I quote Dylan all the time. Can’t help myself, he is just imminently quotable. And not the obvious stuff (or at least not just the obvious ones though the obious ones as well: i’m not beyond screaming “how does it feel” in somebodies face or even at the mirror)but the stuff where the weight it bares is the weight I place on it though my memories.
For some reason I think of the line from “I And I” “in creation where one’s nature neither honors nor forggives. The song is after Dylan’s Christian triology but for some reason it seems to me a deeply and twistedly deep theological proposition and one I can sort of believe in.
But there is one song I don’t merely quote a line from but carry with me in my mind socket all the time. Co-written with playwrite and actor Sam Shepherd and originally called “New Dansville Girl”. “Brownsville” is off the 1986 Knocked Out Loaded and “New Dansville” I own on the boot Genuine Bootleg Series -that Boot is one of the greats (Nessing, I have to send you some tracks, though I think “New Dansville” would be too large… the uncensored “Hurricane” is awesome).
“Brownsville” is better but “New Dansville” is clearer and sadder. There are few songs more illuminating then a study of both. Musically, the song is eseentially complete (dansville:: 11 mins, 23 secs, brownsville: 11 mins, 3 secs) musically but the lyric is tightened like a rope around my neck.
It is a memory song, Dylan (call him Dylan,Sam -let’s keep with Dylan) is on line to see Gregory Peck in a movie called “The Gunfighter”. Peck plays an aging gunslinger who is shot in the back by a young conteder. The people want to hang him but Peck wants him released “Let them say he shot me fair and square ” so the youngster can live his life thinking every second may be his life.
The movie triggers a memory of a long gone love in Dylan. He met the girl on the set of a movie (his Sam Peckinpah one no doubt: “Pat Garret Meets Billy The Kid”), they drive West, further and further and she leaves him and then in a line there is another girl -but he doesn’t love her. In San Antonio Dylan is arrested for murder and the girl returns to claim Dylan was with her and get him off the hook (“the best acting I saw anybody do”). Back in line for the movie, heartbroken, Dylan remembers the girl “long before the stars were torn down”.
The line I steal all the time is “the memory of you rolls over me like a rolling train”. It reminds me of Julie and whenever I write about her I seem to put the line in there somewhere (and then cut it out in the edit). It seems to me that that is precisely what the memory of a woman does to you: it kills you, it knocks you dead and when you get up your spectre in line to the movies.
“Brownsville Girl” is so personal that despite Dylan’s attempt is nearly clearly autobiographical even if it isn’t precisely what happened. In the “New Danville” version, Dylan makes it clear. “Everything about it reminds me of you”. Also in the bootleg he expresses clearly his feeling for the dark eyed actress:
“I’m too over the edge to remember the things we used to talk about and do, she don”t want to remind me, she knows the car will go out of control”,. “It blows off me like a ball and chain”.
I’ve mentioned the line I like most but there are also witty no sequiters all though it: “I didn’t know where to duck or to run so I ran”. I would like that printed on my tombstone. “Even the shop meets around here are getting pretty corrupt” “she’s got that dark rhythm in her soul”. “If there’s an orhinal thought out there I can use it right now” “people don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent”.
ahh to heck with it. Here’s the entire song:
Well, there was this movie I seen one time,
About a man riding ‘cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck.
He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself.
The townspeople wanted to crush that kid down and string him up by the neck.
Well, the marshal, now he beat that kid to a bloody pulp
as the dying gunfighter lay in the sun and gasped for his last breath.
Turn him loose, let him go, let him say he outdrew me fair and square,
I want him to feel what it’s like to every moment face his death.
Well, I keep seeing this stuff and it just comes a-rolling in
And you know it blows right through me like a ball and chain.
You know I can’t believe we’ve lived so long and are still so far apart.
The memory of you keeps callin’ after me like a rollin’ train.
I can still see the day that you came to me on the painted desert
In your busted down Ford and your platform heels
I could never figure out why you chose that particular place to meet
Ah, but you were right. It was perfect as I got in behind the wheel.
Well, we drove that car all night into San Anton’
And we slept near the Alamo, your skin was so tender and soft.
Way down in Mexico you went out to find a doctor and you never came back.
I would have gone on after you but I didn’t feel like letting my head get blown off.
Well, we’re drivin’ this car and the sun is comin’ up over the Rockies,
Now I know she ain’t you but she’s here and she’s got that dark rhythm in her soul.
But I’m too over the edge and I ain’t in the mood anymore to remember the times when I was your only man
And she don’t want to remind me. She knows this car would go out of control.
Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls, teeth like pearls shining like the moon above
Brownsville girl, show me all around the world, Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love.
Well, we crossed the panhandle and then we headed towards Amarillo
We pulled up where Henry Porter used to live.
He owned a wreckin’ lot outside of town about a mile.
Ruby was in the backyard hanging clothes, she had her red hair tied back.
She saw us come rolling up in a trail of dust.
She said, “Henry ain’t here but you can come on in, he’ll be back in a little while.”
Then she told us how times were tough and about how she was thinkin’ of bummin’ a ride back to where she started.
But ya know, she changed the subject every time money came up.
She said, “Welcome to the land of the living dead.” You could tell she was so broken-hearted.
She said, “Even the swap meets around here are getting pretty corrupt.”
“How far are y’all going?” Ruby asked us with a sigh.
“We’re going all the way ’til the wheels fall off and burn,
‘Til the sun peels the paint and the seat covers fade and the water moccasin dies.”
Ruby just smiled and said, “Ah, you know some babies never learn.”
Something about that movie though, well I just can’t get it out of my head
But I can’t remember why I was in it or what part I was supposed to play.
All I remember about it was Gregory Peck and the way people moved
And a lot of them seemed to be lookin’ my way.
Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls, teeth like pearls shining like the moon above
Brownsville girl, show me all around the world, Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love.
Well, they were looking for somebody with a pompadour.
I was crossin’ the street when shots rang out.
I didn’t know whether to duck or to run, so I ran.
“We got him cornered in the churchyard,” I heard somebody shout.
Well, you saw my picture in the Corpus Christi Tribune. Underneath it, it said, “A man with no alibi.”
You went out on a limb to testify for me, you said I was with you.
Then when I saw you break down in front of the judge and cry real tears,
It was the best acting I saw anybody do.
Now I’ve always been the kind of person that doesn’t like to trespass but sometimes you just find yourself over the line.
Oh if there’s an original thought out there, I could use it right now.
You know, I feel pretty good, but that ain’t sayin’ much. I could feel a whole lot better,
If you were just here by my side to show me how.
Well, I’m standin’ in line in the rain to see a movie starring Gregory Peck,
Yeah, but you know it’s not the one that I had in mind.
He’s got a new one out now, I don’t even know what it’s about
But I’ll see him in anything so I’ll stand in line.
Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls, teeth like pearls shining like the moon above
Brownsville girl, show me all around the world, Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love.
You know, it’s funny how things never turn out the way you had ’em planned.
The only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter is that his name wasn’t Henry Porter.
And you know there was somethin’ about you baby that I liked that was always too good for this world
Just like you always said there was something about me you liked that I left behind in the French Quarter.
Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content.
I don’t have any regrets, they can talk about me plenty when I’m gone.
You always said people don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent.
And I always said, “Hang on to me, baby, and let’s hope that the roof stays on.”
There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice.
I don’t remember who I was or where I was bound.
All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun and he was shot in the back.
Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down.