In the Martin Scorsese documentary about Bob Dylan’s early career, No Direction Home, Dylan recounts being inspired when he stumbled upon a record player with a record in it. The song that inspired him was “Drifting Too Far From the Shore.”
When Dylan was in kindergarten (in some tellings he is older), his father Abe bought a house on Seventh Avenue in Hibbing, Minnesota. Dylan ultimately lived in the home throughout his childhood and through high school.
For Dylan, though, something magical happened when they moved into the new home. As they were moving in, the boy found a guitar left behind by the previous occupants. And he found something else with “mystical overtones.”
There was a large mahogany turntable with a 78 rpm record in it. The record was of the song “Drifting Too Far From the Shore,” which was written by Charles E. Moody. The young boy turned on the record player and listened.
You’re drifting too far from shore,
Come to Jesus today,
Let Him show you the way
You’re drifting too far from shore.
Drifting Too Far From the Shore
Dylan has recounted that the record he found in the house was probably the version recorded by The Stanley Brothers. But he also has noted it could have been the Bill Monroe version.
Here are The Stanley Brothers singing “Drifting Too Far From the Shore.”
Dylan has described how as a little boy turning on the record player, the sound of the record “made me feel like I was somebody else.” The sound disconnected him from his life at the time, making him feel almost as if he were born to the wrong parents.
Dylan later paid his own homage to “Drifting Too Far From the Shore.” He wrote his own song with the title “Driftin’ Too Far From Shore.” That song, which appeared on Dylan’s Knocked Out Loaded (1986) album, otherwise has little in common with the song the young boy heard in the new home.
Of course, with Dylan, one has to be careful about putting too much weight on his tales. He often tells entertaining stories about his early life that are more legend than truth. But still, it is easy to imagine a little boy finding a guitar and a record player that would have an impact on his life, even if a large part of that impact is in memory.
I like to accept the story not so much for Dylan, but to think about the people who lived in the house before the Dylans. I imagine the family moving out and leaving some things behind. Maybe the record player was too expensive to move. Or maybe they forgot the items. Or maybe the items just were not worth much to them.
And then, how could they know that their left-behind possessions would affect history by inspiring the greatest poet of our generation? It is a great story about how we never know how our lives affect others, even people we have never met.
Photo by Chimesfreedom. Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
