Maggie's Farm

I forwarded the link and performance to most of my family, including the much younger ones. You might be amused by the response in a 'reply all' reaction, and by the response to her from her uncle with some Dylanology ..... following ,,,,


I don't have a clue what you all are talking about but it just makes me happy when your names pop up in my inbox!

Ah, the innocence of youth.....here's some Cliff Notes for you:

Well, you see....about 30 years before you were born there was this jewish kid born in Minnesota by the name of שבתאי זיסל בן אברהם (Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham) and as you can imagine, he would have a hard time writing it on his math papers, so as a child he became Robert Allen Zimmerman. He liked to listen to the radio and play his guitar along to Elvis, Little Richard, and the blues. After high school he went to college for one year and dropped out. Robert traveled to NY City and visited his idol Woody Guthrie who was in the hospital dying of Huntington's disease. He became Guthrie's greatest disciple and started playing his own compositions of folk and blues songs in coffee houses around Greenwich Village. He was known as a poet and said he had been greatly influenced by the poetry of Dylan Thomas...so he changed his name to...Bob Dylan. In a 2004 interview, he said, "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free."

For more than 5 decades he has been an influential American singer-songwriter, artist and writer. Virtually every musical artist has recorded at least one of Dylan's compositions. He has sold over 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He has also received eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

What's to be learned here? If you don't like your name....change it. (שבתאי זיסל בן אברהם (Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham) would have never even made it onto his high school stage.)

Bob Dylan Trivia:

- Why was a location in Woodstock NY chosen for the huge concert "Woodstock"?
- One of Dylan's most popular songs (1965) was "Like a Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone listed it as number one of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
However when he first sang it in concert he was boo'd off the stage. Why?
- Which song has Dylan performed more than any other?
- Which early Dylan Hit was so long that the 7" promo sent to radio stations required the DJ to flip the record to play the full song?
- Which song did Dylan play when he famously switched to an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965?
- Which Dylan Classic was originally recorded for a movie soundtrack?
- Which song did Dylan describe as being "about three people who were in love with each other, all at the same time," and took "ten years to live, and two years to write?"

Answers:
- Because Bob Dylan lived in Woodstock and they knew if he would attend/perform it would insure financial success. (Bob didn't attend)
- Because Bob had always played acoustical guitar and harmonica for accompaniment. This song moved to electric guitar, organ, drums, etc.
It moved folk music into rock music in one song and the loyal Dylan fans didn't like it. But folk was over.
- All along the Watchtower (Ah...you thought Jimmy Hendrix wrote it :)
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Maggie's Farm
- Knockin' on Heaven's Door
- Tangled up in Blue