Bob Dylan performed at least four songs addressing venereal disease, but it was for an audience of a tape recorder. Now one of them, apparently, will be released on a 78 rpm record. This ranks right up there with the Dylan Victoria's secret ad in the history of Dylan curiosities, but songs about sexually transmitted diseases doesn't seem so odd when you consider they came from Woodie Guthrie who was working on the Federal payroll.
Normally reserved for the states, certain calamities were taken over by the Federal government when drastic measures were called for, and any disease which laid low the mobster Al Capone qualified…So Woody was enlisted to write a few anthems warning his fellow man about spirochetes.
Now Rounder Records, as part of a Woody Guthrie release of yet more Woody Guthrie will include one of Dylan's versions of VD City (?) as a bonus 78 rpm. Shame on Columbia for withholding them when they released the Witmark collection in 2010! They won't need to add "period" scratches...I've heard them and they are already there. Collect them All!
Note to those participating in one of those Dylan pools which predicts which song he will perform? Don't expect a VD encore.
VD BLUES (Woody Guthrie)
Lyrics as performed by Bob Dylan on Minnesota Hotel Tape, Dec 22, 1961;
Well, I heard folks tellin' them VD blues ain't bad,
Well, I heard folks tellin' them VD blues ain't bad,
These VD blues are the worst I ever had.
Well, I got disgusted to sail down on a spree, Well, I got disgusted and I sailed down on a spree, When I got back home, I had that old VD.
Well, I had bad dreams, I could not sleep in bed, Well, I had bad dreams, I could not sleep in bed, I was ashamed to say it's the VD blues I had.
VD give me chills and give me the creepers, too, VD give me the blues, it give me the creepers, too, Well, my mind went blank and I didn't know what to do.
Heard folks tellin' these VD blues ain't bad, Yes, I heared folks tellin' these VD blues ain't bad, But these VD blues are some of the worst I've ever had.
VD GUNNER'S BLUES (LANDLADY) (Woody Guthrie)
Lyrics as performed by Bob Dylan on Minnesota Hotel Tape, Dec 22, 1961;
Landlady, hey, landlady,
Push your window high.
Landlady, hey, landlady,
Push up your window screen.
Well, I've come to kill that woman
That give me the old VD.
Quit your beatin', stop your bangin', Quit kickin' up around my door. Quit your beatin', stop your bangin', Quit kickin' up around my door. Well, that woman who give you the VD, She don't live here no more.
Landlady, landlady, You're tellin' me a lie. Landlady, landlady, Tellin' me a lie. There's a dose of hot lead To stop your lyin' tongue.
Blow your whistle, policeman, My poor feet are bound to run. Blow your whistle, policeman, My poor feet are bound to run. But I won't stop my runnin' 'Til I get that VD woman with my gun.
I can hear your bullets slingin', Sweet bullets from your deputy's gun. I can hear 'em slingin' past me, Sweet bullets from that deputy's gun. From this hole in my back, I can feel my heart-blood run.
VD SEAMANS LAST LETTER (Woody Guthrie)
from McKenzie manuscripts, Summer 1961;
When I take my pencil and paper my dear in my hand,
The plans that we dreamed like wild waves like in my mind.
And the cottage and kids that we dreamed of will never come true.
I've got that old siff and I'll not bring it home dear to you.
I can't write so plain for my boat rides a high pitching sea, As you read my words there's no telling where I would be. You kept your promise you saved all your kisses for me, I broke my vows and I'm wrecked with that ol' VD.
I sit on the edge of my bunk dear to write you these lines, And the rest of my crew they're sleeping the land of their dreams. As I walk the deck and look out on the ocean an skies I hear of your weeping my sifless will bring to your life.
I can taste your wet lips as you kissed me goodbye at the pier, An' the splash of the foams I can hear your sweet words in my ear. Keep yourself healthy and keep yourself clean oh my dear, We will kiss again here if your gone for a week or a year.
Each time the wild waves rise up my love sinks more. My (?) I steer right to your shore. I tossed this away for a drink in that gamblin' house bar, With the siff as my cargo, I'll dock in your harbour no more.
Well the words of my letters they're soaked in my unfaithful tears, The storm it is worst and now all of my dreams I have speared it I'll drown in my sifless somewhere in this wild boiling foam.
Come all you salt seamen that walk on that land oR the waves, Don't let a wild hour (bury)(lose) all your hopes in the grave, Steer from that quicksand and sail to your brightest of stars. Don't let that sifless wreck you in these hot fiery waves.
VD WALTZ (Woody Guthrie)
Lyrics as performed by Bob Dylan on Minnesota Hotel Tape, Dec 22, 1961;
All the birds are singin' in the mornin' trees,
But the birds are not singin' for me.
My man did meet with a flirt on the street,
Gave him a case of VD.
I begged him to look up a doctor and go, It broke out all over his skin. But he rubbed hisself with some dark drugstore salve And he said, "It's not the VD."
"I been in the Army, in the Merchant Marines, My dear wife, long enough to know That little red... little hot rashes that burn on my skin Are not the VD, I'm sure."
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