"The Nowness Of The Eternal Artist (I Am Going To See Bob Dylan - Twice)"

(Prints of this sketch were sold for the Starter Packs charity, Glasgow)

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INTERIOR. EVENING. A RECENT SATURDAY IN A DINING ROOM-KITCHEN IN SUBURBAN GLASGOW, SCOTLAND. PERSON A AND PERSON B ARE SHOOTING THE BREEZE.

PERSON A

I AM GOING TO SEE BOB DYLAN ON SUNDAY AND MONDAY.

 

PERSON B

YOU'RE GOING TWICE??

 

PERSON A

YES.

 

PERSON B

WILL HE SING THE SAME SONGS EACH NIGHT???

 

PERSON A

I DON'T KNOW. AND I DON'T CARE.

 

ENDS. (FADE TO BLACK.)

(Note: Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)    

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Plenty of folk think Bob Dylan "can't sing". A few years ago a young person (to whom I may or may not be related) on hearing a song from Bob's "Christmas In The Heart" LP, enquired:

"Does that man have a sore throat?"

How we laughed. All the way to the adoption agency.

Meanwhile, *I* think Bob Dylan is the greatest singer and songwriter in the universe. 

In 1976 Bob told Larry "Ratso" Sloman (who wrote the best book there ever was and ever will be about Dylan):

    "It's in my blood. I'll be available. People can see me in person all over the world. This tour ain't gonna stop.”

Recently I've been watching and loving Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective". A brilliant slice of BBC TV, broadcast in 1986. Eight years later Potter was dying of cancer when he was interviewed by Melvyn Bragg:

    "Below my window…the blossom is out in full now…I see it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomiest blossom that there ever could be...the nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous.”

Jerry Lee Lewis died on 28th Oct, 2022. Bob was playing Nottingham that night. He closed his show with a cover of "I Can't Seem To Say Goodbye", declaring:

    "Jerry Lee will live forever. We all know that.”

Dennis Potter's detective still sings to us. I can listen to Jerry Lee's "Memphis Tennessee" from his 1973 London Sessions whenever I feel like it ("What a hell of an ending!'). And Bob's decades of recordings of hundreds of wonderful songs have "a simultaneous existence", to quote a phrase. They will be with us forever. They will outlive us.

But Bob himself is with us now. Available as promised.

For a precious period in time (surrendering our smartphones in order to be truly in the moment) we are able to bear witness to the world's greatest singer and songwriter as he shares his art. 

So - yes: I am going see Bob Dylan. Twice.