These are the complete slides for my DeCal course on the life and work of Bob Dylan (sans music and videos). I taught the class in the spring of 2011 at UC Berkeley, for the English department.
lament, sing wildly, cast a spell,’ uniting his seemingly disparate roles as disappointed lover, transgressive musician and mystery-priest into a single lexical whole.” (Wikipedia)
live in a “grievous circle” of successive bodily lives through metempsychosis or the transmigration of souls.” Souls are “bound to the wheel of rebirth.” (Wikipedia) Eventually you can escape. ★ “Warned of postmortem punishment for certain transgressions committed during life.” (Wikipedia)
my home Walkin’ a road other men have gone down I’m seein’ your world of people and things Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song ’Bout a funny ol’ world that’s a-comin’ along Seems sick an’ it’s hungry, it’s tired an’ it’s torn It looks like it’s a-dyin’ an’ it’s hardly been born Hey, Woody Guthrie, but I know that you know All the things that I’m a-sayin’ an’ a-many times more I’m a-singin’ you the song, but I can’t sing enough ’Cause there’s not many men that done the things that you’ve done Here’s to Cisco an’ Sonny an’ Leadbelly too An’ to all the good people that traveled with you Here’s to the hearts and the hands of the men That come with the dust and are gone with the wind I’m a-leavin’ tomorrow, but I could leave today Somewhere down the road someday The very last thing that I’d want to do Is to say I’ve been hittin’ some hard travelin’ too
North Country” ★ “Masters of War” ★ “Down the Highway” ★ “Bob Dylan’s Blues” ★ “A Hard Rain’s A- Gonna Fall” ★ “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” ★ “Bob Dylan’s Dream” ★ “Oxford Town” ★ “Talkin’ World War III Blues” ★ “Corrina, Corrina” ★ “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance” ★ “I Shall Be Free”
Hollis Brown” ★ “With God on Our Side” ★ “One Too Many Mornings” ★ “Only a Pawn in Their Game” ★ “Boots of Spanish Leather” ★ “When the Ship Comes In” ★ “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” ★ “Restless Farewell”
1997. Go get ‘em yourself. ★ With Time Out Of Mind, Dylan is indisputably relevant again. It kicks off a creative renaissance. Here are the 5 albums since then, not counting Christmas in the Heart.
my path again You do so at the peril of your own life I’m not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound I’ve seen enough heartaches and strife” —Bob Dylan, “Floater (Too Much To Ask),” “Love & Theft” “You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any orders to me, for I will not obey them… I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life.” —Nathan Bedford Forrest to Gen. Braxton Bragg (letter), 1863
in that summer noon I basked, And strove, with logic frailer than the owers...” — “A Rhapsody of a Southern Winter Night” “More frailer than the owers, these precious hours.” — “When the Deal Goes Down” “How then, O weary one! explain the sources of that hidden pain?” — “Two Portraits” “I can’t explain The sources of this hidden pain” — “Spirit on the Water” “There is a wisdom that grows up in strife...” — “Retirement” “Where wisdom grows up in strife” — “When the Deal Goes Down” “Which, ere they feel a lover’s breath, Lie in a temporary death,” — “Two Portraits” “I can hear a lover’s breath I sleep in the kitchen with my feet in the hall Sleep is like a temporary death” — “Workingman’s Blues #2”
in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me.” — Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “Last night the wind was whisperin’ somethin’ I was trying to make out what it was I tell myself something’s comin’ But it never does.” — “Lonesome Day Blues” (Love & Theft) “I tell myself that something’s coming. I don't know what, but it’s coming... but it never does and I knew that it wouldn’t in the rst place.” — Henry Rollins, Art to Choke Hearts & Pissing in the Gene Pool “Last night the wind was whisperin’ somethin’ I was trying to make out what it was I tell myself something’s comin’ But it never does.” — “Lonesome Day Blues” (Love & Theft)
I'll never be able to say anything back to them that isn't coming from the dark room that is my mind.” —Rollins, Now Watch Him Die “Big Joe Turner lookin’ east and west From the dark room of his mind” — “High Water (for Charlie Patton)” (Love & Theft) “You're weak and in need. You want something to hold so you can have something to blame. Don't reach out to me. I'm drowning too.” —Rollins, Art to Choke Hearts & Pissing in the Gene Pool “‘Don’t reach out to me,’ she said, ‘Can’t you see I’m drowning too?’” — “High Water (for Charlie Patton)” (Love & Theft) “I would like to think that I could control myself at all times, but it just isn’t true / I catch mself slipping all the time —Rollins, Now Watch Him Die “I’d like to think I could control myself, but it isn’t true” — “Can’t Wait” (Time Out of Mind) “I don’t want to know you You went years without me You might as well keep on going” —Rollins, See a Grown Man Cry “You went years without me, might as well keep goin’ now” — “Sugar Baby” (Love & Theft)
worked hard in an effort to learn how to use my material in the most effective way. (341) ...that the story has been written to the glory of man and not to his defeat. (368) the poems that I have liked the best and that have meant the most to me are those that meant nothing at all to me when I rst read them. (389) All these things I suppose are simple and matter-of-fact enough, but all the strangeness and mystery of time and chance and of the human destiny is in them for me and they seem wonderful. I try to use my material in the most effective way. The songs were written to the glory of man and not to his defeat, but all of these songs added together doesn't even come close to my whole vision of life. Sometimes the things that you liked the best and that have meant the most to you are the things that meant nothing at all to you when you rst heard or saw them. Some of these songs t into that category. I suppose all these things are simple, matter of fact enough.
feudal lord...” — Confessions of a Yakuza “My old man, he’s like some feudal lord / Got more lives than a cat” — “Floater (Too Much to Ask)” “I won’t come anymore if it bothers you.” — Confessions of a Yakuza “Some things are too terrible to be true/I won’t come here no more if it bothers you” — “Honest With Me” “Actually, though, I'm not as cool or forgiving as I might have sounded.” — Confessions of a Yakuza “I’m not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound /I’ve seen enough heartaches and strife” — “Floater (Too Much to Ask)” “There was nothing sentimental about him–it didn’t bother him at all that some of his pals had been killed.” — Confessions of a Yakuza “My captain, he’s decorated—he’s well schooled and he’s skilled / He’s not sentimental—don’t bother him at all / How many of his pals have been killed” — “Lonesome Day Blues”
LETTERS”) DYLAN “every nook and corner had its tears” “Every nook and cranny has its tears” “loyal and much loved companions, bonded in brotherhood” “All my loyal and my much-loved companions” “let me make the most of one last extra hour “I’ll make the most of one last extra hour” “I practice terms long abandoned “I practice a faith that’s been long abandoned” “tear my mind from the contemplation of my woes” “They will tear your mind away from contemplation” “who approve, and share, your code” “They approve of me and share my code” “Who says I can’t get heavenly aid when a god’s angry with me?” “Who says I can’t get heavenly aid?” “Night attacks are a great thing. Catch your opponents sleeping and unarmed. Just slaughter them where they lie.” “If I catch my opponents ever sleepin’ / I’ll just slaughter them where they lie.”
authentic at all. He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake.” ★ Suzanne Vega: “He’s never pretended to be an academic, or even a nice guy. He is more likely to present himself as, well, a thief. Renegade, outlaw, artist. That’s why we are passionate about him.”
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