Bob Dylan sold all of his songs today. His songs are a house he has been building for 60 years. There are over 600 rooms in that house. Each room has its own story. Some of the rooms have a desk with a Corona typewriter. Some rooms have legal pads and old pens. In one of the rooms the bathtub is still full of warm water that no one has let out. In another room there is an old black leather coat in the closet that smells of cigarettes. There is a small picture of Woody Guthrie in one of the oldest rooms. Dylan used to visit Woody during his last years when he was at the Greystone Park State Hospital and play Woody Guthrie songs for him. They didn’t talk much. Dylan wrote “Song For Woody” in that room with its peeling yellow wallpaper. Dylan didn’t put locks on any of the rooms. We were always allowed to come and go as we pleased. Once I saw Dylan running down the hallway on the third floor but when I called out he didn’t stop. I ran to the window and saw him getting into a car, rolling up the window and driving away.
Have you ever been in the “Blind Willie McTell” room - it is a killer. I hung out for a long time in the “Things Have Changed” room a couple of years ago. I took a picture in the “Isis” room - that room is such a mystery to me. There is a chipped mirror hanging behind the door in the “My Back Pages” room. I liked seeing my reflection in the same mirror Dylan had seen his. There is an old rattling radiator in the “Girl From the North Country” room. It is always winter when you look out of that window.
The house is huge. It is one of the biggest houses ever built. He built that house, then painted that masterpiece all by himself. I guess he was not that attached to it anymore. He just got a realtor and sold it. What is he going to do with all that cash? Maybe spend the rest of his days rolling quarters. My shot of Rolling Thunder in Providence 11/4/75. Prints available.
