As reviews of Dylan's latest recording, Together Through Life, begin to spread, lyrics from the album have trickled out. Already, the self-ordained professors of Bob start proposing links and allusions and references. Here is a guy who's convinced that--contrary to what "some have supposed" about a Whitman allusion--the album's title is drawn from a phrase in James Joyce's letters to his wife. This particular blogger, Scott Warmuth, also proposes that Dylan uses the term "whorish" in the same way that Joyce used it in addressing his wife. This brings up the ever-fascinating issue of how Dylan's lyrics address lovers or listeners, which is probably somebody's doctoral thesis by now.
I note this nugget because it gives me the idea to write a song that uses language in a Joycean fashion--not the more standard prose he uses in his letters, but a song with lyrics more like the prose of Ulysses. It'd be difficult to do; but then, why write just another mildly interesting set of lyrics? Why not reach for what you never have heard or through could be in a righteous song?
That, dear reader, is what I want You to expect from my songs as we roll together through life.
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A Jaunty Exploration of Northwest Folk Blues Music
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