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Thursday, November 18, 2010

The Messenger

I was just going to post this song on Facebook and let it go at that. I cannot. I am always amazed at the pop culture crap that's out there, when songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and dozens of others fall through the cracks. Bob Dylan was supposed to the the poet of my generation. It turned out he spent all his songs in five years then turned into a two-bit song and dance man. Now that we are old we are forced to fall back on the Ray Wylie Hubbards for solace in our times of need.  I probably like this one because it's the philosophy of someone who is in about the same place in life that I am. Screw Dylan, we don't need no stinking Dylan.

Rainier Maria Rilke
Letters To a Young Poet

All the true believers are out on the road tonite

No matter what happens, you know they'll be okay
And to the rock and roll gypsies may the last song you sing 
Be by Townes Van Zandt and down in old Santa Fe


Now I have a mission and a small code of honor 
To stand and deliver by whatever measures 
And the message I give is from this old poet 
He said "Our fears are like dragons guarding our most precious treasures"


I am not looking for loose diamonds here
Or pretty girls with crosses around their necks 
I don't want for roses or water, I am not looking for God now

I just want to see what is next



6 comments:

Silk Hope said...

Very Nice:

This really suits you also.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

reverend dick said...

Look. I understand too little, too late. I realize there are things we do or say that we can never take back.

I know I've blown my credibility repeatedly- most recently with the atrocious Captain and Tenille (haHA! the Captain thinks he looks so cool in his cap)...but Ray Wylie Hubbard is rightly remembered for his tedious but catchy Red Neck Mother. Songbook closed. Yawn.

Mr. Zimmerman packed enough imagery and feeling into those 5 years to more than make up for the marionette he has become.

Silk Hope said...

Rev:

What possesed you on the C&T stuff: Were you harkening back to the days of Penny loafers and button down oxford shirts? Or did I detect a tear in your eye because the whole damn thing right now is GRAND PONZI scheme.

BTW Gunnar this line is the coolest..."Our fears are like dragons guarding our most precious treasures"

JG

Gunnar Berg said...

Invictus. Needs a catchy tune.

Rev,
Make it a cheeseburger.

I have Dylan LPs up to Nashville Skyline. I'm not saying he was a bad songwriter. Heresy: For me, he was okay. No more.

reverend dick said...

The Captain and the Tenille are sooooo oily and sleazy, but wish they were so smooooth and sophisticated. They give me the creeps.
They ARE Monterey.

It's funny to me. To think that that "style" was popular? Ugh. It's possible only with large amounts of the cocaine. No thanks.

Silk Hope said...

That's ok I'm still an ABBA fan.