Dylan and Dowson

[@gunnarharaldsson5317]

Your insight into Dylans work is so valuable! Your videos have been some of the most illuminating that I have come across. I see you as having three great keys to Dylans work: the poetic, the Christian and the cultural. I am from Iceland so a lot of the US cultural connections go over my head (also a lot the poetic and the Christian of course). Thanks for your great work!

[@CalicoSilver]

Thank you, Gunnar. I appreciate your flattering comments. I certainly enjoy this kind of thing, but I highly doubt I have any real insight into Dylan. I just love poetry. Jeff

[@philfranco7598]

I really appreciate your knowledge of the greatest of all time. Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan. I have listened to Visions of Johana many many times it is my favorite Dylan work. Immediately upon hearing the first couple lines, I saw in my mind , Visions of Johana

[@CalicoSilver]

Thanks Phil.

[@ericosullivan6575]

That was absolutely wonderful! Thanks Jeff!!

[@CalicoSilver]

Thanks Eric!

[@twofromthetrunk9932]

I loved this. You are extraordinary!

[@demonsbutterfly]

I just kept hearing the word Desolate

[@thenneedd]

enjoyed that.

[@electricfence61]

Thanks for that Jeff, it's a FANTASTIC poem, l had never heard it before. Yes , I totally see where you are coming from with " Johanna " there..made me think of " She Acts Like We Never Have Met" ..

[@CalicoSilver]

Good one, Mick!

[@ChrisFP2]

Your insight is really good and unique. There are several Dylan podcasts and you understand more about Dylan than most experts

[@CalicoSilver]

Thanks, Chris. I highly doubt that I have any special insight into Dylan. I just love poetry and like thinking about it. Perhaps that is the difference, I don’t know. But thanks. Jeff

[@jerichothegrey]

Oh wow! I was surprised when you said "Visions of Johanna" but I totally see it now after you saying it. The line "When I awoke and found the dawn was grey" reminds me of Simple Twist of Fate "I woke up and the room was bare. I didn't see her anywhere."

[@CalicoSilver]

Yes I thought of Simple Twist of Fate as well. Good call.

[@CaretakerWanted]

Thank you for reading this poem, Jeff. It was lovely to hear : )

[@rickj.penner6405]

The poem made me think of Dylan’s song “Standing in the Doorway” from his album Time Out of Mind (1997). It has these lines: “Last night I danced with a stranger But she just reminded me you were the one You left me standing in the doorway crying In the dark land of the sun”

[@CalicoSilver]

Excellent call, Rick! 👍

[@ethanschneider2711]

Completely agree!

[@tommoranofficial]

My first thought was "Visions of Johanna"! Love this, a series of videos like this would be really interesting!

[@CalicoSilver]

Thanks Tom. It really was a spur-of-the-moment idea. But I think I can make some more videos like this, yes.

[@lamarschlabach3933]

You'll need to take my word for it, of course, but about halfway through your inspired reading of this beautiful poem I'd never heard of before, Visions of Johanna conquered my mind..ha I'm no pig without a wig, I hope you treat me kind...ha

[@danhelwig]

One of the first coincidences that hit me was the Bible verse "what did you go (out) into the wilderness to see, a reed "blowing in the wind", the song is a hymn.

[@Slothrop67]

Loved the video Jeff! VISIONS OF Johanna is so many things. It's a shape changer for (at least me) the listener depending on their stare in life. I think all art is as if we are stepping into the same river twice. Art is never the same thing every time you listen to a song,see a painting, read a poem. Movies as an example. The experience changes every time that you watch it. It all depends on you, we're you having a bad day, was the guy behind you kicking the back of your chair, your girlfriend just left you, etc. Visions of Johanna is like that to me.

[@CalicoSilver]

So true, Tony. I have been meaning to take down my video on my interpretation of Visions of Johanna because my thoughts on it change almost every time I hear it. As time passes I really question why I felt a desire to try to interpret some of Dylan’s more “difficult” lyrics. Like some commenters have rightly told me, my doing so misses the (perhaps) point of that kind of poetry which richly presents varying reception to different listens/listeners. My urge to “talk about” art like VoJ is probably misplaced. I am rather proud of my interpretations of certain Dylan songs here, but I have never felt comfortable about doing so with VoJ.

[@Slothrop67]

@CalicoSilver your interpretations are great. For me, it brings a new consideration to songs that I dismissed in the past. One in particular was your video on Street Legal. I'm not sure if you've done a whole video on Live at the Budokin. Rollingstone wrote that this album was like doing an impression of the fat Evis vegas shows. I've never listened to it because RollingStone ranked it below 1 star. I've also taken out my old college editions of the complete William Blake,Byron,Shelly and Hart Crane. It's all because of your videos. So you have an impact, and I'm sure not just on me. I wish you would do books as well. Believe it or not, I go to the syllabus' from other colleges English and History classes just to see what the kids are reading now.just to see what the kids. I can't stand it when one of my daughters come home raving about a book in their class and I've never heard of it. A Confederacy of Dunces was one that they suggested and it was an incredible read. Back in the 80s most of my English classes taught the usuals: Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Whitman,Poe,Hemingway and I avoided poetry like the plague. And, regardless of with a lot of excellent art, we need someone's guiding to help us appreciate it.

[@CalicoSilver]

@@Slothrop67 Thanks, Tony. Yes I did a review of the 1979 Budokan album that was about as “nice” as I could possibly be….but that crappy album was actually the final-nail album that steered me away from Dylan from 1979-1998! Twenty years! Now that is an “influential” album (in a bad way). It kills me (makes me laugh my ass off) that there was an actual Bootleg Series devoted to that silly tour. Haha! I don’t know which is sillier, that Budokan release or the upcoming 27-CD sex of 1974 tour recordings. And I absolutely love 1974’s Before the Flood. But I think I am kinda done buying any more Dylan money-grabs. I have more than I can listen to now. As for literature, I am a musty dusty crusty old fart who reads almost exclusively stuff from 18th and 19th and early 20th centuries. That stuff just seems to resonate with me more. As my more up to date literature loving friends tell me, I am a lost cause w/r/to literature as much as I apparently am w/r/to music. Haha!!

[@georgecoventry8441]

Yes, I can see how that connects with Visions of Johanna (which might be Bob's greatest song, although that's debatable). I didn't think of it right away, but it does. Joan Baez had a very lasting effect on Bob, and it's not surprising that she would have. They are both very strong and determined characters. He had a very lasting effect on her too.

[@CalicoSilver]

It would be very hard for me to choose a favorite or “greatest” song by Dylan. Several instantly spring to mind but with another instant come more songs to mind. 😉😁

[@AutisticusMaximus-hx7pp]

brownsville girl.

[@stephenrostkoski837]

Huh, never heard of him, but interesting that those oft-used phrases came from his work. I can't say "Johanna" came to mind, but I see what you mean.

[@Slothrop67]

I just had to throw in one of my favorite Oscar Wilde quips as he lay dying. In fact it may have been his last words .."either that wallpaper has to go or I do."

[@CalicoSilver]

Hahaha!! That is hilarious. So much so that I will remember it for a long time. I already told someone about it yesterday and they laughed. Great quote.

[@Slothrop67]

I always laugh when I think about it. it strikes me pure Oscar Wilde.

[@Slothrop67]

I think The Visions of Johanna is the better answer but my first thought was Farewell Angelina.

[@CalicoSilver]

Good one too. I did a lyric review of Farewell Angelina where (I think, if memory serves) I interpreted that song as a farewell to his earlier performing/writing career and a moving-on, rather than a romantic separation. But who knows with Dylan?

[@dixiefallas7799]

I think Lily of the West comes to mind though it is a trad song.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

[@kensilverstone1656]

Sounds more like Leonard Cohen.

[@CalicoSilver]

I wouldn't know about that. I've tried several times to get into Cohen, with no success. Oh well....

[@georgecoventry8441]

@@CalicoSilver - Cohen is different from Dylan....but he comes nearer to Dylan in his work than anyone else, in my opinion. I consider them to be the two greatest songwriters of this age. They both have a very wide reach...but Dylan's is wider. Cohen writes primarily about love, God, sex, and death...and after that, about society. Dylan writes about everything.