Bob Dylan Blues chords by Syd Barrett

This long rumoured outtake (believed to be in the possession of David Gilmour) was unreleased & known only by title until the 2001 compilation The Best of Syd Barrett: Wouldn't You Miss Me? The lyrics boast: "I've got the Bob Dylan Blues / I've got the Bob Dylan Shoes / My hair and my hat's in a mess / but you know I just couldn't care less" Like "Effervescing Elephant" (recorded for the BBC three days earlier), "Bob Dylan Blues" was most likely written during Syd's teenage years in Cambridge. It's unique in the Barrett canon in that it satirizes an icon of the '60s cultural revolution with which Syd himself is associated. The song's early origins are indicated by its reactions to the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, released on May 27, 1963 when Syd was 17 years old. The recitation of Dylan's full name twice in the song's opening line pokes fun at the egoism of two titles on Freewheelin': "Bob Dylan's Blues" [not to be confused with Syd's song] and "Bob Dylan's Dream." In fairness to Dylan, eponymous song-titling dates back (at least) to early blues records like "Ma Rainey's Mystery Record" (1924) and Blind Willie McTell's "Mr McTell Got The Blues" (1927). Steeped in the folk and blues tradition, Dylan probably associated this practice with unimpeachable artists like these (not to mention Woody Guthrie). In the chorus lyric "the wind you can blow it, "Barrett cites the "blowing wind" motif in "Girl From The North Country," "Bob Dylan's Blues" and of course "Blowin' In The Wind. "Syd's self-referring rhyme of "dreams" and "seems" occurs in "Talking World War III Blues," while the reference to singing about "war in the cold" comes from "Masters Of War." The "shoes" in Syd's song appear in Dylan's "Down the Highway, "while the "hat" appears in both "Bob Dylan's Blues" and "Bob Dylan's Dream," from which Dylan's mention of "a thousand dollars at the drop of a hat" becomes Barrett's jibe at the fan who "buys all my discs and a hat/and when I'm in town go see that" (he did). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.