Pod Dylan #266 - Down The Highway
How many roads
Sometimes a guest will mention something on an episode that I didn’t know about, so after the record I will go check it out.
That happened with last week’s show, where guest Annie Burkhart talked about the connections between the song we were discussing—”Down the Highway” from 1963’s FREEWHEELIN’—and the work of Sam Cooke. Now, I had already known how Sam influenced Bob and then back again, and I was certainly aware of Cooke’s cover of “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
But when I went on YouTube, I found this live version he recorded for television(?). I had never seen this before, and was gobsmacked by the energy and infectious joy Cooke brought to this performance, covering a song that has, for me, always been steeped in melancholy.
Sure, the road to social justice is long, too long, with no end ever in sight.
But performances like this make you feel like its a winnable fight. And, of course, that’s the point.