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Tag Archives: Bob Dylan
“[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
“I like to think that eventually he will shame us into becoming Americans again.” — Guy Davenport on Walt Whitman Whitman is the organizing principle behind my review of Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue. Bob Dylan quotes Whitman all the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Algernon Charles Swinburne, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Camille Paglia, Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Ezra Pound, Frank O'Hara, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Harold Bloom, Hart Crane, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Baldwin, Michael Schmidt, Oscar Wilde, poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams
5 Comments
“I don’t call myself a poet, because I don’t like the word. I’m a trapeze artist.” – Bob Dylan
For Bob Dylan’s birthday “When I first heard Elvis Presley’s voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out … Continue reading
“I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.” — Jack Kerouac
It’s his birthday today. In Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe paints a pretty brutal picture of Jack Kerouac, at a party in New York, when the Hippie Bus rolled into town. (Robert Stone was also at that party. He … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, fiction, Jack Kerouac, James Salter
4 Comments
“The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.” — Kurt Cobain
“The kid has heart.” — Bob Dylan, after hearing Nirvana’s song “Polly” for the first time Today is Kurt Cobain’s birthday. I’m not over it. There are defining moments in a generation, moments everyone remembers. For my generation it was … Continue reading
Happy Birthday, Leadbelly
From Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending: LADY: What’s all that writing on it? VAL: Autographs of musicians I run into here and there. LADY: Can I see it? VAL: Turn on that light above you. [She switches on green-shaded bulb … Continue reading
“When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
“Memphis 1955 on Union Avenue Carl and Jerry and Charlie and Roy And Billy Riley too…” – Johnny Cash, “I Will Rock’n’Roll With You” “and Billy Riley too” …. Billy Lee Riley was always a little irritated to be an … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
Tagged Billy Lee Riley, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam Phillips, Sun Records
5 Comments
“Great balls of fire! My friend, Roderigo!” Jerry Lee Lewis as Iago
A re-post in honor of the Killer. R.I.P. In 1968, there was a short-lived production of Othello in Los Angeles, a dream project of producer Jack Good, who wrote a loose adaptation filled with rock ‘n roll songs. He called … Continue reading