Expecting Rain

is it a song without music; bob's magnum opus? should he have sung it?

in what key would that be in?

the key of life, of course, back in the days of his transcendent genius.

these are words that scream to be heard but i guess people think because it's a book it should be read silently and not proclaimed. people are hung up about this stuff.

But some of it did become songs.

it is one unified song

With that logic, you must consider Like A Rolling Stone to be a bastardized version of the original "long piece of vomit".

even kerouac edited; genius is pain, you know

Anyone managed to read it all the way through ?

it's not meant to be read per se; it's meant to be declaimed. reading it to one's self silently robs the work of its power and glory

maybe arlo could do a books on tape sort of thing

That`ll be a no then

don't assume anything; how do you think i made my discovery

.. i've read it through (out loud AND to myself) ...
several times - and Elmer is on the right track with this.*
- Please don't make me regret saying that, Elmer - i know
= you like to get out the Zebras for the Safari Contraire', but...
- i'm in Siesta Slumbermode until they drop the puck in St. Paul.

.. and if Barney meant 'reading the entire thing straight through'
- i've only done that once. Out Loud (probably very..) at a Party..
and the only thing anyone who was there would have ever testified
to - was that they wanted to kill me. But no one (including myself)
was capable of of coherent physical violence - besides it was My Party
So - i continued at will until. How many 'guests' (a ridiculous descripto
of anyone at a party i threw..) were 'alive' at the end of the book?
- i remember there was one guy and his dog - and me. He had a big slab
of nearly raw steak in one hand - and a bottle of lime vodka in the other.
He took a bite .. the dog got a bite .. i took a bite .. he handed me the bottle.
Maybe i was figgerin' he wouldn't hand me the bottle if i didn't take a bite..
Things were like that sometimes....................... it was great. ..
*.. except i don't think it loses anything in a silent way (Silent Way! Miles Davis!)
= of course i walk around all day talkin' to myself out loud, so whaddoo i know, eh?

.. i've read it through (out loud AND to myself) ...
several times - and Elmer is on the right track with this.*
- Please don't make me regret saying that, Elmer - i know
= you like to get out the Zebras for the Safari Contraire', but...
- i'm in Siesta Slumbermode until they drop the puck in St. Paul.

.. and if Barney meant 'reading the entire thing straight through'
- i've only done that once. Out Loud (probably very..) at a Party..
and the only thing anyone who was there would have ever testified
to - was that they wanted to kill me. But no one (including myself)
was capable of of coherent physical violence - besides it was My Party
So - i continued at will until. How many 'guests' (a ridiculous descripto
of anyone at a party i threw..) were 'alive' at the end of the book?
- i remember there was one guy and his dog - and me. He had a big slab
of nearly raw steak in one hand - and a bottle of lime vodka in the other.
He took a bite .. the dog got a bite .. i took a bite .. he handed me the bottle.
Maybe i was figgerin' he wouldn't hand me the bottle if i didn't take a bite..
Things were like that sometimes....................... it was great. ..
*.. except i don't think it loses anything in a silent way (Silent Way! Miles Davis!)
= of course i walk around all day talkin' to myself out loud, so whaddoo i know, eh? [/quote]

are you andy kauffman? i knew you weren't dead!

This is possibly the most bizarre thread I`ve ever been a part of.

I knew there was love for Dylan somewhere in you Elmer

Ok. Now - Remember.. on your 'Elmer's Honor'
- ya' gotta promise to read along OUT LOUD. ..

Guns, the Falcon's Mouthbook
& Gashcat Unpunished

aretha/ crystal jukebox queen of hymn & him
diffused in drunk transfusion wound would heed
sweet soundwave crippled & cry salute to oh
great particular el dorado reel & ye battered
personal god but she cannot she the leader of
whom when ye follow, she cannot she has no
back she cannot ... beneath black flowery rail-
road fans & fig leaf shades & dogs of all nite
joes, grow like arches & cures the harmonica
battalions of bitter cowards, bones & bygones
while what steadier louder the moans & arms of
funeral landlord with one passionate kiss re-
hearse from dusk & climbing into the bushes
with some favorite enemy ripping the postage
stamps & crazy mailmen & waving all rank &
familiar ambition than that itself, is needed to
know that mother is not a lady ... aretha with
no goals, eternally single & one step soft of
heaven/ let it be understood that she owns this
melody along with her emotional diplomats &
her earth & her musical secrets

.. the censor in a twelve wheel drive semi
.. stopping in for donuts & pinching the
.. waitress/ he likes his women raw & with
.. syrup/ he has his mind set on becoming
.. a famous soldier

...to be continued. 'Tarantula' by Bob Dylan 1966..

Ok. Now - Remember.. on your 'Elmer's Honor'
- ya' gotta promise to read along OUT LOUD. ..

... 'Tarantula' by Bob Dylan 1966 cont. .....

manuscript nitemare of cut throat high & low
& behold the prophesying blind allegiance to
law fox, monthly cupid & the intoxicating ghosts
of dogma ... nay & may the boatmen in bath-
robes be banished forever & anointed into the
shelves of alive hell, the unimaginative sleep,
repetition without change & fat sheriffs who
watch for doom in the mattress ... hallaluyah
& bossman of the hobos cometh & ordaining the
spiritual gypsy davy camp now being infiltrated
by foreign dictator, the pink FBI & the inter-
rogatiing unknown failures of peacetime as holy
& silver & blessed with the texture of kaleido-
scope & the sandal girl ... to dream of dancing
pillhead virgins & wandering apollo at the pipe
organ/ unscientific ramblers & the pretty things
lucky & lifting their lips & handing down looks
& regards from the shoulders of adam & eve's
minstrel peekaboo ... passing on the chance to
bludgeon the tough spirits & the deed holders
into fishlike buffoons & yanking ye erratic pur-
pose ... surrendering to persuasion, the crime
against people that be ranked alongside murder
& while doctors, teachers, bankers & sewer clean-
ers fight for their rights, they must now where
tab hunter leads with his thunderbird/ pearl
bailey stomps him against a buick & where pov-
erty, a perfection of neptune's unused clients,
plays hide & seek & escaping into the who goes
there? & now's not the time to act silly, so wear
your big boots & jump on the garbage clowns,
the hourly rate & the enema men & where junior
senators & goblins rip off tops of question marks
& their wives make pies & go now & throw some
pies in the face & ride the blinds & into aretha's
religious thighs & movement find ye your nymph
of no conscience & bombing out your young
sensitive dignity just to see once & for all if there
are holes & music in the universe & watch her
tame the sea horse/ aretha, pegged by choir
boys & other pearls of mamas as too gloomy a
much of witchy & dont you now no happy
songs

.. the layer leading a pig on a leash
.. stopping in for tea & eating the censor's
.. donut by mistake/ he likes to lie about
.. his age & takes his paranoia seriously


...to be continued. 'Tarantula' by Bob Dylan 1966..

I think I read it all the way, ten years back. I read about five books explaining it since, all written by the same guy.

.. Sorry - but i don't know what's harder to understand.
Why someone would write 5 books 'explaining' Tarantula..
- or why someone would read them all. So - what is it?
It can't possibly be the 'explanation' - he must take the
Greil Marcus 'Big Hat To Nowhere' trip - using Tarantula
as an excuse to write (entertainingly?) about something
on an elastic relevancy - stretched out to the BOING!! ..
- Maybe you could give us a HINT of his perspective?

allow me to pick up that buried joke and have a laugh. well played.

His newest:


I read all Dylan books.

Quite. If it takes five books to try and explain one, you can't be explaining- or understanding- it too well.

check the record. i love the pre-accident transcendent bob; the rest is forgettable and without merit

no wonder

Ok. Now - Remember.. on your 'Elmer's Honor'
- ya' gotta promise to read along OUT LOUD. ..

... 'Tarantula' by Bob Dylan 1966 cont. .....

the hospitable grave being advertised & given
away in shims & journals the housewife sit on.
finding herself financed, ruptured but never
censored in & also never flushing herself/ she
denies her corpse the courage to crawl--close his
own door, the ability to die of bank robbery &
now catches the heels of old stars making scary
movies on her dirt & her face & not everybody
can dig her now. she is private property . . .
bazookas in the nest & weapons of ice & of
weatherproof flinch & they twitter, make scars
& kill babies among lady shame good looks & her
constant foe, tom sawyer of the breakfast cereal
causing all females paying no attention to this
toilet massacre to be hereafter called LONZO &
must walk the streets of life forever with lazy
people having nothing to do but fight over
women ... everybody knows by now that wars
are caused by money & greed & charity organiz-
tions/ the housewife is not here, she is running
for congress

.. the senator dressed like an austrian
.. sheep. stopping in for coffee & insulting
.. the lawyer/ he is on a prune diet &
.. secretly wishes he was bing crosby
.. but would settle for being a close
.. relative of edgar bergen

...to be continued. 'Tarantula' by Bob Dylan 1966..