Dylan Suits Us Just Fine

Wednesday is National Tailors Day. Elias Harb, who has owned Elias Custom Tailoring in Santa Monica for more than 30 years, has heard that one before. “Every damn day is tailor’s day around here.” In that case, we’ll watch Pierce Brosnan in “The Tailor of Panama” or Alec Guinness in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Better yet, we’ll listen to “House of the Rising Sun” by Bob Dylan, at right. The folk ballad was originally recorded in the early 20th century and later made popular, or not, by a number of artists, including Dolly Parton, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Eric Burdon and the Animals. Dylan put it on his first album in 1962. Our excuse for connecting it to the holiday? One lyric: “My mother was a tailor/She sewed these new blue jeans. . . .”