Expecting Rain

Poem written by Bobby Zimmerman for a summer camp newspaper in 1957.
Christie's auction house is putting it up for sale on June 23 (expected to sell for between $10,000 and $15,000).





Little Buddy

Broken hearted and so sad
Big blue eyes all covered with tears
Was a picture of sorrow to see

Kneeling close to the side
Of his pal and only pride
A little lad, these words he told me

He was such a lovely doggy
And to me he was such fun
But today as we played by the way

A drunken man got mad at him
Because he barked in joy
He beat him and he's dying here today

Will you call the doctor please
And tell him if he comes right now
He'll save my precious doggy here he lay

Then he left the fluffy head
But his little dog was dead
Just a shiver and he slowly passed away

He didn't know his dog had died
So I told him as he cried
Come with me son we'll get that doctor right away

But when I returned
He had his little pal upon his knee
And the teardrops, they were blinding his big blue eyes

Your too late sir my doggy's dead
And no one can save him now
But I'll meet my precious buddy up in the sky

By a tiny narrow grave
Where the willows sadly wave
Are the words so clear you're sure to find

Little Buddy Rest In Peace
God Will Watch You Thru The Years
Cause I Told You In My Dreams That You
Were Mine

Bobby Zimmerman


Washington Post
"It's a very early example of his brilliance," Simeon Lipman, Christie's pop culture specialist, said. "It comes from the mind of a teenager (with) some very interesting thoughts kind of percolating in his brain."

I will start the bidding at $500 bucks

Words & Music by Hank Snow
Thats 52 years of "quoting" then


Broken hearted and so sad, golden curls all wet with tears,

'twas a picture of sorrow to see.

Kneeling close to the side of his pal and only pride,

A little lad these words he told me.



He was such a lovely doggie and to me he was such fun,

but today as we played by the way

A drunken man got mad at him because he barked in joy,

He beat him and he's dying here today.



Will you call the doctor please and tell him if he comes right now,

he'll save my precious doggie 'cause I'll pray.

Then he stroked the fluffy head but his little pal was dead,

Just a shiver and he slowly passed away.



4th and 5th verse are spoken



He didn't know his dog had died, so I told him as he cried

"Come with me son we'll get that doctor right away"

"But I can't leave him here alone, I must get my doggie home

So while you're gone I'll kneel beside him, sir and I'll pray."



But when I returned he had his little pal upon his knee

And the teardrops they were blinding his big blue eyes,

"You're too late, sir my doggie's dead and no help can save him now

But I'll meet my precious Buddy up in the sky."



By a tiny narrow grave, where the willows sadly wave,

are these words on a shingle of pine:

"Little Buddy rest in peace, God will watch you thru' the years,

'Cause I told Him in my prayers that you were mine."

Well done, stephenoxford.
I didn't expect the ER detectives to spot it so quickly!

So, what about Christie's 'pop culture specialist', Simeon Lipman saying that it is an early example of little Bobby's 'brilliance'??

And how about the asking price???

Perhaps most interesting of all, did Bobby really submit that to the summer camp mag as a Zim original? An early example of 'borrowing'?

Well, avery early example of his brilliance indeed, then.
Thanks for pointing out the source, stephen!

Shows how much they know!!!

Seems when you're a pop culture specialist, you can just let the thoughts go kind of percolating in your brain or wherever, without any need of doing research. Nice work if you can get it.

Photo of full manuscript here:
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=30951

It appears that Bobby Z did indeed submit this as his very own work!

The nicest possible explanation: He didn't want to hand in a poem for the stupid camp paper and tried to get away with plagiarism (successfully, to this day!!) in order to get it done with quickly.
Isn't this quote from artdaily.com just beautiful:

The poem reveals the prodigious talent of the prolific singer-songwriter who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the 20th century, both musically and culturally. Foreshadowing Dylan’s gift for storytelling, Little Buddy is a dark and mournful poem, about the murder of a boy’s dog, “But I’ll meet my precious buddy up in the sky/ By a tiny narrow grave/Where the willows sadly wave.”

Christie's were quick to respond!

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your message. We have forwarded your message to the
Popular Culture Department, who will take your advice under
consideration. Please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Yours sincerely,

Colin Brady
Client Service Centre

CHRISTIE'S

Telephone:
London 020 7389 2886
New York 001 212 636 2000



-----Original Message-----
From: stephenoxford
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:19 AM
To: Christies Information3
Subject: Selling
Importance: High


Selected interest(s):
Selling


Message:
Your Simeon Lipman is sadly mistaken to think "Little Buddy" has
anything to do with Bob Dylan's "early brilliance": Shabby indeed:

Words & Music by Hank Snow



Broken hearted and so sad, golden curls all wet with tears,

'twas a picture of sorrow to see.

Kneeling close to the side of his pal and only pride,

A little lad these words he told me.
&c.

Anybody remember "The Drunkard's Son" as published in ISIS years ago? That one too was signed Bobby Zimmerman, and in the pre-google days it took a while to figure that it was just a transcript of somebody else's lyrics.

My own early email to Christie's got a shorter response than stephenoxford's:

Thank you for contacting Christie's, the World's Leading Art Business.

If your message is urgent, or concerns bidding in one of our auctions,
we invite you to contact a Christie's saleroom directly. Please note
that Christie's does not accept bids by email.

Perhaps they are just waking up!

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Google News already has 236 news reports on the upcoming auction of Bobby's original poem!

There will be some very red faces later today - especially Simeon Lipman's!

"but if dogs have a heaven there's one thing i know,
old shep has a wonderful home....."



a couple of years ago my mate judge trev (inner city unit) was being backed by nik turner (hawkwind sax player) and introduced the hawkwind song 'masters of the universe' to massive applause and a grin from nik - its his BIG number - trev promptly burst into Old Shep instead.... the confusion was hilarious.... nik came up to me afterwards and said "i think i did a good impression of the jordannaires don't you?".... i reserve judgement. laarf? i nearly cried!

Amazing! This story has made my day!

Here's possibly the earliest cover of a Dylan 'original'...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA40wMgxruI

Naughty boy, Bob! Presumably he'd memorised it... at least it would demonstrate his ability to hoover material up and store it away in his head for future use. I wonder if the other kids at the summer camp were in on his little game?

Left-sloping writing...

Here we go:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/ma ... untry-song

It's nice that he credits ER with the discovery, but in an homage to Bob the writer should have claimed to have unearthed the truth himself.

True.

Yes, the infamous ER mafia strike again!
From the Guardian article:

The origins of the poem appear to have gone unnoticed by just about everyone involved in the auction, and it was up to a comment left on the Dylan fan blog Expecting Rain to highlight that the words to Little Buddy were in fact Snow's lyrics, from his own song of the same name.

...

Whether or not Dylan had simply written out the words to his favourite song (and, er, just happened to sign his name underneath) or this is, as some online commentators have cheekily suggested, his "first surviving piece of plagiarism", remains to be seen.

There is no comment so far from Dylan on this apparent piece of poetry, said to have been written when he was 16. Dylan wouldn't be the first teenager to cheat on his homework, but he's almost certainly the first to find the end result so valuable. Christie's, who valued Little Buddy at £10,000, have yet to comment on the discovery that they are Snow's lyrics.

Wow! I've made the Guardian!!! (for a good reason!)

Indeed!!

hehehe

Good for you, stephenoxford!

Can I solemnly announce that according to the above post I am Expecting Rain Mafia and therefore should have Titanium status endowed immediately!!