How Dylan has set the pace for remembering his contemporaries like the Liverpool ‘ferryman’

Gerry and the Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden died at the age of 78, two years younger than Bob will be soon.

Gerry’s band was one of the biggest successes of the Merseybeat era, and in1963 their first three songs hit the top of the charts.

The band’s second best known hit, Ferry Cross The Mersey, came out in 1964. And it was a track that Bob Dylan seems to have always remembered.

The single was released in America in 1965 and soon after that Dylan played Liverpool where he was captured on film sitting in a doorway in Dublin Street, close to Liverpool’s Dock Road, surrounded by local children.

He was playing Liverpool’s Odeon Theatre that evening.

Dylan was always drawn to the New Yorkian decay of Britain’s North-west cities like ‘The Pool’ and Manchester and did many publicity shoots on the streets.

There is also a tape circulating of him actually singing The Leaving Of Liverpool.

Later, when he was playing the Echo Arena in 2009 Bob joined a conducted tour of John Lennon’s childhood home, Mendips.

I don’t think Gerry and Bob ever actually met but (please tell me if you know different) but he mentioned him and played Ferry Cross the Mersey as he went Around The World in a 2008 edition of his Theme Time Radio show.. Bob also played Celia Cruz’s Africa, When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano by The Ink Spots and Whole Wide World by Wreckless Eric.

But an equally important recognition came in his sprawling Murder Most Foul last year when Gerry and his Pacemakers got another poetic mention:

Hush little children you’re gonna stand

The Beatles are coming they’re going to hold your hand

Slide down the Bannister go get your coat

Ferry cross the Mersey and go for the throat

There’s three bums coming all dressed in rags

Pick up the pieces and order the flags

Gerry Marsden was made an MBE in 2003 for services to charity after supporting victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

At the time, he said he was “over the moon” to have received the honour.

Probably his best-known record was his version of You’ll Never Walk Alone which became an anthem amongst Liverpool football fans.

#bobdylan #gerrymarsden #liverpool #johnlennon #pacemakers #