In his celebrated speech last week, Bob Dylan told a lot of truths, none truer than one of his opening lines, when he said his songs "didn't get here by themselves. It's been a long road and it's taken a lot of doing."
That's the case for all of us, I'm afraid. I'm just a little old freelance writer, and sometimes I look back just the last month of my weekly to-do lists ...
... and get to feeling exhausted.* Or as Dylan said it, explaining the source of one of his songs,
If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me—"John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."
If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too.
* Exhausted, and confused. What is "bennies/white paper lick"? I hope that's not important.
If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me -- "John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."
If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too.
- See more at: http://vsotd.com/featured-speech/its-been-long-road-and-its-taken-lot-doing#sthash.0kKtDcDw.dpufIf you sang "John Henry" as many times as me -- "John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."
If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too.
- See more at: http://vsotd.com/featured-speech/its-been-long-road-and-its-taken-lot-doing#sthash.0kKtDcDw.dpuf
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