The Bubby & Bobby Bootleg

By Ezra Soiferman, Rivkeh Alboim Pofelis and Bob Dylan

 

Background: This song came to be after the death of my Bubby (Yiddish for grandmother) at the age of 92 in mid-November, 2005. The lyrics are below to help you follow along.

Family Tree: To give you some family tree context, but not too much that you should glaze over, Bubby Rivke was my mother's mother. I am my mother's son. Everything else is pure conjecture.

Technique: I put this together by mixing a 'bootleg' version of Bob Dylan's ÒDon't Think Twice, It's All RightÓ with excerpts from a bootleg interview on life, death and love I'd recorded with my grandmother, Rivke Alboim Pofelis, in 2002 at her apartment in Montreal.

Some Bubbies tend to get a bit skittish around electronic equipment that doesn't have a Cuisinart logo on it, so I chose to keep my Dictaphone concealed in my shirt pocket to preserve her candid nature.

Since she passed away before I made this, she never did hear what you'll hear now, nor did she ever know about the original recording I'd made of her that afternoon. I suspect, however, that she'd dig this song. What Bob Dylan will think if he ever hears this is anybody's guess.

Source materials: ÒDon't Think Twice, It's All RightÓ sung and played by Bob Dylan, from The Gaslight Tapes, 1962 (Columbia Records). Spoken word by Rivke Alboim Pofelis, 2002.  

Play the song:

MP3 Format (3:16, 3.8mb):

 

Lyrics:

 

OyÉ oy...

The overall picture is itÕs no good, no good at all.

Well, thereÕs an end to everything, and thatÕs it.

Oy... 

I canÕt do anything about that feelingÉ because I canÕt change it.

The world was madeÉ and thatÕs the way itÕs going to remain. And we canÕt do anything about it.

 

Well, it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

But the new things lead only till the old things, and thatÕs it

And it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe (Oy...)

If you donÕt know by now

 

Who did you think thought of everything!?

And the rooster crows at the break of dawn

Since the creation

Look out your window and I'll be trav'lin' on

A spirit!

You're the reason IÕll be gone

A spirit!

Don't think twice, cuz it's all right

 

Nature is pulling, pulling, pulling me down and thatÕs it.

 

Well, it ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal (Oy...)

Oh yeah, like before

And it ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal (Oy...)

I canÕt hear you anymore

 

I wish there was somethin' you would do or say

To try and make me change my mind and stay

But we never did too much talkin' anyway

But don't think twice, it's all right

 

It can always be better! Never mind worse! Worse, then youÕre lost!

 

Well, It ain't no use in turnin' on your lights, babe

Lights I never knowed

And it ain't no use in burninÕ your lamp, babe

I'm on the dark side of the road

 

Who did you think thought of everything?

 

Well, itÕs lonesome travÕlinÕ down the lonesome road

I once loved a woman, with a child I am told (Oy...)

IÕd given my heart but she wanted my soul

A spirit!

Don't think twice, cuz it's all right!

 

But first of all, youÕve gotta have a bond of love.

If thereÕs chemistry between youÉ then everything is fine.

Trust your own self, not what anybody else says.

 

So, IÕm ramblinÕ all by myself babe

This time, maybe more

And I canÕt use nobody else, babe

If you paid me for

I ainÕt sayinÕ you treated me unkind

God forbid!

You coulda done better, but I donÕt mind

Ah, you just wasted my precious time

Don't think twice, it's all right!

 

You should think of everything thatÕs good, everything thatÕs hopeful.

And what else is there? ThereÕs nothing else, actually...

 

To replay the song, Reload/Refresh this page.

 

Ezra Soiferman is a Montreal-based documentary filmmaker, photographer and songwriter.

 

More info about Ezra here.

 

See EzraÕs photos at EzraPix.