Bob Dylan on "Brown Sugar" and DP on the "Big Tree" of Community-Radio and DJs, other Volunteers, and Staffs as Branches, Leaves and Seeds.

January 25, 2025

"I wonder if she knew how much her voice gave me inner peace and serenity. Every word she said, I could see as she said it."

Bob Dylan on "Brown Sugar" in his book Chronicles #1

BOB wrote about BELLE in his 2005 book Chronicles, Volume 1. He heard her during the weeks of recording his album Oh Mercy with producer DANIEL LANOIS and New Orleans musicians, including CYRIL NEVILLE, BRIAN STOLTZ, TONY HALL, and WILLIE GREEN. He listened to a table-top radio in the kitchen late at night.

‘At the home on Audubon Place the radio was … always tuned to WWOZ … My favorite DJ, hands-down, was Brown Sugar … She played records by Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Little Walter, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Chuck Willis, all the greats…. Brown Sugar, whoever she was, had a big, thick, slow, dreamy, oozing molasses voice … I wondered if she knew her voice had drawn me in, filled me with inner peace and serenity … Whatever she said, I could see every word as she said it…. New Orleans had the best radio stations in the world.”

Belle told MARYSE and me about Bob. “He’s a very nice man. He called on the show, the middle of the night, and we would talk about anything. I like him.”