How it rolled, through the AGES

So I'm youtubing bob dylan "like a rolling stone"
sixties seventies eighties nineties to last year

He never again hit that straight off the blocks peak that was so living in him in the mid sixties
the band's bobdylanband sound was just so good, innocent and shambolic, spacious...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xO0gSJGJ7Fs

but he definitely evolved
cept that he seems to be singing the same song with different lyrics in the same way, belting some country rock mantra over and over, in the seventies at least
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q9-FbvTJJLM
blood on the tracks to slow train coming, sounds like that the whole way through, to me, tho you can smell his sweat on slow train coming.

then there's this, unfortunate
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JVzRUFa5g04

or when he actually became his rolling stoner herself
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zZrdMPbfcSg

but for the SINISTER side of fame, here's an object lesson
http://youtube.com/watch?v=v5kAUw_euvo

until he's phoning it in, literally, and he's become a different species altogether
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gz9aXBnVkew

and just to round the whole thing into ultima-rockstar land, probably the last stop on the rolling stone train (the first stop was so much more interesting, probably like a shot of speed at doctor robert's), there's this
http://youtube.com/watch?v=URF0FNqTjhI

Queen of the Rock, Queen of the Roll

I saw a beautiful photograph today.

It was taken in CBGB's in 1975. Patti Smith is wearing a sleeveless Ronny Wood t-shirt and she's holding court, grooving, dancing. And Bob Dylan is standing beside her, watching her at the centre of things, with a huge warm smile of pure delight, looking healthy and bearded, his hands clasped together tightly at his chest. It is entirely unlike any photograph of the man that I have ever seen. Of course neither of them seem aware of the camera. And even if they were, it was probably taken by a friend.

I'm still thinking about this image. I can hear his laugh, her drawl.