Last time I announced that Thursday was to be my new regular day for blogging, but last week’s Thursday came and went without anything new from me at all and unless I quickly get my act together, the same will happen again this week. I have the will, it’s just that with the easing of restrictions many of us feel the need to catch up with those friends who have been neglected over the last 15 months, and I am no exception. There have been many visits, lunch dates, film nights, and a sneaky wee Eurovision get-together (something so utterly uncool that it has almost become cool by default), so I have been somewhat time poor. Not complaining, of course, just offering up an explanation for my absence.
Last week Bob Dylan turned 80 and much was made of it on the various newsfeeds and on social media. Who would have thought back in 1961, when a young folk singer called Robert Zimmerman rolled up in Greenwich Village, New York, he would still be touring and making new music 60 years later. Many of his generation have sadly fallen by the wayside, but he is one of a small band of artists from that time who seem to have been able to just keep on going.
Two of Bob’s songs have appeared around here before, performed by other people for television soundtracks (here and here). His son Jakob has even appeared (link here), but so far no Bob. Time therefore to right that wrong. There are many songs I could feature but I’m going to pick Baby, Stop Crying from 1978 because it was on the album Street Legal owned by the girl who was my best friend back then. I’ve written about her here before because she features in so many of my musical memories. Between the ages of 17 and 20 we were joined at the hip and together we experienced the final years of school, first romances, holiday jobs, heading off to university, Interrailing, and so much more. When I hear this song I am transported to her mum and dad’s little back sitting room which housed the music centre and the sofa bed I often availed myself of after a night out. It was dated (the sofa bed) and had come from the front living room of the house they had recently moved from, but when you are 18, having such a space to hang out in with friends, is priceless.
I think it’s because I’ve been making a really big effort to catch up with people of late that I’ve been thinking of my old friend so much. I can no longer catch up with her because she died 20 years ago at the very young age of 41, which still makes me really sad. The shared memories of those formative years can never again be discussed, and laughed about, but for the time being at least I still have them, and hold them dear.
As for the song, I knew it had made it to the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart, as back in 1978 that was how girls like us found out about new music. I can’t say I have ever been a fan of Bob’s voice, but my friend obviously had no problem with it, as I know she went on to buy more of his albums. As a student of English Literature she perhaps also admired his lyrics, him being a future recipient of that Nobel Prize for being clever with words.
At face value it seems to be a simple song about trying to get a woman to stop crying, but then a gun puts in an appearance, which adds a sinister dimension. Is the narrator the ‘bad man’ or is it someone else? Commenting on the content of this song, Bob once said, ‘The man in that song has his hand out and is not afraid of getting it bit.’ If anyone has ever worked out the meaning, please share your thoughts.
So, ‘What’s It All About?’ – I don’t know about you but I know I have been overly cavalier about friendships in the past, casting them aside for new ones when life changes occur, not realising that some come along only once in a lifetime. That’s how I still feel about my old Bob Dylan-loving friend, and when she died I wrote to her parents telling them as much.
I have done a lot of catching up over the last few weeks, which has been nice, but having moved geographically half way through my life, and having changed jobs a fair few times before finally calling it a day, I no longer have really old friends in my everyday life, which is not the case for a lot of people I know. Mr WIAA is of course my very best friend but perhaps I take him for granted, living with him on a day-to-day basis. (Note to self: must remember not to do that.) Funnily enough, since starting this blog I seem to have made many new friends of the virtual nature, whom I’m in regular contact with via the comment boxes – A lovely little bonus from this hobby of ours. If I keep going, you may one day become some of my oldest friends. A nice thought to end on, and with the easing of restrictions, that long-awaited bloggers summit might finally become a reality.
Until next time…
Baby, Stop Crying Lyrics
(Song by Bob Dylan)
You been down to the bottom with a bad man, babe
But you’re back were you belong
Go get me my pistol, babe
Honey, I can’t tell right from wrong.
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying
You know, I know the sun will always shine
So baby, please stop crying ’cause it’s tearing up my mind.
Go down to the river, babe
Honey, I will meet you there
Go down to the river, babe
Honey, I will pay your fare.
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying
You know, I know the sun will always shine
So baby, please stop crying ’cause it’s tearing up my mind.
If you’re looking for assistance, babe
Or if you just want some company
Or if you just want a friend you can talk to
Honey, come and see about me.
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying
You know, I know the sun will always shine
So baby, please stop crying ’cause it’s tearing up my mind.
You been hurt so many times
And I know what you’re thinking of
Well, I don’t have to be no doctor, babe
To see that you’re madly in love.
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Baby, please stop crying
You know, I know the sun will always shine
So baby, please stop crying ’cause it’s tearing up my mind.
What's It All About? 
A lovely post about friendship, as much as Bob.
Here’s to friends, physical and virtual!
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Indeed – I know I wouldn’t have been able to keep on blogging for as long as I have, had it not been for the many virtual friendships struck up around here.
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Hi.
1) The doors have opened pretty wide where each of us live, and the quality of life is quickly improving.
2) I predict that Bob D will be back on the road soon!
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It’s been a long time coming so a lot of friends to reconnect with. Cross fingers no more lockdowns.
Yes, Bob’s touring schedule will have been disrupted but like you I predict he will soon be out there again. Not many of his generation still doing that.
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Since all this nonsense began last March I’ve only seen one of my pals once for a walk.
Hoping to catch up with some of them to watch the football if we finally get out of level 3 tomorrow in Glasgow
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You’ve had a long haul in that there Glasgow and sorry to hear you’ve had so little contact with your pals. Cross fingers heading in the right direction now AND we have those Euros to look forwards to. DD was a baby last time we took part so it’s been a long time coming.
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What better reason could there be to miss a blogging slot than to be seeing your friends for real at last?! It’s been a long time coming and I’m so glad we can start venturing out again. After nothing for a year I’ve three lunches booked in the next three weeks… it’s going to be something of an assault on the senses I think (plus the stomach…) Can’t wait to see them – two of them are those lifelong friends with whom the connection is extra special, We have very different personalities and differing lives and yet there is something unbreakable and unconditional between us. due, as you say about your sadly missed friend, to sharing those formative years and experiences. I’m so sorry you lost her so young. And hoping too that a mini bloggers’s summit can be on the cards.
As for Dylan – well, hold the front page! – both Mr SDS and I have had something of an epiphany regarding Mr Zimmerman recently. I know, who’d have thought it?! We found ourselves engrossed in the ‘No Direction Home’ documentary when it was aired on Sky Arts recently. And suddenly everything just fell into place with the music too. I’d always been one of those people who preferred his songs as covered by others, as hadn’t been keen on his voice, but something just clicked this time. Love the way he comes across in interviews too – although that was never up for question – so thoroughly enjoyed watching ‘Don’t Look Back’ again the other night. Anyway, decades of a Dylan-free existence have finally come to an end and a vinyl copy of Highway 61 Revisited and a hardback of Chronicles have now earned their place on our shelves!
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Glad to hear you’re reconnecting with old friends too. I had a meet-up for coffee on Wednesday, lunch yesterday and lunch today, all with different local friends. I am envious of your relationship with those lifelong friends as I seem to have lost touch with everyone I went to school with and from the village I hail from, so no reminiscing about those days with anyone. I still meet up with some of my old flatmates however from student days, and a classmate, so although everyone scattered about the country there is still contact. These last three weeks I have been catching up with all the local friends I hadn’t seen for a while, so nearly all caught up now although I think we have lost momentum with the regular things we used to do together like trips to the cinema/theatre – Some people’s lives have changed radically over the last 15 months, especially for my friend who lost her daughter, and many are now looking after grandchildren whilst their offspring go to work. Just those far-flung bloggers to meet up with now!
So you’re now a Bob Dylan fan! I must admit I am coming round to thinking I’ve been missing the point with Bob myself and have never given him enough attention to work out why. Like you I never really liked his voice and preferred cover versions of his songs (remember CC’s compare and contrast series) but what with his Nobel Prize, his longevity and his lyrics I must seek out some of those documentaries and finally ‘get it’. Can’t get over he is 80 though as I see a lot of 80 year olds at my mum’s care home and none of them are anything like Bob – He is definitely doing something right.
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Discovering music, with friends, is a memory I cherish from my teenage years. Randy Newman, Elton John’s first album, Harry Nilsson… the list goes on and on. Fortunately, the music and the memories have kept three of us together. These days, in our 70s, the ‘together’ is via Zoom, but there is rarely a call that doesn’t include a trip back to a song, an album or a concert from the ’60s. That would include a Bob Dylan concert at Massey Hall in Toronto that returned after intermission with ‘The Band’. An electric shock heard around the world.
“..Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?…”
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Ah, another person who is still in touch with friends from those formative teenage years. Must be nice to reconnect every so often with people from so long ago. Our lives all go in different directions but yes, somehow the people we first experienced a new album or concert with will always be important in our lives.
Lucky you seeing Bob back in the day, just when things went electric. I don’t think I’d realised just how cataclysmic that was for his fans until relatively recently.
I’ll be honest, I had to look up your last line, but now I get it – Very good.
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The song Baby Stop Crying was Bob’s last hit in Britain. It shares a chorus line with his mid sixties drug-addles Gig-opening live song (never recorded in a studio) Tell Me, Mama. The line refers to the person ‘tearing up my mind’ – it must be the key line in the song. the singer/narrator has lost it, and he’s gone bananas cos of this woman’s crazy behavior. what can he do? In the sixties that situation led to the craziest nonsense lyric he ever sang, and in 1978 it led to some macho posturing! lol
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I think I knew it was his last hit in the U.K. Carl, but none of the other info you shared, so thanks for dropping by.
This post from last year is suddenly getting a lot of traffic and I’m not sure why but I see he is on tour in Europe at the moment so maybe that’s it. Good for Bob who must now be 81!
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Great bloog you have here
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