'Mixed-up confusion'

I had an interesting meeting to oversee the new design plans for our local parish hall. I think it will be a huge improvement for the community.

After the meeting I went around town to take various pictures for several different purposes and with different hats on. This picture is a with my blip hat, when my eye was caught by the confusion of colours, reflections, shapes and people including a kind of self-portrait. The background is of Rodborough Fields about half-a-mile away. The reflecting glass is the hairdresser's window. The feet on the footpath are of the man looking at me with a sideways glance. The man in the doorway is a few doors up the road from the alley in which I am standing in front of the parked cars. And so on.

Seeing it now, I am reminded of Bob Dylan's 1962 song, 'Mixed-up confusion', which was one of the earliest he recorded with an electric band, while recording his acoustic album 'The Freewheeling Bob Dylan'. One of the guitarists was the wonderful Bruce Langhorne, who added so much to many of Dylan's best early songs, such as Love minus zero/No limit, She belongs to me and It's all over now Baby Blue. The outtake versions are even better examples of his finger-picking style, if you can find them on the various Bootleg editions.

Apparently, he lost the fifth and fourth fingers on his right hand in an accident when seven years old, contributing to his distinctive finger picking style. Years later in 1973, Dylan would use him again on tracks for his soundtrack recording for the Sam Peckinpah film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Dylan appeared in the film playing the character Alias.