Bob Dylan has always had a passion for words. While he may remain cryptic in interviews, it’s clear that a profound literary knowledge sits behind his work – from the repository of folk song, to “Verlaine and Rimbaud”, and beyond.
His 1997 album ‘Time Out Of Mind’ represents a profound career shift – a comeback when one was needed, it reconfigured rock as something that dealt with ageing and mortality. Curiously, some tracks may share DNA with an unexpected figure – punk singer and writer Henry Rollins.
Dylan detective Scott Warmuth uncovered the link, and across two blog postings supplies numerous pieces of evidence. Indeed, when you look at the broader ‘Time Out Of Mind’ sessions collated in the exhaustive Bootleg Series box set, the pattern is clear.
There’s one link that is definitely worth highlighting. Bob Dylan’s epic road trip piece ‘Highlands’ is a lengthy blues number, one that takes its cure from the poetry of Robert Burns, all while name-checking Neil Young’s work as his stereo companion.
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Curiously, some passages contain echoes of Henry Rollins work – from Californian punk poetry to the Scottish Highlands and back again.
A passage from Henry Rollins work High Adventure in the Great Outdoors explores the limits of internal monologue:
“All these people in shorts and bikinis, having beers, playing volleyball on the sand, running around, laughing… Beautiful girls, all tanned and slim, smiling and talking with guys… they were laughing and talking just walking down the street, probably going to eat dinner and then go to a movie or a play… I would have traded places with the guy in a second.”
Meanwhile in ‘Highlands’ Dylan sings:
“I see people in the park forgetting their troubles and woes / They’re drinking and dancing, wearing bright-coloured clothes / All the young men with their young women looking so good / Well, I’d trade places with any of them / In a minute, if I could.”
A coincidence? Don’t forget that Bob Dylan used California band The Bugz as a pick-up group for a now-iconic Letterman performance – perhaps he’s always had an ear to the ground for West Coast punk.
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