Bonus Tracks: Joy Harjo & Doug Keith on Covering Bob Dylan Like the Ramones

"I was probably one of the few poets that was happy he got the Nobel Prize."

Joy Harjo and Doug Keith at the ‘Going Electric’ concert. Courtesy American Song Archives

Today, we’ve got the penultimate Bonus Track from last summer’s “Going Electric” Dylan tribute in Tulsa. Backstage at Cain’s, I spoke separately to two artists who performed their covers together: Joy Harjo, three-time Poet Laureate of the United States and the Bob Dylan Center’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence, and Doug Keith, a singer-songwriter who will serve as Music Director at the next of these Dylan Center concerts, a tribute to Blonde on Blonde next month (where Harjo will again perform).

At last summer’s concert, they played a spare “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” accompanied by Nels Cline, and wild full-band “Mr. Tambourine Man” that they described as “woozy Ramones,” complete with sax solo from Harjo. (Clips from both below.)

Here are my backstage conversations with Joy Harjo and Doug Keith.

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All of these casual Bonus Track conversations backstage at the Bob Dylan Center’s “Going Electric” shows are archived here—and here’s the main piece I did from the shows

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Joy Harjo

Out of all the Dylan songs you could have picked, how did you pick the two you’re doing?

Because in junior high here in Tulsa, I heard “Mr. Tambourine Man.” There’s a lot of verses to it.

A lot of verses to a lot of them.

For everything, I know. I was probably one of the few poets that was happy he got the Nobel Prize. Everybody else was pissed off.

Really? In your world, were people annoyed?

Oh yeah. People were very annoyed.