Today is Bob Dylan’s birthday. I don’t consider myself a serious Bob Cat, but even so dozens of songs of his are part of my psyche, and go to the very heart of why I loved music and song in the first place. Once every couple of years I fall into a Bob Dylan (the) rabbit hole, where something clicks and I listen to almost nothing else for a month or so. Then the mood passes, and I may not play a whole album for many months after.
An odd aspect of my fandom is that I didn’t catch on to Dylan until I was about 30. I had the idea that he was somehow ‘difficult’, and didn’t really explore. Then a couple of CDs of Dylan covers issued as cover-mounts on Uncut got stuck on repeat play at mine. Once the songs sank in I looked for the originals and I was away.
It’s hard to pick an absolute favourite, so for no other reason than that today Bob reaches the age of 77, here is 7 Days. Your picks, for whatever reason and whatever level of fandom, welcome.
I think we should celebrate by singing Happy Birthday with a completely different tune from the one everybody knows, going up an octave at the end of each line for no apparent reason.
Ha-ppee birrthday to – YOOOUUU!
Ha-ppee birrthday to – YOOOUUU!
Ha-ppee birrthday dear – Bob-BEEE!
A piece in Q magazine once described Bob’s live set in the early 90s as something like ‘an increasingly cryptic game of name that tune in which the contestants frequently included the members of his own band.’ Richard Thompson once described playing with him and rehearsing a few songs backstage, only for Bob to choose completely different ones when they were in front of the audience. Thommo ‘But then he’s Bob Dylan. He can do what he likes.’
I’ve only seen Dylan play once, at the Fleadh in Finnsbury Park a decade or so ago, when as I recall the set was a drunken sounding bar room blues session, apparently because Ronnie Wood had turned up as sat in with the band. I can’t honestly that I enjoyed the show all that much, but I am glad to have at least seen him.
Gatz, your whole post there sums up my own relationship with Dylan so perfectly. I heartily agree.
I wasn’t quite as late as thirty, but I was definitely in my mid to late twenties anyway. It was actually hearing that parody of Subterranean Homesick Blues that’s in that Tim Robbins film where he’s a politician? (My poor memory is kicking in and I can’t be bothered looking this up, but I know what I mean). I didn’t realise it was a Dylan song. Then Like A Rolling Stone came on the radio one day and just floored me.
I unashamedly focus on his peak three album period (yes, you know the ones I mean – the rest of his discography is patchy), and just like you, every so often I go crazy for them and nothing else for a few weeks.
Bob Roberts. Maker of the albums Bob On Bob and The Times They Are Changin’ Back.
When I saw that film in 1992 at the age of 18 I thought it was pin-sharp satire. I saw it a few years ago and found it embarrassingly smug liberal finger-wagging, essentially in the same category as Michael Moore.
He’s doing a concert “Bob Dylan and His Band” here in Singapore in August.
Anyone seen him live recently ? Worth going to ?
The “…and his band” is a bit redundant, seeing as he hasn’t gone out without a band since the first halves of his 1966 gigs. Or a meringue?
His set list has few of the standards on his recent records. I saw him 2 years ago. It was a superb balance of his grizzled weathered voice, song choice and performance. Can still understand every word he sings.
Im going to Melb show in August in fact going solo for second show in exoectation of a great seat.
The shows are much beter than a few years ago and miles ahead of the cocaine fuelled unrecognisable period. But his voice is a croak. Can’t handle that then dont go.
My thoughts on Dylan are definitely similar. I was seventeen when I decided to see what the fuss was about by buying a Greatest Hits. This led me in turn to his mid 60s peak, Blood on the Tracks and his earlier folk stuff. Since then I’ve continued to add stuff as and when – some of which has been shit to be fair.
Re: “some of which has been shit to be fair.”
So … you’re not keen on “Froggy Went a-Courtin'”, then, Tony?
I recently acquired those two cheap 80s/early 90s ‘Original Album Classics’ sets to fill in some gaps. Now, I’m a fan since 1965, but I had managed to avoid most of these because of their reputation, and the fact that I just have so much GREAT Dylan that I hadn’t bothered (and we forget how expensive stuff used to be – I wasn’t going to buy iffy albums back then just because they were by Dylan). I have still avoided most of the Christian era to this day, although Shot Of Love is in there.
There were some real surprises – Oh Mercy is 5 star brilliant, and Infidels is nearly as good. The folk song sets (Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong) are well worth having. But the real clunkers are the ‘live’ albums – MTV Unplugged, Real Live and, of course, Dylan and The Dead, which is possibly the most wretched album by anyone, ever.
The puzzle for me is why these sets randomly miss out some releases from the period – why not make a 78-81 set of Street Legal, Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot Of Love, then an 83-86 one containing Infidels, Empire Burlesque, Knocked Out Loaded, then a third (88-90) of Down In The Groove, Oh Mercy and Under The Red Sky. A live set from 79-94 could then sweep up At Budokan, Real Live, Dylan And The Dead, and Unplugged.
Anyway, Happy Birthday to the old boy – my life would have been quite different without him.
77 eh? Well happy birthday to you Bob.
I found Dylan in 1973 and promptly sold all my Genesis and VDGG LPs to buy the Dylan back catalogue.
I first saw him at Earl’s Court in 1978 and approaching 100 shows since. His voice was good until the start of 2004 then it was all over for me apart from a few studio gems like Nettie Moore.
I only played Triplicate once I am ashamed to say.
100 shows? Respect.
I went to most of the shows in England and Wales (south of Newcastle anyway) between 1978 and 2003. I did most of them after work while teaching, finishing the last lesson in Solihull and running to the car. Seems like a lot of effort and a long time ago now.
Having said that I’m driving to Putney and back today to see Nick Mason!
Night Out pice on return, please, Mr T.
Have seen him live about 15 times. Mostly great, sometimes not as great. The last time was a year ago, which was somewhat bizarre. Still moments of genius though. You asked for picks for his birthday. This is one of his best, which he didn’t bother to release initially (couldn’t find studio version)
I only realised that this is loosely adapted from St James Infirmary Blues when I went to see Martin Carthy. In the folkie tradition he gave each song a long spoken build up, and mentioned BWMcT before playing St James …
Dylan in the comics? National Lampoon thought so, back in ’72…
http://www.punkhart.com/dylan/images/zimmerman.html
Splendid.
Open mic and folk club night here tonight. I will do ‘It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry’ and ‘Jim Jones’ at both. Looking forward to the others choices.
Though I know tons of Dylan songs, these are the only two I ever learned to play. Jim Jones not his obviously, but he recorded it.
I came to Bob Dylan late and I’m glad I did because I have so much music already to last me a lifetime I feel I can approach his music without needing it, without the narrative of the legend or the pressure to chime with the knowledge and influence of a lifelong aficionado. No, that doesn’t mean I’m a massive fan of Wiggle Wiggle but it does mean I can just listen and enjoy (or not) his music on my own terms.
The trouble with all that precursor is it sounds objective and detached but the truth is a few songs are seeping through and nudging their way into my consciousness. One such song is She Belongs To Me. I love its simplicity, directness and seismic futurism; it foretells that folk music can be mainstream pop music. It’s also a brilliant companion piece to the Stephen Duffy song She Belongs To All which I feel must be a conscious link, to the title at least. The Lilac Time are a band I’ve loved for decades and one of the biggest pleasures I’ve had in recent years is plotting Dylan’s influence on their music – alongside many other artists I’ve enjoyed – and joining dots I didn’t even know existed.
I can’t find an online version of Dylan’s She Belongs To Me from Bringing It All Back Home so here’s a latecomer’s tribute to his influence with Stephen Duffy’s She Belongs To All:
Limited Dylan interest for many years, and then a bit more seeps in.
Highway 61 Revisited and Blood On The Tracks are my “go to ” Dylan albums.
And I’ve never appreciated the greatness poured onto Blonde On Blonde (I feel I may be missing something).
A couple of years ago I followed minibreakfast’s blog as she ploughed through the Bob Box (all the albums in one never ending Box Set).
When the price fell below £80, I went and bought it. I’ve been dipping in and out, but still not fully converted.
You are indeed missing something: Blonde on Blonde is simply the most magnificent series of songs ever put together, a tumbling kaleidoscope of everything that has ever mattered anywhere. Somewhere up above someone mentions Stephen Duffy or was it Nick Mason, hellzapopin – get some ears!
Do you know what, I suddenly don’t like Bob Dylan at all.
You smell, nyah..
Phew! Back to the overgrown 5-year-old. That I can cope with. Please don’t trouble us with any more positivity – it’s too weird.
Of the last 100 posts of mine, 87% have been positive, 10% neutral, 2% negative and 1% grossly insulting – so stick it up your smelly bum (oops, 2% insulting now)
Statistics is it! Here’s 100% of “Swivel!”
Yeah but you still smell
I smell you from here!
I was given his first album when I was 12, 1962. I had to get a paper round to help pay for my vinyl fix. I was hooked at an early age. I’ve seen the old goat in every decade since the 60’s up to the noughties. I don’t enjoy him live anymore. The studio albums I still love, yes including Triplicate’. Looking forward to The Bootleg Series Vol 14, rumoured to be either ‘Blood On The Tracks’ or ‘Desire’ or ‘The Rolling Thunder Review’ or any combination of those three.
Happy Birthday Bob you old Gizzard.
A magnificent late period song. Apt too
https://youtu.be/VShIUphW4rM
Oh yeah. Great song. One of my favourites. 21 years old…
First saw him in 1981, as a teenager. I suspect he played Every Grain of Sand and I did not appreciate it. How wrong I was; it’s marvellous.
Well, he’s just the greatest, an artist without compare.
Blood and the Tracks is the first Dylan album I heard as a new record, and it remains my favourite, along with Highway 61 Revisited. Street Legal, Time Out of Mind are right up there too. And then there’s John Wesley Harding, when Dylan turned away from the baroque majesty of his mid 60s trilogy and came up with something that was equally powerful in its simplicity, and its hearkening back to American folk and country roots. So many magnificent songs on it. I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine is one of his greatest songs. I hadn’t heard this version from the RollingThunder tour til I googled it. It’s not got the poignancy of the original version but it has its own charm.
Is this old hat for Dylan birthday threads ? Loudon Wainwright III, Talking New Bob Dylan.
‘Songs From The Westchester Delta’ has always sounded like the perfect record to me. One day I promise I will post my treatise “Loudon & His Family, The Real Story” unless of course Bargie sends me “Genesis Play Eton College 1952” first…
Patti Smith on Dylan in the new (Pink Floyd cover) Mojo:
“It’s been a very long time since I’ve related to some of the things he’s doing. But it doesn’t matter, because I can go back, when I’m in a certain mood, and listen to Chimes of Freedom or “John Wesley Harding.” This guy gave us The Death of Emmett Till.”
… erm … what she said.
Two good songs, that’s all.
Out of curiosity, Freddy, which 2?
Strewth, it’s Tony Blackburn!
Good ‘ol Tone has in his stint (18 months) at the helm of the now woeful SOTS apparently played a whopping two Dylan songs … “Down Along The Cove” and “I Don’t Believe You” …
… arrrrrggggghhhh, got you!!!
It was, of course, the two biggest hits – “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Lay Lady Lay.”
@gatz
Ooh, honestly just not a fan but I do like the obvious , “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Subteranean wotsits.”
I think he’s just one of those artists I don’t get.