Me and Bobby D by Lee Cassanell

I know for a fact, that November 17th 2003 will be the greatest day of my life so far. On that day in a little over a month from now, I will be in the presence of my inspiration, my hero, and the one person who has had more influence on me then any other. I was 19 and I'd just spilt up with Sarah (not her real name but I wouldn't want to embarrass her), a long-term girlfriend who I'd dropped like a bad habit because I thought I was too young for all that 'serious relationship' stuff.

After a month or so of alcohol-fuelled freedom, the realisation dawned that I had made a terrible mistake. I was hopelessly in love with her. To cut a long tragic story short, it was too late. She'd found someone else (My childhood best buddy no less) and told me in no uncertain terms that there was more chance of Elvis rising from the grave then her and I getting back together. It destroyed me, broke my heart in a thousand places, and though I could go on and relay to you the extent of my devastation, how for months and even years afterwards I still held out hope that maybe, just maybe…we'd get back together…. I'd rather not dig that deep into my psyche, even today when I'm fully aware how ridiculous and pathetic the whole sorry situation became, I still feel a twinge when I think about her.

Anyway, I started drinking. Beer, Wine, Tequila, Cider, Vodka, Paraffin, Toilet duck, it didn't matter. I picked up girls by the truck full and treated them all like shit. It was a revenge thing; I'd make them fall in love with me and then dump them when I knew it would hurt the most. I sat in my bedroom night after night smoking joint after joint, writing my woes onto stolen computer paper, each one an Ode to my lost Love, the One that got away…

Ha-Ha…such wonderful memories. Then one fine day, I was searching through a box of old tapes looking for some musical gem that I'd recorded and then forgot about, when I came across a cassette that I didn't recognise, 'Bob Dylan's greatest hit's'. I'd heard Dylan before, 'Blowing in the Wind', Mr Tambourine Man', but I'd never really paid him any attention, I just thought he was an old Folk singer who had had a few hit's in the late sixties and had done nothing of any worth for years. But I thought 'Why not', 'try something new', so I slipped the grey tape into the machine, pressed play on the hi-fi, and lay back on the bed with a book.

I'd heard Dylan before, 'Blowing in the Wind', Mr Tambourine Man', but I'd never really paid him any attention, I just thought he was an old Folk singer who had had a few hit's in the late sixties and had done nothing of any worth for years. But I thought 'Why not', 'try something new', so I slipped the grey tape into the machine, pressed play on the hi-fi, and lay back on the bed with a book.

I can't remember the first four or five tracks, I think I was so engrossed with the Novel that I wasn't really listening to the music, but as 'She Belongs to me' faded into silence…I heard the sound of a slow Harmonica and I turned the volume up on the player, momentarily interested by the tune flooding out of the speakers. For the next three to four minutes...I was in limbo I've had my share of elated experience before, both natural and drug induced, but never in my life have I ever felt higher then I did during that brief Microcosm in time. It was as though this voice burning through the air was singing about me, describing perfectly all the emotions I'd been feeling since my break -up with Sarah. I sat with my mouth open, a dumb look of amazement splashed across my face, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, filled with the love of Jesus and the power of the holyspirit.

Okay...so I'm bullshitting, I can't remember exactly how felt, all I know is it was an experience, like the first time you smoke a reefer or shag you're girlfriend in her parent's bed. Ha-Ha...I can't believe I just wrote that. Ah well, the truths a sordid thing, and if any mothers or fathers are reading this are afraid that my allusion to a sexual act will influence and corrupt their children, you've turned into you're parents, this is 2003 not 1955, take you're wide screened, DVD bottoms for a walk into the street and breathe in a long smoky lungful of reality. continued below.

Me and Bobby D continued by Lee Cassanell

Anyway, I digress, climbed on my high horse, I was talking about Bob Dylan and the day I first heard 'It's all over now baby blue'. I've always loved music. I was brought up to the Sounds of Motown, Gladys Knight and the Pip's, The Jackson 5, Diana Ross and the Supremes, but also Glam Rock, T-Rex, Mud, David Bowie and the Sweet.

Later in life I was a big fan of Madonna, Blondie, the late indie, early Britpop scene, Bob Marley, Fleetwood Mac, Elo, The Pretenders, Cat Stevens, DJ Slipmatt, Chic, Squeeze, Cream, The Chemical Brothers, The White stripes, Belle and Sebastian, Paul Simon, Joni michell, Dire Straits, The Grease Soundtrack, Bjork, Air, Funk, punk and Disco I could go on, let's just say I'm a fan of all things musical, I know my shit. So when I tell you that Bob Dylan is by far the best thing to happen to happen to music since Mozart got a Keyboard for Christmas, I'm not lying, it's the god damn absolute truth, and if you want to ague the point, you've got passion and I salute you for it. No one in history has been so consistently brilliant for so long, so perfectly combined lyrics and Music together. You believe in what he's singing and you know what he's singing about, life death, Love, War, sex, infidelity, hate fear, lust…the list is endless.

This is not a man who hides in his house under a blanket with a toy banjo and a crayon, he's lived life, observed all the arrogance and eccentricity of people, seen the best and the worst of the world and spilled his thoughts and experiences onto a page. He took a six stringed wooden instrument and turned it into Excalibur, cutting track after excellent track, pissing off the folk singers by ditching the Acoustic Guitar and going electric, and singing on 'Blonde on Blonde', 'Every body must get stoned 'when the Beatles still wanted to 'Hold you're hand'. The Who's Lead singer Pete Townsend when asked how Dylan had influenced him replied: 'That's like asking me how I was influenced by being born', which pretty much sum's it up I think. I also have a mystical connection to Bob Dylan, and especially 'It's all over now Baby Blue'.

During nearly every significant moment in my life since I first heard it, that song has been playing in the background. The first time I thought nothing of it, the second time I gave it a passing thought, but on the third time when Bryan Ferry's cover version of the song came on the radio just as I was telling another long-term girlfriend that it was over between us, I got a shiver down my spine, and although it sounds like complete and utter bollocks, I swear it's the absolute gospel truth. Some critics will say that his lyrics are nothing more then stoned nonsensical ramblings, that he's got a god complex, that he's not a very good singer, not the best guitar player…bla…bla…bla

But I defy anyone who's ever been in love not to adore 'Blood on the Tracks', the album he wrote during the time his marriage was breaking up, 'Shelter from the Storm' being one of all the songs on that particular CD you'd have to be soulless not to appreciate. Only five English pounds from all good Retail outlets, just over the price of a packet of Cigarettes for a piece of Art Time to wind it up now I think, I'm tired and you've got Internet porn to look at. I might continue with my Dylan Fetish another day, but for now, I leave you with a list of 10 of his songs that I urge you to seek out. I could have done a 100 but 'The good, the bad and the Ugly' is on in half an hour and I need cigarettes. Adioso Lee Cassanell 1. Blind Willy Mctell - Bootleg series 1-3 2. Ballad of a thin man - Highway 61 Revisited 3. Visions of Johanna - Blonde on Blonde 4. Just like a Women - Ritchie Havens - Bob Dylan Tribute concert 5. If you see her say hello - Blood on the tracks 6. Hurricane - Desire 7. Don't think twice, It's alright - Freewheelin 8. A hard Rains gonna Fall - Freewheelin 9. Things have changed - Wonderboy's soundtrack 10. Mississippi - Sheryl Crowe - The Globe Sessions

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