A one act play that features only two characters - Sam and Bob. It was first published in ESQUIRE in 1987 and can be seen as a dramatized short 'interview' between Sam Shepard and Bob Dylan, focussing mainly upon Dylan's early days in New York, his meeting with Woody Guthrie, what constitutes 'truth', the greatness of James Dean, his musical influences and his motorcycle crash. Throughout the play, SAM is taping the interview on a small tape recorder. But whenever he plays the tape back, he hears only a Jimmy Yancey piano solo. Eventually, some of the spoken words come back, but the music of Jimmy Yancey permeates and punctuates the short play, with the tune being one that Bob claims he heard from no known source at the onset of the scene.

This is the German version of Shepard's play (a.k.a. 'A Short Life Of Trouble'), translated by Günter Amendt. Thank you to Jürgen Wasser for the scan and information.

Below: Program of the play, Schauspielhaus Bochum 2002, 80 pages.