03 April 2009

Minus 0

One of my favourite clips.

I remember where I was when I listened to the album: staying with an aunt in the country and I'd biked into the big town to spend my precious shekels on a new lamp for my Raleigh 'Lightning' bike.

I passed the record shop and there was the album in the window. I bought it sans needing to think and stuff the lamp and when I got back I shoved it on and ... it wasn't quite what I expected. Didnt really gel.

My shrewd aunt spotted this and mocked me for wasting money and I suspected she was right.

In bed, I kept hearing echoes of the tunes and his voice and I got up around 2am and sneaked down and played it softly and it grew and grew.

Wonderful production, the guitar sings and his voice is crystal clear.

Anyway, I like this clip because I like hissing at poofty Donovan toadying up to The Man and everyone else sitting around totally not getting it.

I know I should like Donovan but i dont: something about his effeminate ways and softie songs and ... oh, everything. Chemistry.

So when i first saw this clip and there's my bête vanilla, I just hooted because that's *exactly* how i'd imagine he'd be in The Presence. Now I rewatch it I see the other wankers sitting there acting oh so cool and it clearly going over their heads.

This also reminds me of the clip of the mayor of some northern town - a clipped-accented diminutive lady - introducing her awed son to The Bobster (I'm using all wellsian vocab) and he, instead of being offhand and too cool to be bothered, is the soul of respect and consideration and, in a way, *gentle* with them. He could have just dissed them off and made no effort to conceal his boredom, but he stood there and gave them respectful attention and time.

I remember sitting there stunned, like a slap in the face.

"That," I told myself, "is how you behave when next you feel superior or lazy or in company with which you feel you don't have to bother or make an effort.

If the young Dylan could act the gentleman in a foreign country, summoned from jamming with his pals, so by God better you - or look in the shaving mirror next morning and take some truthful stock.

Guitarist Note: Note how his tune-up key doesnt seem to change but the capo leaps a few frets when he gets going.

;-)

2 comments :

Richard Wells said...

Dylan clearly knows he has Don outclassed. You can tell by that snarky sort of smile he gets while he's singing. And the thing with the Lord High Sheriff' wife and kids grabbed me as well. There's another bit where Dylan is talking to a couple of young birds outside the hotel, or concert hall, and he's totally kind and respectful - and unexpected. There's a bit on the album, on BD's 115th Dream - where Dylan starts laughing. I was laying on the couch with my girlfriend - both of us drunk as skunks - and that laugh came on and I couldn't get enough of it. Cathy had to slip off the couch about 15 times to move the needle back so I could hear it again. It was the first time a human being became a presence out of the stereo speakers, and cemented me as a fan.

Corfucius said...

great comment n filled in the gaps. thanks.