Burnside / Parsing 'That's' / Another Case / RE: (TV) Dylan + Ci vil War -- Verlaine too? tv@obbard.com

["Casey, Leo J" <Leo.J.Casey@Volpe.dot.gov>]

>Wasn't there a story that "Words from the Front" was inspired 
>by an incident in the Civil War? 

I always have believed exactly that; in fact, Boston Globe 
reviewer, Steve Morse, wrote in his review of a Verlaine's 
1982 Boston show that Verlaine's original title was "General 
Burnside". 

>Anyone suppose that *that's* **another case** of Verlaine 
>being inspired by Dylan?

Joe T., what does your "that's" refer to?  Does it refer to: 
As Dylan did, Verlaine wrote about historical events? Or are 
you referring to some other aspect?  

Given the ubiquitousness of the Civil War in US culture (and 
its enormity), I doubt very much Dylan had much to do with the 
subject matter AND  frame or of WFTF.  None[?] of Verlaine's 
songs have any 'political' references or a political' context. 
Can't envision him ever trying or wanting to write a song like 
Bruce Cockburn's "I Wish I Had A Rocket Launcher", or Dylan's 
early stuff.

I totally agree with the brilliant MM  List post of eternal PhD 
candidate of Brown U., Jesse Hochstadt :>) , who once described 
Verlaine's strong tendency to use 'impressionistic' lyrics. And 
I agree several old posts by others on Verlaine's lyrics being 
often being: less literal, amorphorous, (deliberately) vague, or 
poetic----making them 'richer' sometimes than other songwriters'.  
'Richer' in the sense of being more open to the listener's 
own interpretation. But, of course, Dylan often writes lyrics 
like as well.


Re:  your " ... **another case**  of being inspired by Dylan". 
I believe many in rock were inspired and influenced by 
Dylan's song writing, even the Stones (e.g., "Beggar's 
Banquet").  What are a few other specific cases of Dylan's 
influence on TV besides performing the cover of "Knockin' On 
Heaven's Door", and indirectly via admiration of Mike 
Bloomfield's session work for Dylan?.  

I forget the author's name (former NY Times writer?) of the 
late 1980's Dylan biography, "No Direction Home" (thought it 
was disappointing), but the book's index listed 'Verlaine' 
occurring on about 4 pages.  

What I recall is that these pages mentioned a few weeks[?] 
in the mid-1970's when Patti Smith and her then-boyfriend, TV, 
hung out with Dylan on his nightly walks and visits around NYC 
(similar--but less frequent---to how Doug Sahm did back then). 
I'd like to know if TV said much or if Patti did most of the 
talking. :>)

Speaking of Dylan, I recently heard Greil Marcus on a Boston/NPR 
radio station discussing for 1 hour his recent book on Dylan's 
"Like A Rolling Stone". Book claims it is the greatest song ever 
written in the history of Western civilization!---maybe even one 
of the greatest works of art ever produced in any form. I never 
knew that the musicians were deliberately kept in the dark about 
the song other than the day before hearing him sing parts while he 
played a piano, or that the musicians didn't really rehearse the 
song [according to Marcus], and that the released version was 
the very first take of the session. 

-----Original Message-----

From: tv-owner@obbard.com On Behalf Of Joe
Thornton
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 4:25 PM
To: TV list
Subject: (TV) Dylan + Civil War -- Verlaine too?
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