He never performed it and we don't seem to have the music for it, but Bob Dylan wrote 3 verses of lyrics for a song about Wisconsin. The handwritten lyric sheet — which you can see here — is being offered for sale.
I like that he mentions Madison — along with Milwaukee — and also says his home's in "Wow Wow Toaster" — presumably Wauwatosa (the home of Governor Scott Walker).
Also at the link is a facsimile of a Wisconsin State Journal article about a concert Dylan played in Madison when he was 23:
With a vocal style resembling an 80-year-old man with a nasal condition, Dylan still does the near-impossible when he belts out his self-written tirades again the ills of the world....In other Dylan news:
In no song, however, does he present a solution.
The Bob Dylan archive in Tulsa, Oklahoma is now open to select groups and individuals with qualified research projects. Those hoping to view and use the archive at the Helmerich Center for American Research at the Gilcrease Museum will have to submit a Research Associate Application to the librarian and a list of relevant items from the archive's online finding aid.
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17 comments:
Either a forgery or a joke.
No music for it is an indication his heart really wasn't in the effort to write about Wisconsin. I write a song on my way home from Wisconsin two weeks ago. Already have one version on tape.
I was surprised to see I had a tag for banjo.
I don't have tags for individual musical instruments. What's up with just that one? If there were going to be only one, you'd think it would be guitar or piano or drums or just about anything before banjo....
Wrote was "corrected" to write three times, including in this correction. WTF is up with iPhones and spelling lately?
My spelling errors are always my iPad's fault.
"I'm a heading out Wisconsin ways/2000 miles to go/Madison, Milwaukee, sets my heart aglow. I'm a coming to that dairy state/My heart's a beating fast/I'll pick my banjo gently there/And twiddle my mustache..." If only the Nobel committee had known about this, they would have given him the prize years ago.
Oh wow, that's a great find. The lyrics are sweeter than "On Wisconsin". His take on Wauwatosa, "Wow Wow Toaster" is hilarious. It's like listening to people who aren't from Wisconsin trying to pronounce the various county, cities and town names. I'd be in favor of changing On Wisconsin to this Dylan song if it could be set to music that's easily singable.
This is the perfect Althouse post.
Next stop for Althouse + Meade: Tulsa
"The Bob Dylan archive in Tulsa, Oklahoma is now open to select groups and individuals with qualified research projects."
And Russians. Don't forget Russians.
Or CIA posing as Russians.
What a great song all that would make.
~Tulsa??
David:
"The Bob Dylan archive in Tulsa, Oklahoma is now open to select groups and individuals with qualified research projects."
Only six hundred miles more to go!
Only six hundred miles more to go!
And if we can just get lucky,
We will end up in Kentucky-
Only six hundred miles more to go!
From "The fighting Kentuckian" with John Wayne.
Sung to the tune of "She'll be comin' round the mountain"
Althouse version:
Only two thousand miles more to go!
Only two thousand miles more to go!
And if this ol' cars respondin',
We will end up in Wisconsin-
Only two thousand miles more to go!
When your nose is runny,
And you kiss your honey.
You may think it's funny.
But it's not.
With a vocal style resembling an 80-year-old man with a nasal condition, Dylan still does the near-impossible when he belts out his self-written tirades again the ills of the world.... In no song, however, does he present a solution.
Vocal style: Imitation of Woody Guthrie. Arlo, Woody’s son, when accused of copying Dylan’s vocal style, retorted to the effect that he, Arlo, merely sounded like his father, Woody – that it was Dylan who was doing the copying … of Woody Guthrie. Their vocal styles are primitive, are rural.
And Dylan’s song’s are mostly not “tirades against the ills of the world.” A few songs on the first album, perhaps, should be classified as “protest” songs. Irony. Irony in song are what they are.
He was all set to milk cows for Maggie until their big falling-out.
Solutions were not his thing.
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