When Carl Sandburg met Bob Dylan

[Heath...@novabbs.i2p]

When Carl Sandburg met Bob Dylan

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https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.music.dylan/1tQJrqO2w2A/LKBX7ZS-PKAJ

My family drove up to Flat Rock, North Carolina
to visit the home of the late American folk singer, poet, writer,
historian Carl Sandburg. Sandburg died in the late sixties.
He was 89. His home is now run by the U.S. Park Service.
I had heard or read that Bob had once visited Sandburg,
so I asked one of the Park Service people whether it was true.
The answer: Yes, in the early sixties when Sandburg
was in his eighties Bob shows up at the front door
about 2:00 PM, looking high. Sandburg was leary of
visitors and at first didn't want to talk to him. But after Dylan
told him who he was, Sandburg invited him in and they
spent the afternoon talking.
--
David P. Jacobs
Department of CS, Clemson University, Clemson SC 29634-1906

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[khematite]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-an-intimate-biography-part-two-237760/

Later that morning they were on the road again, Clayton driving, Dylan studying the map: “Hendersonville, North Carolina,” he said. “You gotta take this highway” — shoving the map in front of Clayton — “and right outside Hendersonville is where he has his place, Flat Rock. That’s where he lives.”

They entered Flat Rock late that afternoon, pulled up to a gas station. Dylan jumped out of the car. “Where’s Carl Sandburg’s place?” he asked the tall gangling mountain man in coveralls. “You know, the poet.” The mountain man considered that for a while. “You mean Sandburg the goat farmer?” he asked.

“No, I mean Sandburg the poet.”

“Don’t know about no poet. There’s a Sandburg has a goat farm. Wrote a book on Lincoln. Little guy. Littler than you, even. If that’s the one, take this road two miles up there, turn left after the little bridge, can’t miss it if you’re sober.”

Stoned, they didn’t miss it. They pulled up to the farm house and knocked on the door. A small, bearded, wizened man came out.

“You’re Carl Sandburg,” Dylan said, not asking. “I’m Bob Dylan. I’m a poet, too.”

“How nice,” Sandburg said, his smile saying another kid who wants to be a poet. But he tried to be gracious and said, “Come, sit a while.” Mrs. Sandburg joined them, smiling but not saying anything.

“I’ve written some songs, Mr. Sandburg,” Dylan said. “I know Woody Guthrie, he’s very sick in a hospital, he talked about you a lot. Got some songs here I’d appreciate you listening to.” He handed Sandburg one of the albums and the poet took it and said, “That’s wonderful,” but it was clear he was simply being polite. They chatted awhile, Dylan rambling on about folk music, and his own songs and poems, and subtly telling Sandburg he was a young poet and Sandburg should recognize him because he recognized Sandburg as an older poet. And Sandburg smiled at this scruffy kid promoting his album, hyping himself as a poet, Sandburg polite but not particularly interested.

After about ten minutes Dylan said, “Well, gotta go. Nice meeting you,” and he turned and skipped down the steps and into the car. His entourage piled in after him and they drove off, quickly, Dylan slouching down in the front seat, very quiet, staring straight ahead. Someone handed him a joint and he puffed deeply and said nothing. He was obviously annoyed at his encounter with Sandburg, hurt that the poet had never heard of him.

[President_dudley]

wa'all lord-a-mercy that is something else. Put me in mind of Mr Sandburg's "The American Songbag", a 1927 collection of songs complete with notation, which included this (released in 1959):

Carl Sandburg sings "Careless Love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Sbnp6Dby0

[allowing or acknowledging that my mind can use a good sharp elbow from time to time, or a nudge]

___
rdd

[Marc Catone]

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 3:41:40 PM UTC-5, khematite wrote:

I was at the Sandburg home about 8 years ago. They've preserved it as it was in the 60s. What a library he had...And the place has dozens of goats. His wife did studies on goat breeding.

[Willie]

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 3:41:40 PM UTC-5, khematite wrote:

And shortly after, in a rain and lightning storm, didn't Bob write Chimes of Freedom?

[khematite]

Clinton Heylin finds the origins of the song a bit more complicated than that, with Dylan having already done some essential spadework for it at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Toronto, prior to the famous road trip. But it must have been completed on that trip since Dylan performed it for the first time on February 15, 1964 in Denver, four days after leaving New Orleans. As for Dylan's ducking into a doorway during a storm, so far as I know, no co-duckee has ever come forward to corroborate that story. Which doesn't necessarily mean that the story isn't true, however.

https://tinyurl.com/qqruxxy

[mrzod...@gmail.com]

Thank you, quite interesting....

[Willie]

I checked out the Victor Maymudes book "Another Side of Bob Dylan" (transcribed from tapes Maymudes made by his song Jacob Maymudes), thinking it would shed more light on "Chimes of Freedom," since Victor was along on that road trip. But, after a disappointingtly brief account of the visit with Sandburg, he just says that Dylan and Pete Karman, a reporter friend of Suze Rutolo, "bickered" about poetry (Karman had asked Bob "How do you write the stuff you do when you don't even understand what it means?") Maymudes goes on, "Bob didn't say a word, and just went back to writing. He was punching in words to 'Chimes of Freedom.'" This was between North Carolina and Atlanta. The book/tapes does/do say, a couple of pages later, "While bob was onstage at the Denver folklore Center, he debuted 'Chimes of Freedom' and the crowd was very responsive." That's it for Chimes, unfortunately.

The most interesting thing in the book, I thought, was his detailed account of Bob's motorcycle accident, which we discussed several years ago, and which Stephan debunked.

[President_dudley]

Groovy. I've been thinking about reading the Maymudes book but i've gotten hung on Lowside of the Road, Hoskyns' work on Tom Waits.

So i have nothing to add to the discussion, but hear's something more on Chimes:

Bob Dylan - Chimes Of Freedom [Bill Clinton Inauguration Concert - 1993]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HM4CBW56eQ

[Willie]

Way cool (if mostly unintelligible). Bill and Hillary seemed delighted. Not sure about Chelsea. I don't remember it, though I must have seen it.

[Will Dockery]

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 3:41:40 PM UTC-5, khematite wrote:
>

Great reading, and a fond reminder of how much Anthony Scaduto defined Dylan for many of us early 1970s newcomers.

[Mr Zod]

Agreed and seconded...