Dylan: 37 years ago
As a nod to how well the latest Robert Zimmerman record is doing, here he is performing on The Johnny Cash show (that’s right! ran on ABC from ‘69-’71). It’s that ‘Nashville Skyline’ voice he’s singing in. The entire song is rather ironic and deep, about romantic relationships, but also a metaphor to the enduring power of a bard who ‘threw it all away’ and has been able to ‘bring it all back home’ several times. Volume of the clip is low, so turn up now-
The entire thing is weird on several levels: imagine what the average Dylan fan looked like in ‘69 and Bob himself appears relatively conservative. He was a few years past his ‘gone electric’ ’sacrelidge’ against the folkies, recently having turned out a rather straight up country record - always mixing it up and refusing stasis for the sake of fandom. Johnny himself presenting more enigmas: a man with a history of dope and delinquency putting forward the face of ‘wholesome country host’. In all, an interesting era on many levels for a variety of reasons. They were actually friends behind the scenes, and according to the recent Scorsese doc, Bob was really touched when The Man in Black preserved a country music tradition by giving his guitar to the younger songwriter - a symbolic and literal ‘passing of the torch’.
johnny cash looked quite skeleton-like in the Dylan doc. . .high on pills.
Ah, newoldtymer, I was hoping this post might call you out from the shadows, welcome!