On Saturday 24th May I joined a select group of fans, popular musicians and journalists in an undisclosed location on the south coast for the fifth annual BOB DAY. Bob Day is a group celebration of the birthday of Bob Dylan, and a practical workshop in Dylan appreciation. A large crowd kneels on the floor, straining their necks around a compendium of Dylan songs, and attempts to fit the words of - say - Tangled Up In Blue to the accompaniment of several guitars. Group fervour reaches religious pitch and anyone who's not "feeling it" is ejected and told to go and buy takeaway.

This year we piloted a new kind of "tribute songwriting". Each attendee was given a scrap of paper, asked to write down a word that came to mind when they thought of Bob and a single chord that Bob might use. The results were then placed in a large "beanie", shaken vigorously and read out in random order. Conjunctions were added where necessary and the following group composition was born. (The first two words to come out of the hat, incidentally, were "Bob").

Bob / Bob / on a harmonica
D / G / E / Am

Blue / paunchy / despair
Am / G / D minor7

Music / rolling / memories
D / G / A

I wish I was there
F / Am

But I was sorta there...
F / Am

The results were interesting. Some had chosen words from their favourite Dylan lyrics, while others had gone for less reverential observations based on his outward state or appearance. And no matter what was done to try and improve the chord sequence, it came out sounding like The Eagles.

Is this a new genre of music? The Fan Song - characterised by a haphazard combination of an artists's lyrical thumbprints, a fan's mildly drunken observations and an Eagles chord progression. The procedure might be repeated, with equally unsatisfactory results, for all major bands and musical icons.

Other events celebrated on he 24th included International Talk Like Bob Dylan Day. What did you do?