Got to thinking earlier in the day of Springsteen and the E Street Band live at Bramhall Lane in the 80's on The Tunnel of Love tour. They featured a cover of Chimes of Freedom, a really good one, needless to say. When Springsteen sang the penultimate line - the Bobster speaking of the bells tolling for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe - there was a huge roar from the audience (self included.) I suppose it was in part provoked by the liberty taken with a translation of the supremely 60's phrase hung-up into a somewhat more brutal term, but I also like to think there was a genuine moment of recognition of how one of Dylan's most charitable lines applied to us all.
The stimulus to my memory of that great moment (in a concert comprised pretty much of great moments in its entirety) came from my thinking of someone I know who I suddenly realised was hung-up enough to be worthy of therapy. And the further realisation that I couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't benefit from a course of therapy in some way. Self included, needless to say.
How strange, how damaged we are.
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