Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan & Me Continued

Okay, I'm on a Bob Dylan kick... again, and that's not such a bad kick to be on.
I often tell friends that Bob Dylan's book, Chronicles I, is a great place to find interesting song titles. Dylan doesn't really get into his own writing process in this wonderful book, but his imagery is so superb, that, well, it is inspirational to me.

In the book Dylan talks about how (back in the late 50s I'm guessing?) he would visit Woody Guthrie in the hospital near NYC. Guthrie died from complications of Huntington's disease, a progressive genetic neurological disorder. During his later years, in spite of his illness, Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.

According to Dylan, Guthrie liked to listen to Dylan play,.... Woody Guthrie songs. Dylan knew many and Woody, unable to play them himself at this point, loved hearing them. So, Dylan would take Woody a pack of Raleigh smokes and play Do Re Me, Dust Bowl Blues, etc. Dylan said that the facility was more like an asylum than a hospital and that people were indifferent to the fact that Woody Guthrie was there. He said it wasn't the type place where you get better. "Patients would roll their eyes while their tongues sniffed the air".

In today's song I tried to imagine a patient down the hall from Woody, hearing these tunes sung by Dylan and being consoled by them. Dylan at this point was unknown as a performer, so, it wasn't like he walked in the place with celebrity status of any sort. He was simply a young man/boy playing Guthrie tunes.

At the end of the blog I talk about how I use different finger styles to pull some new melody and song ideas out of my head.

I'm going to flip through this book some more.



Listening to Woody Guthrie Tunes
©2011 Todd Burge – Bunj Jam – BMI

While sitting in my room
Constant thoughts of doom
Overwhelm me
Until I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

I have my dust bowl blues
Figured out without a drought
For now
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

White coats coming
Paranoia drumming
Bangin and a beatin’
On a single skin
Close your mouth
As I ain’t lettin’ a
Single word
In my head
I’m out of this world
A younger man with cares
Too few to mention
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

Patients roll their eyes
While their tongues sniff the air
An old man sees a spaceship
On the campus green out there
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

If I could get out now
What the hell would I do?
I’m here for your own good
And it’s good for me
So I look forward to
That young man who
Plays the Woody tunes


White coats coming
Paranoia drumming
Bangin and a beatin’
On a single skin
Close your mouth
As I ain’t lettin’ a
Single word
In my head
I’m out of this world
A younger man with cares
Too few to mention
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune


Here's a video where I talk a bit about figure patterns on the right hand, and how they help me with melody.