Category Archives: folklore and ethnography

The Monday Book – Bob Dylan, Performing Artist, 1960-1973

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Monday Book review by Jack Beck

Bob Dylan, Performing Artist, 1960-1973, The Early Years. Paul Williams (1990 Omnibus Press)

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Regular readers of this blog will already know that I’m a big fan of Dylan and his music.

This book is both interesting and frustrating. It’s well written and researched and Williams gives due credit to other writers who have covered the same subject and time period. But the more I read, the more it seemed to be as much about the author as about Bob Dylan.

It wasn’t until I got almost to the end that I discovered that Williams had been a rookie cub reporter on a local newspaper in the early 1970s and was able to interview Dylan. He says that Bob was relaxed and straightforward and not doing his usual enigmatic and obscure stuff. That’s fine, but I’m not sure it necessarily gives you any special insights!

At various points Williams puts Dylan on a level with Shakespeare, James Joyce, Beethoven and Picasso. I think that might just be over-egging things a bit.

The book is written chronologically as the title suggests and Williams has certainly covered the period in depth, including both commercial and bootleg recordings as well as un-recorded live performances. But it’s in between this valuable information that he lets loose with his personal and (I think) overblown analysis.

Despite all the careful research I did discover one surprising omission. Williams spend a fair bit of time on Dylan’s 1966 world tour which ended in the UK. He lists the various concerts around the country but misses Edinburgh. I know it’s missing because I was there and have an excellent recording of that night!

So – a bit of a mixed bag, but for died in the wool fans well worth a read!

Not Gardening in Eden

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Yesterday morning my daily Bible reading was Genesis, the creation story. It’s a very beautiful and mysterious story: the water was already there, it had to be gathered, there needed to be separations of many things. It never fails to move me and ignite my curiosity.

Especially yesterday, because after the Earth is full of plants and other things, dominion over them is given to the humans. I was thinking happy thoughts about the long line of connectedness with me putting in a garden, working with seeds and dirt, reaching back to God giving humans the first garden. That whole blowing it thing and the expulsion could wait. Give me my moment.

That moment was coming. Our friend Philip arrived to help, and he weeded one bed while I put up supports for peas in another. Then I went and got a truckload of dirt and compost to amend some soil; it took us 21 wheelbarrow loads to get it in the right places. By 2 pm, that 8 am “what a glorious thing to participate in” was more like “when is this going to be over.”

I doubt muscles in the Garden of Eden screamed “what the hell Lady” at Eve in the afternoon. I doubt their chickens decided eating new seed was better than eating grubs–which we were feeding them every time we found one. I know for a fact that Adam never had a blister on his baby toe from dirt getting inside his shoe and rubbing–they weren’t wearing shoes.

According to the story, at that time getting good food from the plants didn’t involve having to grow them yourself. Taking a line from Genesis, I snipped a bunch of fresh hosta shoots for dinner. Free food we didn’t grow, tasty for the taking. Philip, his partner Geoffrey, Jack and I sat down to last year’s carrots canned overwinter, the hosta shoots, and some nice Scottish Sausage patties Jack put together for us.

Go by mad world. Gardening may not be Eden, and my muscles may have the vocabulary of sailors this morning given the obscenities they are offering up with each move, but it was still fun.