Too Much Travelling

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Too Much Travelling by Old Richard
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On Bandcamp HERE
On iTunes HERE
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On Apple Music HERE
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My Encounter with Bob Dylan
As an 8 year old boy, I was lonesome and very shy. As a birthday present, my grandmother had given me a harmonica which I used to play alone. Like many other boys with an introverted character, my delight was drawing and painting. I had some skill at that and so a school teacher recommended that my parents send me to some plastic art school because she considered that I had an artistic talent. Fortunately they did and sometimes later, maybe a couple of years later, I was reading in my grandmother’s home , and although I don’t believe in coincidences, it was a musical magazine in which I found an article that interested me because of the black and white photo of somebody singing with a harmonica with its holder hanging around his neck and I was also attracted by some of that person’s facial expression although I couldn’t define what it was, maybe his eyes were telling me something that I could not decipher properly at that moment, but the photo invited me to a new and mysterious world I suddenly wanted to discover. The story fascinated me. It was obviously about the person who appeared in that photo, and the author of the article had written that this person, being a child, had escaped many times from his home, running away from hometown and joining a travelling circus. Maybe unconsciously, I wanted and I needed to do the same, to escape from my hometown, to travel around, far away from my home, but I didn’t have the courage in me to do it. I immediately felt that I totally identified with him although I still did not even have an idea then of how his music sounded, but, nevertheless, I could hear it perfectly and clearly in my mind and imagination though. So, the first time I heard his music on the radio his music sounded different, as if it was from another dimension, containing, I could feel it, a whole new, pure, strong, bright, clear and healing energy. By that time, at the age of ten or eleven, I began to write songs. In some ways it was like drawing and painting, so, somehow, music and songwriting came to replace one artistic expression for another. I was already writing songs even before I had a guitar in my hands which I desperately wished to have. About two years later my parents bought me a guitar, an electric one.
—— The backstage encounter, April 5, 1998 ( Buenos Aires, Argentina) watch the performance HERE.
It was Palm Sunday in Argentina. Bob Dylan had secretly visited the Ricardo Gutierrez Children’s Hospital during that sunny afternoon. At night he was going to perform his show with his band, previous to the Rolling Stones show, in a big football venue at the River Plate Stadium. It was his second show as the opening act in Buenos Aires. My dear and generous friend got me a privileged place to see Dylan and his band performance, I was the only one there, I was the only one in the middle of the stage, right in front of it, in the empty space right between the stage and the iron barriers which separated me from the howling audience, mostly fans of the Rolling Stones were like the typical football audiences of Argentina. The Dylan show was brilliant. I was totally satisfied with the privilege I had. What more could I want? I’d been seeking an encounter with Dylan for a long time. It was my dream. But that night I had decided to make it happen. I was ready for it, I decided to fulfill the dream that I dreamed during so many previous years, and that I wished to fulfill after so much travelling.
So, when my friend came to “rescue” me, I got the courage to dare to ask him if he would be so kind enough to try to get me a meeting with Bob. I knew it was “now or never” because of the circumstances. My friend said “ok Ricardo, you’re my friend, let me try. I’ll do my best. Are you sure??”-“Yes” I said.”I’m ready”. He came back and said “Ok, let’s go”, and we started to walk towards the backstage. We passed by a big room where I recognized some people from the Dylan entourage. They had seen me a lot of times before, in Ferrara, in Firenze, Wales, Bournemouth, Bello Horizonte, London, Bern, Toulouse, Marseille, Liverpool, Portugal, Huesca, Berlin, Barcelona, all over the world, in places where Dylan had given his concerts. Their faces showed they were glad to see me fulfilling my dream.
I guess they were thinking, “At last he is fulfilling his dream”. At least that’s what it seemed to me. I was getting more and more nervous because I was realizing that I was getting very near. I had been given a few chances before, one of them in La Coruna, Spain, after his show at the Riazor Stadium. He walked past by my side to get into his tour bus. I didn’t say a word, I was totally “frozen”. I can’t remember if I even said hello…after attending countless shows in countless cities and countries I was ready at last for the most fantastic experience I have ever had in my whole life. This time I was not afraid of Dylan’s possible reaction, I had no fear of Dylan letting me down in my wish to meet him. He was aware of my visit, I had his “ok” and that was the way that I wanted to meet him, with his ok. I wanted to give him a present. In the previous days I thought a lot about the present I thought he would like to receive. The inspiration, the idea, came to me after a while. If I had the opportunity (by then I didn’t know that I was going to meet him) I would give him the copy of a painting that I liked so much. I had written some kind words on the back of the copy of that painting, and it said “Thank you teacher, may God bless and keep you always” and my name written below. The painting was very significant for it expressed the healing power of music, and was from an U.S. painter from the XIX century. We stopped walking. My friend left me alone. It all happened suddenly. A few seconds later I see Bob Dylan walking a few steps towards me, maybe I was standing in the middle of his way to the stage, I have no idea, but he walked towards me and finally we had the encounter. He stopped right in front of me. I couldn’t speak, but I looked right into his blue eyes and it was then that I could say, “Thank you”. We shaked each other’s hands. My emotions overwhelmed me. I hardly recall every detail. I had my eyes closed. I remember a hug, with one hand on each shoulder. I thought I was levitating, or just about to levitate, I don’t know. It was like a spiritual experience for me. He was gentle and kind. Somebody from his team came to take him away to the stage to sing “Like a Rolling Stone ” with The Rolling Stones. I was deeply moved and overwhelmed. This was just a moment that seemed to last eternally long in my mind. In spite of my emotions I was able to hear some voice saying, “Take it easy”. Then, I saw him walking away. It was hard to come back again to the real world to recover my senses. Everybody needs to have some secret and sacred place in his memory, in his mind and in his heart. Mine is this moment that I will always treasure. So, I’ll keep for myself some little but important, beautiful and unique details of that encounter, details that I will never tell. The show must go on, Bob and Mick had started singing, telling me that “once upon a time I dressed so fine”…yeah Bob, I was hearing you right then, I was listening to your words. You are right; once upon a time I dressed so fine. Thanks for everything, and may God bless and keep you always. Thank you teacher!

Ricardo Ferrara, Aka Old Richard

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To Bob Dylan – Too Much Travelling lyrics
Tell me where you’re heading
Let me know your goal
We can stay together
Hanging out til dawn
Maybe our paths cross some place
Some point down the road
’cause there’s still too much travelling to go

Like a bird that flies far away from home
Like an old train running
Hear that whistle blow
That cowboy feeling catches me
And I feel like to ride my horse
And I won’t need a map if I get lost

All this kind of nonsense
Everything’s out of place
All what I do is not worth it
If I don’t see you again
And every time I see your face
It’s like stillness in a storm
And it’s like as if there isn’t no one else around

Wish I had the wisdom of a dying and aging tree
Whose leaves are spreading on the hills
Wise enough to know his life has seen
And felt too much
Too much to know everything dies

Tell me what you’re thinking
While we are in this casual stop
We can walk together till it’s time to part
Maybe our paths cross some place, some point down the road
’cause there’s still too much travelling to go
’cause there’s still too much travelling to go.

Old Richard
PRS Tunecode 477099FT
ISRC QZK6F2188374