No, I did not catch a sudden case of
religion. I lived in Montana for a while once upon a time and have been
thinking about it and the beauty of the state. Actually, my first newspaper job
was there and I was more into photography then than I am now. In fact, Montana
is where I learned how to run a darkroom for developing film and printing
photographs. Anyway, back on point: I was looking through photographs of
Montana recently while listening to Bobby Dylan -- all on the internet, of course
-- and encountered this view of a presumably abandoned church on the plains of
Hill County near Havre, Montana. It does not take much imagination to guess
where my mind went from there. Here are three among my favorite songs from
Dylan to accompany the high plains church:
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (1965)
I Want You (1966)
All Along the Watchtower (1967)
A few lines
From "I Want You"
Composed & sung by
Robert Allen Zimmerman
Well, I return to the Queen of Spades
And talk with my chambermaid
She knows that I'm not afraid to look
at her
She is good to me and there's
Nothing she doesn't see
She knows where I'd like to be
But it doesn't matter
I want you, I want you
Yes, I want you so bad
Honey, I want you ....
6 comments:
wow Thats a beauty that little stone church!!Iam very interested in such old buildings so if you got more from specially Montana and up norht america please share
Bob is a fine musician! listen to him alot when i was young..I could see from the link its from 1976--they did not have that good sound those days but even it is perfect:)))(most music today is made in studio so you really dont know how the real music sounds)
Ihad to look at his work and he really is a great songwriter..Came to look at Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust (https://youtu.be/1ST9TZBb9v8)Lyrics from Dylan
Nice to hear all those music videos again..So much memories..
Wish you a great sunday Fram:)))
I have just recevied Leo Tolstojs books War and Peace.(Iam so inlove in Russian history)Wow what a brick of a book..Going to spend a year reading it:)))
See you!
Anita
Sometimes it's good to be lost in time and space even for a short while.
The photograph is incredibly beautiful. Vastness, heavy sky and a little wooden barn which found itself in nowhere.
I always wanted to see Montana. There was a time when I told myself often, that some day I would go there but I never went. I head many interesting stories about this state .
The collection of songs you chose from Dylan is very nice, Fram.
The structure actually is wood, Anita, and there are a few other photographs taken much closer of it which show this clearly. Many of the Western states have old barns / old churches / old country schools dotting the landscape. When I drive somewhere, if time permits, I stay off the interstate highways and travel the old roads which usually go through small towns, rather than go around them and bypass them. This is the best way to see the United States, in my opinion. I also like to go into restaurants and saloons in small towns and strike up conversations with the local residents. You often meet warm, friendly, fascinating individuals.
An incidental: When I lived in Dakota, a friend of mine -- a Yankton Sioux, incidentally -- lived in an old, one-room school house a few miles outside of town. Up in the attic, the teacher and all the students had written their names in 1913. It was something to see. Going off on a tangent a bit, there are many places along the Oregon Trail and other wagon train routes where travelers would carve their names and the dates they passed by into cliffs .... history is kept alive, in a sense.
Yes, Bobby Dylan is a great composer of music and a very prolific one. I enjoy "spending a few hours with him" periodically and I have been to more than a few of his performances. I will listen to the song you recommended with Dylan and Joan Baez.
Yes, Leo Tolstoy is great writer of books and a very prolific one. I have read some of them, including, "War and Peace" .... however, I will not tell you how long it took me to read it. Another of his books I have read was entitled, "What is Art?" I will not tell you how long it took me to read that book, either .... but, I will say that I often disagreed with Tolstoy's opinions and conclusions regarding art.
Thank you, Anita. I am glad you came here and wrote here and will be reading a bit of Tolstoy .... really, I mean it -- reading Russian writers is an education in itself ....
Sometimes I think I spend more time lost in time and space than I do anywhere else, Kaya. I like it there .... I can be myself and there are no distractions or rules ....
The building actually is an old, abandoned church. That recognition seems accurate based on its appearance in other photographs taken closer to the structure. In one place, it is identified as Cottonwood Church, but there is no explanation for the name and there are no Cottonwood trees visible in the vicinity.
The scene is beautiful -- breathtaking in a way, with the rain visible far behind the building and the gathering storm in the distance on the right. I prefer living in woodlands and feel the most safe and secure there of anywhere, but I do enjoy living on the vast, open prairie, too, where sights such as this one occur with a degree of frequency.
I lived in Montana only for a year and have returned a few times. I drove through Havre once on my way to Glacier National Park. Montana is a state with many elements and many vistas, and a person could easily spend a lifetime exploring it.
I do enjoy Bobby Dylan, but I am not a "huge fan" of his. For instance, I much prefer the Jimi Hendrix rendition of, "All Along the Watch Tower," over Dylan's. Dylan usually sounds like he is speaking that song, rather than singing it.
Thank you, Kaya. It makes me happy when you come here and write a comment for me. You really should figure out a way to spend a bit of time in Montana .... it is a beautiful and an interesting state ....
This image is well suited for a panoramic pattern.
Landscape is wide-ranging and emphasizes the smallness of the building in the middle of emptiness.
Power of heaven is visible.
Gorgeous! I'm not bored of watching.
Bob Dylan is the son of Minnesota.
He is an excellent musician and performer.
I enjoy music.
Have a nice week!
It truly is the kind of photograph one can look at for a long, long time and find any number of its ingredients to think about and to speculate about ....
If the name of the church was, in fact, Cottonwood Church and there are no Cottonwood trees in the vicinity, how and why did the name originate? It is possible, I suppose, there once were Cottonwood trees there and they were cut down and the wood used to build the church. Hmmmm .... oh, well ....
The vastness and the isolation of life for immigrants on the Midwestern prairies have provided many stories of intolerable hardships the settlers faced. For instance, an unseasonably warm morning followed by a ferocious afternoon and evening blizzard on January 12, 1888, left and estimated five hundred (500) dead on the Dakota/Montana/Nebraska plains.
Yes, Bobby Dylan is a Minnesota boy. It is surprising, I think, how many entertainment and arts "celebrities" have ties to this state. I sometimes think of putting together a post listing as many of them as I can find -- but the sheer numbers frighten me a bit ....
Thank you, Liplatus, for your appearance and your words here. I enjoy reading your reactions to my posts and they brighten my day ....
Post a Comment