Thomas Merton, though 51 years old in 1966, was wide open to the '60s Zeitgeist -- all of it. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Six, p. 93, entry of 10 July 1966:
Borrowed a record player and played Joan Baez over again -- and now really know "Silver Dagger" (before I had the melody confused with "East Virginia"). One record I like more and more is Bob Dylan's Highway 61 [Revisited].
On p. 324, Merton references Dylan's Ballad of a Thin Man.
In the same volume we find "A Midsummer Diary for M" and on p. 305:
All the love and death in me are at the moment wound up in Joan Baez's song, "Silver Dagger." I can't get it out of my head, day or night. I am obsessed with it. My whole being is saturated with it. The song is myself -- and yourself for me, in a way.
Ry Cooder, He'll Have to Go. The old 1960 Jim Reeves country crossover hit.
Ry Cooder, Good Night Irene. Leadbelly. Eric Clapton's rendition at a 1982 English Christmas party.
Ry Cooder, Yellow Roses. The old Hank Snow tune.
Ry Cooder, Maria Elena. An old standard from circa 1932.
Ry Cooder, Paris, Texas. Excellent evocative video. Great YouTuber comment:
Man I have been gone way too long. I miss America, the open road, the wild west. I remember staying in hotels with just a dozen rooms or so, and only maybe four of them in operation. Twenty seven bucks and bed springs so squeaky we had to make love on the floor. Walking out to the pay phone, a billion stars in the sky, I need to try and find my way back again.
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