Donald Trump has finally found a way to get people to stop talking about the Epstein Files: Let them think he’s dying.
His bruised hands and cankles and lack of public appearances are fueling the speculation, but it was his out-of-character speculation about the state of his soul (“I wanna try and get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole.”) that has people convinced he’s knockin’ on heaven’s door. With anybody else you’d suspect it’s a ploy for sympathy, but nobody’s every going to sympathize with Donald Trump. Most people are hoping death is at home and in the mood for visitors.
Bob Dylan’s original version of this rock standard was written for Slim Pickens’ death scene in Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 film “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” which Dylan also acted in. Released as a single, it became his last Top 20 Billboard hit. It’s been covered hundreds of times, most successfully by Guns N’ Roses.
Probably the most affecting version was recorded by Warren Zevon when he was on death’s front stoop in 2003, but I featured that one when Trump came down with COVID five years ago. So here’s a live version by one of my favorite Dylan interpreters, erstwhile Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry, who included it on his 2007 LP “Dylanesque.”
