Bob Dylan Simple Twist of Fate Hamilton, Ont. 1992

An extended version featuring some fine guitar work and harmonica by Bob in addition to impassioned vocals.
So extended that the performance unfortunately outlasted my ability to hold the camera steady by a minute or two, but nice until then.
Recorded August 21, 1992 at Hamilton Place in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

[rickcole]

Amazing! Thanks. I was at this show. Great opening act this night, too— Hamilton’s own Junkhouse.

[randytolen]

Amazing guitar and harp work by Bob....beautiful!

[patriciathewisher]

One of his multitude of masterpieces. Always loved it. ❤ So cinematic.

[patriciathewisher]

The seering soaring harmonica melts me.

[horsewnoname]

I've loved this song since hearing it the first time (Blood on the Tracks). Guitar started in grade school for me and by the '70's loved playing Bob's songs I could handle. The last motorcycle injuries paralyzed me, hands were tagged, and my focus was on learning to function with what was left. A year later, I found two Hohners I'd bought a few years earlier and began playing. Awkward at first, things got easy with daily practice and playing along with Bob filled the void of no instrument. That was forty-two years ago and I'm grateful the influence Dylan's music has on me still. A wonderful performance here put me in mind of those days - thanks to the people who find these gems and share them with the world!

[謝育霖-ff]

This is one of my favorite big big song-Simple Twist of Fate, the melody touch me so deeply so sad

[louisemariediemer]

Beautiful Sounds that have really turned me around

[patriciathewisher]

One of the songs he often changes the words of. It’s always fantastic. I love thé Budokan version. Of course BOTT too….

[sarahhettlinger]

This is great…..he takes my breath away…there is nothing like being in the same building, with him, …this is quite fine… thank girl with the BBB

[karmenjazbec]

I AM JUST SMOKING AND DRINKING A COFFE AND LISTENING TO YOU BOB HONEY IT WAS A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE BEETWEN US WE DO NOT NEED RINGS BECAUSE WE ARE TWINS YOU ARE THE LEGEND

[karmenjazbec]

YEAH YOU BOB HONEY AND YOUR BAND ARE THE BEST

[arthurshepherd]

Inspired By The Goddess King of Orion My Everything Shawn Colvin
Inspired by our beloved and infinitely blessed Bob Dylan from ''A Simple Twist Of Fate' or a twist of synchronicity? Both?
Crazy Arthur Loves A Ghost
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Shawn Colvin Crazy on January 12, 2008 by blackshepherd
Crazy Loves A Ghost
–
I’m in love with a ghost
I’m a walkin’ creep show
she’s the one I love the most
I’m a fuckin’ freak show
I’ll be a fool to millions
cause I ain’t got no pride
if my story makes you squirm
then let me take you for a ride
I bleed for real in cyberspace
I cry like the insane
I’m a skyscraper full of windows
with cracks in every pane
the devil gets no sympathy
and I don’t get none neither
forget about empathy
no one wants the crazy fever
but I’ll spill my guts to the masses
when it comes to crazy ain’t no maybes
I don’t need no fuckin’ classes
I’m bit clean through… got the love sick rabies
so have a laugh at my expense
don’t be sittin’ on no fence
I’ll give you front row seats
in my crazy circus tents
cause I love a ghost
and I can’t tell what’s real
I can’t find salvation
in this profession that ha ha heals
today I’m ridin’ up the coast
north to Cambridge town
with a mind as burnt as toast
gonna walk around
with my arms around a ghost

even though I can’t see her
I know her through and through

gonna visit a haunted house
see if the aura’s still hangin’
of the spirit I love the most
it’s like a good head bangin’
when you won’t give up the ghost

–
end
–
Passim – August 29, 2007
Has my poetic license expired yet?

This one was written on the train up to Cambridge one day and maybe at Passim…can’t remember. But clearly it’s of the fantasy variety. Giving oneself over to the feeling of loving someone who’s as good as a ghost…she haunts Passim and Cambridge like she does for people who have loved her wherever she’s gone. So it was a day spent letting that fantasy a little closer even than usual. I actually sent it to her through private messaging on her web-site thinking that maybe she’s get it or at least be amused. She may have been more alarmed…I can never know. But it is just poetry and I was confident that at the end of the day she’d respect that.

I remember now what else I was feeling when I wrote it. It was the time I was getting ridicule on her website…even Ljoy had used the word “creepy”…that did it…didn’t want to be creepy but then I thought: “fuck her” it wasn’t written to or about her anyway…so there’s a lot of “fuck you” in it…it’s like…ok…you think it’s crazy…well chew on this. But I never did post it on her site cause I knew the fans would go ballistic as they did finally…all 6 of them who monopolize the site…fuck you…to them.

I forgot to mention that the line: “this profession that ha ha heals” is, of course, a reference to SC’s lyric cause I was so burned out as a psychotherapist and had left my practice and lost most of what I’d spent all those years building. A little bitterness there I guess but of course it’s not her fault that I’m nuts and I don’t blame her…it just fit into the poem…all part of my insanity.

I was also starting to realize “oh! my God!” the entire world could read this and I’ve left enough of a trail to make it possible to make myself a laughing stalk around the world…so it’s “fuck you” to that too…at this point I really couldn’t have cared less about working as a psychotherapist again. And as of this writing there’s a very strong chance that I never will again.

I just realized that one of the primary motivations of this poem is the feeling of loss/nostalgia for the days when SC used to travel those paths…just a little troubador with a heart as big as Texas. Imagine if you could see the whole thing in one sweep. Oh! I do miss those days so much. I could have done so much more with that time. How I regret going to social work school…well maybe not that so much as going to CT and joining the VA…that all took me so far away from myself…or away from the me I had a chance of becoming…the one who might have written a song SC would have liked…is this still possible? Theoretically yes but it is the longest of long shots but strangely enough there’s nothing else I really care about although I’m perfectly aware that a normal person wouldn’t go this route…but I gave up on the pursuit of normal awhile ago.

August 11, 2023 - Maine
I just realized after reading this again and reflecting on how I felt at that time 35 years ago when I was studying Voice piano and guitar and in therapy for 5 years 2x week and having finished my philosophy degree when I met Shawn Colvin on our shared 32nd birthday. I met her first in '87 though at 'Passim' where I told her: "you're the best singer I ever heard". She said: "thanks" and I left. Next time was on 1-10-88 when she said from stage it was her birthday and I thought: "Oh My God!". I had devoured Jung already and was always on the prowl for synchronicities and BANG! This. So I showed her my license after the show and she said: "I'm sure this is significant somehow". I never asked how until today Shawn so "like how exactly" now that I've written over 100 poems to and about you? I'm curious. We both had Martin D28 guitars when we met. Both sober 5 years in AA. Born on the same parallel of longitude 42.77 during the 'Great Ice Storm' of 1956 an 'Anti-cyclone' that spun counterclockwise and travelled east to west. She was born in a town starting with the 7 letters Vermill, My hometown 1500 miles on a line ends with the 7 letters Verhill. 1-10-56 adds up to 11 11 the sign for 'Twin Flames' Her only daughter would be born 11 days after my only sister died and my mother gave birth to me at 42.5 years like Shawn. We both hated school, started fires, had deep issues with our mothers, were abused by our Scottish fathers for leaving the cellar door open. Both alcoholics and depressive. Both love sailing and running and biking and both went camping as kids in Rambler station wagons There's a lot more. I'll fill it in later. But I ask you: is this a recipe for disaster, true love or insanity? I feel like I've proven that it's been all of these things and more for me but I love my work writing about it and her and I still worship Shawn Colvin and she's still the best singer I've ever heard (and I sang Verdi's Requiem with the Hartford Chorale as 1st tenor in Carnegie Hall) and for Harry Huff at Old South Church in Boston who had arranged stuff for Art Garfunkel and Judy Collins in NYC. Weird enough for you? Crazy enough for you. Love story enough for you? I'm curious.

Before I met Shawn I worked as a merchant seaman Able Bodied Seaman and Bos'n on tankers out of Boston and worked for the 6th Fleet as a civilian. I worked on offshore supply boats in the Gulf of Mexico in the 70s sand along the way I've been arrested 35 times (so the theme of 'going straight...putting yourself in good enough spiritual shape to be worthy of your 'Twin Soul') so Dylan's 'A Simple Twist Of Fate' is deeply poignant and highly significant. The song always felt like it established a very intertwined synchronicity among Shawn Dylan and myself so I feel like I should give him a co-write 'Simple Twist Of Fate' has been embedded in my memory for 50 years. You are a light unto the world, mystery and deep mysticism. We adore you forever Bob Dylan. Peace Love Bliss Nirvana for you for eternity.
SC

[Oh_I_Will]

I really wish one could throttle the video speed. .75 sounds good…but it needs to be about.85 in my ears

[karmenjazbec]

JUST PLAY ON HARMONICA TO ME AS MY GRANDFATHER DID BOB HONEY