"once upon a time..."

i've been listening to the radio since i was seven years old.  i used to lay in bed at night under the covers with a transistor radio and listen until i fell asleep.  it was crappy AM top forty music, but i didn't care.  i was mystified by this little magical device.  a few years later i had one of those old record players that looked like a suitcase and only played 45s.  i had to tape a nickel to the tone arm to weigh it down and keep the needle from jumping out of the grooves.  but this was one of my most prized possessions.  i loved those old 45 rpm records, those little black discs of pure happiness.  along comes february 1964 and the beatles are on the ed sullivan show.  i had to have a guitar.  and thus began a life long love affair with wood and strings.  a few more years passed and i acquired a small table radio.  i listened constantly.  this was an FM radio!

one day this sound like no other i ever heard comes out the speaker.  whack!  and then it's a rambling rolling sound with the words "once upon a time, you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime, in your prime. didn't you?..." and that voice!  what the hell is this?  i already was a beatles fan, but this was something else entirely.  this was different.  no one sounded like this.  and those words...pouring out of that little box with such urgency, such intensity, such excitement:  "...you said you'd never compromise, with the mystery tramp, but now you realize, he's not selling any alibis, as you stare into the vacuum of his eyes, and ask him, do you want to, make a deeeeaaaaalllll?..." and it went on and on...for six friggin' minutes!  now, that may not seem like much in today's world, but this was back in the days of two and a half minute radio friendly ditties and things like that just weren't done.  after all, who would listen to a song that long?  "...you used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat, who carried on his shoulder a siamese cat, ain't it hard when you discover that, he really wasn't where it's at, after he took from you everything he could steeeaaaaallll, how does it feel?..."  WTF!  i was hooked!  i had to hear more.  whenever i managed to scrape a few dollars together i'd go out and buy one of his records and live with it, playing it over and over until i knew every word.  i learned the songs on the guitar and only played dylan, nothing else.  i wished i could sing like that.

the years passed.  musical styles came and went.  the beatles broke up, the stones didn't.  jimi and janis died.  the 60s were gone.  the 70s were gone.  the new millennium was upon us.  modern music became categorized and commercialized, but still i listened to bob.  somehow he was still relevant, he still mattered.  and he still does.  he doesn't sing like he used to.  some would say he can't sing at all (and never could).  but not me.  i still listen.  it was that thin wild mercury music that originally drew me in, but i'm still there.  he will turn seventy next year and you know what?  he is still out there.  he's still making records and is still out there on the road playing.  he just played the firggin' white house for crissakes!  he became what he set out to be...the wandering minstrel...just a song and dance man...long may you run brother...and may you indeed stay forever young...

is it rolling bob?