"Someone's got it in for me, they're leaking stories in the press. Who ever it is I wish they'd cut it out, but whether they will, I can only guess." That's an outtake version of "Idiot Wind" and I prefer it because the 'quick' that is usually after "cut it out" prolongs to no real end. Without it, the line has an angry snap.
But who cares? I never listen to "Idiot Wind" any more. I never listen to Blood On The Tracks at all anymore.
This is what happens when you over indulge in faves.
I recently saw Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" on Broadway. A wonderful play, debatably the best play of the 20th century. But at one point, Stoppard has a poet quote Lord Byron: "She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that 's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes." Now, there might have been a time when quoting this poem resonated with someone somewhere, that point ended sometime during the first year of college for me.
You CAN'T QUOTE THIS.
You CAN'T LISTEN TO BLOOD ON THE TRACKS.
I think the only music that will never grow old on me is Buddy Holly though I'm not sure why. Dylan, the Beatles… they are a bit too specific in nature. That's why I listen to early Beatles if any Beatles; when the sound was more generic, the lyric less self-conscious.
I don't feel the same way about literature or movies. I can watch "The Sound of Music" or read PG Wodehouse endless, start anywhere, continue till I've had enough: not unlike pornography.
But poetry has a shelf life.
And so does music.