The Coyote’s Call and the Bulldog’s Bark

What about the tomcat’s meow an’ milk cow’s moo

An’ the train whistle’s moan . . .

Here is a slideshow of “Dylan’s Village” from The Telegraph. These are the places where he immersed himself in the ecstacy of influence, where he honed his skills in the fine art of the intertext, a staple of the blues/folk traditions.

This post contains (mostly) Dylan “intertexts”––lines from his songs (some slightly altered) used in this blog’s  If I Was a Master Thief series. (click below)

A List of (Mostly) Dylan Lines Used as Intertexts in the Serialized Post “If I Was a Master Thief Perhaps I’d Rob Them”:

• “If I was a master thief perhaps I’d rob them” –– “Positively 4th Street”
• “They’re planting stories in the press” –– “Idiot Wind”
• “God knows when, but you’re doin’ it again” –– “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
• “rumors all over town” –– “Tell Me That It Isn’t True”
• {“It’s no capital crime” –– Rolling Stones, “Stray Cat Blues”}
• “Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is” –– “Ballad of a Thin Man”
• “forever young” –– “Forever Young”
• “You’re very well read, it’s well known” –– “Ballad of a Thin Man”
• “master thie[ves]”–– “Positively 4th Street”
• “You’ve got a lotta nerve” –– “Positively 4th Street”
• “To live outside the law, you must be honest” –– “Absolutely Sweet Marie”
• “Businessmen, they drink my wine” –– “All Along the Watchtower”
• “Don’t look back” –– Don’t Look Back (the Film)/”She Belongs to Me”/”Pressing On” (also, Satchel Paige)
• “The pump don’t work ’cause the vandals took the handles” –– “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
• “(She’s a humdinger, Folk singer, Dead ringer, For a thing-a-muh jigger)” –– “I Shall Be Free”
• “I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them” –– “Maggie’s Farm”
• {“[Shakespeare as a child] was in somebody’s English class, wasn’t he? How annoying would that be? ‘Must try harder. . . . And stop speaking like that. It’s confusing everybody'” –– Ken Robinson, Ted Talk}
• “lonesome hobo” –– “I Am a Lonesome Hobo”
• “mixed up confusion” –– “Mixed-Up Confusion”
• “there’s too many people, and they’re all too hard to please” –– “Mixed-Up Confusion”
• “Her sin is her lifelessness” –– “Desolation Row”
• “Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall” –– “The Times, They Are a-Changin’”
• “helpless like a rich man’s child” –– “Temporary Like Achilles”
• “Everybody must get stoned” –– “Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35”
• “If you don’t underestimate me, I won’t underestimate you” –– “Dear Landlord”
• {“freely lend the words we freely borrow” –– Lord Tennyson, “Ode on the Funeral of the Duke of Wellington”}
• “[throw] it all away” –– “I Threw It All Away”
• “well understood” –– “Most of the Time”/”One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)”
• “Nothing is revealed” –– “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest”
• “Hey Woodie Guthrie, I wrote you a song” –– “Song to Woody”
• “let me follow you down” –– “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”
• “walking the roads others have gone down, seeing their worlds of people and things” –– “Song to Woody”
• “godalmighty world” –– “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”
• “Hollow man looking in a cotton field” –– “Dignity” (used in this “bibliography” post)
• “the coyote’s call and the bulldog’s bark” –– “My Life in a Stolen Moment” (title for this post)

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