Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Five extraordinary poems that inspired Bob Dylan

Five extraordinary poems that inspired Bob Dylan

4 comments:

Rick Robinson said...

I'm not buying it.

Deb said...

I think Bob has a brain that soaks up and reinvents everything it comes across. Some of the connections the article tries to make are a little nebulous; I suspect it's far more likely much of his work has been influenced by indigenous blues and folk music--but who knows?

Don Coffin said...

Some of that seems like a bit of a stretch to me. I have no doubt that Dylan read a log of poetry (or at least knew a lot of poets' names--this is from "You're Gonna to Make Me Lonesome When you go":

"Situations have ended sad
Relationships have all been bad
Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud
But there's no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair
You're gonna make me lonesome when you go")

He obviously knew Allen Ginsburg, too (see the video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues).

But I don't see much in those five poems that seem to have inspired any particular lyrics. Maybe the idea that you can bend language to your own proposed...but he could have gotten that from Hank Williams.

Don Coffin said...

"purposes", not "proposed"