Jerusalem

"All the way from New Orleans/To Jerusalem"
                                             - Blind Willie McTell

What an evocative line. For me it brings to mind the contrasting
scenes of the steamy American south and the sparkling City of
Gold high up on a hill; suggestive of both Sin and religious
devotion.

Christopher Rollason makes a good point in his 'Thoughts on
'Angelina' when he states that "the primary recipients of the
Nazi wrath ... have a rather large stake in Jerusalem" (cf. atlas
entry for Argentina). 
Does Bob experience that atavistic sense of return, or does he
merely enjoy visiting as a tourist, in the same way he enjoyed
Mexico, as he suggested to then-Presidential candidate Jimmy
Carter in 1975?

In 1988 a reliable guide led me along a narrow street in the Old
City and pointed Bob's apartment out to me. Apparently he'd
purchased it several years previously and visited regularly. He
is also known to have considered spending an extended time on a
kibbutz in the early 1970s but declined when presented with its
communal demands (too intrusive for a notoriously private man to
bear).

Most Dylan diehards are also familiar with the 1983 Bar-Mitzvah
photographs, featuring him wearing a yarmulke and tefillin at
Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, which Jews consider to be the holiest
place in the world. We should also recall the Infidels inner
sleeve shot of him running Mount of Olives sand through
down-stretched fingers, perhaps ruminating on both his own and
his people's place in history.

Simon Hayes
March 18th 2003