Annie's Going to Sing Her Song

You should hear Annie.

She leaves, then begs to come back.

I always let her.

This song makes me laugh, but I always feel bad afterward. The premise to the tune, which was released on Tom Paxton's "6" album in 1970, is this: Annie leaves her fella, then she cries and begs to come back. He always takes her back. There's a voyeuristic angle that bothers me, though. Paxton introduces the song by inviting us to have a few drinks because we're going to need it as we hear about this dysfunctional relationship. Every time he describes the situation, he gives us a stage wink, the ironic detachment that says, "yeah, I know, this sucks, but what do you want me to do?" I would hate to be poor Annie.

Bob recorded this song in March 1970 during his "Self Portrait" sessions. It was released on the Bootleg Series Vol. 10, which covers that period.

Do Think Twice, It's All Right

I'm posting a few songs twice or three times here or there. Sometimes I fix a syllabification error. Other times I alter or rewrite a haiku as new ideas come to me. Speaking of syllabification errors, I spied my first one. I bet there are others. I wrote:

"Annie's song ain't great,
But it does something to Bob --
Mostly makes him feel sad."

That's six syllables! I fixed it.

Separately, I encountered an odd situation when I started writing up haiku based on songs that Dylan performed by other people with whom the songs are closely associated. Should I say that the water that stoned Van Morrison in "And It Stoned Me?" stoned Van in the haiku? Not necessarily, I concluded. I wrote these haiku because Bob Dylan stamped them with his own rendition. Therefore, the water stoned Bob -- even if he didn't get it himself from the mountain stream.

Annie's Going to Sing Her Song

Annie's song ain't great,
But it does something to Bob --
It makes him feel sad.