Monday, May 25, 2015

Guess I'm Doing Fine

No cash, much trouble.
Without my sunny nature,
Life would suck much more.

"Guess I'm Doing Fine" appears on the Witmark Demos album, which is volume 9 in the Bootleg Series. It's from 1964, I think, and is a fair enough ballad of the archetypal annoying optimist. Predating "Moonshadow" by a few years, the song lists a host of unfair omissions and grievances, but the singer bounces back with the "yes, but at least I have X" resilience of the perpetually irritating happy-go-lucky wandering folksinger. I'm trying to imagine Burl Ives singing this while playing Big Daddy.

- No childhood, no friends. But I have my voice!
- No money, but I'm still around!
- Trouble on my mind. But other people have more trouble than I do!
- No armies. But I have one good friend!
- People have kicked me, whipped me, trampled on me and shot at me. But I'm alive!
- Rocky road. Stones cut my face. But at least I have a road!

Grumble grumble, get off my lawn.


1 comment:

  1. Hello there, Thank you for posting this analysis of a song from Bob Dylan's Music Box: http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/228 Come and join us inside and listen to every song composed, recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, plus all the great covers streaming on YouTube, Spotify, Deezer and SoundCloud plus so much more... including this link.

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