East Orange, New Jersey
Talking New York / Bob Dylan / 1962
Pulled my cap down over my eyes,
and headed out for the western skies,
So long, New York
Howdy, East Orange
Timothy Herrick (TIMHRK@aol.com):
East Orange, which is south of Paterson, is where Woody Guthrie was
hospitalized and died. Dylan visited him in the hospital, an important
historic moment for music.
A city of northeast New Jersey, a residential suburb of Newark. Population, 73,552.
That song is really about Dylan's early disillusionment
with the New York City Folk scene. He comes to the city,
which is cold and hard, and they call him a hillbilly. He gets a harmonica
job, but it pays nothing. (a dollar a day). The second to last stanza Dylan
quotes Woody Guthrie, "A very Great Man once said that some people rob you
with a fountain pen." The last stanza he leaves, to East Orange, one presumes
to visit Woody Guthrie.
Expecting Rain