'Like magic, it would seem,' a poem about 'Blowin' in the Wind' by Mike Marcellino

Poet, songwriter performing artist Mike Marcellino
sports "Hard Travlin'" T-shirt with art by Woody Guthrie
he was given at the Woody tribute
in Cleveland in 1996 

Like magic, it would seem

by mike marcellino

Four and a half days,

that's fast,

faster than the dust bowl days,

even today,

A la Woody Guthrie, but in the 60s,

off the siding

of the interstate highway

to route sixty-six, at times

stranded 'in a wasteland of the free'

to quote Iris DeMent.





On the road to find out

what America's all about -

like Woody's 'This Land Is Land'

sort of thing,

or maybe more like

Masters of War a Bob Dylan sort of thing. Truth is we were

freewheelin' across our fair land

at those very same moments

when Bob was writing an' singin' all that stuff.


On our first big ride, we were

almost saved

somewhere in the darkness of Kansas

by an unnamed family

always silently in fervent prayer.

We did get to eat at the break of day,

not sure where, but somewhere east of oz.

Hands out, even doin' a bit a soft shoe

echoes on the side of the road

like magic, it would seem.


We didn't see any evidence of a war

brewing

far away

in a place half way round

the globe

we were told

where in the dark blue mountains

it don't even snow

like magic, it would seem.


Our last night on the highway to LA

almost became really our last night.

You had to boost yourself up

to get into the cab. Then pitch black

only illuminated by dial for the gas,

we started going off the road,

we were on the edge

of oblivion, but that

kind truck driver woke up

put us straight

into CALI FOR NI A!


Not sure I remember what 

was going on 

in that summer of sixty-four,

two years before

we went off to war, 

except the Beach Boys. Maybe that

all got erased 

where in the dark blue mountains 

it don't even snow

like magic, it would seem.


But I took along all those versus, Bob, 

from 'Blowin' in the Wind' to 'I Shall Be Free'

with 'Corina, Cornia' in between. I knew

just when a song would come up.

"Did you know that people say 

you wrote that first song in 10 minutes?"

"I'd call that really speedin', wouldn't you?"

"Well try to sit down and write something like that. Ah, there's a magic to that," 

he once tired to explain.


But our road trip wasn't over. We took a train

to Nevada, Las Vegas that is,

and after the fare it left us 

with twenty bucks, 

not to spare.

Little wheel spin and spin

in the Desert Inn.

"Black!"

"No, green!"

(A terrible scream)

Echoes on the side of the road

where in the dark blue mountains 

it don't even snow.

Like magic, it would seem.


Like magic it would seem by Mike Marcellino copyright 2012

Mike Marcellino just recorded a new song, "Woody Blues," his song to Woody Guthrie marks the century celebration of the work of the legendary American folk singer from the Great Depression of the 1930 and 1940s.  Guthrie would have been 100 years old on July 14, 2012.  Woody's music and life on the road with the downtrodden has influenced generations of musicians around the world to the present day.  Guthrie was a mentor of Bob Dylan, who visited Woody while he was hospital in New York City.  Guthrie died in 1967 at age 55 from Huntington's Disease.


Dylan explains his magic on 60 Minutes

Bob Dylan in a 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley in 2004 admitted he took him about 10 minutes to write Blowing in the Wind.  Dylan said it was a "penetrating magic" in creativity that enabled him to write his early songs.  

Here's an excerpt of Ed Bradley's interview with Bob Dylan -

BD: Well try to sit down and write something like that. Ah, there's a magic to that. And it's not a sigfried and roy (reference to a magician and lion tamer performing duo) kind of magic . It's a penetrating kind of magic. I did it at one time.


EB: You don't think you could do it today?

BD: uh huh...

EB: Does this disappoint you?

BD: You can't do something for ever. (shakes his head slightly) I did it once and I can do other things now. I can't do that. (he looks down)

So, you guess about that.  Here's a video of the song and the lyrics.  Introduced by Jack Nicholson, Bob Dylan sings Blowin' in the Wind with Ron Wood and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones at Live Aid in 1985.  The song is #14 n Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  Dylan is 71.

Blowin' In the Wind

by Bob Dylan

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

Yes, ’n’ how many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, ’n’ how many times must the cannonballs fly

Before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many years can a mountain exist

Before it’s washed to the sea?

Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist

Before they’re allowed to be free?

Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head

Pretending he just doesn’t see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, ’n’ how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Copyright © 1962 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1990 by Special Rider Music

Here's a link to Bob Dylan's website for more stuff - 

Bob Dylan's website

The life and times of Woody Guthrie: an American folk music legend

Woody Guthrie's 1942 New Year's Resolutions

Woody Guthrie is not on the YouTube Top 20 
by Mike Marcellino

My night began, interestingly enough with rediscovering the folk music and life of legendary songwriter and traveler Woody Guthrie.  Born in 1912 in a small Oklahoma town, Okemah, which is named after an Kickapoo Indian chief.  In a 1944 interview with the BBC Children's Hour, Woody recalls his childhood in Okemah, Oklahoma where he was born, growing up with "one-third Indians, one-third Negroes and one-third whites." Woody was "washing dishes," he says, aboard a Liberty Ship in the Merchant Marines.  Here's a video of the BBC show where Woody also talks about his traveling cross country during The Depression where he picked up folk songs from those folks and started writing and later recording his own songs.

It began to sink in that Woody Guthrie began the great American folk music revival that continues today, more than 80 years later.  Woody Guthrie would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year, on July 14th. In this live performance for the BBC, Woody sings two traditional folk songs about trains (I love trains and I gather Woody hopped some freights in his time.) He sings "Wasbash Cannonball" and "900 Miles": :

.I've been to Okemah and it hasn't changed much but the newspaper is thriving, contrary to the national demise of news papers.  It's a pretty desolate, country where violent snow and rain storms roll across the plains. Woody, is probably best known for his song "This Land Is My Land"  which he wrote in 1940 partly over his love of the song "America the Beautiful."  In two versus, he writes about the inequality in America among the classes of people.

"As I went walking, I saw a sign there,
And on the sign there, It said "no trespassing." [In another version, the sign reads "Private Property"]
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing!
That side was made for you and me.
In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?" 

Guthrie also perform at a benefit for migrant farm workers in 1940 put on by the John Steinbeck Committee to Aid Farm Workers. Guthrie had gone to New York City where, according to reports, he was embraced by the leftist folk music community, where he met Pete Seeger and the two became friends.  Woody performed on CBS radio in New York City, but soon he traveled west back to California where he had performed on radio shows.

Woody playin for some folks

None of Woody Guthrie's songs is among the Top 20 YouTube videos (even though it's the 100th Anniversary of his birth and he gave birth to modern American folks music). Well, that's no surprise, even Bob Dylan's top viewed video on YouTube is a far cry from the Top 20 with only 6 million views.  Lady Gaga has 11 songs on the Top 20 with a total of, it's hard to fathom, 1.1 BILLION views.  ("Bad Romance" has 466 million views alone.  My take on "Bad Romance" is "bad song" and band video".  Actually, mysteriously I have somehow lost the ability on YouTube to actually get a list of the Top 20 videos by views.  I just stumbled into it pressing and clicking.  Well, I did see Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" has 38 million views.  Marley, of course, is a legendary reggae folk musician from Jamaica whose music and life was deeply into social causes.  Marley died in 1981 at age 36.

Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley

"I'm just a Buffalo Soldier
In the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Said he was fighting on arrival
Fighting for survival
Said he was a Buffalo Soldier
Win the war for America"

"Buffalo Soldier" written by Bob Marley and Noel G. "King Sport" Williams and recorded in 1983.  To Marley it was a song about the oppression against Africans brought to America as slaves.  The blacks who fought in the U. S. Cavalry in the later 1800s to subdue the Indians were known as Buffalo Soldiers.  Marley likened their "fight" as Buffalo Soldiers as a fight for survival and a symbol of black resistance.

In the late 1940s, Guthrie became ill. His behavior was erratic.  He was first diagnosed with alcoholism and schizophrenia, but in 195s they determined he suffered from the very debilitating Huntington's disease.

In 1961, Bob Dylan traveled to New York City to perform and visit Guthrie, his idol.  Dylan visited Guthrie at Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in Brooklyn and the two hit it off fairly well.  But, on his last visit Guthrie didn't recognize Dylan.   Guthrie was confined in several mental hospitals in New York City until his death in 1967.

You may wonder by now, what does this mean, Mike?

It means that folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley are more popular than YouTube may tell us.  To my knowledge, there aren't any videos of Guthrie performing, though there are some live recordings.

Still, the times me be changing again, to borrow from Dylan's popular folk song.  I think the millions of people protesting against class inequalities in the United States (Occupy Wall Street) and around the world (the Arab Spring uprisings) may be in tune with Woody Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy, whether they've ever heard of him, read his words or listened to his songs.

Here's a link to listen to more Woody Guthrie songs on Smithsonian Folkways website:

Smithsonian Folkways

(I also highly recommend the collection of Woody Guthrie unheard lyrics that Wilco and Billy Bragg recorded on albums Mermaid Avenue I and II (1998 and 2000):

One of my favorite Guthrie songs, "Pretty Boy Floyd" which was left out of his first and most popular album, "Dustbowl Ballads" recorded in 1940.  Here's some great lines from Woody's song, capturing the Oklahoma band robber and the times:

"If you'll gather 'round me, children, a story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an Outlaw, Oklahoma knew him well."

"As through this world you travel, you'll meet some funny men/ Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

Floyd, after outlaw John Dillinger was shot to death by lawmen, was America's Public Enemy No. 1 in 1934.  While Floyd robbed banks, he was never convicted of murder though he was suspected to killing an Akron, Ohio policeman, two bootleggers and an ATF agent.  On the other hand, some view Floyd as a victim of the hard times and an outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, like Jesse James, America's most famous outlaw who robbed banks and trains, certainly killed some folks but never convicted of murder either.  Have a listen to "Pretty Boy Floyd" written and performed by Woody Guthrie:

To wind up this folk tale, here's a wonderful tribute to Woody Guthrie by Bob Dylan, "Song to Woody" recorded on Dylan's first album in 1962.

So much for that, as apparently Sony records has taken down the YouTube video of Dylan's original version on his first album, "Bob Dylan."

So, someone, maybe the guy that posted the video record in the first place, said he paid for the album and had a right to "broadcast it."  He suggested the millions of Dylan fans boycott Sony.  Not a bad idea.

But, here's an even more interesting version of "Song to Woody" by Dylan, recorded in 1970, after the Beatles broke up, accompanied by George Harrison.  Here's the description by the YouTube poster on January 4, 2012:

"Columbia Studio 3, New York City, 1st May 1970. After The Beatles' break-up, on April 1970, George Harrison went to New York City where he met Bob Dylan at Columbia Studios. With other musicians (Charlie Daniels on bass guitar and backup vocals, Billy Mundi on drums and Bob Johnson on piano) they recorded some songs, many of them written by Dylan. George played guitar and sang backup vocals while Dylan sang lead vocals and played guitar."

Unfortuantely, i seems that Bob Dylan or his armies keep removing any really cool videos of him singing so i will have to find another version of "Song to Woody"!  You would think that if Woody Guthrie was really Dylan's hero he share his tribute to Woody.

Joan Baez and my Oriental River girl

Oriental River, South Vietnam 1968 photo by Mike Marcellino, copyright 2010

Joan Baez and the Girl in the Oriental River

by Mike Marcellino

Twenty-seven years after I left the Vietnam War, after serving for a year 1967-68 as a U. S. Army combat correspondent and photojournalist, On August 20, 1995 I found myself seated in a campfire chair talking with Joan Baez, just as I would the girl next door.  I had listened to Joan's albums, attended concerts, one at the former Front Row Theatre with a moving circular stage.  I reviewed that concert for Sun Newspapers.

Darkness had set and it was quite outside Joan's tent in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park south of Cleveland where she had
performed for a Heritage Series Concert.  I thought back to listening over and over to "banks of the Ohio" my favorite Baez song.

As I worked as an aide to then Mayor Michael White,I came armed with  a proclamation, honoring Joan not only for her voice but her courageous opposition to the Vietnam War and support for human rights, all at great risk to her career.

Rather than an M-14 rifle, I carried to the concert a harmless treasure of seven hand printed black and white photographs I had taken of children caught in war.  One of the photographs shows  a young Vietnamese girl, smiling as she climbed out of the Oriental River balancing on a 155 mm shell casing and holding onto barbed wire.  It was June 1968, the year the TET offensive by the VC and North Vietnamese regular throughout the country never seemed to end.  I was following battery of 155 mm howitzers manned by the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 11th Artillery of the 23rd Artillery Group, my home base.

Again, I was in the middle of nowhere, alone and as almost always, without a weapon (or a toothbrush).  But I had my notebooks, pens and cameras to record it all in stories and photos for Stars and Strips, the Army Reporter and other publications. 

It was a bizarre scene in a bizarre war, one where the battle cry was often "The End" by The Doors.  It was hot and it appeared the nearby Vietnamese village had come down to the Oriental River for a swim, right in the middle of a war.  I was tempted but didn't join them in the murky river.  Nearby was a camp of the 5th Special Forces called Tra Cu, 23 miles west of Saigon.  I think they called this the Second Battle of Saigon.  We won both battles, as we did all the battles but lost the war as it was a civil war and the South Vietnamese leaders weren't very popular and the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong weren't about to ever give up.

I walked up to the door of the Special Forces hooch (a primitive house made of concrete block, wire screening and a tin roof).  A gruff looking sergeant told me to go away; it seems Special Forces isn't interested in publicity.

Joan Baez's first album, 1960, Vanguard (Wikipedia)

I knew the one she would pick, the young Vietnamese girl  climbing out of the Oriental River.  I hope Joan still has it. (I have a museum quality, hand printed framed version still, along with the other six, that includes U. S. Army artillerymen, the 33rd South Vietnamese Rangers on a search and destroy mission, an elite unit, and other children coping in war.
I always wonder what happened to the girl from the Oriental River.

i knew joan baez

by mike marcellino

i knew joan baez

joan baez.

i knew she would

pick

this

one,

her little sister.

joan baez

i knew she would

pick

this one.

she had a choice -

barbwire

or

bobbing 155 mm shell casing

on the Oriental River,

no number

rung sat zone

south, southeast of Saigon

the delta hell on earth,

special forces

say.

i knew joan baez

joan baez,

i knew she would pick this one,

like her little sister -

joan baez,

i knew joan baez.

i knew she would pick this one.
copyright Mike Marcellino 2010

Here one of my favorite songs of Joan Baez that fits the story pretty well - "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (written by Bob Dylan).  This is a beautiful recording.

The official website of Joan Baez

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

i think that was Dylan
by Mike Marcellino

You could say I grew up with Bob Dylan, and the likes of Joan Baez, Carolyn Hester, Hamilton Camp, Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys.  Though I've owned more than a dozen of his albums, the ones that most influenced me in music, my own writing and political and social views were his first three - Bob Dylan (1962), The Freewheelin Bob Dylan (1964) and The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964) and John Wesley Harding (1967).


While I have not yet recorded "i think that was Dylan" you're invited to listen to my collection of 9 new lyrical poetry song recordings.  Some folks have compared my music to Dylan, though I don't sing, i talk, but then Dylan hardly does either.
Just click on this link to our Facebook music page where you may listen free, share our songs and "like" us. (or you may listen on the music player at the top of this blog)

Mike Marcellino's Facebook music page

It's hard to recall when I first listened to the folk songs of Robert Allen Zimmerman, raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, near the Mesabi Iron Range west of Lake Superior.  He was the grandson of Ukrainian and Lithuanian Jews, who escaped antisemitism in the early 1900s.

I've found very few albums in which I liked every song - Freewheelin' was such an album.  I liked Corina, Corina most and would listen to it over and over.  The times from 1963 to 1967 in Dylan's half century music career were turbulent. I listened to Dylan around the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, though time stood still as we sat glued to the television in a fraternity house on the campus of Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I listen in my hooch at a base camp at the tip of the Viet Cong Iron Triangle stronghold northwest of Saigon in the Vietnam War.

Over the Dylan years, I've seen him in concert twice, the first probably the most memorable.  It was November 12, 1965 at Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio.  Six weeks later, the day after New Year's I would leave on a train filled with Army recruits on the way to basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Our seats were red velvet, right in the middle, not far from the front, perfect seats.  I was with a very pretty blond,  Cindy.  I was in love with her and her sister, Gretchen.  Wonderful girls, Swedish.  Dylan played alone, with his guitar and harmonica, the first half of the concert.  It couldn't have been better.  He came on electric in the second half.  You could hear a pin drop.  Everyone was in shock.  He had earlier been booed off the stage after three songs when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. I though it was cool.  Still do, even though I was raised on the acoustic poet.

The second time I saw Dylan was at the concert for the opening celebration for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum on June 7, 1993.  He had lost most of his voice and Dylan and the night were both electric - romping around Cleveland Municipal Stadium with my ex-wife (who looked like a female version of Dylan) and our three children with nearly 80,000 screaming rock fans.  As I was on duty as an aide to the mayor, I had a seat in the sixth row for the ribbon cutting of the stunning building designed by I. M. Pei.  The spot lit structure's reflection on the waters of Lake Erie at night is still a sight.  Yoko Ono was there alone at the party after the ribbon cutting, John Lennon had been shot and killed December 8, 1980.

 "Search and Destroy" photo by Mike Marcellino, TET Offensive, Vietnam War, 1968.  After I was turned away from my request to meet with Dylan, I left a print of this photo at a studio in Cleveland where Dylan was recording or hanging out. Naturally, I did not get a thank you.


While Dylan was in Cleveland, I did try to meet with the icon, bringing some of my favorite photographs taken in the Vietnam War where I served as a combat correspondent and photojournalist.  I got as far as inside the door of the recording studio he was at in an eastern suburb, but no further.  I left Dylan this signed black and white photography of Army artillery forward observers with the 33rd Vietnamese Rangers on a search and destroy mission in the rice paddies.

Last year I got to thinkin' about the cover of the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan wrote a song about some crazy days I had spent roamin' the streets of New York City and wrote a song about those times.  Today on Gothamist.com I learned the story behind the cover art.  Bob Dylan wanted to recreate a photo of James Dean (see the link to Gothamist story) for the cover of "Freewheelin'" released May 23 1963.

New York City Album Art: The Freewheelin Bob Dylan 

  

Here's my version of the story in a poetry song I've performed.  The song was covered by Chicago folk singer Justin Boerema as we shared the stage at Spike Hill in Brooklyn. Justin was back lit in silhouette, wearing a Fedora, playing guitar and harmonica, real Dylanesque.  I hope to record the poetry song soon, perhaps on my trip to New York City in April.  I will be performing the song though and together we return  to The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. 

i think that was Dylan

by Mike Marcellino

i think that was Dylan,

walkin down Jones Street

girl in his arm

right in the middle of the slushy road,

right pretty too,

comin right at me,

so i ducked

down into the

alley

found sally

and wrote this piece.

"i didn't see you there,"

 - went something like that

i think that was Dylan

walkin down Jones Street

trouble was the cold,

blinded me,

so i parked my car,

a cutlass i believe,

recklessly

at the first illegal spot i could find

went up to the bar

"Irish whiskey,"

i said that,

it must ta been in '65

i think that was Dylan

walkin down Jones Street,

go ask Sally.

i think that was Dylan copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009   

dylan and baez poems

i think that was dylan
by Mike Marcellino

i think that was dylan

i think that was dylan,
walkin down 42nd street
girl in his arm
right in the middle of the slushy road,
right pretty too,
comin right at me,
so i ducked
down into the
alley
found sally
and wrote this piece

"i didn't see you there,"
- went something like that

i think that was dylan
walkin down 42nd street
trouble was the cold,
blinded me,
so i parked my car,
a cutlass i believe,
recklessly
at the first illegal spot i could find
went up to the bar
"Irish whiskey,"
i said that,
it must ta been in '65
i think that was dylan
walkin down 42nd street,
go ask Sally.

i think that was dylan copyright by Mike Marcellino 2009


i knew Joan Baez

i knew joan baez
joan baez.
i knew she would
pick
this
one,
her little sister.
joan baez
i knew she would
pick
this one.
she had a choice -
barbwire
or
bobbing 155 mm shell casing
on the Oriental River,

no number
rung sat zone
south, southeast of Saigon
the delta hell on earth,
special forces
say.
i knew joan baez
joan baez,
i knew she would pick this one,
like her little sister -
joan baez,
i knew joan baez.
i knew she would pick this one

Copyright by Mike Marcellino 2007

i think that was dylan & i knew joan baez copyright by Mike Marcellino 2007, 2008 & 2009