Any connections between Bukowski and Bob Dylan?

[Montana]

I don't know of any; but this line from one of Bob's little known songs sometimes reminds me of Buk.

"Oh, the only decent thing I did when I worked as a postal clerk
Was to haul your picture down off the wall near the cage where I used to work.
Was I a fool or not to try to protect your identity?
You looked a little burned out, my friend,
I thought it might be up to me."

....bobdylan.com/moderntimes/songs/uptome.html

This song would have been written in the mid-70s...a few years after Post Office had come out.

 

[cirerita]

B. wrote a throwaway poem titled "Bob Dylan", putting Dylan down, of course ;)

 

[Montana]

Do you have the poem?

I've never seen it, would love to read it though.

 

[mjp]

Was I a fool or not to try to protect your identity?

I thought the line was, "Was I a fool or not to protect your real identity?" Maybe I'm remembering it wrong. But I think bobdylan.com has it wrong.

I know because I'm really old, you see.

 

[Father Luke]

at least I heard your bluebird sing.

(thanks to mjp for the photo)

 

[mjp]

Well there's your connection right there.

 

[dogdice]

who's the fat bloke with the beard ?

 

[Short Bus]

I recall Buk saying he (from faullty memory) that he preferred Donavon over Dylan-felt Dylan was a poser.
He had that one backwards-at least Dylan never wrote a song call Neutronica or me me me me I love you

 

[dogdice]

more of a sibelius man I think.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

"Up to Me" was left off of Blood on the Tracks due to time constraints (or corporate greed), and that's a good testament to the strength of that album, as Up to Me is a great song. I've loved it ever since I got Biograph in 1985.

I never made a connection between the postal clerk reference and Buk, but it could be inspired Post Office. Then again, Dylan used a large number of obscure references to all sorts of things plucked from the ether.

 

[Montana]

Thanks for all the replies. Actually, I recently found out via Google that Dylan read Buk's poem 'A Radio With Guts' on his Theme Time radio show discussing the theme of 'radio'...

 

[Erik]

Thanks for all the replies. Actually, I recently found out via Google that Dylan read Buk's poem 'A Radio With Guts' on his Theme Time radio show discussing the theme of 'radio'...

He also quotes Buk on the jail-theme program, you know the one that goes:

"I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there".

 

[bernard stachman]

I dont think buk really rated BD. He said he only wrote one good poem about a tree or something hehehe

 

[cirerita]

Here's the poem I mentioned a few days ago. I recalled it was a pretty bad poem, but I found it quite funny while re-reading it today.
https://bukowskiforum.com/showthread.php?p=25530#post25530

 

[Garret]

In Women, Chinaski gets into a car with Valerie (the jewish women, I think thats her name--I could be wrong) and the radio was blasting a song by Bob Dylan.

Up until this post, that was the only Bob Dylan reference I heard Buk make.

 

[dogdice]

Bob Dylan said on his "theme hour" radio show tonight that Bukowski was a "fat old bore who couldn't write his way out of a paper bag."

I thought it was a bit harsh myself.

 

[bernard stachman]

Bob Dylan said on his "theme hour" radio show tonight that Bukowski was a "fat old bore who couldn't write his way out of a paper bag."

from a man who rates Ginsberg. Case rested

 

[GDPR 4124]

Over at the Bob Dylan forum "Expecting Rain" I found some bits form Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" where he reads Bukowski, an excerpt from "Radio with Guts" and "Some People" in it's entity. Priceless stuff.



I love how Dylan ends it all:

"Charles Bukowski, what else?"

"Charles Bukowski, voice of the madmen."

That phrasing...

 

[Black Swan]

nice find, Ghado!

 

[roni]

thanks, baby.

 

[vanzeller]

who's the fat bloke with the beard ?

On the right? Alan Ginsberg.

On the left? Dunno.

 

[gbsupbowl]

i think michael mcclure and robbie robertson

 

[The Boy in a Well]

Well there's your connection right there.

Is the Dylan, Ginsberg and Bukowski photo real or not?

 

[hoochmonkey9]

No.