Lucinda Williams on Bob Dylan, NY Times

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fire away.

June 13, 2004

Love That Mystic Hammering
By LUCINDA WILLIAMS

ey, Bobby, some editors over at The New York Times Book Review (remember ''I'm gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange / So I look like a walking mountain range / And I'm gonna ride into Omaha on a horse / Out to the country club and the golf course. / Carry The New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds''?) asked me if I'd write something about the words to your songs. I have watched you and listened to your lyrics and have been struggling to get as good as you are for about the last 40 years. You probably don't care much for somebody trying to analyze your head like this, and I sure don't pretend to be no intellectual, but these folks seem to think I'm up to the job. So I guess I'll ramble on about some lines of yours that I think are brilliant, like these, from ''Spanish Harlem Incident'': ''Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem / Cannot hold you to its heat. / Your temperature's too hot for taming, / Your flaming feet burn up the street.'' Or these, from ''To Ramona'':

Your cracked country lips,
I still wish to kiss. . . .
To see you tryin' to be a part of
A world that just don't exist.
It's all just a dream, babe,
A vacuum, a scheme, babe,
That sucks you into feelin' like this.

Or these, from ''Chimes of Freedom'': ''Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail / The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder / That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze / leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder.''

I hear Charles Bukowski and all the great Beats. But I also hear Woody Guthrie, Lightnin' Hopkins and Hank Williams. Even in their simplicity, there's an edge and a mysterious quality to your songs. Are you a poet or a songwriter? Who cares? You let your Minnesota, nonsinging, howling, raspy voice push the lyrics. Your guitar and harmonica and those sweet beautiful melodies hold them and give them a home. The words rest against them. They don't have to stand alone but they can. They have a consciousness, a carefulness, yet there's an almost sardonic, cavalier quality to them. I hear humor and wit; attitude and hipness. Words gotta have a hipness to them. I feel you must know something I haven't discovered yet. At the core lies a solid, basic truth that branches out of your experience and compassion.

Ethereal moments become almost literal. The images are striking, graphic and sensual. Words jump off the page and roll across the tongue. You are able to take an idea and give it form: the idea that Harlem has hands, feet are flaming, lips are cracked and country, hail hammers and skies crack poems.

Bobby Dylan, for all the years of being influenced by your humor, your wit, your brilliance and your sweet-ass attitude, thank you.

Lucinda Williams's most recent album is ''World Without Tears.''

― shookout (shookout), Sunday, 13 June 2004 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Did Bob Dylan die?

― Jon in R'lyeh (ex machina), Sunday, 13 June 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

he might if he read that crap. She's a bore.

― rumple, Sunday, 13 June 2004 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder if she has a Victoria Secret bra on.....

― Jon in R'lyeh (ex machina), Sunday, 13 June 2004 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

dribble

― Patrick Kinghorn, Sunday, 13 June 2004 02:05 (twenty-one years ago)

You probably don't care much for somebody trying to analyze your head like this, and I sure don't pretend to be no intellectual, but these folks seem to think I'm up to the job.

Riiight, Lucinda...and how many years did you spend recording and Car Wheels on a Gravel Road again?

Between Nick Hornby and this...this...THIS MELTED ICE-CREAM PUDDLE OF THOUGHT, it sure seem NYT favors the disingenuously aw-shucks approach to rock writing, doesn't it?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 13 June 2004 02:35 (twenty-one years ago)

that was just boring, no more. and about 1/10th as long as the intro seemed to suggest.

i still like lucinda williams.

although she chose some of his more, er, florid lyrics to quote. "chimes of freedom" is one of his weaker songs imo.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 13 June 2004 03:02 (twenty-one years ago)

You're all such haters.

I like Lucinda. The white ebonic tone of the piece bothered me too, but it's not like I'm OFFENDED by her heartfelt little tribute to The Zimmer Man. Let her have her fun.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 13 June 2004 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

as i said, i like her, but the very aspect of her personality that sometimes makes her music very good also seems to lend itself to this sort of faux-naive stuff, which is annoying. but that's life, the bitter and the sweet, the up and the down, etc.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 13 June 2004 04:46 (twenty-one years ago)

>faux-naive stuff

Did you get a letter from God confirming that "faux" part?

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Sunday, 13 June 2004 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

"and I sure don't pretend to be no intellectual"
I want to like how her dad's written poetry textbooks and she's so gee shucks down home, but I don't.

― otto, Sunday, 13 June 2004 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never thought 'Car Wheels' was anywhere near being her best record, either. Too Lucinda-doing-that-Lucinda-thing; better to hear her stretch herself on 'Essence,' I think.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 13 June 2004 06:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I disagree. I think she's been on a steady decline since Gravel Wheels. I love the two that came before that one a lot too. I didn't even buy that last one...(should i?)

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 13 June 2004 06:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Let her have her fun.

Really. She's doing the best she can. You try and say something fucking meaningful about Bob Dylan if the New York Times asks you.

I also agree about Essence -- it's not her best record, but it maybe has her best songs. Like the one called "Essence," for example. Or the one called "Lonely Girls." Or the one called "Blue." If there's a list of people who have earned the right to sound like a dipshit about Bob Dylan in The New York Times, she is high on it.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 13 June 2004 06:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I love Lucinda's music. But when she speaks, she is indeed a bore. Last time I saw her live, she went on some drunken, rambling rant about how much she loved the crowd and how little respect she'd been getting elsewhere. Her boyfriend then came onto the stage to give her a supporting hug. It was embarrassing.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Sunday, 13 June 2004 10:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Did Bob Dylan die?

He has been seen conversing with Angels recently.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 13 June 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

You try and say something fucking meaningful about Bob Dylan if the New York Times asks you.

"Why I Find More Meaning in Depeche Mode's "See You" Than I Do in All of Dylan," by me (if they ever asked).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 13 June 2004 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

this really wasn't THAT bad. She pointed out some worthwhile lyrics and praised Dylan as poet (which I can gather is how he matters most to her) without engaging in so much of the near-biblical fawning he gets elsewhere. It's definitely unneccesarily subservient (especially from someone with her gifts), but it actually sells something Dylan actually has to offer. Concrete examples rather than "Dylan's music is better than all music ever" kinda shit.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 13 June 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

well, at least better than Depeche Mode. ;-)

― jack cole (jackcole), Sunday, 13 June 2004 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

the review of the wilco dude's poetry book in the book review is funnier.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 13 June 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I would like to see Dylan record an acoustic cover of "Somebody" though.

(x-post)

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 13 June 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

the review of the wilco dude's poetry book in the book review is funnier.

-- scott seward (skotro...) (webmail), June 13th, 2004 10:40 AM. (scott seward) (later) (link)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 13 June 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh My Purple Headache by That Wilco Dude

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 13 June 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

When I read the biography review it reaffirmed that the mainstream press is making it very hard for me to be the Wilco fan that I am.

When I read the poetry book review it reaffirmed that Jeff Tweedy is making it very hard for me to be the Wilco fan that I am.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 13 June 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i doubt any musician could ever write ANYTHING in the new york times and not get ridiculed here.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 13 June 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

beck: "the sky is blue."

ilm: "you pretentious dick."

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 13 June 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I doubt the New York Times would ever publish anything sensible written by a musician.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 13 June 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

if Beck submitted an article to the NYT about how the sky was blue I would consider him a dick.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 13 June 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I think you have to decide. One or the other, you can't be all "gee-whiz, Bobby, yer werds shore is good!" and then be all fucking pretentious too. Like consistency, yo. Are you a rube who likes what you likes or are you a blazing hipster in the dark, warm American night, embracing Beaudelaire, Rabelais, Bukowski and "the great Beats" (minor beats, like Lew Welch, need not apply, which he can't anyway, since he's 30 years dead and then some) as unrequited lovers of lifeLiFelIfELIFE, or what?
If you really wanna play hick simpleton, then here's a suggestion, DON'T WRITE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES. If you wanna play well-educated, well-spoken trafficker of words, then, yeah, go ape shit. But don't try to sell me something that's neither.

― Huk-L, Monday, 14 June 2004 04:13 (twenty-one years ago)

JOE KLEIN reviewd Greg Kot's Wilco book. The very same JOE KLEIN who wrote Primary Colors. My mind is blown.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 14 June 2004 04:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought Primary Colors was written by Anonymous? Did Joe Klein have his byline on the review and then at the bottom in italics it read: Joe Klein is the author of Primary Colors.

(yeah, yeah, I know he came out from behind his anonymity a long time ago...but did you know that there was a Cdn copycat book? The title had something to do with "Party" and was attributed to something like "Jean Deaux")

― Huk-L, Monday, 14 June 2004 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Lethem reviews a new Dylan book: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/books/review/13LETHAMW.html

A little slobbery perhaps, but not too bad.

― Sym (shmuel), Monday, 14 June 2004 06:10 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, the review isn't of (speaking of faux-naive) "the Wilco dude's poetry book" but of the Kot bio.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 14 June 2004 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

arrrgh. just saw Miccio's compare/contrast, relooked, and yep--tiny sidebar I missed. sorry then (though I still like my faux-naive crack).

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 14 June 2004 08:15 (twenty-one years ago)

i doubt any musician could ever write ANYTHING in the new york times and not get ridiculed here.

maybe because a lot of musicians just aren't that smart/discerning in the ways that prose writing (but not music), criticism especially, calls for? the Lucinda thing isn't, ok, completely terrible, but it was embarrassing the first two times around. then again, she doesn't interest me much as a person in the first place, even if i love her records.

the Joe Klein piece wasn't super-great, but not bad at all (despite my Wilco reactionaryism) given that he doesn't usually do this sort of thing.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 14 June 2004 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Lucinda, get back to work.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 08:18 (nineteen years ago)

not a great effort but i liked her account of not getting fooled by 'let's spend some time together' on ed sullivan. she KNEW.

― Carlos Keith (Buck_Wilde), Friday, 12 May 2006 07:51 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, the record was already out.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 12 May 2006 08:18 (nineteen years ago)

Wait, you mean Lucinda or Patti Smith? Anyway, the record was out.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 12 May 2006 08:19 (nineteen years ago)

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