(from John Bauldie)
How come my last message on this didn't post? (Or if it did, here's a slightly different version of it).
The episode with the shoes in Tangled Up In Blue is a direct parallel of the scene in Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf when suicidal Harry Haller calls in to The Black Eagle and the pretty and pale dancing girl takes him in hand. Her immediate attention is given to Harry's shoes - she tells him off about them being so dirty, as if he's walked all the way from Paris. At the start of the Dylan song, the narrator is on the road, rain falling on his shoes, which clearly must be in a bad state by the time he reaches the topless place . . . Interested parties may explore further parallels in the encounter and the song for themselves.
And here's a very strange parallel. A song by David Blue, Train To Anaheim, on his Nice Baby & The Angel album, which predates Tanged Up In Blue by at least three years, presents a relationship, a basement flat, lots of rain, and concludes with the exclamation "Me I'm still on the road . . ." One day I may write my definitive Strange Things In David Blue Songs essay. The stuff about Sara (in David Blue's poem/song Sara) is really weird.
And, to get back to a point, there's lots of Bob-type stuff in Hesse's books. One day I may write my definitive Siddharta/Lay Down Your Weary Tune essay . . .
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