Not long ago, Bob Dylan performed a version of Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl classic, "Do Re Mi," as part of "The People Speak," the film inspired by the work the late Howard Zinn. Backed only by Ry Cooder on guitar and Van Dyke Parks on piano, Dylan gave a particularly affecting rendition, which can be seen here (no embed available):

Bob Dylan: Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi".

The performance is soaked with a piercing sense of mortality -- and not just the mortality of the individual, vividly embodied in the wreck of Dylan's voice, his age-ravaged looks, and the ghost of the now long-dead Woody Guthrie that hovers over the scene. What is also conveyed most powerfully -- and, I think, deliberately on Dylan's part -- is the mortality of an entire culture, a moral stance, an understanding of the world.

The moral universe that Guthrie's songs evoked, the moral grammar which formed the spiritual infrastructure of the songs and the viewpoint they put across -- all this is almost completely lost to us now. Not perhaps in their inmost core, which boils down to this ancient message: "Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the sorrowful, blessed are the persecuted and oppressed, for truth and justice are on your side; but woe to the rich, the filled, the powerful -- because one day your kind will get what's coming to them." This is, in fact, the same message that Dylan delivered to Barack Obama in the White House a few weeks ago, singing -- in the same elegaic tone he employed in the Guthrie song -- of lines being drawn, curses being cast, and declaring to the Chief Executive of the land that "the first one now will later be last."



But the flesh and blood of the world from which these songs emerged -- the cultural, social, historical zeitgeist that formed them, and informed them with the rich, ragged detail of a lived reality -- all of this has passed from the scene now. The still-smoldering, radioactive half-life at the core of the message may linger on -- and may one day (or even now) be clothed in new forms. Yet the specific physical, spiritual, historical circumstances that gave this particular moral grammar its tremendous power are gone.

This is what Dylan recognizes, and acknowledges both in the Guthrie song and in his own song -- from the now-vanished moral universe of his now-vanished youth -- that he sang at the White House. It is almost as if a revenant had appeared to sing the threnody at his own funeral.

But it is a revenant -- and a song -- and a moral universe -- still glowing with that radiation of truth and meaning: a power to be passed on and renewed in other forms, and embodied, richly, raggedly, in a new reality.

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par4 said:

	... Chris, He also sang that it's always darkest just before the dawn.
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February 27, 2010
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john kelley said:

... Something else Dylan recognized... from one of my favorites, 'Highway 61 Revisited'... "Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored He was tryin' to create a next world war He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before But yes I think it can be very easily done We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun And have it on Highway 61." ....... On the bright side... Max Keiser(maxkeiser.com)reports that the futures in-trade contracts on the probability of war with Iran are trending down.

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February 27, 2010
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seeweed said:

	... "radiation of truth and meaning" - a very, very powerful phrase - excellent article!!
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February 27, 2010
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Jimmy Montague said:

Desolation Row -- Desolation Row doesn't convey the same ideas that Woody Guthrie's Do Re Mi lays out, but Desolation Row speaks for me what I think is presently going on and more precisely how I feel about it. It's nice what you said about Dylan, Chris. When he is finally gone he'll leave a bigger hole in our universe than we'll ever be able to fill. I don't think they make 'em like Dylan any more.

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February 27, 2010
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Donald L. Smith said:

	More Fools in the Throne Room are Needed... As the years pass, I am more amazed that an artist of Mr. Dylan's ability has such a wide voice. His moral anger is colored by love of life. He is one of the people I would choose to represent that which is best in humanity.
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February 27, 2010
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Bill Jones said:

	Donald Smith "He is one of the people I would choose to represent that which is best in humanity" You are wrong on this Dylan is a massively talented artist, poet, social commentator and musician but if you look at his personal life you will find that he, like so many of us, is deeply flawed.
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February 27, 2010
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Bill Jones said:

	Congratulations, Chris On finding an opportunity to use the word threnody. It's been one of those tucked into the back of my mind that I've never found an opportunity to use, that's fallen into desuetude, like, I guess, desuetude. My question is Silber or Haiti for my modest tax refund?
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February 27, 2010
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mandt said:

	... "But it is a revenant -- and a song -- and a moral universe" Brilliant, poignant and powerful. Thanks
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February 27, 2010 | url
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Art James, bebop-o, GoodCelery! said:

Howdy, Jimmy Montague. When I read you I think of war-wound & Mical de' M Montague. M. de' M. - His immortal Spirit has soared beyond the horizon. He's probably ministering today via Ya inner pot-belly & Spirit. ` Chris reminds me of agrarian Wendell Berry with inner Spirit. Berry is lanky, on Earth's Stage, and NO wimp-politico slouch. C. Floyd may be behind a plow-mule if Mr. Edsel had a say. tease. I know Your parents, and former living Voices are glad Ya here. Bob Dylan, for some reason, reminds me of poet Gary Snyder. Berry and Snyder share dark-humor, Friends, who raise Voice. If you ever witness them on stage, their laughter's therapeutic. ` M. de' Montague, in the day of muddy wagon wheel rut? ALIVE. He's write:`Powers will legislate a new law:`Be SCARED, POOP! Run down streets. Piss and crap at the SAME-SAME time. RUN! People today still empower others. This song brings tears. In 2007 (?) Bob was in Frederick, Maryland. I took the crew. My daughter led a farm rebellion. No Bob No Farm No More! Mutiny. Great lazy Farmers, and my daughter talked me into Dylan. Dylan was wonderful. Press scribbled weird - odd reviews It was obvious the critics from the local Press were Creeps. Spiritually dark immaterial souls? My daughter was there. We began dancing a farmer yodel-holler-gig and loved. The Dylan stage was set-up at a baseball stadium field. To avoid crowds pushing to get as close as they could- My daughter and I moved to center field and did a jig. I looked around and many-many joined in to`Boogie. ` The MEMORY brings tears. But, we were also celebrating. Happy-Healing-Tears. Thanks Chris. I tell folk to read Ya. I also ask People to NOT read blogs. Keep plow-plodding. ` Prepare for hard days, and they are coming down the pike. ` After a Kentucky ACRES - A VOICE IN ECO-AGRICULTURE. www.acresusa.com // a winter farm workshop in 2007 //, I stopped off on a rainy Sunday, and I walked graveyards. My town settlers are rumored to have traveled to Kentucky. The County name is the same-same. They hunted Indians? That's what our local history archives record. It may be false? Port Royal has similar architecture. I was amazed. Beautiful! I went to Port Royal, Kentucky. I saw Wendell Berry's Place. I wondered and read tombstones. I can't find thee words. I saw the River, the flock of sheep, the Sycamore Trees. I saw the writers shack Wendell Berry sits in to write. The small 'shack' looks out over the Flowing Water. ` "YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS ARE OUT OF YOUR HAND." If Ya wish to read of Berry's Sycamore poem, it can't hurt. I use to zerox *Sycamore* poem and hand it to`Nam vets. ` Berry spoke at the Acres conference. One time in the 80's, I spent three days at a pre-release of HARLAN HUBBARD. Anne and Harlan is worth knowing. Berry wrote of them. Wendell Berry had access to Harlan's ` Diary Recording. Harlan and Anne live on within those devoted to`Truth Kentucky Professor Berry teaches English at the` U. of K.. The Blazer Lecture Series sponsors environment causes. It stimulates curiosity, exploration of idea and knowledge. I am just saying ... Dylan, despite dress, the raspy VOICE- Beyond the horizon he etc., will be Thanked and valued. He etc., Speaks a VOICE ref. war, and impoverished creep. He may not be a lawyer, blogger, farmer, journalist, Etc., Great! Mortality! Immortality! Humor will be missing post-creeps-croak. Immortality! I've replayed and replayed. Downloads are slow. Thanks. Jimmy Montague. NO need to apply mascara for St Pedro. You can be deaf and laugh at Chinese jokes @ the Capital. Don a straw conical hat at Tiananmen Square? Year 3010. Wear your conical hat backwards. Play football soccer too. de' Montague request `NO get in Kick-Match with mules. Mules, donkeys, and elephants (politicos) pass stink gas. No keep gazing at the pretty people in the grandstands. Keep your eyes on the black and white soccer foots`ball.

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February 28, 2010
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scott douglas said:

... Chris, this saddened me, deeply. It sent me to the Loutzi, which I rarely consult, now, in this age of hyper-madnes - when the ultimate power of Nature is just another throw-away thought...But I went. I communed...I couldn't find there any verse that held the poignancy of watching Dylan sing this iconic song to the deaf monsters in his audience...Such a pointless tragedy we watch unfold! Perhaps to be counted with the righteous is some consolation...Still, we score Zimmerman; but who will testify for us...?

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March 01, 2010
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Gabe Gabriel said:

... .. When a great wordsmith comes around it is inspiration to observe. Dylan is one of those. The broken voice is like one crying out from the grave in its last effort to force memories of an earlier time when the young spoke loud in the streets, and change actually seemed possible, and actually happened to the words of Dylan in music. The 60s Poet seemingly dying inside as his words struggle and search for the energy of his youth to hang upon just one more time, might someone listen one more time? Might change be energized one more time? To watch Dylans performance in these current times is the mirror image of a self portrait of ourselves as we see what could have been, to what we have become.

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March 03, 2010
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