Comments on: I was all right till April 28, 2005….Too early? Too late? On time

By: eruke

eruke — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:13:02 +0000

I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to write this comment, and indeed provide the voice missing at the end of my description of Hard Rain in 2005. It is exactly the condition inthealley describes here so gracefully– “”Bob took me into action, then, onward to awareness of why that action failed later,” that I want to do justice to. I think it’s naive and simplistic to claim that my illuminations and inthealley’s action and awareness, separated by decades, merely prove a transcendent timelessness to Dylan’s work. I want to understand and respect the peculiar urgency and immediacy of your response, and the way it invited you to action, and distinguish the song’s invitation to you from its invitation to me, based on our different circumstances. I think the persistent vitality of Dylan’s work only exists in our expressions and conversations, and many thanks to inthealley for taking the time to make 1963 present to my 2005 experience, as exactly it should be.

By: inthealley

inthealley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:59:01 +0000

From England ……. I saw Bob accidentally in his trip to London in 61/2. He seemed interesting if unwashed! In 63 I heard Blowing in the Wind by Peter Paul and Mary. I liked its apparent simplicity, found the writer’s name and recognised it. I then heard Hard Rain, by Pete Seeger, and sought out the original which had by this time arrived in the UK in the wake of ‘Times”. I had found myself aroused emotionally by Pete, but the experience of Bob was altogether different. That stirring you sensed in the last verse at the Beacon was SO compelling at the time that I played that song over and over, just to come to it, to escape from helplessness into some sense of doing something. I actively involved myself in CND and in such anti-racism as there was in early 60s London. Bob took me into action, then, and onward into awareness of why that action failed later, and how to ‘keep it in your mind and not forget’. He no longer (of course) tells me what to do, but he does say, often ‘it’s all right Ma’, and even allows me to share his despair. If I ever met him face to face, I’d thank him for the shared ride and the help along the way, as a brother, not an unapproachable star.

By: 1ifbyrain2ifbytrain

1ifbyrain2ifbytrain — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:52:45 +0000

I was at this show and you have done a fine job describing the collective journey we all went through during Hard Rain that night. It was a very special moment. There are moments like this where Bob seems to have the entire theater/arena/world/universe on his shoulders. There are also moments during shows when he seems to speak only to me.

You also point out how sometimes when seeing him in concert you can see younger/historic Bobs present somehow in the Bob you are looking at.