Bob Dylan Birthday Week Cont'd.

In the early 70s, Loudon Wainwright III was one of the many newcomers tagged as the "next Bob Dylan". Twenty years later in 1992, at the time of Dylan's 50th birthday, LW3 wrote a song to commemorate Zimmy's milestone and also address the impact the marker had on his own career. In typical Loudon Wainwright fashion, the song is introspective, catchy...and a little bit weird. Quite coincidentally, he name drops Bruce Springsteen and John Prine, who are both currently featured with Bob Dylan as part of this week's Photo Monday:


Hey, Bob Dylan, I wrote you a song.
Today is your birthday if I'm not wrong.
If I'm not mistaken you're fifty today
How are you doin', Bob? What do you say?
----
Yeah, times were a-changin',
You brought it all home --
"Blonde On Blonde", "Like a Rolling Stone" .
The real world is crazy, you were deranged,
An' when you went electric, Bob, everything changed --
A shock to the system.
----
Yeah, I got a deal , and so did John Prine, Steve Forbert and Springsteen, all in a line.
They were lookin' for you, signin' up others,
We were "new Bob Dylans" -- your dumb-ass kid brothers.
Well, we still get together every week at Bruce's house --
Why, he's got quite a spread, I'll tell ya -- it's a twelve-step program.
---
Yeah, had to stop listening, times were too tough,
Me bein' the new me was hard enough.
You keep right on changin' like you always do,
An' what's best is the old stuff still all sounds new.