of a response poem in which I argued Nashville Skyline came out, I actually with someone in a Dylan style of writing, wrote a long and supposedly funny imi- ©2016 in response to HIS Dylan-styled writing. tation Dylan song, which I mortify myself Peter Berryman And by "Dylan styled," I mostly mean by actually performing now and then. Archived at LOUANDPETER.COM dropping the "g" from "-ing" word end- Many years ago everyone seemed to Me and Bob Dylan ings, and using "ain't." "I'm goin' down a- have an imitation Dylan song and I'm as fightin' and I ain't a-gonna quit." But I embarrassed by mine as I'm sure every- Well I have to write this WZ about Dylan. was also moved by Dylan to write songs one else is by theirs. I mean, he has nailed the Nobel Prize in with that Tambourine Man feeling of be- Literature! This on top of the Presiden- ing dazzled by wind, and night, and I only saw Dylan in person twice. The tial Medal of Freedom, eleven Gram- longing, and so forth. I was a big fan of first time was in 1964 when he was to mies, an Academy Award, a Golden Kerouac by then too and it was all very perform at Milwaukee's Oriental The- Globe Award, an induction into the Rock heady. ater. A bunch of us drove down from and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Song- Appleton and got a pretty good seat. As writers Hall of Fame, a special Pulitzer The first Dylan song I learned, along it turned out, the truck carrying the Prize "special citation," and many, many with 300,000 other plunkers, was sound system apparently was in an ac- more. Blowin' in the Wind, from the Free- cident. Dylan came out and started wheelin' Bob Dylan album of 1963, singing without amplification, which did- As I've mentioned before, I do have though I may have learned it via Peter n't work at all. He then waved everyone mixed feelings about how American cul- Paul & Mary's version which came out to leave their seats and pile toward the ture has turned into a cavalcade of con- three weeks later. stage. I actually touched his boot. He tests. I was in Michigan last Sunday and tried singing again and THAT didn't after the gig we went to a sports bar But I do remember learning The Ballad work out, so he left. He had sung maybe where there were two huge screens of Hollis Brown and When The Ship twenty words. We were refunded our over the back bar. On one screen was Comes In directly from the 1964 Dylan money and drove sullenly back to Ap- the Packer game and on the other was album, The Times They Are A- pleton. the second presidential debate. The Changin'. I especially remember play- sound was on for both events and peo- ing the latter, sitting on the hood of my The next time was in Madison with my ple were cheering and booing alternate- family's flamingo pink 1959 Plymouth wife Kristi, in 2004, exactly forty years ly for a presidential candidate and a wagon at the Peninsula State Park later. Dylan and Willie Nelson were football team, in the same tone of voice. campground in Door County. I had just playing a double bill in various small It was weird. bought my second-hand 12-string Har- ballparks around the country. Willie put mony guitar. (That was a memorable on a great show, with lyrics clear as a But maybe this is sour grapes. I had my camping trip, probably the last one I took bell. Dylan came out and played key- eye on the Nobel Prize and still wonder with my family. My youngest sister Su- board, standing, never moving an inch. how the committee can pass by such of sannah and I stayed up half the night in He had on like a white suit and white big my lyrics as: our own tent making up centipede jokes, brimmed hat. The sound was horrible, the traditional one being "What goes 99 which was odd because it was the same Her nose is like a steamship thump, 99 thump? A centipede with a system Willie had used. Grounded in the parlor wooden leg." We made up dozens of Her eyes are like Chicago these, the apex being Susannah's: He was at least halfway through Mr. An hour after dawn "What goes 50, 50, 50, 100, 50, 100, 50, Tambourine Man before we recog- 50, 100, 50, 100, 50, 50, 50? A cen- nized it, due to the wretched sound and And when she wants to see me tipede playing hopscotch.") his lackluster stylings. We actually went She writes it on a kumquat home halfway through the show. I still And rolls it 'round the dog dish Not sure why I picked those songs to find it hard to say that, though it's true, Until the urge is gone. learn. I do remember liking the stark- Nobel prize or no, but have to add that ness of Hollis Brown, and it was easy to this didn't diminish my adoration of the Can you see the Dylan infulence there? play. I don't think I could have picked a man's work. No? Well anyway, as with most song- more different Dylan song from that than writers my age, Dylan was among those When the Ship Comes In, which was So there you go; that's my life with Bob artists who started me writing songs, surreal and upbeat compared to the Dylan. Huge congrats to him and hooray and poems too. I was in high school, and grim, straightforward, and depressing for his winning the Nobel Prize; how a bunch of us had bolted from the estab- Hollis Brown. cool. I love it. And incidentally, I'm still lished high school newspaper and had very proud of my 8th grade second formed our own underground version. As with most of us Boomers, Dylan has place ping pong ribbon, despite my silly This was in 1964, the first semester of delighted, awed, disappointed, and indignation about contests. my senior year. I remember being part charmed me through the years. After WZ, November 2016