So long, it’s been good to know yuh
I’ve traveled ten thousand miles away from my home
Sailed the seven seas other mariners have crossed
I’ve seen the world rich men have made
Not caring for all the colors of people that live
Your Heart of Darkness, want of possessions
Is known to me, it seeps and enters the body
A cancer, a disease, from the ground that I walk
The air I breathe
I’ve worked and studied since I was a young man, navigated
Copernicus, Galileo, Marx, Lenin, Brecht, Guevara too
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kingsHey, hey Bob Dylan, I hail your name
I’m writing to you about my coming of age
You were there with me and others I knew
You sang our songs, but then lost your way
During the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam war
You were a poet, a prophet, a troubadour
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
You were
The original vagabond
You who are so good with words
It took me a while to figure you out
I was born a decade after you
Your relevance are your protest songs
My blue-eyed son
Born Robert Zimmerman in 1941
Made a pilgrimage to New York City
To meet Woody Guthrie
The Freeweelin’ Bob Dylan make you famous
Three years later you made your choice
The date was electrifying
Now the moon is almost hidden, The stars are beginning to hide
It is said that Pete Seeger ran around with an ax
Hoping to chop electrical cords running to amps
Alan Lomax, perhaps Einstein, Disguised as Robin HoodWith his memories in a trunk
Would have stopped the gig, only helped blow it up
You could have played one of your penny whistles
Naw naw, only your electric violin on Desolation Row
Would do, on this good summer night to metamorphosize
At the crossroads of the Newport Folk Festival, July 25, 1965
You transported forward in time, knowing full well
That you never really intended coming back
An end to idealism, celebrate the times
For the wheel’s still in spin, And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
I believe to my soul, now, poor Bob is sinkin' down
One more set in the folk tradition, don’t ask Bobbie D again
The end of Bob Dylan’s Dream, now’s the time to leave
Pay Devil and Lord both their dues, look to the Beatles, just ask the Kinks
Rock and roll music has no boundaries, can set you free
Can make you rich, only for the asking price, your soul
History first occurs as tragedy and recurs as farce, or vice versa
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain, That we could sit simply in that room again
Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way, once a bargain has been struck
On Desolation Road
'Cause there's not many men that done the things that you've done
You had to know that Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger
Were a part of The Almanac Singers, back in the days
Of the 1940s Communist Party USA and its Popular Front effort
Singing folk songs to striking workers in the Deep South
A communist could be lynched
Took courage for Woody and Pete to sing about what they believed in
This land is your land, and this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
You wrote and sang your new songs in their tradition
I'm a-singin' you this song, but I candt sing enough
The National Guard stands around his door
With fixed bayonets and live ammunition, able and willing to kill
Even white unarmed college girls weren’t safe in the USA
From a 7.62mm NATO round, Kent State University
During the day of May 4, 1970
Four dead in Ohio (I wanna know why)
And the riot squad they're restless, they need somewhere to go
Jackson State College, Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1970
State and local police shot and kill two unarmed Black students and injuring twelve
I want to know why, I want to know why, I want to know why
None of the murderers were tried and convicted
After Delta Blues singers
Hollin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker went electric
And moved north into Chicago and Detroit
The British rock invasion swept into the U.S. in the mid-1960s
White students of African American blues music
Lock-n-load followed rock-n-roll
Everything got more politically serious
U.S. Black nationalism and the Black Power Movement
Led to the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The American Indian Movement in 1968
Reclaimed Tribal identities and led armed occupations
Students for a Democratic Society took the Weatherman underground
In ’69 while planting bombs
Meanwhile in the good ole USA
The land of the free and the home of the brave
U.S. police forces responded with violence and repression
Vigilantes carried weapons that U.S. law enforcement agencies gave to them
Assassinations, beatings, deaths, arrests, imprisonment, were everyday events
The Chicago police department assassinated
A drugged Fred Hampton December 4, 1969
Unconscious and in bed next to his sleeping pregnant girlfriend
The Young Lord’s Lincoln Hospital takeover in the Bronx in 1970
The Black Liberation Army was founded
Attica and the death of George Jackson occurred in 1971
Armed underground political cells became a part of the U.S. landscape
On the orders of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI used COINTELPRO to target
The ascendance of the new Marxist-Leninist left, Edward Hanrahan
The pigs who murdered Fred Hampton and Mark Clark got off scot-free
By that time, you were irrelevant
U.S. inner cities were literally being set on fire
By any means necessary, had become an acceptable method
That white suburbs should, Burn baby burn was not off the table
Ancestors of slaves no longer follow the rules
Hell no, we won’t go, Political power flows out of the barrel of a gun
For the times they are a-changin’
Indeed
Hey, hey Bob Dylan
Your rags to riches story is living the American Dream
My words grow tired and worn and have gotten old with scorn
My dear old friend, you made your peace with the Masters of War
Behind Ray-Bans, inside an ornate western style attire, you smirked
Will everyone please stand and give a rousing applause to our
Medal of Freedom winnerAll the money you made, Will never buy back your soul
End the U.S. Global War On Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom
You sold your soul for a fortune, became a multi-millionaire
Paid Lord and Devil both their due selling the copyrights’ of your music
Only your life’s work would do, Minstrel music man
You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord
Or you can believe in the struggle
All Power To The PeopleLike Judas of old, You lie and deceive
Not the welcoming boos in merry ole Manchester, UK in ‘66
Rather joining the Zionist cause at the Western Wall inside Israel
The Occupied Territories of Palestine in Jerusalem in 1971
Accepting the U.S. Medal of Freedom in 2012
The Nobel Prize for Literature followed in 2016
At times I think there are no words, but these to tell what's true
The prize added to your wealth and fame, While money doesn’t talk, it swears
As your poor old dead, once comrades and friends, Fellow Travelers’
Roll over in their grave, Here’s to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too
Woody and Pete and Phil Ochs too
Folk musicians, who prophesied with a penKnowing that, the chance won’t come again
Here’s to all the great women and the men
That come with the dust and are gone with the windThe Greatest Generation, This Machine Kills Fascists
Red, White, Blue, & Yellow Blues– Take 9
Order of quotations:
So Long, It’s Been Good To Know Yuh -Woody Guthrie
ten thousand miles -Bob Dylan
Heart of Darkness -Joseph Conrad
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings -Bob Dylan
Hey, hey -ibid
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows -ibid
The original vagabond -Joan Baez
You who are so good with words -ibid
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall -Bob Dylan
My blue-eyed son -ibid
The Free Wheeling’ Bob Dylan -ibid
Now the moon is almost hidden -ibid
The stars are beginning to hide -ibid
Einstein, Disguised as Robin Hood -ibid
With his memories in a trunk -ibid
For the wheel’s still in spin, And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’ -ibid
believe to my soul, now, poor Bob is sinkin' down -Robert Johnson
penny whistle -Bob Dylan
electric violin on Desolation Row -ibid
Bob Dylan’s Dream -ibid
History first occurs as tragedy and recurs as farce -Karl Marx
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain, That we could sit simply in that room again -Bob Dylan
'Cause there's not many men that done the things that you've done -ibid
This land is your land, and this land is my land -Woody Guthrie
From California to the New York Island -ibid
I'm a-singin' you this song, but I candt sing enough -Bob Dylan
The National Guard stands around his door -ibid
Four dead in Ohio (I wanna know why) -Neil Young
And the riot squad they're restless, they need somewhere to go -Bob Dylan
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised –Gil Scott-Heron
Weatherman -SDS faction
The land of the free and the home of the brave -Francis Scott Key
pigs -Emory Douglas
By any means necessary -Malcolm X
Burn baby burn -H. Rap Brown
Hell no, we won’t go -Stokley Carmichael
Political power flows out of the barrel of a gun -Mao Zedong
For the times they are a-changin’ -Bob Dylan
American Dream -National ethos of the United States
Masters of War -Bob Dylan
Will everyone please stand and give a rousing applause to our
Medal of Freedom winner -President Baraka Obama
All the money you made, Will never buy back your soul -Bob Dylan
Global War On Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom -U.S. counter-terrorism efforts
You're gonna have to serve somebody -Bob Dylan
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord -ibid
All Power To The People -Black Panther Party
Like Judas of old, You lie and deceive -Bob Dylan
At times I think there are no words, but these to tell what's true -ibid
While money doesn’t talk, it swears -ibid
Here’s to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too -ibid
who prophesied with a pen -ibid
the chance won’t come again -ibid
That come with the dust and are gone with the wind -Woody Guthrie
The Greatest Generation -World War II generation
This Machine Kills Fascists -Woody Guthrie
May 26, 2025, USA
