He is back in the studio , if you like later period Bob it’s good, if not it’s bad.
It’s another covers album so if you liked Shadows in the night…….
Dylan – good news and bad news
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Passion is a young man’s game…..Just came across this longish interview with Bob from early last year talking about the new album, recording, Frank Sinatra and other things.
It is clear that he knows a fuck of a lot about what he does. Not like he just thought, gee not much going on in the songwriting part of the brain so I will just fill a disc with standards. And his commentary about Frank is pretty damn interesting too.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bob-dylan-interview-passion-is-a-young-mans-game-older-people-gotta-be-wise-10029328.html
That’s a fascinating interview. Interesting what he said about Rod Stewart and Clapton…
Yes, great interview. And I’m glad he said that about Rod. I worship the ground he walks on but I wouldn’t give houseroom to any of those American Songbook albums. And yet they were the biggest selling albums of his career.
I’m surprised Macca didn’t come up – his Kisses On The Bottom was a very similar exercise.
Marvellous interview. Thanks a lot for posting Junior.
interesting at the end
“thanks for answering so many questions”
“well they were interesting questions”
So much for the difficult interviewee
Bad news for me then 🙂
yeah but @henpetsgi will be popping champagne corks 😉
Fascinating stuff in the interview I missed first time round. He really does know his music, don’t he?
Can’t remember when I last read an interview with a musician as interesting and thoughtful. Such off-the-cuff erudition and clarity – why does he plagiarise for his writing? And I wish he’d stop pretending he could paint. But I am looking forward to the new old album. Old is the new new.
I don’t think he pretends he can paint, I think other people do. I dare say this amuses him.
It’s all in the nuance, innit?
Well up for the ol’ stoat still being around, doing his thing, digging Frank f***** Sinatra. Triffic, rock ‘n’ roll, wouldn’t have it any other way.
However, in the last five years we’ve had 2-cd, 40 track, releases ‘Another Self Portrait’ (still haven’t got that one), ‘Basement Tapes’ and ”65/’66’. That’ll do me.
Pity the Beatles’ and Brian-era Stones’ back catalogues aren’t being administered by the same people who deliver, every couple of years, the Bootleg Series.
Do get Another Self Portrait – I think it’s one of the very best of the Bootleg Series, which really did make me reevaluate his music from that period. A genuinely great listen. Wish I could say the same about Shadows in the Night, but maybe that’s just me…
That was fascinating. Excellent interview. I loved this bit;
Q: Do you think of this album as risky? These songs have fans who will say you can’t touch Sinatra’s version.
A: Risky? Like walking across a field laced with land mines? Or working in a poison gas factory? There’s nothing risky about making records.
I loved that bit, too. He still gives great quote.
Know what I’m dreading? When he dies. We will never have witnessed such a tide of pan-media bullshit. The internet will become a vast Dickensian funeral cortege, with the loudest wailers and hair-pullers leading the way. The Dylan I Knew. How Dylan Changed The Times, And Changed Us All. Tears Of Rage, Tears Of Grief.
I hope he has the good manners to live forever, or at least to outlive everyone who’s heard of him.
How do you think it will compare to the Bowie-fest? x2? x10?
I think there will be less emotion around Dylan’s passing, but a lot more pseudo-intellectual wankery. And I say that with certainty, because I intend to supply the latter, in spades.
Let’s just say the emotion will probably be less … flamboyant? In terms of global quantity (measured in emos) Dylan will probably tip the scales.
I could be totally wrong – I wasn’t around for any of this stuff – but I get the sense that Dylan doesn’t have the same emotional connection with his audience. He’s always been remote, sphinx-like and aloof, whereas Bowie somehow seems to have convinced his mob that, despite being an alien sex god with mismatched eyes, a cupboard full of bottled urine and a worrying interest in fascism, he’s actually quite proximate to them. I think it was the supermodel wife, Manhattan seclusion and decade of not touring which achieved the effect for him.
I wasn’t a fan until relatively recently – about forty years ago – but I can already feel my eyes moistening with pre-grief.
The worlds media will be all over Dylan when he goes like very few people alive now (MCCartney will be another). And rightly so. He’s one of the greatest and most influential artists of our lifetime in any artform.
I can’t wait!
Hang on, that doesn’t sound right…
Better start stockpiling those records now… $$
What are “records”?
🙂
Records are like mp3 files, only rounder.
As usual most people will wait until he croaks until deciding they really should own a Dylan record and see what all the fuss is about.
And they may well utter the immortal words…
“What is this shit?”
And when he gets to heaven Bob will be able to have it out once and for all with that “Judas!” bloke.
St Peter: Name?
Bob: Robert Zimmerman.
Peter: I don’t believe you. You’re a liar. (to celestial choir invisible) Sing it fookin’ loud!
We already had a bit of that. This is from 1978, I think
http://i.imgur.com/L2iSpM0.jpg
Is he doing Once I Had A Secret Love?
PS. ….”outlive everyone who’s heard of him”… not long now!
Get your barbs in while you can, Moose.
Once Bobby croaks you won’t be able to say anything to interfere with the mourning process. Mwahahahaha!
I’m going into the early stages of pre-mourning now, to be ahead of the zeitgeist. Playing the occasional Dylan song. Working through the chords on my battered ol’ guitar. Thinkin’ ’bout changin’ times …
I just can’t start crying. Never expected this to happen to me.
*toecaps Bingo in balls*
That help?
Well, I’m now aroused, if that was the goal.
He shoots, he scores!
“Bob Dylan’s died. Of course loads of people have died before. He’s even nicked that idea”
It’s going to be biblical; a mass wailing and gnashing of teeth and a tsunami of headlines about ‘knocking on heaven’s door.’ Followed by an epidemic of cover versions (or “tributes”).
It’ll be Olympic-level mourning, with competitive displays of grief.
When he dies, he almost certainly be referred to as a protest singer in the news. His last real protest album was The Times They are a-Changin. He was 22 when it came out.
There were masses of great lines and insights. One of the best I’ve read in years.
I’ll be getting it, but would prefer a set of originals. It’ll be the first Dylan album I’ve bought on release, excepting last November’s BS Vol. 12.
Fab interview.
Having been to both Dylan gigs and – once – an Elton John concert, I can confirm Bob’s observation about their respective audiences…
Also, speaking of Elton, and the outpouring of grief over dead pop stars; I found it quite hilarious that the music magazine’sDavid Bowie RIP editions recently all had arty, sombre cover photos of Bowie and that photo of Elton on the back cover, looking hysterically happy to be alive!
Both Dylan gigs? I think you’ll find he performed more than twice in his career.
Another worthy covers album is all very well, but when is Dylan going to do his ambient album? I guess getting Daniel Lanois to produce Oh Mercy is about as close as he’s going to get.
Never mind that, when is he going to put out that album of Stephen Foster songs he has been sitting on for decades ?
You’d think with his money he’d be able to afford a proper pair of jeans etc
Found this today. Who can name the others in the picture?
http://i.imgur.com/L9q4jSw.jpg
I can’t!
What I meant was: Is it Frank Zappa?
The hatted chap, Leon Redbone?
Is that David Bromberg on the right?
Correct. But who’s that in the middle?
Phil Ochs? Barbra Streisand?
Leon Redbone?
Yes!
Looking for all the world like a fun-sized Frank Zappa and making Dylan appear 6 feet tall, that’s diminutive vaudevillian ragtime artist Leon Redbone.
More news/rumour: https://www.bobdylanisis.com/dylan-digest/
“LIve At Budokan 2 – Revenge Of The Flute!”
I would LOVE that.
Oh for a *THWACK* button…
There were cameras and mikes all over the place for the Melbourne shows. You’d think a live release was in the offing …or the bootleggers had taken control of the place.
Budokan – another example of the case against the flute for crimes against humanity.
I have a bootleg somewhere of “OK I Still Get Stoned” which was recorded in Brisbane on that tour, which quite frankly wees over Budokan from a great height.
Yes recording the very first leg of a tour with a big new band and radically reworked songs was a mistake.
In fine voice on that Brissie recording.
I agree with what he says about Rod Stewart but he is wrong about 30 piece orchestras. Has he never heard A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night, the most exquisite album ever released?
Album and tour announced: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/bob-dylan-fallen-angels/
Samples of four tracks (from the EP) can be heard on Amazon Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%A1%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89-%E3%83%9C%E3%83%96%E3%83%BB%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3/dp/B01CYUO6UI/ref=pd_sim_15_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=61HkTWyVVLL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=06P5NYKV5D8C47J2NYKThttp://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%A1%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89-%E3%83%9C%E3%83%96%E3%83%BB%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3/dp/B01CYUO6UI/ref=pd_sim_15_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=61HkTWyVVLL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=06P5NYKV5D8C47J2NYKT
Full details here: http://bobdylan.com/news/fallen-angels-to-be-released-may-20-pre-order-today/
Triffic, an E.P. (erm? OK) is being released on Record Store Day. That’ll be an ‘expensive’ E.P., yeah?
My cup truly runneth over.
May 20th, I’ll stay in and I’ll scan my Dylan CDs and then I’ll do what I always do…..play ‘Nashville Skyline’ five times.
Anyone getting the new one on Friday?
I’m in no hurry