The Never Ending Pool

Tony Ling doesn't seem to be responding on this site. Since he put the thread on here ....

to his most recent post on his "blog".

Author: whetstraw (216.236.133.---) [info]
Date: 01-09-03 14:34

This song is hundreds of years old in the melodic form. Pure from the Isles. Very beautiful. A couple of things that make this special. First of all it is in a dialogue form. I always get an image of some written correspondence, or that tortorous waiting for a letter. Remember the old days, when people used to correspond, not in sound bites or bits of the heart, but with all that outpouring of poetic schmaltz?

The other thing is the brilliant phrasing. What would identify this as a Dylan song is the exceptional squeezing of Bar ce lon a, the alliteration of the mountains of Madrid, and the "redundancy" of Spanish boots of Spaaahhn nish leather. Very great on the "Times They Are A-Changin'session. At this stage of Bob's creativity he really was and had been soaking up music and then turning it out with his own poetry and metre.

This song doesn't go to deep into story, just a simple repetitive theme: Can I get you something? No, baby just you. Can I bring you something? ... Ok, here....

This is a great thread!!

in response to Tony Ling's - Bob Dylan Song #34 - When the Ship Comes In


Takes some time until you get to the Biblical core of this song.

Major and minor chords?

"Weather Underground" ?

"Clean for Gene" ?



Bobby wrote this song, possibly, as a sort revenge. Suze pretty much says that he was furious after being refused admission to a hotel because of his "appearance".

There certainly is a great energy to this tune - a weightless defiance.
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06-30-03 23:27

by the way Kurt Weil und Bertolt Brecht --- credits for Pirate Jenny


Wonderful, wonderful song. Rousing and another, relatively, early example of Bob mixing sources and comin' up with a unique sound. When you hear the Clancy Brothers sing this, or Peter, Paul and Mary, it sounds like an Irish chantey. Arlo smooths it and twangs it. Bob, well Bob. I got to sing this with the late Tom Intondi, and Rod McDonald. It's in the singing of this song, that the liberating quality is felt. Probably the song that most brought me out of my pubescent angst. I could always play this song with conviction, it just sails right along.

But see what Bobby has got going. A "spiritual" with elements of Oh, Mary Don't You Weep. He uses the words of the slaves "drownded" and then mixes up stuff you'll hear in his "down in the basement havin' some fun tunes" ... the fishes will laugh.... And then, pure gospel, visions of Beyond, the sands will roll out a carpet of gold.

As ragged clown points out; this is beautifully sounding poetry. It was also "topical". A song of freedom, the chains busting, with awesome power. With the lyrics of Lay Down Your Weary Tune, and A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall, this is probably the strain of visionary writing that leads up to Chimes of Freedom and beyond.

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"
Before I went to Carroll's church, I had not quite understood why her death was "lonesome". But of course, as Rev Jessup noted: "Not one of those people stood up for her." In a party full of elegant guests, Hattie Carroll was on her own. "
- Ian Frazier
The Guardian, Friday 25 February 2005