Member-only story
A Very Dylanesque Trick To Writing.
Like boxers, you have to let your hands go.
“If you wait for inspiration, you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” Dan Poynter
Bob Dylan was once asked where his songs came from. “No idea,” he replied. Mozart told Antonio Salieri the same thing, which irritated Salieri to no end. The movie “Amadeus” was based on the idea that Salieri inadvertently killed Mozart out of jealousy.
I’ve been jealous of Dylan for over fifty years. I’m sure thousands of writers and musicians feel the same way. You’d think at least one of us would snap, but nobody’s killed Dylan so far (he’s a tough guy to find at the best of times).
When The Band was working on “Music From Big Pink,” they rehearsed in the basement of a pink house near Bethel, New York. It’s rumoured Dylan owned the house, and liked writing upstairs while The Band practised downstairs. Robbie Robertson sometimes sat with Dylan. He observed how Dylan wrote in a continuous flow, allowing words to take shape on their own.
Most of us worry more about being a hack than we do about writing.
“I realized Bob was never saying to himself, ‘What should I write?’” Robertson said. “Everything seemed organic with him. I started doing the same thing. Just…
