In September 1960, Bob Dylan borrowed a copy of Woody Guthries autobiography Bound for Glory from a college classmate and became obsessed. Written with the encouragement of Alan Lomax and published in 1943, it rendered its protagonist an almost mythical figure. Dylan started mimicking his heros speech patterns and even told the crowd at the Cafe Wha? when he arrived in New York for the first time the following January: I been travellin around the country, followin in Woody Guthries footsteps. The dust bowl troubadour – author of this This Land is Your Land, whose guitar bore the legend this machine kills fascists – had himself almost reached the end of the road: he was now in his fourth year at the Greystone Park Psychiatric hospital in New Jersey, suffering from Huntingdons disease, which finally led to his death in 1967. But Dylan hunted him out there, and the two men met – Guthrie apparently giving Dylan a card after their first meeting saying: I aint dead yet. Dylan wrote, and played to his idol, a new piece of his own called Song to Woody. It met with the older mans approval and was one of only two original compositions that made Dylans 1962 debut.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 21:29:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015