When the Romans were trying to rub out witnesses to Christ's Resurrection, they put "the two Marys," Jesus's cousins who'd seen the empty tomb, onto a rudderless boat on the Palestine coast and cast them off to drown. Their loyal servant, a dark "Egyptian" woman named Sarah, tried to board the vessel, but the soldiers blocked her, so one of the Marys threw her a cloak on which she floated out to join them.

Miraculously, the craft made it all the way to the south of France, landing near the mouth of the Rhône. Another version has Sarah as a dark-skinned Provençal queen who rescues the Marys from a storm, brings them ashore, hears the word of the Lord, and converts her people to Christianity.

You won't find this voyage in the Bible, but the apocryphal tale (with and without Sarah) became so popular in the Middle Ages that an order of monks built a church honoring the beatified pair where they supposedly came ashore in the land of wild horses, the ethereal wetlands know as the Camargue [west of Marseilles].

The Roma latched on to the version with Sarah, and the fact that the Church doesn't acknowledge her makes it all the more appealing; Sarah became their saint. Every year on May 24, Roma from all over Europe gather at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, as they have been doing since at least the mid-nineteenth century.

There are statues of the Marys in the nave of the cathedral, but Roma pilgrims head straight for the crypts; there, in a dark corner, is a large wooden carving of Sarah. They drape her in cloaks and scarves, carry her into the light, bring her down to the sea, and give her a good soak in the Mediterranean. Her cheeks are worn smooth from thousands of good-luck touches. There are theses waiting to be written on the links between this and the high Catholic rituals in Andalusia where saints' images are taken for a walk once a year, escorted by buglers (and, at Easter in Seville, flamenco singers), and the journeys Hindus make to the Ganges with images of Kali. (Roma refer to their saint as Sara-la-Kâli"--Sara the Black.)

Then the party starts. May 25 was a big date in Django Reinhardt's calendar, but it keeps growing and growing and the town now gets overwhelmed. There are jam sessions in every bar and on every corner, a wild mix of Balkan, Russian, Hungarian, Manouche jazz, and flamenco. It would make a nice coda to report fantastic music emerging from this Roma musical summit, the best of many worlds, but the most-played tune there is usually "Ochi chornye" (Dark Eyes), the corniest bit of schmaltz imaginable, with "Hava nagila" running it a close second. Which isn't to say there aren't great musicians there every year playing the hell out of "Ochi chornye."

In the spring of 1975, Bob Dylan was in France with time to kill. Bored in Paris, he headed south to stay with David Oppenheim, painter of the abstract image on the back of Blood on the Tracks. Oppenheim figured the best entertainment for his eminent guest would be a visit to Les Saintes-Maries during its annual Romafest. They paid a call on the local "king," or clan leader, and were given the best seats by a campfire, where they stayed until dawn, listening to Ricardo Baliardo, the hottest guitar in town.

"One More Cup of Coffee" Dylan says, came to him in a dream the following night.

SOURCE: Joe Boyd's And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain pp. 382-4. His sequence is: tale of Saint Sarah, then Dylan's song, then Dylan's visit. I've reversed the last two, as it seems clearer to me in simple chronological order.

Boyd's notes unfortunately lack the source of Dylan's dream-attribution. (Maybe the liner notes on its album, Desire? I don't have them, though.) But given Boyd's deep research throughout this massive history of world music (944 pages, and dense ones too), I don't doubt him. Maybe Dylan told him over a beer. Boyd was, after all, everywhen, everywhere. Look over your shoulder. Joe is there. Witnessing you.

--Chris Wayan

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