Burning rubber

When I was in upstate New York last week, I heard Levon Helm and his entourage perform “This Wheel’s on Fire,” the Basement Tapes song written by none other than Helm’s late. lamented Bandmate Rick Danko and their pal Bob Dylan, who also performed in Saratoga last week.

The Dylan/Danko song includes these lines in its refrain: This wheel’s on fire,/Rolling down the road.

The King James version of the Book of Daniel includes these lines: I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

Dylan songs. Upstate New York. So  the wheels started turning and I decided to post (scroll down to the next entry or click on the FICTION category to the right) an excerpt called “Wheel of Fire” from my novel “Gloryville,” which also alludes to the Bible’s flaming wheel and is set along the Mohawk River in upstate New York about halfway between Woodstock and Saratoga.