Let me lay this out simply and with the understanding that this is a highly personal request and by no means encompasses the "all" of Dylan's work that I truly love, but rather, is a list (or partial list) of songs that I have rarely heard in concert (apart from Workingman's Blues) but the rest, the rest I never hear and perhaps I've just missed them, alas, but I would like to hear them. Very much. For what it's worth, here is that list and some brief explanation.

So there are the songs that I've heard in concert, and then there are the songs that I rarely hear in concert. And then there are the songs that I want to hear at least once, or at least anyway when I am there. I love what he does play, but I want to hear one of these songs, if only to know that he saw this list. It would make a difference, to me anyway (*disclaimer: not saying he ought care, only that I do care). I'd love to know what other people want to hear. I've said this before and I still think it holds - that for any performer, particularly Dylan who performs so very much, that doing the same songs over and over again would be taxing and boring. But maybe there comes a time when some of the older work becomes fresh all over again precisely because you haven't played it in so long. I know this for myself with my little harmonica, that I will always go back to a simple shuffle or "lone Pete blues" just because...

For me, I love Modern Times, I love Time Out of Mind, I love the newer work - all of it - but this does not preclude me from still absolutely loving the work that is less new. Each song here represents something different for me and just once, I'd like to hear it. At one show, I was able to get Paul Weller to sing "Sweet Pea" and offer his signature on the only piece of paper I had with me (which happened to be a prescription for Valium - and before you judge, I take it infrequently and only because of a medical condition, not just to chill-out, tho I'm not sure that is "bad" even if so). But the main point, Weller flipped the piece of paper over, saw the script, laughed, offered me a big kiss, and then signed. He thought it was funny and good for him! It was pretty damn funny and the only autograph he gave the entire show - and not because of anything other than that I made him laugh. Then he sang "Sweet Pea", which he had never sang before and which is my nickname from many years prior, so the whole night had a real personal resonance and it was great in every way.

But I want that when I see Dylan, tho it's virtually impossible to get even near the stage, so I can forget about an autograph, even on a script!, I can forget about any attempt to make him laugh because for as much as one would like to, there are some pretty beefy security guys who just are not going to let that happen (heaven forfend he should laugh, right?) and I won't even get into trying to meet the man himself, because this seems unlikely, but hey, I'm always open to being pleasantly surprised and I can honestly say that I have been surprised in my life by many things that i would never have expected, so I do not close the door on the seemingly impossible.

So now, all I ask now, is that somehow, this list may find it's way to Bob (hey, I can dream, can't I?) and that he perhaps takes one or two songs and sings them. At least this way, I will know that not only have I hit my mark so to speak, but more, that perhaps the years of writing about Dylan and carefully so and with thought, that all of this makes some little bit of difference. That I'm not the reporter from Time. That I'm just me, a girl in a pair of Converse sneakers, a pleat skirt, a Dylan t-shirt, and perhaps, a leopard skin pillbox hat atop a blonde head with a definite gleam in my eyes. That girl is me. I am that one.

Here then, is a simple request: I'd take any of the following because they truly resonate with me (that said, I can think of a thousand others that do, but these are less frequently heard). I'll be at the August show in Connecticut and my cousin Evander will be attending the show in Brooklyn, New York, in August (tho I won't be there, alas as much as I would like to be. Attending both shows for me is not beyond the pale), but to know or hear him play even one of these songs would be a ping back - and I'd love that.

One More Weekend
Up To Me
Most Of The Time
You're A Big Girl Now
I'll Keep It With Mine
Apple Suckling Tree
Oh, Sister
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
Blood In My Eyes
Lay Lady Lay (okay, this, I admit, would be ideal).
Do Unto Others
Spanish Harlem Incident
Sweetheart Like You
Not Dark Yet
Workingman's Blues
Tell Me, Momma
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Thanks for listening; for what it's worth, which likely isn't a lot because well - who cares what I think, but "Lay Lady Lay" - if you play it in Brooklyn and at Foxwoods this August would be... well... just so... so very much.

sadi ranson-polizzotti,
http://tantmieux.squarespace.com/bob-dylan-on-tant-mieux-/