The Perfect Voice [I] What can I say about Bob Dylan? That some strange, authentic light passed into him from blind bluesmen on corners, singing their stories of trains and chains and hope; blind bluesmen, miles from any college or guitar academy, with the wind
An exceptional tribute, extremely lyrical. The depth of Mr. Mc Carthy's knowledge and the intensity of his passion, for America’s greatest songwriter, will not be questioned by those who have chanced upon his moving tribute to Bob Dylan.
The type of knowledge presented in this loving tribute isn’t acquired, it’s accrued. It’s not a dry litany of objective truths previously documented by mere biography. It’s deeper than that. “The Perfect Voice” is a lyrical outpouring of subjective truths, truths that are validated by the intensity of Mc Carthy’s individual relationship to the masterpieces realized by Dylan’s genius. An authentic relationship such as this, only accrues after a lifetime—and only if it’s a poet’s lifetime— immersing his or her self in the works and life of a great poet who may be just a song and dance man…or the man who happens to be the final flickering beacon of creative sanity in an insane world gone wrong.
So thank you, Mr. Mc Carthy for writing this exceptional tribute to the poetic outlaw who shaped the creative lives of so many poets, who first realized the power of words when they heard Dylan over the radio, and he was asking his fellow travelers, who were watching the sixties erase what had been etched in stone: “How does it feel? To be on your own? Like a complete unknown? Like a rolling stone?” Mr. Mc Carthy’s tribute helps us understand the answer to that question.
Patrick, I am very moved, but not totally surprised that you wrote this amazing comment, which I consider to be another tribute to Dylan, because true Dylan followers have always been very articulate people who understood what was going on in his work when the big crowds deserted him from time to time . They (and I include you and me and all of the people who have commented here) know, beyond doubt, that Dylan is the ultimate creative artist and that the world won't see another like him for a long, long time, if ever. Dylan is, and has been since he started back in '61, the Mozart of our time, and that he's not done yet.
Thank you so much for writing this comment and for including it here. Would you consider restacking my post with your comment? I'd love other readers to read what you have just written about him. Let's honour, in whatever way we can, the greatest poet/songwriter of our time while he's still here - still with us - and still writing exceptional songs!
Thank you so much, Patrick, for restacking that. It even brought a few interested readers to my own personal website to view the comments there. As far as I'm concerned, the more people that listen to Dylan and read what he has done, the better off the world will be.
The chapbook is incredibly beautiful, and I am thrilled with the quality of the paper. There’s nothing cheap or mass-produced about these wonderful little books. I absolutely love my copy, and I’m sure you will too.
It's so wonderful of you to say that! I hope you liked the few black and white pictures I selected for inclusion in it. I was thinking of this line from 'Born in Time' when I did so: 'You come back to me in black and white when we were made of dreams.'
I love the black and white photos! It gives it a classic look that colored photos would not fully provide. I also love your reasoning for going with black and white photos—a profound idea inspired by profound lyrics!
When Dylan first started writing songs - especially protest songs - back in the early sixties, under the influence of his then girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, who was an active pacifist, he tended to see the world in stark term of good or evil, wrong or right, black or white, and his song lyrics at the time reflected this. Later his world view became more complicated and his songs reflected this also.
It is interesting to be able to see someone’s worldview change and develop through their art. I guess my worldview is already somewhat complicated, because I don’t necessarily view everything in terms of black and white anymore. It seems that there is much about people and the world in general that is cast in some murky shade of grey.
Yes, our worldviews can become more complicated, but I do think that some truths remain simply either true or false ... black or white. For example, Yeats won't suddenly become a bad poet just because we live on and read a bunch of crazy theories about him by someone trying to make a name for himself.
The same can be said for Dylan himself and his vast catalogue of songs. On the evidence of this alone, he is beyond doubt the greatest songwriter of all time. There is no grey for me in that assessment. It's the same as saying you're my friend - there's nothing grey about that either!
I agree with this as well. There are indeed certain things that are either true or false, such as the value of the work of Yeats and Dylan and other artists like them. And there’s absolutely no grey for me in saying that you are my friend either!
I am delighted to see the masterpiece that is “The Perfect Voice” here on Substack. In my own humble opinion, the more people who read this profound tribute to Bob Dylan, the better. Martin is doing really great work here with republishing his poems as they appeared on The Chained Muse and preserving the comments they received on the original website. I am also very moved to see that Martin has given my original comment on this fine piece the honor of “Top Comment”. Thank you, my friend!
Shannon, thank you for your comment now, and for the original comment which I think is profound, wholehearted and a tribute in itself. As you know, this poem and that comment have travelled a long way together, now they have found another home.
Thank you so much, Martin! You’re most welcome for the comments. This poem and my original comment have indeed traveled a long way together. My comment was first on YouTube, and then I posted it on your website after YouTube deleted my account for reasons best known to themselves. Then I posted it on The Chained Muse when David Gosselin published your fine masterpiece, and now it is here, on your own Substack. It’s pretty amazing if you stop and think about it.
With that being said, I think posting your tribute to Dylan is very timely, given that the “Masters of War” are growing more and more brazen in their attempts to start another major war.
Well, at least, they have no control over where I've posted it this time, and they can't erase it or take it down. The shadow of authoritarianism now looms over everything.
Martin's poem opened the locks of memory, evoking the full breadth of Dylan's work: Ballad in Plain D, Boots of Spanish Leather, Blood on rhe Tracks, etc.
Bur to me the wonder is that Martin used very fine poetry to commemorate the accomplishments of a seminal composer of poetry and song.
Hello Bob, and thank you so much for you kind comments. They are very much appreciated coming from a poet with your talent. I have been just blown away by some of the poems you've posted recently. All of us 'forever young' guys seem to be finding a great rush of life and energy at the moment. Maybe the Muses are smiling favourably upon us!
I am pleasant surprised that age and a mild tbi have not silenced me. Hesiod tells us that while seated on Mr. Helicon he would watch the Muses dancing and dipping their feet in the spring. In the last year of my Uncle Joe's life he used to be visited by the Virgin Mary, whom noone else could see or hear. For two years now I've suffered from mild speech, aural and visual aphasia. It often makes writing difficult, and embarrassing when in conversation I find myself struggling to complete a thought. But in some ways I think the aphasia pries open a gateway in my mind.
Yes, I think you're right about that 'gateway'. I've noticed that even your prose has become very poetic, unusual, and totally captivating. My mother used to say 'God gives with on hand and takes with the other.' In your case I feel that could easily be reversed: God (or the great spirit) took with one hand and gave something extraordinary on the other.
Thank you so much for your comment, Mike. It is much appreciated. I wrote this tribute for Bob Dylan's 82nd birthday a year ago because I wanted to have it out there where people could read it and appreciate him while he is still with us, still alive, because he is, without doubt, the best songwriter the world has ever known. He started when he was only 15 years old and he is still writing outstanding songs, such as 'Key West', even now. His power and relevance have not diminished in any way. To say that he is a man on a mission, a man with a true calling in life, is almost an understatement.
I sincerely hope that somebody seeing this will actually take up that baton and pay tribute to you as a poet because you, too, have been working tirelessly at your own craft since your were only 15. I was just amazed recently to see the sheer volume of work on your own Substack - all good - and I commend you for it! You and Dylan have a lot in common in that both of you have one very specific purpose in this life. As Yeats said: 'Hearts with one purpose alone seem enchanted to a stone to trouble the living stream.'
I like to think someone will write something about me one day, but then hope does spring eternal. If not, I gave it my best shot. And I like to think some good poems resulted, that may have a chance to survive me. However, I may have fallen a bit short of Mr. Dylan in the earnings category!
You're not done yet. You may live another 30 years. Then you'll need at least another Substack for all the poems you'll have. Hopefully the rewards will follow - especially if one of your poems becomes a hit song. Wouldn't that be great?
I currently have 59 poems set to music by 32 composers, all of whom sought me ought, and that does seems like a recommendation for the musicality of my poetry, but so far no revenues to speak of, alas!
An exceptional tribute, extremely lyrical. The depth of Mr. Mc Carthy's knowledge and the intensity of his passion, for America’s greatest songwriter, will not be questioned by those who have chanced upon his moving tribute to Bob Dylan.
The type of knowledge presented in this loving tribute isn’t acquired, it’s accrued. It’s not a dry litany of objective truths previously documented by mere biography. It’s deeper than that. “The Perfect Voice” is a lyrical outpouring of subjective truths, truths that are validated by the intensity of Mc Carthy’s individual relationship to the masterpieces realized by Dylan’s genius. An authentic relationship such as this, only accrues after a lifetime—and only if it’s a poet’s lifetime— immersing his or her self in the works and life of a great poet who may be just a song and dance man…or the man who happens to be the final flickering beacon of creative sanity in an insane world gone wrong.
So thank you, Mr. Mc Carthy for writing this exceptional tribute to the poetic outlaw who shaped the creative lives of so many poets, who first realized the power of words when they heard Dylan over the radio, and he was asking his fellow travelers, who were watching the sixties erase what had been etched in stone: “How does it feel? To be on your own? Like a complete unknown? Like a rolling stone?” Mr. Mc Carthy’s tribute helps us understand the answer to that question.
Patrick, I am very moved, but not totally surprised that you wrote this amazing comment, which I consider to be another tribute to Dylan, because true Dylan followers have always been very articulate people who understood what was going on in his work when the big crowds deserted him from time to time . They (and I include you and me and all of the people who have commented here) know, beyond doubt, that Dylan is the ultimate creative artist and that the world won't see another like him for a long, long time, if ever. Dylan is, and has been since he started back in '61, the Mozart of our time, and that he's not done yet.
Thank you so much for writing this comment and for including it here. Would you consider restacking my post with your comment? I'd love other readers to read what you have just written about him. Let's honour, in whatever way we can, the greatest poet/songwriter of our time while he's still here - still with us - and still writing exceptional songs!
Thank you so much, Patrick, for restacking that. It even brought a few interested readers to my own personal website to view the comments there. As far as I'm concerned, the more people that listen to Dylan and read what he has done, the better off the world will be.
By the way, if anyone would like to purchase The Perfect Voice Chapbook, I have attached a link to the “Store” part of Martin’s website below:
https://mccarthypoet.com/store/
The chapbook is incredibly beautiful, and I am thrilled with the quality of the paper. There’s nothing cheap or mass-produced about these wonderful little books. I absolutely love my copy, and I’m sure you will too.
It's so wonderful of you to say that! I hope you liked the few black and white pictures I selected for inclusion in it. I was thinking of this line from 'Born in Time' when I did so: 'You come back to me in black and white when we were made of dreams.'
I love the black and white photos! It gives it a classic look that colored photos would not fully provide. I also love your reasoning for going with black and white photos—a profound idea inspired by profound lyrics!
When Dylan first started writing songs - especially protest songs - back in the early sixties, under the influence of his then girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, who was an active pacifist, he tended to see the world in stark term of good or evil, wrong or right, black or white, and his song lyrics at the time reflected this. Later his world view became more complicated and his songs reflected this also.
It is interesting to be able to see someone’s worldview change and develop through their art. I guess my worldview is already somewhat complicated, because I don’t necessarily view everything in terms of black and white anymore. It seems that there is much about people and the world in general that is cast in some murky shade of grey.
Yes, our worldviews can become more complicated, but I do think that some truths remain simply either true or false ... black or white. For example, Yeats won't suddenly become a bad poet just because we live on and read a bunch of crazy theories about him by someone trying to make a name for himself.
The same can be said for Dylan himself and his vast catalogue of songs. On the evidence of this alone, he is beyond doubt the greatest songwriter of all time. There is no grey for me in that assessment. It's the same as saying you're my friend - there's nothing grey about that either!
I agree with this as well. There are indeed certain things that are either true or false, such as the value of the work of Yeats and Dylan and other artists like them. And there’s absolutely no grey for me in saying that you are my friend either!
I am delighted to see the masterpiece that is “The Perfect Voice” here on Substack. In my own humble opinion, the more people who read this profound tribute to Bob Dylan, the better. Martin is doing really great work here with republishing his poems as they appeared on The Chained Muse and preserving the comments they received on the original website. I am also very moved to see that Martin has given my original comment on this fine piece the honor of “Top Comment”. Thank you, my friend!
Shannon, thank you for your comment now, and for the original comment which I think is profound, wholehearted and a tribute in itself. As you know, this poem and that comment have travelled a long way together, now they have found another home.
Thank you so much, Martin! You’re most welcome for the comments. This poem and my original comment have indeed traveled a long way together. My comment was first on YouTube, and then I posted it on your website after YouTube deleted my account for reasons best known to themselves. Then I posted it on The Chained Muse when David Gosselin published your fine masterpiece, and now it is here, on your own Substack. It’s pretty amazing if you stop and think about it.
With that being said, I think posting your tribute to Dylan is very timely, given that the “Masters of War” are growing more and more brazen in their attempts to start another major war.
Well, at least, they have no control over where I've posted it this time, and they can't erase it or take it down. The shadow of authoritarianism now looms over everything.
I agree. Let’s hope Substack will continue to be a platform that supports free speech and will not fall into the wrong hands.
If John Lennon were still alive, he'd have written a song with the line "The Algorithm is going to get you" by now.
Yes, I’m sure he would have. It’s horrible that his life was cut short at such a young age.
Martin's poem opened the locks of memory, evoking the full breadth of Dylan's work: Ballad in Plain D, Boots of Spanish Leather, Blood on rhe Tracks, etc.
Bur to me the wonder is that Martin used very fine poetry to commemorate the accomplishments of a seminal composer of poetry and song.
Hello Bob, and thank you so much for you kind comments. They are very much appreciated coming from a poet with your talent. I have been just blown away by some of the poems you've posted recently. All of us 'forever young' guys seem to be finding a great rush of life and energy at the moment. Maybe the Muses are smiling favourably upon us!
I am pleasant surprised that age and a mild tbi have not silenced me. Hesiod tells us that while seated on Mr. Helicon he would watch the Muses dancing and dipping their feet in the spring. In the last year of my Uncle Joe's life he used to be visited by the Virgin Mary, whom noone else could see or hear. For two years now I've suffered from mild speech, aural and visual aphasia. It often makes writing difficult, and embarrassing when in conversation I find myself struggling to complete a thought. But in some ways I think the aphasia pries open a gateway in my mind.
Yes, I think you're right about that 'gateway'. I've noticed that even your prose has become very poetic, unusual, and totally captivating. My mother used to say 'God gives with on hand and takes with the other.' In your case I feel that could easily be reversed: God (or the great spirit) took with one hand and gave something extraordinary on the other.
It's good to see "The Perfect Voice" getting the recognition it deserves. And its author.
Thank you so much for your comment, Mike. It is much appreciated. I wrote this tribute for Bob Dylan's 82nd birthday a year ago because I wanted to have it out there where people could read it and appreciate him while he is still with us, still alive, because he is, without doubt, the best songwriter the world has ever known. He started when he was only 15 years old and he is still writing outstanding songs, such as 'Key West', even now. His power and relevance have not diminished in any way. To say that he is a man on a mission, a man with a true calling in life, is almost an understatement.
I like the idea of paying tribute to poets while they're alive!
I sincerely hope that somebody seeing this will actually take up that baton and pay tribute to you as a poet because you, too, have been working tirelessly at your own craft since your were only 15. I was just amazed recently to see the sheer volume of work on your own Substack - all good - and I commend you for it! You and Dylan have a lot in common in that both of you have one very specific purpose in this life. As Yeats said: 'Hearts with one purpose alone seem enchanted to a stone to trouble the living stream.'
I like to think someone will write something about me one day, but then hope does spring eternal. If not, I gave it my best shot. And I like to think some good poems resulted, that may have a chance to survive me. However, I may have fallen a bit short of Mr. Dylan in the earnings category!
You're not done yet. You may live another 30 years. Then you'll need at least another Substack for all the poems you'll have. Hopefully the rewards will follow - especially if one of your poems becomes a hit song. Wouldn't that be great?
I currently have 59 poems set to music by 32 composers, all of whom sought me ought, and that does seems like a recommendation for the musicality of my poetry, but so far no revenues to speak of, alas!