That's the way creativity works, Dylan told Robert Hilburn, of the Los Angeles Times. You're always writing into a tradition. "My songs are either based on old Protestant hymns or Carter Family songs or variations of the blues form," he said. "What happens is, I'll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That's the way I meditate. . . . I'll be playing Bob Nolan's 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds,' for instance, in my head constantly--while I'm driving a car or talking to a person or sitting around or whatever. People will think they are talking to me and I'm talking back, but I'm not. I'm listening to a song in my head. At a certain point, some of the words will change and I'll start writing a song." via