Dylan is one of the performers at the Washington Civil Rights March. Photographs of the historic march show him perched on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, singing with Baez. He also accompanies folk revivalist Len Chandler on the traditional “Hold On,” as well as performing solo versions of “Only a Pawn in Their Game” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” “Only a Pawn in Their Game” appears in bastardized form on the Folkways’s We Shall Overcome documentary album, largely obliterated by some ill-considered polemic superimposed over the song.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
But I thought Kennedy, both Kennedy’s – I just liked them. And I like Martin…. Martin Luther King. I thought those were people who were blessed and touched, you know? The fact that they all went out with bullets doesn’t change nothin’. Because the good they do gets planted. And those seeds live on longer than that.
~Bob Dylan (to Kurt Loder, March 1984)
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom or “The Great March on Washington“, as styled in a sound recording released after the event,was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States historyand called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C..Thousands of Americans headed to Washington on Tuesday August 27, 1963. On Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in which he called for an end to racism.
When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez
And it’s Eastertime too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don’t pull you through
Don’t put on any airs
When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outta you
–
This reminds me of Kerouac’s “On The Road” – conjuring up a dusty character lost somewhere in America, or South America, down on his luck, wanting to go home and singing off with the bleak but also funny line: “I’m going back to New York City/I do believe I’ve had enough.” ~Howard Souness (His 40 Greatest songs – Uncut Magazine)
Tom Thumb´s Blues has been performed:
2 times acoustic w/ band – both in 2002
234 times w/band – top year 1974 (39 times)
First live performance:
Forest Hills Tennis Stadium
New York City, New York
28 August 1965
Last live performance:
Trädgårdsföreningen
Gothenburg, Sweden
15 July 2014
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Filene Center Wolf Trap Farm Park For The Performing Arts Vienna, Virginia 24 August 1997
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful
Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire
People carry roses
Make promises by the hours
My love she laughs like the flowers
Valentines can’t buy her
–
One of his sweetest love songs – apart from the brothel, death and Apocalypse references.
“My love she speaks like silence.” Tricky, but then she is quite a woman: true, morally elevated, yet winking and laughing like the flowers. The very scent of her swirls through this honeyed river of song, borne along on gentle tumbles and ripples of guitar. Frankly, we’re all enamoured … Until that bastard bridge at midnight trembles, the wind howls like a hammer, and she’s suddenly a raven at the window. So- what?- she’s death?With a broken wing too? Now we’re confused, now we’re in a bit of a pickle. Romance over? What happened? What does it mean? Sigh.
– MOJO Magzine – 100 Greatest Dylan Songs
Performances:
163 times acoustic w/ band – top year 1994 (24 times)
119 times acoustic – top year – top year 1992 (48 times)
1 time as an instrumental – 1978
90 times w/band – top year 1978 (60 times)
–
First performance: Troy, New York – February 12 , 1965
Last played: Broomfield, Colorado – October 30, 2012
Bob Dylan scholars have determined that “To Ramona” is a song about Joan Baez; Dylan’s warning her that the folk protest movement will draw her in deep, but he recognizes that she doesn’t necessarily have a problem with that, and much as he loves and wants her, he has to let her think for herself, both for her sake and for his.
-Patrick Robbins (covermesongs.com)
–
Quite whom the singer is trying to mollify (and/or seduce) remains pure guesswork. One possibility must be Sara Lowndes, who became close to Dylan in the aftermath of his breakup with Suze. She could be said to have “cracked country lips,” being a Delaware girl, and her bronzed skin and dusky features may have suggested Spanish ances- try—and the Mediterranean goddess status the name “Ramona” implies.
– Clinton Heylin (Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973)
Whoever it might be, it´s a great song.
It´s been performed:
137 times acoustic w/ band – top year 2000 (33 times)
99 times acoustic – top year – top year 1986 (33 times)
1 time as an instrumental – Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia – 20 March 1978
127 times w/band – top year 1978 (64 times)
First live performance:
Freebody Park, Newport, Rhode Island – 26 July 1964
Newport Folk Festival.
Last live performance:
Port Chester, New York, Capitol Theatre – June 14, 2017
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