Trixie Cruz: Pied Pipers

by Rose Beatrix C. Angeles (Trixie Cruz-Angeles)

Original post on July 18, 2008

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,

I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,

In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Mr. Tambourine Man

By Bob Dylan

I caught a video on YouTube of a touchingly young Bob Dylan, looking frail and shy. In it, he is singing Mr. Tambourine Man at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. To date, he has been performing for over thirty years and his genius is undiminished. The song, now a classic, is vintage Dylan.

Many speculate that it is about the dependence of a druggie on his dealer since it speaks of being taken "disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind, Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves, The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach, Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow." But to think so would be to buttonhole the universality of message that is characteristic of Dylan.

Trixie Cruz: Dylan's My Back Pages

by Rose Beatrix C. Angeles (Trixie Cruz-Angeles)
Original post on July 12, 2008

(source: bobdylan.com)

Bob Dylan's songs are anthems for an age when the young realized that they were going to inherit a world bent on destruction. So, unlike their parents, they raised their voices against war, saying, "Hell, no, we won' go." In this country, they railed against old entrenched politicians who asked questions like, "What are we in power for?" To which the youth responded, "Ibagsak!"