"George quoted Bob like people quote the scriptures"; a small compilation of people talking about//mentioning George Harrison quoting Bob Dylan's lyrics.
Tom Petty in an interview about George [x] // Mark Seliger shares an anecdote about George where he quoted Tangled Up in Blue [x] // Jim Keltner talking about the Traveling Wilburys in an interview about Bob Dylan [x]//Olivia Harrison in the introduction of the extended version of I Me Mine//Bob Dylan interview for Rolling Stone, january 26, 1978 [x]
Maybe i’m literally just fucking crazy but also it feels like a callback to idiot wind
“i woke up on the roadside” “i’ve been sleeping on the road” and then talks about what’s in his head . now obviously the going going gone line is more specific to the fact he’s been on tour for a year during the rolling thunder revue, but still.
and holy fucking shit the line about diamonds and rust. BEFORE it’s all diamonds and rust . he’s saying that he feels he can salvage their relationship and not leave it in this “diamonds and rust” memory, that they can still be friends and have some sort of nuance - but first, for joan’s own good, and bobs, joan has to let go. joan has to stop loving him. and he knows it too, and he’s saying the same to himself too.
the first time he sings this verse he’s more gentle. he also admits that he’s still in love with joan. literally just right then and there. he says i’m in love with you, but you have to understand that freeing yourself means letting go of me. the next time he just says “i’ve been telling you baby”, being a bit more mean and direct. he still calls her baby but it’s still way more like “come on just get over it”.
i think it can also connect to this line from winds of the old days about being set free -
this entire song is about bob, but this line directly references a hard rains a gonna fall. there’s so much analysis to be done of this line and how it’s about bob moving on from protest song and also how bob not only lies to all the reporters, but to his loved ones. “the sixties are over so set him free” means leaving that all behind, and i think yes she’s singing to bob but here she’s singing a bit to herself, saying that her and bob will never be together, it’s no longer the sixties so she needs to let their potential child go. and i think bob is directly responding to this: you want to be free, it’s you who needs to let go, not me. and this goes back to bob Not Taking Responsibility like in a simple twist of fate. i forgot if i yapped about it here but like when joan changed the lyrics to simple twist of fate, bob was originally just “i was born too late blame it on a simple twist of fate” but joan said basically i’m better than this, she adds “i was born too late to blame it on a simple twist of fate”, meaning i’m not just going to simply blame it on fate, i know what i’ve done and i’ve taken my own actions. and bob does the same thing here, he refuses to acknowledge that he also initiated shit with joan . and holy fucking shit this song is insane
Miss O'Dell: Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton / Romeo and Juliet; Dire Straights / If Not For You; George Harrison and Bob Dylan / George Harrison for Creem magazine; 1987 / Tom Petty for Rolling Stone; 2002 / Romeo and Juliet; Dire Straights / Bob Dylan for Rolling Stone; 2001
George Harrison in A Hard Day's Night (1964) Directed by Richard Lester
John Lennon, George Harrison, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Boyd, Cilla Black and Twiggy at the opening of Apple Boutique, December 5, 1967, taken by Terry O'Neill. ㅡ From the book "THE BEATLES" by Terry O'Neill.
Do you think a lot about george mentioning "and bob could play something" when he tried to explain an example of how a wilburys tour could be and then after george died bob played something or you're mentally stable
Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Thunder Revue—Harvard Square Theater, Cambridge, MA, November 20, 1975 © Ken Regan.
John Lennon & Eleanor Bron during a press conference in Salzburg, Austria | 13 March 1965 (II)
Joan Baez & Bob Dylan, Newark, New Jersey, 1964 © Daniel Kramer.
George Harrison’s handwritten lyrics for ‘Art of Dying’
‘Art Of Dying’ is believed to have been written by George Harrison in 1966, but was not recorded until 1970.
Harrison’s original handwritten lyrics reveal mentions of Brian Epstein. In the final version, released on Harrison’s 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass, ‘Mr Epstein’ was reborn as ‘Sister Mary.’
The Beatles. Magical Mystery Tour. Newquay, Cornwall. 13 September 1967.