The first song I ever heard by Bob Dylan was Mr. Tambourine Man, when I was about 7 years old and ever since then I have become aquainted with all his music. When I was 15 I flew to Tucson, Arizona to visit my sister (who went to U of A) and to go to a Bob Dylan concert. I was so excited that my sister took me because she was not very familiar with his music(we have very different taste in music). Sadly, I had to leave early because she got food poisoning...
I'm sorry for taking so long to do another post! School has been taking up a lot of my time lately. (scans from: Bob Dylan Scrapbook, Bob Dylan: Inspirations)
I was in my Beatles and 60s class, and my professor was telling us about the inspiration behind the song She's Leaving Home (I had not heard this story before-shocking!). It was the story of 17 year old Melanie Coe who had run away from her parents' comfortable North London home in 1967. The news of her disappearance made front page news, and after reading the story Paul McCartney was inspired to write the song, which ended up on The Beatles' revolutionary album Sgt.Pepper. However, McCartney's reading of her escape in the newspapers was not the first time he had come across her: "I first met Paul when I was 13 on the pop show Ready Steady Go! "He presented me with first prize for miming to Brenda Lee's Let's Jump The Broomstick, which meant I danced on the show for a year," says Melanie. "We had spent a long day in the studio filming. John Lennon was aloof and unapproachable, Paul shook our hands but Ringo and George were sweethearts, chatting to us all day. "Something probably clicked in Paul's mind when he read the story about me running away from home three years later, as it was pretty unusual back then." She's Leaving Home Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begings Silently closing her bedroom door Leaving the note that she hoped would say more She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her hankerchief Quietly turing the backdoor key Stepping outside she is free. She (we gave her most of our lives) Is leaving (sacraficed most of our lives) Home (we gave her everything money could buy) She's leaving home after living alone For so many years. bye, bye Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown Picks up the letter that's lying there Standing alone at the top of the stairs She breaks down and cries to her husband Daddy our baby's gone. Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly How could she do this to me. She (we never though of ourselves) Is leaving (never a thought for ourselves) Home (we struggled hard all our lives to get by) She's leaving home after living alone For so many years. bye, bye Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away Waiting to keep the appointment she made Meeting a man from the motor trade. She what did we do that was wrong Is having we didn't know it was wrong Fun fun is the one thing that money can't buy Something inside that was always denied For so many years. bye, bye She's leaving home bye bye
In 1965 soon after buying his house on Cavendish Avenue, Paul McCartney bought his first pet, an Old English sheepdog puppy. He named the dog Martha. "She was a dear pet of mine. I remember John being amazed to see me being so loving to an animal. He said, 'I've never seen you like that before.' I've since thought, you know, he wouldn't have. It's only when you're cuddling around with a dog that you're in that mode, and she was a very cuddly dog." -Paul McCartney She was seen everywhere with Paul. She appeared in the Strawberry Fields Forever video and was with Paul at The Beatles' last photoshoot at Tittenhurst. (Linda McCartney, beatlephotoblog.com)
