Good Guys, Bad Guys and Bob Dylan

The news of the death this past weekend of William Devereux Zantzinger brought new comment on the song written about him by Bob Dylan, way back in 1964.  Zantzinger beat a black barmaid to death with his cane because she took too long to serve him a drink.  He served six months in jail and was fined $500 – it was 1963, after all. 

Dylan wrote an angry protest song, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” about the different standards of justice that existed back then.  He accurately named the victim, but changed Zantzinger’s name by dropping the “T.”

(More Than) 30 Years Out: Night Of The Hurricane, 1976

 

I hate to advocate drugs or alcohol at a rock concert for everyone, but they’ve always worked for me.  Perhaps one thing more dangerous than paraphrasing the late, great Hunter S. Thompson is getting trashed before you go to a rock concert.

That’s the disclaimer for this concert memory and cautionary tale, going way back to January 1976 when Bob Dylan brought his Rolling Thunder Revue to the Houston Astrodome for “The Night of the Hurricane II.”  I mean: I know I went, I remember some of it, but everything else is a bit hazy.  One thing I’m sure of is that my concert companion that night was beer – a lot of it.