Getting round to putting in order last year's correspondence about the Encyclopedia (then in preparation), I re-read this morning an e-mail from Roy Kelly from August 2005, in which he wrote of re-listening to different performances of 'Tell Me Momma' and hearing quite clearly on the bootleg of the Sydney version - unlike the dohzy transcriber for the official book of lyrics - that Dylan sings this lovely line:
Cold black glass don’t make no mirrors, cold black water don’t make no tears.
And of course aside from the beauty of the line itself, it's a lovely example of how he has always pronounced the word "mirror" as "mere" (such that, in this case, "mirrors" is a perfect rhyme for "tears").
I've always thought that those were the lines he sings, at all the shows; it's just clearer at the Sydney show.
ReplyDeleteCrazylazy: Sorry but I can't help. I'd have thought eBay was the ideal way.
ReplyDeleteGlenn: you're probably right. As you say, it's just clearer at Sydney - though it does sound as if he varies some lines a little bit from night to night elsewhere in the song.
i love the way he says 'mere' its so adorable!
ReplyDeleteHey Kevin
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the trouble to tell me - it's always a good feeling, as a writer, to find a reader who has really got something from a book. Ah, Hibbing... I've been there twice; kind & helpful people each time. Hope to be there again in late March next year.
Best wishes~
Michael
I always thought that it was "veneer". Makes more sense to me, on a whole load of levels, than either of the alternatives.
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