A question about Bob Dylan's Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie

1. In his speech 'Last thoughts on Woodie Guthrie', what do you think he meant by the last bit? It's a great piece of writing...any way for those who know it, it finishes like this:

And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin'
Where do you look for this lamp that's a-burnin'
Where do you look for this oil well gushin'
Where do you look for this candle that's glowin'
Where do you look for this hope that you know is there
And out there somewhere
And your feet can only walk down two kinds of roads
Your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows
Your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways
You can touch and twist
And turn two kinds of doorknobs
You can either go to the church of your choice
Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital
You'll find God in the church of your choice
You'll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital

And though it's only my opinion
I may be right or wrong
You'll find them both
In the Grand Canyon
At sundown

Anyway...I would like to know what you think he means with the Grand Canyon reference. I have my theory...but I'd like to hear others.

 

Well, the way I read it is he admired Woody Guthrie an awful lot.

I believe Dylan is saying you can find the beauty of God and the beauty of what Woody was saying in the Grand Canyon at its most spectacular moment.

 

Hope/Faith/Inspiration/Salvation/peace exists in the physical world.

For me Dylan's highest moment.

Also for completist, it should be known that Bob's introduction before the piece is edited on the official release.

C

 

Yeah. I thought the same...that the soul is the world, nature...nothing to do with buildings or dogma or organised belief.

I know Guthrie sung about the land...but I never really heard Dylan sing about nature as such.

Incredible speech to my ears.

Is a transcript of the unedited intro available?

 

A boot of the unedited version floats around. I was lucky enough to be at that concert and just wish you could have been there. That Bob killed the release of Bob Dylan in Concert is one of those strange and fustrating things you just have to learn to live with. He did let Sony Music release (for free) the "Bob Dylan at Caragie Hall" which gives a huge hint about just how good he was during those 1963 NYC concerts. It did not get much better than this.

Richard

 

"Last Thoughts" is the best thing he ever did in a long list of great acheivements in music, poetry, and art. I actually well up when I listen to it, absolutely astonished that anyone can write something so amazing. I've said it before, but you just can't fake something like "Last Thoughts". It's the real deal thru and thru.

 

Now that's impressive!

 

Thanks for the info...I totally agree. This is an amazing piece of writing.

 

Amazing. BLew me away when I first heard it... That good... Transcendent....

It was probably around when I heard this that I realized he was a genius.

 

for those who haven't heard it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3U1I-ELJ6g

 

A few more thoguhts:
-I wanted to read this at my HS graduation.
-I used to walk around with a tape and try and turn people onto this.
-Clapton is on record as saying roughly this is his crowning achievment.

C

 

the 63 town hall show is among my absolute favorite performances of his. i'd love to have been there too. doesn't get much better than that.
hi from a fellow ( near ) albany member,
dave

 

The unreleased Bob Dylan In Concert LP would be a nice volume for the Bootleg Series. Maybe with other performances from the same nights as bonus tracks?

 

I think he's talking about Guthrie as a source of inspiration- the gushing oil well, the burning lamp, etc. Some people look and find God, he found Woody.

 

Those closing lines are further evidence, to me, of Dylan's spirituality long before 1979. Dylan's talking about things in twos--which itself has a wonderful resonance within the Judeo-Christian tradition (the story of Noah anyone?)--and, at the close of that next-to-last stanza, the two things he's talking about are God and Woody Guthrie.

So, finding them both in the Grand Canyon at sundown? Finding God at that moment should surprise no one. But finding Woody Guthrie at that moment is perhaps what's less obvious. But I think he's saying that both God and Woody are in that sublime place at the same time because they're really one and the same. And that Woody--or perhaps Woody's music, to be more precise--and the beauty of sundown in the Canyon are part and parcel of something transcendent--something beautiful and nourishing (in the broadest sense).

That's what I'm seeing (and maybe I'm just stating what's obvious), but it is cool to read those lines again.

I need to dig out my copy of the actual performance when I get home!

 

Can anyone give an idea how much of the intro was edited on the official release? Is a transcription of the missing material available anywhere online?

I realize the complete version circulates unofficially, but I'd like to know if there is a huge difference ("complete" vs "released version") before I decide to try tracking it down.

Thanks...

 

Follow up questions:

- Was this performed only one time?

- Who was the "they" (in the intro) that asked him to write something about Woody? It reads almost as a eulogy or something inspired by someone who has recently passed. Woody of course lived until 1967 so it was much too early for that.

 

Until this thread, I never knew there was an edit on what appears on The Bootleg Series. Looks like that track is more than a minute shorter than what circulated on bootlegs.

I'll have to listen later at home.

 

It's nothing major, which in my mind makes it seem odd that it was edited. How long is disc one fo the Bootleg Series, perhaps they were triming to fit on the disc.

C

 

I just listened--Cassius is right on. There really is no big difference. The only interesting edit is Dylan trying to decide if it's a poem or not. But, overall, the edited intro is not *that* interesting.

 

I think that's a great way to put it