Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call..

Firstly, thank you so much for all your kind comments on my New Year blip. Apologies for not having made it round to thank everyone individually but I really am touched and I appreciate everything you’ve said.

Today it’s back to the album cover tributes; and this homage to Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ seems pertinent in light of yesterday’s events in Washington DC. Like so many people around the world, I looked on, appalled, at the live news footage - but I can’t say I was surprised. The outgoing president had been inciting this insurrection for weeks/months. The contrast with the treatment of Black Lives Matter protestors was stark, but the ray of light was the result of the Senate election run-off in Georgia.

Over here, the pandemic continues to rage, and the government continues to flounder. It’s heartbreaking.

Back to the Dylan album... It was his 3rd, and was released 57 years ago, in January 1964. It contains many of the finest songs of his ‘protest’ period, including the mighty ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ which addresses white privilege and institutional racism in a way that still resonates today; and ‘Only a Pawn in Their Game’ - which is also an interesting listen in relation to the way that Tr*mp has incited the ‘poor whites’ of today’s USA to act against their Black compatriots, and which he performed at the March on Washington in 1963, alongside Martin Luther King https://youtube.com/watch?v=KY2lQV3ADfc Again, a stark and dignified contrast to yesterday’s events.

The original album cover photo www.bobdylan.com/albums/the-times-they-are-a-changin was taken by Barry Feinstein, who took many, many great pictures of Dylan over the years.

Here’s Bob with the album’s title track https://youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ

It’s gratifying to note that, as he approaches his 80th birthday, Dylan finds himself at the top of several ‘Best Albums of 2020’ polls for his 39th studio album, the terrific ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’! Way to go, Bob!