was all a mistake. What was not a mistake was the ghost of Billy Lyons, rootin' the mountain down, standing round in East Cairo, Black Betty bam be lam. That was no mistake. That's the stuff that was happening. That's the stuff that could make you question what you'd always accepted, could litter the landscape with broken hearts, had power of spirit. Ricky, as usual, was singing bleached out lyrics. Lyrics probably written just for him. I'd always felt kin to him, though. We were about the same age, probably liked the same things, from the same generation although our life experience had been so dissimilar, him being brought up out West on a family TV show. It was like he'd been born and raised on Walden Pond where everything was hunky-dory, and I'd come out of the dark demonic woods, same forest, just a different way of looking at things. Ricky's talent was very accessible to me. I felt we had a lot in common. In a few years' time he'd record some of my songs, make them sound like they were his own, like he had written them himself. He eventually did write one himself and mentioned my name in it. Ricky, in about ten years' time, would even get booed while onstage for changing what was perceived as his musical direction. It turned out we did have a lot in common

[zero]

I can see why Dylan is fond of Greil Marcus' Old, Weird America (well it is about him and The Band and the Basement Tapes) his writing style is really similar to Dylan's. I am working toward that sort of plain hearted, perennial mysterious vernacular.

[MarcO]

Luke - for some reason, I think you'll really enjoy Dylan's memoirs, even if you're not necessarily a day-to-day fan of his. His writing style is evocative and direct, and his memories and observations surprisingly lucid.

I'm almost half way through. An excellent read.

I would recommend this book to everyone, based on my thoughts to Luke above.

[zero]

You guys really need to read Old, Weird, America. Greil Marcus has got Dylan in a way even he didn't anticipate. He weaves the whole Appalachian story and the stories of hustlers, miners and confidence men into the collage of the Basement Tapes era. It is an incredibly well written opus and sheds great light on the folk movement, the Folk and of course Dylan and The Band. I am glad I read that first and can read Dylan's book next and if you get around to it I think you'll know why (the other order will work just as well).

[MarcO]

I've got a week off next week with no set plans, and a visit to the library is due.

I'll look into the Marcus book, thanks!