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EXTENDED LENGTHY ESSAY. TOPIC: BOB DYLAN.

obsessing over dylan is a favorite pastime.

i don't know if i have a favorite era. i know i grew up listening to the very very early albums: bob dylan self titled (a fave), john wesley harding, highway 51. only recently have i come to appreciate some of the later works - i'm really thankful to have been exposed to "desire" last summer, because the track "isis" is one of my favorite dylan songs ever, and the song "sara" to his wife makes me cry. also i just recently got into the basement tapes. i have to say that i tend to be more into the real dramatic shit: masters of war, god on our side, ballad of hollis brown, etc. i love the ones where he talks: song to woody, bob dylan's 115th dream, etc. the basement tapes is good but when things get too upbeat or have too many instruments i'm not as interested. i have steered clear of the christian years, but i have heard that there are some great songs to be found therein. he does do some of the more recent stuff live, and i don't know where some of it comes from. "summer days" seems to be a popular track for him to do live and i really just have no idea what album that's off of. i did pick up "time out of mind" which is very recent (1998?) and it's excellent, especially the very first track "lovesick," which is very bluesy and depressing, kinda reminds me of tom waits.

seeing dylan live was really cool, i just kinda wanted to be near him. i felt blessed because he did "she belongs to me" which has always been one of my favorite songs since i was a little girl. it's hard to wanna see dylan live because i'm so in love with such a specific group of tracks and a lot of them i know i'll never hear him do: isis, visions of johanna, tracks like that don't seem to make it to the live shows.

have you ever heard the poem he wrote to woody: "last thoughts on woody guthrie"? it's fucking amazing. i listen to it when things in my life are totally fucked and it completely sorts me out. i can give you an mp3 of it if you want.

if you're being super obsessive you should check out the biography that came out recently. it's called "down the highway." the author intereviewd something like 200 people who'd been associated with dylan and compiled them into the most thorough biography i've seen yet. it reads a little like a gossip column in places, tho. i'd like more rumination on the source of dylan's genius.

i have a lot of personal thoughts about dylan. as an astrologer i'm obliged to have spent some time with his chart. he definitely rocks the major neptune action in his chart, which would explain why he seemed to believe, especially during the xtian years, that his songs came from a higher power.

another thought i have about him a lot, especially after reading the biography, is that part of his iconic nature is definitely due to his own drive. he was always interested in being famous and he really did work hard to become well known. he has never been purely artistically driven, it was always on some level about fame. he started out wanting to be buddy holly. it's good to note that when you think about him and his affect on our culture.

anyway.

ummm.

*blush*

i think too much

ok bye

OH YEAH lists. if you go to post on the boards you will see that the boards have their own little macro language for things llike putting in images and urls and they also have some tags for making stuff bold and making lists.