All along the watchtower

Sometimes at the moment to connect there comes upon us the feeling that it is not the right moment, and the false promises of possible applause and the little foxes of self-criticism seize us and we cannot sing.

At the street fair on Grove at its intersection with Divisidero, a man is singing because he wants to. It appears that nothing can stop him. "Now here's a song called "All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan" he says before singing.

Later, the same day, at the ballgame, the crowd stands to sing "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch, led by a police captain with a fine tenor voice who stands at home plate before a big microphone.

Written in 1918 by Irving Berlin as a 'patriotic song', and re-written by Berlin in 1938 as a 'peace song', "God Bless America" so disturbed Woody Guthrie that he wrote "This Land is Your Land" in response, originally titling the song "God Blessed America for Me."

Bob Dylan has said somewhere that Irving Berlin is one of his favorite songwriter's, and most know Dylan's debt to Guthrie.

The crowd's on its feet, most of them singing, a minority refraining not because they don't want to sing but because they don't believe in god or don't believe a song that links god and country should be sung at a baseball game, crammed down their throats so to speak, having replaced, apparently, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".

Are those who sing 'the pure products of America' gone crazy, as WC Williams posited, observing baseball fans sometime in the 1930's, or the sane, rational products of the time?

The Giants beat the Dodgers 8-1 and most in the crowd go home happy, even those who don't believe in god.