Bob Dylan and Robert Frost

                         Here is my blog on Bob Dylan and Robert Frost.

1. Which song of Bob Dylan has made an impact on you? Why? Can you find a song similar to the same theme in other language?

           LIKE A ROLLING STONE 

  • This was the only song on the album produced by Tom Wilson, who produced Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Wilson had been a jazz producer and was brought in to replace John Hammond. Wilson invited keyboard player Al Kooper to the session, and Al produced the famous organ riff that drove the song. This was the last song Wilson worked on with Dylan, as Bob Johnston took over production duties.
  • The title is not a reference to The Rolling Stones. It is taken from the proverb "a rolling stone gathers no moss." Dylan got the idea from the 1949 Hank Williams song "Lost Highway," which contains the line, "I'm a rolling stone, all alone and lost."

    Thanks to The Rolling Stones, many associate the phrase with a life of glamor, always on the move, but Williams' song is about a hobo paying the price for his life of sin. Dylan also used the phrase to indicate loneliness and despair: his rolling stone is "without a home, like a complete unknown."

  • Dylan based the lyrics on a short story he had written about a debutante who becomes a loner when she falls out of high society. The lyrics that made it into the song are only a small part of what was in the story.
  • "Like a Rolling Stone" runs 6:13. It was a big breakthrough when the song got radio play and became a hit, as many stations refused to play songs much longer than 3 minutes. It was also rare for a song with so many lyrics to do well commercially.

    Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, who revolutionized the music manager profession and was known as a shrewd defender of his artists, was the one who told Columbia Records that they couldn't shorten "Like a Rolling Stone" in order to make it more radio friendly.

  • Dylan recorded another version in 1970 for his Self Portrait album. This time, he used experienced session players in Nashville, Tennessee. Ron Cornelius played guitar on the album and told us about the session: "You're not reading manuscripts. In Nashville the players are booked because of what they can create right now, not what's written on a piece of paper. Everybody's creating their part as the tape is rolling. Out of everybody I've worked with, I don't know of anyone who's been any nicer than Bob Dylan. He treated me wonderfully, but at the same time you knew being around him day after day that this man wakes up in a different world every morning. On a creative level that's a really good thing and to try to second guess him or to ask him what he actually meant by these lyrics, you're shooting in the dark because he's not going to tell you anyway. And he might be telling you the truth when he says "I don't know, what does it mean to you.'"

                           It is rumored that this was written about one-time debutante Edie Sedgwick, who was part of artist Andy Warhol's crowd. She was the subject of an emotional tug-of-war between the Dylan camp and the Warhol camp.

                                      According to this theory, the song includes some fanged, accusatory lines about Warhol and the way he mistreated the girl:

Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal


                              "Poor Little Rich Girl" Sedgwick is viewed by many as the tragic victim of a long succession of abusive figures. After escaping home and heading to New York, she ran into Warhol, who soon began to use her as his starlet. When her 15 minutes had come to an end, Warhol moved on.

  • Sedgwick and Dylan had a brief affair shortly before the musician married Sarah Lownds, and many say that this Dylan song was written about her. It should be noted that there is absolutely nothing beyond circumstantial evidence to support this idea, but the myth is so widely known that it's taken on a life of its own and is therefore recognizable on its own terms.
  • This made Bob Dylan an unlikely inspiration for Jimi Hendrix, who before hearing this considered himself only a guitarist and not a singer. After hearing this, he saw that it didn't take a conventional voice to sing rock and roll.

    Hendrix often played "Like A Rolling Stone," including a performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Hendrix and Dylan met only once, but Jimi had a knack for bringing out the emotions in Dylan's songs: he also did a very successful cover of "All Along The Watchtower." 
  • The Rolling Stones didn't take their name from this song, but rather the 1950 Muddy Waters track "Rollin' Stone." The magazine Rolling Stone was named after this song, with a degree of separation: Ralph Gleason wrote a piece for The American Scholar about the influence of music on young people called "Like a Rolling Stone," which he titled after the song. When he founded the magazine with Jann Wenner in 1967, they decided to name it after his story. Wenner muddied the waters a bit when he wrote in the debut issue: "Muddy Waters used the name for a song he wrote. The Rolling Stones took their name from Muddy's song. 'Like a Rolling Stone' was the title of Bob Dylan's first rock and roll record."
  • In the November 2004 issue, Rolling Stone Magazine named this #1 on their list of the greatest songs of all time. >>
  • Greil Marcus wrote a book of almost 300 pages about this song. The book was released in 2005 and is titled Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads.
                                  Here are my thoughts - though Dylan most likely had a specific person in mind when writing the song; I find it to be a little more general than a specific person. There are clearly 5 main characters: the singer (Dylan), the fine dressed women (sheltered, well cared for female), Napoleon in rags, the diplomat and the mystery tramp. Dylan, the female and Napoleon go back a long time. Dylan say "once upon a time" - indicating he has know the female for a long time. 
                             Additionally he comments that she use to be so amused at Napoleon and the language that he used; showing clearly the three go back a long way. I think the song is about a sheltered female, living a comfortable life, in an environment full of people who can say even the rudest things politely. Then the female "evolves" becoming more aware and in tune with a less sheltered existence. She rides a motorcycle, with a diplomat friend. The diplomat friend has a girlfriend from Thailand . The female realizes the diplomat is not that interested in her - as he is riding all over town with the cat. 

                                Dylan defends the female by saying, you realized he wasn't where it was at but he also taunts her by saying she didn't realize it until he stole everything he could from her. The Mystery tramp is another boyfriend of the female: who doesn't lie to her ; he has had a difficult life, and tunes out - the female realizes there is a lot of truth in what he says about his life when he tunes out . She the female tries to "bring him back/awake him" during one of his tune out sessions by offering to "make a deal". Napoleon in rags refers to a Super influential person, with power, and the ability to move the people. Clearly, Napoleon dresses for the street and uses street language - at the beginning of the song Napoleon and the female are VERY DIFFERENT, but by the end of the song, as the female has experienced some of the less favourable things in life; like being used, and the revolving door of boyfriends (jugglers and the clowns all did tricks for you); Napoleon and the female are now a better match; that is to say the female is no longer "high and mighty", over dressed and inexperienced. 

                                     Dylan tells her to give Napoleon a try now, they go back a long way and she has nothing to lose. I see the song as an old friend that is Street Wise and knowledgeable about the world, taunting (but protecting) a childhood friend. Scrounging for her next meal just says dinner will not be SERVED on fine china this evening -- you'll need to pull together your own meal. Additionally, in a lot of circles scrounging food is foraging, or if you planted it trying to pull together a meal from stuff that isn't quite ready to harvest yet -- or working out of a poorly stocked fridge/pantry..... all just saying it ain't as easy as it use to be. I don't see taunting someone as a negative thing: you can learn a lot from someone taunting you. 

                                  Princess on a steeple and the pretty people is XMAS. The princess is placing the star on the tree - looking down at all the people celebrating, drinking and exchanging gifts - enjoying affluence -- but she doesn't belong there --- and Dylan suggests that she take the diamond ring that was a gift and pawn it.
In some strange kind of way, Dylan is keeping an eye out for his old friend and offering the best advice he can -- in a format that fits the street - taunting.

                                       I find this song from bollywood with same theme of harshness and losing innocence in life.

एक चिरैया घोंसले को
छोड़ उड़ उड़ जाए
और ये सोचे काश
ऐसा हो कदम मुड़ जाए

इक चिरैया घोंसले को
छोड़ उड़ उड़ जाए
और ये सोचे काश
ऐसा हो कदम मुड़ जाए

तिनका तिनका कर बटोरा
और बनाया घर
पर समय की बारिशों
ने कर दिया बेघर
कर दिया बेघर
कर दिया बेघरर

ओ मुसाफिर धीर धर
आएगा सूरज इधर
काहे भागे काहे भागे
दूर जितना जाएगा
लौट फिर ना पायेगा
काहे भागे काहे भागे

एक चर्राया को पराया
देस कैसे भाये
गाँव का पीपल पुराना
याद उसको आये
तिनका तिनका कर बटोरा
और बनाया घर्र
पर समय की बारिशों
ने कर दिया बेघरर
कर दिया बेघर
कर दिया बेघरर

यह जो असुअन की लड़ी
बह रही है हर घडी
तेरे आगे तेरे आगे
याद रख हर मोड़ पर
एक नयी सुबह कड़ी
काहे भागे काहे भागे

इक चिरैया आंसुओं से
लड़ झगड़ सो जाए
राह पथरीली है
लेकिन हौसला न जाए
तिनका तिनका कर बटोरा
और बनाया घर्र
पर समय की बारिशों
ने कर दिया बेघरर
कर दिया बेघर
कर दिया बेघरर.


                                  CityLights is a 2014 Indian drama film directed by Hansal Mehta starring Rajkummar Rao and Patralekha in the lead roles. It is a remake of the BAFTA nominated British film Metro Manila (2013).The film was presented by Fox Star Studios in association with Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt.


2. Which poem of Robert Frost has made an impact on you? Why? 

                          Fire and Ice

                                 "Fire and Ice" is a popular poem by Robert Frost that discusses the end of the world, likening the elemental force of fire with the emotion of desire, and ice with hate. Published in December 1920 in Harper's Magazine and in 1923 in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book New Hampshire, "Fire and Ice" is one of Frost's best-known and most anthologized poems.

                           According to one of Frost's biographers, "Fire and Ice" was inspired by a passage in Canto 32 of Dante's Inferno, in which the worst offenders of hell (the traitors) are submerged up to their necks in ice while in a fiery hell: "a lake so bound with ice, / It did not look like water, but like a glass...right clear / I saw, where sinners are preserved in ice."    

                         I have a novel in gujarati named, " ઉર્ધ્વમૂળ " by Bhagvatikumar Sharma. In this book i find this poem of Robert Frost.



                                In an anecdote he recounted in 1960 in a "Science and the Arts" presentation, prominent astronomer Harlow Shapley claims to have inspired "Fire and Ice".Shapley describes an encounter he had with Frost a year before the poem was published in which Frost, noting that Shapley was the astronomer of his day, asked him how the world will end. Shapley responded that either the sun will explode and incinerate the Earth, or the Earth will somehow escape this fate only to end up slowly freezing in deep space. Shapley was surprised at seeing "Fire and Ice" in print a year later, and referred to it as an example of how science can influence the creation of art, or clarify its meaning.

                               The poem is written in a single nine-line stanza, which greatly narrows in the last two lines. The poem's meter is an irregular mix of iambic tetrameter and dimeter, and the rhyme scheme (which is ABA ABC BCB) suggests but departs from the rigorous pattern of Dante's terza rima.

                                 Marveled at for its compactness, "Fire and Ice" signaled for Frost "a new style, tone, manner, [and] form." Its casual tone masks the serious question it poses to the reader.

                                    In a 1999 article, John N. Serio claims that the poem is a compression of Dante's Inferno. He draws a parallel between the nine lines of the poem with the nine rings of Hell, and notes that, like the downward funnel of the rings of Hell, the poem narrows considerably in the last two lines. Additionally, the rhyme scheme—ABA ABC BCB—he remarks, is similar to the one Dante invented for Inferno.

                                    Frost's diction further highlights the parallels between Frost's discussion of desire and hate with Dante's outlook on sins of passion and reason with sensuous and physical verbs describing desire and loosely recalling the characters Dante met in the upper rings of Hell: "taste" (recalling the Glutton), "hold" (recalling the adulterous lovers), and "favor" (recalling the hoarders). In contrast, hate is discussed with verbs of reason and thought ("I think I know.../To say...").

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