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  • 24/05/2025
“Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie” è una poesia che Dylan dedica al suo primo idolo, e che recita alla Town Hall di New York nel dicembre 1963.
“Ultimi pensieri su Bob Dylan” è un omaggio al mio primo idolo in occasione del suo cinquantesimo compleanno.
La prima versione del film è infatti del 1991. È andata in onda su RAITRE ed è stata presentata nel 1994 ad AntennaCinema.
Non è stato facile rendere il ritmo e l’intensità del testo che già nell’originale somma le parole quasi con disattenzione, come qualcosa di già sentito di cui restano frammenti, frasi che ricordano altre frasi senza possibilità di ritornare-diventare discorso. Ho deciso allora per una sottotitolazione che privilegia non il tempo di lettura, ma quello di ascolto (più di quattrocento cartelli in sette minuti circa), mentre le immagini costruiscono il percorso immaginario di una fuga, forse.
Il materiale visivo è stato tratto da documentari e da film più o meno noti ma non sempre riconoscibili e, comunque, da non riconoscere.
Trascrizione
00:00Who are you?
00:17That's a good question.
00:30When your head gets twisted and your mind grows numb, when you think you're too old, too
00:40young, too smart or too dumb, when you're lagging behind and losing your pace in a slow motion
00:45crawl or life's a busy race, no matter what you're doing, if you start giving up, if the
00:50wind don't come to the top of your cup, if the wind got you sideways with one hand holding
00:54on and the other starts slipping and the feeling is gone, and your train engine fire needs a
00:58new spark to catch it, and the woods easy finding, but you're lazy to fetch it, and your sidewalk
01:03starts curling, and the street gets too long, and you start walking backwards so you know
01:06that it's wrong, and lonesome comes up as down goes the day, and tomorrow's morning seems
01:10so far away, and you feel the rains from your pony eyes slipping, and your ropes are sliding
01:15because your hands are dripping, and your sun desert and evergreen valleys turn to broken
01:18down slums and trash can alleys, and your sky cries water, and your dream pipes are pouring,
01:24and the lightnings are flashing, and the thunders are crashing, and the windows are rattling and
01:27breaking and the rooftops are shaking, and your whole world is slamming and banging, and
01:31your minutes of sun turn to hours of storm, and to yourself you sometimes say, I never
01:35knew it was going to be this way, why didn't they tell me the day I was born, and you start
01:38getting chills, and you're jumping from sweat, and you're looking for something you ain't
01:41quite found yet, and your knee deep in dark water with your hands in the air, and the whole
01:46world's watching with a window peek stare, and your good gal leaves, and she's long gone
01:49flying, and your heart feels sick like fish when they're frying, and your jackhammer falls from
01:54your hands to your feet, but you need it badly, and it lays on the street, and your bell's banging
01:58loudly, but you can't hear its beat, and you think your ears might have been hurt, or your eyes have
02:02turned filthy from the slight binding dirt, and you figured you failed in yesterday's rush, and you
02:06were faked out in the fool, but facing the fourth flush, and all the time you're holding three
02:09queens, it's making you mad, it's making you mean, like in the middle of life magazine, bouncing
02:14around in a pinball machine, and there's something on your mind that you want to be saying, that
02:18somebody someplace ought to be hearing, but it's trapped on your tongue, sealed in your head, and it bothers you
02:23badly when you're laying in bed, and no matter how you try, you just can't say it, and you're scared
02:27to your soul, you just might forget it, and your eyes get so many from the tears in your head, and your
02:30pillows and feathers turn to blankets of lead, and the lion's mouth opens, and you're staring at his
02:34teeth, and his jaws start closing with you underneath, and you're flat on your belly with your hands tied
02:38behind, and you wish you'd never taken that last detour sign, you say to yourself, just what am I doing
02:43on this road I'm walking, on this trail I'm turning, on this curve I'm hanging, on this pathway I'm
02:49strolling, in the space I'm taking, in this air I'm inhaling, am I mixed up too much, or mixed up too
02:53hard, why am I walking, where am I running, what am I saying, what am I knowing, on this guitar I'm
02:58playing, on this banjo I'm feeling, on this mandolin I'm strumming, in this song I'm singing, in a tune
03:03I'm humming, and the words that I'm thinking, in the words I'm writing, in this ocean of hours I'm all the
03:08time drinking, who am I helping, what am I breaking, what am I giving, what am I taking, but you try with
03:13your whole soul best never to think these thoughts, and never to let them kind of thoughts gain ground,
03:17or make your heart pound, but then again you know when they're around, just waiting for a chance to slip
03:21and drop down, because sometimes you hear them in the night time come creeping, and you fear they
03:25might catch you sleeping, and you jump from your bed from the last chapter of dreaming, and you can't
03:29remember for the best of your thinking if that was you in a dream that was screaming, and you know
03:33that's something special you're needing, you know there's no drug that'll do for the healing, and no
03:37liquor in the land to stop your brain from bleeding, you need something special, you need something
03:41special all right, you need a fast-flying train on a tornado track to shoot you someplace and shoot
03:45you back, you need a cyclone wind on a steam engine howler that's been banging and booming and blown
03:51forever that knows your troubles a hundred times over, you need a greyhound bus that don't bar no
03:55race that won't laugh at your looks, your voice, your face, and by any number of bets in the book
03:58will be rolling long after the bubble gum craze, you need something to open up a new door to show
04:03you something you've seen before but overlooked a hundred times or more, you need something to open
04:07your eyes, you need something to make it known that it's you and no one else that owns, that spot that
04:11you're standing, that space that you're sitting at, the world ain't got you beat, it ain't got you
04:15licked, it can't get you crazy no matter how many times you might get kicked, you need something
04:19special all right, you need something special to give you hope, but hope's just a word that maybe
04:23you said, maybe you heard on some windy corridor around a wide-angle curve, but that's what you need
04:28man, and you need it bad, and your trouble is you know it too good, because you look and you start
04:31getting the chills, because you can't find it on a dollar bill, and it ain't on Macy's windowsill,
04:36and it ain't on a real rich kid's road map, and it ain't made in no fat kid's fraternity house, and
04:41it ain't made in no Hollywood wheat germ, and it ain't on that dim lit stage with that half-wit
04:44comedian on it, ranting and raving and taking your money, and you think it's funny, and you can't
04:48find it neither in no nightclub, no yacht club, and it ain't in the seats of a supper club, and sure as
04:52hell you're bound to tell, no matter how hard you rub, you just ain't gonna find it on your ticket stub,
04:56no, it ain't in the rumors people are telling you, and it ain't in the pimple lotion people are
04:59selling you, and it ain't in the cardboard box house, or down in any movie star's blouse, and you can't find
05:04it on the golf course, and Uncle Remus can't tell you, and neither can Santa Claus, and it ain't in
05:09the cream puff hairdo, or cotton candy clothes, it ain't in the dime store dummies, and bubblegum goons,
05:13and it ain't in the marshmallow noises, or the chocolate cake voices, that come knocking, and
05:17tapping, and Christmas rapping, saying, ain't I pretty, and ain't I cute, look at my skin, look at my
05:21skin shine, look at my skin glow, look at my skin laugh, look at my skin cry, when you can't even sense
05:26if they've got any insides, these people so pretty, and their ribbons and bowls, now you'll not now,
05:31no other day find it on the doorsteps made of paper mache, and inside with the people made of
05:35molasses, that every other day buy a new pair of sunglasses, and ain't in the 50 star generals, and
05:39flipped out phonies, who turn you in for a tenth of a penny, who breathe, and burp, and bend, and crack,
05:44and before you can count from one to ten, do it all over again, but this time behind your back, my friend,
05:48the ones that wheel, and deal, and whirl, and twirl, and play games with each other in the sandbox world,
05:53you can't find it either in the no-talent fools, that run around gallant, make all the rules, so the
05:57ones that got talent, and ain't the ones that ain't got any talent, but think they do, and think they're fooling you,
06:01the ones that jump on the wagon just for a while, because they know it's in style, to get the kicks,
06:05get out of it quick, and make all kinds of money, and chicks, and you yell to yourself, and you throw
06:08that on your hat, saying, Christ, do I got to be like that, ain't there no one here that knows where
06:12I'm at, ain't there no one here that knows how I feel, good God Almighty, that stuff ain't real,
06:17no, but that ain't your game, it ain't your race, you can't hear your name, you can't see your face,
06:21you got to look some other place, and where do you look for this hope that you're seeking, where do you look for
06:25this lamp that's burning, where do you look for this oil while gushing, where do you look for this candle that's
06:29glowing, where do you look for this hope that you know is there and out there somewhere, and your
06:33feet can only walk down two kinds of roads, your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows,
06:37your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways, you can touch and twist and turn two kinds of
06:42doorknobs, you can either go to the church of your choice, or you go to Brooklyn State Hospital,
06:46you find God in the church of your choice, you find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital,
06:51and that's only my opinion, I may be right or wrong, you find them both in Grand Canyon,
06:54and sundown, that's a good question,
07:18are you guys beautiful?
07:24?
07:24?
07:26?
07:27?
07:28?
07:31?
07:31?
07:32?
07:35?
07:36?
07:37?
07:39?
07:41?
07:42?
07:44?
07:45?
07:46Thank you, buddy.

Consigliato