Mr. Tambourine Man

A friend posted Patti Smith's nobel prize performance of Dylan's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, and I just can't get enough of it. If you haven't seen it, it's a must watch.

As a result, I've been singing that song all day, including out loud on my bike ride to and from work. But I already blogged about that masterpiece, so here's another fine Dylan number to mark this day:

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 following you
Though I know that evenings empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming
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 following you
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
May hands can't feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it
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 following you
Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone
It's just a escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It's just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn't pay it any mind
It's just a shadow you're seeing that he's chasing
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 following you
And take me disappearing 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 bench
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory of fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
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 following you

What a poet indeed. So glad the Nobel prize people feel the same way!

Kick Out the Jams

See that hand holding a book? That's me reading in paradise!

I know I've been absent from this blog ever so long... in part it's because in the past month, when I've spent time writing on my computer, it has been on my book, and in part it has been because I was too busy reading by the pool in Mexico, as I was this past week.

Anyway, I'm back, and I'm marking this day with a song from one of the books I read on my trip, Just Kids. A friend recommended I read it a long time ago, but I just got around to it as part of my read-memoirs-while-I-write-my-memoir campaign.  What a phenomenal book! I absolutely loved it! It was a little hard not getting to share it with my ex gay boyfriend, who was the one who recommended it but who has since disappeared from my life, or my ex boyfriend, who would absolutely love it, but my own experience of reading it was delicious enough to get me through those tough feelings.

A lot of music is mentioned in the book, but I decided on this song because it was one of the ones the New Englander sent to me during our long distance year (which I've recently been writing about in my book), it's awesome, and Patti Smith's husband is in the band:

Kick out the jams motherfuckers !
Yeah! I, I, I, I, I'm gonna
I'm gonna kick 'em out ! Yeah !

Well I feel pretty good
And I guess that I could get crazy now baby
Cause we all got in tune
And when the dressing room got hazy now baby

I know how you want it child
Hot, quick and tight
The girls can't stand it
When you're doin' it right
Let me up on the stand
And let me kick out the jam
Yes, kick out the jams
I want to kick 'em out!

Yes I'm starting to sweat
You know my shirt's all wet
What a feeling
In the sound that abounds
And resounds and rebounds off the ceiling

You gotta have it baby
You can't do without
When you get that feeling
You gotta sock 'em out
Put that mike in my hand
And let me kick out the jam
Yes ! Kick out the jams

Ocean shot!

I want to kick 'em out

So you got to give it up
You know you can't get enough Miss Mackenzie
Cause it gets in your brain
It drives you insane
Leaping frenzy

The wailin' guitars girl
The crash of the drums
Make you want to keep-a-rockin'
Till the morning comes

Let me be who I am
And let me kick out the jams
Yes, kick out the jams
I done kicked em out!!!

Pretty awesome, eh? Just like the book, and my vacation...