Walking with Bob Dylan

27 March 2020

My love she speaks like silence

Without ideals or violence

She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful

Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire

People carry roses

Make promises by the hours

My love she laughs like the flowers

Valentines can’t buy her

On these days of social isolation, I make a choice to walk pretty much every single day.  I walk a great deal and have for a number of years.  The walking makes my cardiologist happy.  Makes me happy too. For most of my life I rode my bicycle everywhere.  Probably did it because I liked the wheeeee feeling I would get going down a hill without having to pedal. In recent years the bike has been in the garage and I have walked.

A couple of days I go I found myself listening to Bob Dylan as I was out walking.  Been a fan for decades.  Call me a casual fan.  I know some fans, yes, I am talking about you Don Gonyea, who have every nook and cranny in their home filled with Bob Dylan bootlegs. My fandom probably started back in the 1960s when I first heard Mr. Tambourine Man.  Couldn’t have understood the lyrics then, but the imagery to my 11-year-old mind was just captivating. From then on, I was hooked. 

I do have a favorite Bob Dylan album; it is Blood on the Tracks.  I have a favorite song, If You See Her Say Hello. First runner up for this award is Girl from the North Country.  Both songs have a wistful longing for lost love woven in to very deftly drafted images of places and of stages of life.  You can’t hear those songs and not feel loss and real longing. When he hits the mark, Dylan drives the ball far up into the air and over the bleachers.

As for concerts I have seen Dylan maybe four, maybe five times.  Five I am pretty sure.  I have seen him with Tom Petty, with Phil Lesh, on a four way bill with Richard Thompson, a solo performance at Michigan State’s Wharton Center and live at Live Aid.  My scorecard is about 50% good versus bad or weird shows. The song I remember most from the concerts was a cover Mr. Dylan sang of Ricky Nelson’s Travelling Man.  He introduced it by saying he was going to sing a Ricky Nelson cover because the then late Ricky Nelson used to cover a number of his songs.  The performance had heart and emotional depth.

In the past few days I have been listening to a couple of Dylan songs as I have been walking.  One is his original version of Love Minus Zero/No Limit.  The other is a cover by Jason Isbell and Sheryl Crow of Everything is Broken.  Dylan was young when he wrote the first song and significantly older when he crafted the second. His wordsmithing on each is just stunning.  The change in worldview is also stunning.

Is there a stronger image of deep abiding love than is conveyed in the first two lines of Love Minus Zero?  “My love she speaks like silence, without ideals or violence, she doesn’t have to say she’s faithful, yet she’s true, like ice, like fire.” I have listened to the song many times over the past few days and each time a different bit of the lyrics sticks in my brain for almost the rest of the day after my walk. Just look at these words and you will see why. I mean defining a love that is true like ice, like fire, two immutable unchanging things throughout time in everybody’s frame of reference, just wow.

The other song has been in my head for a couple of reasons.  First, it is so topical to this moment right now.  I mean think about these lyrics:

Broken bottles, broken plates

Broken switches, broken gates

Broken dishes, broken parts

Streets are filled with broken hearts

Broken words never meant to be spoken

Everything is broken

Seem like every time you stop and turn around

Something else just hit the ground

I don’t know but this pandemic seems to be showing me a great many broken things. From broken health care systems in nation after nation, none of them anywhere near able to deal with a pandemic to a broken political culture in America and to finally a broken spirit of our nation.  Even a nonpolitical outside threat to our lives (literal) cannot unify us.  Everything is broken.

Second, the version I have been listening to just rocks the heck out.  I mean I have seen Jason Isbell in concert and loved the show.  But on the video of Crow and Isbell at Newport, Mr. Isbell just soars on lead guitar.  The duo’s performance, despite the drear nature of the commentary, is a joy to watch. Just seeing how well the song comes off in concert raised my spirits.

Time goes by.  Day 14.  I vow I will work to help flatten the curve.