I've never paid much attention to "The Basement Tapes" until recently.

[LuckyCharms]

I became a huge fan of The Band very early in life...early 70s. I had a lot of The Band's albums, but not this one.

The Basement Tapes were made in the basement of "Big Pink", a pink house in in West Saugerties, New York. Literally made in the basement by The Band and Bob Dylan after Dylan's motorcycle accident.

The recordings are a little muddy, but in a good way. I've been playing the whole album repeatedly. The songs touch my heart and fill me with joy.

"You ain't goin' nowhere" has many different versions, but my favorite version is on The Basement Tapes.
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Clouds so swift, rain won't lift
Gate won't close, railing's froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain't goin' nowhere

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh-ho, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair?

I don't care how many letters they sent
The morning came, the morning went
Pack up your money, pick up your tent
You ain't goin' nowhere

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh-ho, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair?

Buy me a flute and a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself to a tree with roots
You ain't goin' nowhere

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh-ho, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair?

Now Genghis Khan, he could not keep
All his kings supplied with sleep
We'll climb that hill, no matter how steep
When we come up to it

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh-ho, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair?

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[cachukis]

1. Great tune. Have not revisited in years. Big Band fan.

But as I was reading the lyrics, I reviewed my time as a poet. Never considered the end until the end. I think Updike wrote or said he wrote with the ending in mind. I have read that strategists contemplate the ending and work back which makes our times troubling.
I always thought Dylan wrote with passion but the passion outweighed the message. He threw art on the ear and left it to us to extract meaning.
Ezra Pound wrote to expand our wisdom. Elliot to paint an intense image to challenge our thought process.
"Goin Nowhere," is held together by the refrain and the reality we are often stuck.
Wonder if it unfolded or he planned the mini vignettes.

[LuckyCharms]

2. Dylan and Robert Hunter write in the same style...

Whenever Hunter was asked what his lyrics mean, his reply was always "Whatever you want them to mean".

Probably the same with Dylan.

I struggle so hard to write poetry. That's probably why I can't write it. I think that stuff just has to flow out of you. I don't have that internal ability, and I wish I did. I view it as something you can't think about too hard to create. It either comes out, or it doesn't. In my case, it doesn't.

[The Roux Comes First]

3. An Amazing Amount of Creativity in Those Recordings

And especially entrancing for how far outside the route so much of contemporary R&R was following at the time. Some of the richest musical ore ever!

[LuckyCharms]

4. Agree 100%.

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