OCCUPIED COUNTRY

This Wheel's On Fire

Dearest never quite *got* Mr Zimmerman. Sure she appreciated stuff like "Just Like A Woman", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" etc., etc., but the rest of it? "Crap. He can't sing."

Come Monday as we settled down to a couple of hours of Bobdom, Dearest was giving off the unmistakable aura of someone who would rather be watching Holby City, Flog It or even The News. A couple of hours later and she has re-appraised the miserable ol' git. "Actually he's quite good isn't he? And didn't he have a lot of crap to put up with?"

Later (or it might have been Tuesday - old age, it's a bastard), we watched a BBC4 programme that showcased other folk singin' Bob's stuff. Dearest was amazed. Certainly Julie Felix doing "Masters of War" she adored. As for the rest: all I heard was "I didn't know he wrote this?"

"The Mighty Quinn", "This Wheel's on Fire": throw away songs that he couldn't be arsed recording. Dearest was well impressed.

The next day in work D, my colleague who is surprisingly well-versed in all aspects of my era of music, for a forty year old, said: "I didn't know Dylan wrote all them songs like "The Mighty Quinn", "This Wheel's on Fire" etc., etc. He's well impressed with his later stuff as well. Y'see, he hasn't got the inbuilt understanding that later=crap, earlier=better that those of us who grew up with the music have adopted. We live and we learn.

Maybe I need to start samplin' the stuff he has done since "Blood on the Tracks"? After all, if his early music touched the blood and skin and bone of the young buck, maybe his later stuff can nourish me as I creak, cough and crap myself into the twilight years?

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Just found out that the ridiculous 11:15am Sunday morning ko for City v Everton this weekend has been arranged due to the financial gain to be made, by both clubs, in China. Sun Jihai and whatever the Evertonian is called - Lee Tie or something, are such a draw that Manchester City are quite prepared to offset the gate receipts for the TV rights.

Short-sighted twats. I predict a very low - 34,000-ish - crowd.