24.1.08

the wind began to howl...












Music notes all exist, waiting for someone to order them. That two individuals in different places can think of the same music is an example of what unites people.


         – Krzysztof Kieslowski, French television interview, 1994
            (in reference to Trois Couleurs: Bleu)

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I’ve always believed this to be true. Dylan wrote “All Along the Watchtower,” but it really wasn’t his song. Hendrix heard the song as it should have been written – and performed it. Once Dylan heard Hendrix’ version, he could no longer do the song as he’d written it.

7 comments:

Andrew Shields said...

And it is still hard for me to believe that "All Along the Watchtower," like "The Night They Drive Old Dixie Down," was written in the late 1960s. Those guys were seriously channeling: Robbie Robertson the 1870s, Dylan something more like King Solomon.

"All Along the Watchtower" is pretty much my definitive example of a work of art that is "timeless."

sam of the ten thousand things said...

The album The Band is an amazing document, a wonderful moment in the universe.

There's an interesting cover of "All Along the Watchtower" by Tom Landa and the Paperboys on A Nod to Bob, a birthday, tribute album. Very Celtic.

Collin Kelley said...

The music for Bleu is brilliant. Zbigniew Preisner is a genius. Song for the Unification of Europe from Bleu is a masterwork. And the fact that he and Kieslowski created a fictional historic composer Van Den Budenmayer and made the music so realistic people went searching for him (I did!), that's another stroke of genius.

sam of the ten thousand things said...

The music is such a force in the film - as well as the visual style. Music, certainly, connects all his films - as if he's creating one massive film.

Anonymous said...

yet again, psychic sam! was listening to hendrix's watchtower on the way home from work yesterday. c'est magnifique. very high on my list of all-timers along with dixie, which i listened to *last week*. and, on a *band* note: what do you think of drive-by truckers' "danko/manuel"?
thanks for the vibe, said the joker...

sam of the ten thousand things said...

Can you hear that song? It sounds like gold.
Maybe I could make it bigger overseas.
Fifteen years ago we owned this road
now it only gives us somewhere else to leave.

*

Lines I wish I'd written.

Andrew Shields said...

It's nice to see a reference to "A Nod to Bob"! I'm a huge Greg Brown fan; he does lots of Dylan covers in his shows, and his "Pledging My Time" is one of the highlights of that CD for me.