Did Dylan rip off Pynchon?

[Henry Musikar]

Mmm... list songs and poems...  Is there anything they can't say?  That
said, Desolation Row (I recognized it without clicking, am I not the
mack-D?) isn't really a list song, and I've always, for better or for worse,
loved it.

Ta, Alice.

Henry Mu
Sr. IT Consultant
http://astore.amazon.com/tdcoccamsaxe-20/  


-----Original Message-----
From: alice wellintown

The letter, dated 01 April 1960, from Dylan to Pynchon settles this dispute.

Tommy,

Got the ha shshshshshs ...never know who's listening in and picking
through my trash. Sorry not to return yours sooner ...been working on
a new song. It's gonna blow the mid of the world. I've enclosed a
draft. Let me know what you think.

Keep Cool But Hairy,

Zim

Mason is at the Friday Hangings.
Frenesi is Going Down.
The Sailor's Grave is full of sailors.
Pig Bodine is back in town.
Here comes Ronald Ray-Gun.
They've got him in a trance.
One hand is tied to V.'s Balloon.
The other is in his pants.
And the riot squads they're restless.
They need some place to go.
As Brock and Frenesi make love tonight
Out on Desolation Row.

Fina, she seems so easy.
"Benny, I'm Cherry," she smiles.
And puts her hand in her back pocket,
Hector Zuniga style.
And in comes Stencil, he's moaning,
"Stencil's In Love with V-2!"
And Slothrop says, "your in the wrong book my friend,
 I'm getting out with you."
And the only sound that's left tonight
After the Auctioneer Clears His Throat
Is Zoyd Wheeler sweeping glass
>From Wagner's haunted boat.

Now the Thanatoids are waking
Now everybody sing
Hansel and Gretel are baking
And Kong is Lord and King
Not DL and Takeshi
Not McClintock and Owlglass
Not anyone is making love
But inflicting pain, Alas.
But The Weather Will Not Change
As above, so below
Where Profane and Angel Make A Myth
For Gravity's great rainbow

Now Lake, she's no daddy's girl
For her I feel so afraid
She's wearing her Moma's professional dress
She won't be no Miner's old maid
To her, death is quite romantic
Cause she can not love success
Her profession's her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Gravity's great rainbow
She spends her time peeking into Entropy boxes
Out on Yo-yo-dyne Row

Tesla, disguised as Robin Hood
With his lightning in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With Edison, both were drunk.
They looked so immaculately frightful
With Franklin and Kite in tow,
As they hitched a ride from the Chums of Chance
out to where Pirate's mushrooms grow
Now you would not think to look at them twice
But they were all famous long ago
For playing ukuleles in a glass armonica band
On Desolation Row

Dr. Hilarious he keeps his world
Inside a windowpane
But all his crazy patients
Are convinced that the good doctor is insane
Now his nurse, a victim of rhinoplasty
She's in charge of the Dynamite LSD
And she also keeps the Waite Tarot cards
Under a lock and Key
They all play hide the dynamite
You can hear them when they blow
If you lean your head out far enough
>From Desolation Row

Across the street they've built a tower
They're getting ready for the feast
Barbequed Brains and Danish #9
A Herero Soldier and a Bad Priest
They will spoon-feed James Wood
To get him to feel more assured
Then they'll kill him with cartoons and self-confidence
After poisoning him with words
Then Dixon will land or not land a Quaker's mighty blow
And set all the enslaved persons free
Out on Desolation Row

Now at midnight Vibes agents
And the whole sick crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to Ellison's paint factory
Where the Entropy  machine
Is fastened to their foreheads
and run on Standard Oil kerosene
Is brought in from the white house
By investment bankers who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row

Praise be to Zeros and Ones
The Ship of Fools sails at dawn
And everybody's shouting
'Which Side Are You On?'
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And hippie girls place flowers
Into the guns of Pinkertons
Where Blicero snorts white blow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation row

Tom, I received your letter yesterday
(About the time the doorknob broke)
When you asked me how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke
All these people that I mention
Yes, we know them, they're quite lame
So please rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now, I can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
>From Desolation Row

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RenHNO19XKs