This was a moment when people wanted a leader and spokesman. It is a song imbued with the struggle for personal freedom and the perpetual trap of co-dependence. I see that woman's beautiful black face, her "cracked country lips." He's describing her in terms that take us past this scene. He's specific about the erotic, her attractions. ![]() I've always seen Ramona as a young black woman at some New York party where she doesn't feel comfortable, and there is Bob Dylan giving her emotional contact. But to me, it's about that as clearly as a James Baldwin novel. Jackson Browne: There's not a word about the Civil Rights movement in this song. He's just wiser and much further along in his journey, so we look up to him. Donnie Herron, from Dylan's band, is a friend of ours, and he says that Dylan plays all day long on his bus and knows so many songs – people have no idea. He was superpolite and very straightforward throughout rehearsals there were no games. We got the chance to play "Maggie's Farm" with Dylan at the Grammys a couple of years ago, and I couldn't stop smiling. You're buying all the masculinities and going right along with it. As far as the lyrics go, it's an amazing endeavor Dylan was able to put his mind and heart into a specific scene – of being a lone renegade in the desert, up to all these trying and dangerous things. That's really much harder to do than I think anybody who isn't trying to make music knows. And like most of Desire and Blood on the Tracks, it is relatively repetitive, but it's so good it can kind of just keep going and going. The melody of "Romance in Durango" makes the whole song work it's so serious and driven. He was probably going through very normal changes in his life, but the way he would articulate them was so colorful. Dylan sounded like a hardened, mysterious figure. Blood on the Tracks was intimate, but Desire was edgy. It's full of repetitive, almost poetic chanting from a man who's seen a lot. But when I was 21, an art-school professor gave me Desire. Scott Avett (of the Avett Brothers): When I was growing up, I was into hardcore music my idol was Mike Patton from Faith No More. The production sort of sounds like Phil Collins and shit it reminds me of when I had just gotten out of high school, a time that kind of hurts the heart a little, I guess. ![]() Around the Eighties, people started saying he wasn't doing good stuff. He was drinking a lot, but it didn't seem to hurt him too much. I opened up for him a little bit in the Eighties I got to sit onstage and watch him sing, and it was incredible. You're like, "Shit, how am I gonna get this out of here?" And you just can't. I still try to copy him, and it's like trying to steal something from somebody's house and everything in the house weighs 4,000 pounds. A whole generation tried they fucking Strawberry Alarm Clocked themselves to death. I wish I had thought of it.īut people that try to copy him end up looking ridiculous. Dylan invented this kind of song, where each verse has some wisdom being imparted without being preachy, like, "I know God has mercy on those that are slandered and humiliated," and, "I see people who are supposed to know better than to stand around like furniture." It's perfect. I have no idea what the groom's still waiting at the altar for, but I feel terrible for him. I think there's a story getting told here that I don't totally understand, but who cares? It's just a great poem. Todd Snider: Bob Dylan finds a million different ways to do one-four-five blues, Chuck Berry-style rock & roll, my favorite kind of song.
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