63 Eyes

Todd talkin’ Bob Dylan

I want to talk a little bit about the songs I played last night at the Bob Dylan Birthday Bash in Athens, Ohio, at Casa Nueva.

Jokerman and the album Infidels were my doorway into the music and songs of Bob Dylan. I was already well on my way as a songwriter before I started getting into Dylan. I had heard Dylan through the years—his influence on songwriting and music throughout the world was undeniable—but it didn’t take hold until I heard the smoother sounds of this Mark Knopfler production.

Jokerman in particular hit me like a bolt of lightning. And from that album, I went back and discovered the colossal work of the genius, and have been inspired for decades.

The very first time I was really aware of Bob Dylan was when I was maybe eight years old, staying up later than I was allowed, and watching Saturday Night Live. Dylan played with a killer backup band—Serve Somebody from the Slow Train Coming album. Looking back, it’s ironic, because there’s no doubt that I was going to go to Sandhill United Methodist Church the following Sunday morning, as we went every Sunday when I was very young. And there I was, the night before, watching a folk, rock and roll icon sing a spiritual number late on Saturday night.

I would stay up to watch SNL and always felt like I was getting away with something—and I was. I was being a rebel just by staying up at that age and watching that television show and the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. At that young age, it seemed blasphemous. Religion to me at that age was fire and brimstone. Oftentimes I’d listen to the preacher and walk away confused and fearful. In the midst of all this, Bob Dylan comes on and basically does a gospel number—a religious number that was unlike anything I’d ever heard in church. Dylan’s song brought in new information that I didn’t realize was available:

“You can be a rock and roll addict, prancing on the stage.
You could have drugs at your command or women in a cage.
But you gotta serve somebody.
It may be the Devil, it may be the Lord,
But you’ve gotta serve somebody.”

You’re a Big Girl Now was my third song that I played last evening. From Blood on the Tracks—a devastating album—a look into a marriage that has collapsed. Dylan once said that he felt sorry for anyone who could relate to that album. This song is from the point of view of the man who finally realizes the power of women, and the acknowledgment of his own insecurity—of his own dependence. It’s vulnerable and revealing. Coming from a divorced family, this song always spoke to me. Sometimes the deeply sad songs can somehow make you feel secure. The medicine they call blues.

I closed with a hopeful, joyful song: All I Really Want to Do. It’s just happy, and it’s really, in a nutshell, what I feel about life in general:

“All I really want to do is baby be friends with you.”

Thanks so much to Steve Zarate for pulling together such a wonderful group of musicians and songwriters to celebrate Bob Dylan’s birthday. I was honored to be on stage in Athens, Ohio, last evening.