Odetta with its "Living Legend Award". In mid-September 2001, Odetta performed with the Boys' Choir of Harlem on the "Late Show with David Letterman," appearing on the first show after Letterman resumed broadcasting, having been off the air for several nights following the events of September 11; they performed "This Little Light of Mine". The 2005 documentary film "No Direction Home", directed by Martin Scorsese, highlights her musical influence on Bob Dylan, the subject of the documentary. The film contains an archive clip of Odetta performing "Waterboy" on TV in 1959, as well as her "Mule Skinner Blues" and "No More
When the Ship Comes In When the Ship Comes In "When the Ship Comes In" is a folk music song by Bob Dylan, released on his third album, "The Times They Are a-Changin'", in 1964. Joan Baez states in the documentary film "No Direction Home" that the song was, more or less, inspired by a hotel clerk who refused to allow Dylan a room due to his "unwashed" appearance (he was not famous outside of the folk movement at this time). The song then grew into a sprawling epic allegory about vanquishing the oppressive "powers that be". Another inspiration was the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill song,