SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN: Our practice is to invite authors of our selected books to our meetings and, through an intermediary, we invited Bob Dylan to this meeting! Though he was unable to attend, we wished him well. I hope our invitation eventually makes its way to the Bob Dylan archives in Tulsa! READ THE INVITATION HERE.

Our March 3rd, 2024, meeting will be special in 3 ways: 1. We will, for the first time, take up one (actually 2) of Bob Dylan's own books (and, as per our custom, we will invite the author, Mr. Dylan himself, to drop in on the Zoom meeting—he's touring in Florida starting March 1, but he has no concert on March 3), 2. Dylan scholar Graley Herren (see his bio here) will return to share his thoughts and Book Club member Robin Haar will facilitate our conversation, and 3. Graley will focus on a Bob Dylan poem that was published as the the liner notes to Joan Baez In Concert, Part 2. Liner notes (notes that were inside the album cover) and jacket notes (notes on the back of the album cover) were once an experience woven directly into the experience of an album. The poem is available on Olof Björner’s website: WORDS FILL MY HEAD

An Index to 15 poems published in 2 Bob Dylan books:
Writings and Drawings (1973, pink book, =WD below), up to and including John Wesley Harding; Lyrics 1962-1985 (1985, gray book, =L below), up to and including Empire Burlesque
Poem 1 of 15 total: Dedication 1, WD: 17 printed lines, including: “Dedicated to the rough riders, ghost poets,…And to the great wonderous melodious spirit which covereth the oneness of us all and to Sara who made it all complete”, L: No dedication except “For Norette”
Poem 2: Dedication 2, WD 4 handwritten lines, “I can’t please anybody…”, L: No dedication except “For Norette”
Poem 3: My Life in a Stolen Moment, WD pages 49-51, L pages 71-72
Poem 4: Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie, WD pages 52-56, L pages 32-36
Poem 5: Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2, WD pages 75-82, L pages 78-85
Poem 6: 11 Outlined Epitaphs, liner notes, The Times They Are A-Changin’, WD pages 100-110, L pages 106-116
Poem 7: Advice for Geraldine on Her Miscellaneous Birthday, WD pages 118-119, L pages 124-125
Poem 8: Some Other Kinds of Songs…Poems by Bob Dylan, Another Side of Bob Dylan, jacket notes, WDvpages 139-150, L pages 145-156
Poem 9: Bringing It All Back Home (jacket notes), WD pages 157-158, L pages 180, 182.
Poem 10: Off the Top of My Head, not in WD, L pages 186-187
Poem 11: Notes by Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, WD pages 181-182, L pages 209-210
Poem 12: Alternatives to College, not in WD, L pages 214-217
Poem 13: Three Kings, John Welsey Harding, WD pages 255-256, L pages 265-266
Poem 14: Hand written note, “Morris Zollar wants to No Hoo – Hoo – Woo…”, WD page 300 facing first page of index, L page 501
Poem 15: Desire liner notes, not in WD, L page 392

Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie
From YouTube: “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie is a poem written by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, and recited live during his April 12, 1963 performance at New York City's Town Hall.[1] It was released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 after circulating on bootleg releases for years, even appearing on the ten-LP box set Ten of Swords in 1985.” Before reciting the poem, Bob says to the audience “There’s this book coming out and they asked me to write something about Woody. Sort of, like, what does Woody Guthrie mean to you in 25 words. And I couldn’t do it. I wrote out five pages and…I have it here. I have it here by accident actually. But I’d like to say this out loud. So if you can sort of roll along with this thing here. This is called Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie.”
The writing, cadence, and rhythm of this poem reminded me of a Woody Guthrie “poem” recited by Will Greer at a tribute concert for Woody—the words start at the 1:12 mark of the song: Woody Guthrie's I hate a song narration by Will Geer.

Peter White, March 2024

So far, I have found only one other recitation of a Bob Dylan poem on YouTube—a recitation of the jacket notes from Bringing It All Back Home (we need more readings!):
S olstice Cydney Gillis Recites Bob Dylan Dec 2017

An Index to the 15 writings found on Words Fill My Head
Not all of these are 1960s, some are more text than poem, and some have divisions, all of which make a count of poems ambiguous.
Liner Notes
The New World Singers
In the Wind
Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2 (also in WD and L)
2nd Right 3rd Row
Planet Waves (not 1960s)
A Tribute to Woody Guthrie (more text than poem)
World Gone Wrong (not 1960s)
Poems & Other Pieces
Go Away You Bomb
For Dave Glover
Lonesome Christmas
Blowin’ in the Wind
The Kennedy Poems
A Message from Bob Dylan
A Letter from Bob Dylan
Six Poems
Letter to Larry
Dear Mummy
Letters to Tami Dean: First Letter, Second Letter, Third Letter, Fourth Letter
Walk Down Crooked Highway
Adam’s Rib (1991)

Olof Björner (1942-2023) was a Swedish research who began studying Bob Dylan in the 1960s, collecting official and unofficial recordings and manuscripts. His website, bjorner.com became an essential repository of his work. He published a 13 volume set called Olof’s Files: A Bob Dylan Performance Guide. See also:
Me, I Happen To Be A Swede Myself
Olof Björner - Wikipedia

Some of the poems can be found by searching on these two websites:
1. The Bob Dylan Project
2. bobdylan.com The poems that Dylan wrote as liner notes for his own albums (click on a particular album and scrollto the bottom of the list of songs to find the liner notes. 1960s albums with poem liner notes are: The Times They Are A-Changin' (11 Outline Epitaphs), Another Side of Bob Dylan (Some Other Kinds of Songs), Bringing it All Back Home (untitled), and Highway 61 Revisited (untitled).
3. The website Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan includes pages that have all of the liner notes that Bob Dylan wrote to his own albums: click HERE.

Graley Herren has followed our Book Club Meeting with a substack entry on Poem for Joanie—visit his Substack writings HERE.

The Joan Baez In Concert, Part 2 liner notes are also published in two of Bob Dylan's books: Writings and Drawings (1973) and Lyrics 1962-1985 (1985). These two books have, collectively, 15 early Dylan poems (hence our focus is DEFINITELY appropriate for a book club!). WORDS FILL MY HEAD has an additional 15-or-so poems from the 1960s, making a total of about 30 poems. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are many more in the Bob Dylan Center’s archives. I hope our meeting, though focused on one poem, will inspire you to check out other Dylan poems even though we don’t have time to discuss these on March 3rd, for example, My Life in a Stolen Moment, Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie, 11 Outlined Epitaphs, Advice for Geraldine on Her Miscellaneous Birthday, Some Other Kinds of Songs. Off the Top of My Head, Alternatives to College, The Kennedy Poems.