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By Bill Altreuter

James Thurber used to tell a story about Harold Ross. Thurber was a Henry James aficionado. He'd written a story for The New Yorker called "The Beast in the Dingle" which was supposed to be written in the manner of James. Ross gave back to Thurber after he'd read it and said, "Too damn literary. I only got a third of the allusions." Thurber loved that-- the fact that Ross apparently recognized that there were allusions he didn't "get", and trying to guess which ones he did appealed to something in him. I've always felt the same way about Greil Marcus. Marcus and I are interested in many of the same things, and probably have bookshelves and record collections that look a lot alike, but whenever I read him, even on a topic, like, for example, Bob Dylan, that I am kind of knowledgeable about, I feel like I'm only getting a third of the allusions. Here's what Marcus has to say on the upcoming "Tell Tale Signs" release. The couple of cuts I've heard from it are pretty good, but I mostly have no idea what the hell ol' Greil is on about. (Via Dreamtime.)

The other day we were listening to "Theme Time Radio" on the way home and A. said, "I think I hear Bob Dylan's voice more than anybody else's." She may be right. Last night on the way home from dance LCA was scrolling around on the satellite radio. She stopped when she saw a Dylan song. As it happened it was "Slow Train", which I probably haven't heard since it was first released. "This is from his Jesus-y period," I said. "That's where I got off the bus." "It isn't very good, is it," she said, and I agreed. You can hear what he was trying to get at, I think-- Mark Knopfler's guitar sounds great, but why he felt a gospel chorus was a good idea is one of those mysteries we'll never have an answer to. His wife told him to, I guess. Mostly it's the material that's weak from this period. As good as it gets is "Gotta Serve Somebody", and that's not very good at all. He found it again, though, and that's the material that the new side documents

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).