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Dylan on being 80.

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Bob Dylan, Robert De Niro, Dionne Warwick, Gloria Steinem, Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel were asked to share their thoughts on the pros and cons of turning 80 … and offer advice to Donald Trump.

Emails began circulating from my Bobhead friends, always grateful for Bob news. Not that there’s a shortage of Dylan related material. He’s currently touring, changing guitarists and setlists … he recently performed an obscure song from The Basement Tapes, ‘Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby’ for the first time since recording the original in 1967! In the devoted, deep world of Dylan there’s always something new to look at, read or discuss. In Bob we trust.

This latest offering to the New York Times was the source of spirited discussion. ‘Quintessentially Dylan’ … ‘classic cryptic Bob’ … ‘beat poetry prose’ … and so on. A few jokers wondering if he’d lifted it from somewhere else … a Civil war poet, the Japanese author Junichi Saga. He certainly has form, although maybe using ‘SparkNotes’, an online student study guide, when discussing Moby Dick for his Nobel Prize acceptance speech was a playful joke? Cheeky Bob. I don’t care! The breadth, history, power and continuing relevance of » Continue Reading.

Lyrics As Poetry?

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Frank Skinner does a “ordinary bloke likes poetry” podcast. It is very good. The song he thinks works as well on the page as in the ear is No Particular Place To Go by Chuck Berry. He’s right. The lyrics are poetry!

Ridin’ along in my automobile My baby beside me at the wheel I stole a kiss at the turn of a mile My curiosity runnin’ wild Cruisin’ and playin’ the radio With no particular place to go

Ridin’ along in my automobile I was anxious to tell her the way I feel So I told her softly and sincere And she leaned and whispered in my ear Cuddlin’ more and drivin’ slow With no particular place to go

No particular place to go So we parked way out on the Kokomo The night was young and the moon was gold So we both decided to take a stroll Can you imagine the way I felt? I couldn’t unfasten her safety belt!

Ridin’ along in my calaboose Still tryin’ to get her belt a-loose All the way home, I held a grudge For the safety belt that wouldn’t budge Cruisin’ and playin’ the radio With no particular place to » Continue Reading.

Bringing It All Back Home – Sixty Years On

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Released on 22 May 1965, my bobdylan.com email tells me

I was 9 years old so I kind of missed it, although I’m pretty sure The Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man was on the radio. I remember we’d be waiting in line at the tennis court to have a turn and kids would start singing it, but they’d sing one of the harmonies as the melody. I’ve often noticed that, how people’s ears hear different melody lines more prominently. But I digress

I would have bought the album in my student days, 1971-72. Remarkably I still have it. I did a big catchup with all the early albums around that time. I listened to it again the other day after seeing A Complete Unknown. Apart from a couple of duff tracks it’s still quite brilliant. Bob was 23, it was his fourth album or something.

Anyone got anything more intelligent to say?

The Chronological Bob

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Sometime back @junior-wells drew our attention to a Spotify playlist with all of Bob Dylan’s recorded material available for streaming, in chronological order of recording date. Well, since then, I have been working my way through it, so you don’t have to it. I admit it’s not exactly a lockdown challenge to rival, for example, reading all of Proust’s ‘A la Recherche du Temps Perdu’. But it’s kept me busy and given me much enjoyment, and I have some observations to make. You may or may not agree with them. Please do let me know. I will make them in the thread below.

Doing Bob chronologically. You got the time, I got the playlist

Bob bargains klaxon

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Don’t know if this site (below, under the YouTube thing) is kosher, or familiar to everyone here, but somehow it came up in my internet meanderings. These look like excellent prices for recent Bob boxes, but I’m not a ninja expert in these things.

In the meantime here’s an interview from his visit to Sydney in 1986, recorded on my 32nd birthday. At the time I had absolutely no interest in His Bobness, and I couldn’t have afforded to go and see him anyway. I was immersed in jazz at the time. And I was aware of Christian 80’s Bob and was not interested. But y’know, things change, I accept chaos…

https://mikshops.com/product-category/cd-dvd/bob-dylan/?fbclid=IwAR14iAd74VLAIVxPl2iLoD0aDQUbhS7H-LHs-xwb1k59K3JrGI_P37jmges

Are You Changing Your Carbon Footprint?

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Davos depressed me. Too little, too late. But, on reflection, I’ve managed to find a glimmer of hope.

Most millenials I know are environmentally savvy. As consumers, they seem to be moving away from high carbon products to low. If more consumers follow suit, businesses will have to follow. In addition, as employees they are looking to avoid companies who contribute more to climate change. In America, Microsoft have announced itself as a green company that will pay back all the carbon it has generated since coming into being. Investors are also beginning to make a stand. BlackRock, also a U.S. firm, manages $7.4 trillion of funds and it is saying it will move away from ‘high sustainability risk’. Some businesses are at risk of future regulation or the introduction of a carbon tax, others because of extremes in the weather. BlackRock is divesting companies whose revenues are more than 25% dependent on coal. Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Steve Munchin, might have called on Greta Thunberg to take lessons in economics, but it looks increasingly as though he’s the one behind the curve. If I was a businessman, I’d be looking Green. Things might be beginning to move in the » Continue Reading.

Bob Dylan klaxon

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Some of you may recall Lucas Hare, who used to post on the old Word site. Luke and I know each other in meatworld, and so I happen to know that he and Kerry Shale (another Word alumnus) have been putting together a new fortnightly podcast, called ‘Is It Rolling, Bob? Talking Dylan’.

The format involves discussions with actors, writers and other interesting creative types about Bob Dylan and what he means to them, and the first one, featuring David Hepworth (oh yes, another Word alumnus) is out now on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes Podcasts) and Podbean:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/is-it-rolling-bob-talking-dylan/id1437321669

https://isitrollingbobtalkingdylan.podbean.com/

The second episode, with David Morrissey, will be out on Monday next week:

They have several recorded and ready to go – Kenneth Cranham, Barb Jungr, Jon Canter, Paul Morley – and many more booked in the next few weeks. Happy listening!

» Continue Reading.

Dylan playing the Enmore Sydney on Sun 19th Aug

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One for the Sydneysiders – Bob Dylan is playing the Enmore theatre in a couple of weeks, Sun 19th Aug. Nice small place, tickets correspondingly run from very-expensive to oh-my-god. Goes on sale tomorrow (Mon 6th). I’m not curious enough to justify it, definitely not a fan, and several leagues away from being anywhere near knowledgeable on the catalog. Keep trying to convince myself to buy the albums everyone recommends and never get round to it…

http://www.enmoretheatre.com.au/events/2018/08/19/bob-dylan

Salute Him When His Birthday Comes

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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.

Dylan Sydney 1966 double LP

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Ozzie Bob fans might like to know that a vinyl version of the Sydney date from the big 1966 set is chalked in for December the 2nd. I think it’s to be released worldwide too, as there are placeholder listings on various amazon sites, but I’ve included the link for JB HiFi. There may be one or two of you who find this of interest, hopefully!

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/Whats-Hot/folk-rock/bob-dylan-live-in-sydney-1966-vinyl/327304/

Bobby Vee – 1943 -2016

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He filled in for Buddy Holly on the 1959 tour after Buddy was killed, Bob Dylan played in his band and The Beatles covered his songs in Hamburg and on their failed Decca audition.

Above all Bobby Vee made some great pre-Fabs pop records.

Around 1960 Dylan lied his way into Bobby Vee’s band under the name Elston Gunnn (with three n’s) claiming he was a piano player and had toured with Conway Twitty. Vee was impressed, but later learned that Dylan could only play in the key of C. They hired him for $15 a night, but the job didn’t last long as Bob wasn’t much of piano player.

It was lightweight pop perhaps, but Take Good Care Of My Baby was a great Goffin & King song.

http://i.imgur.com/66GVzRm.jpg

50 Years On – Pet Sounds and Blonde On Blonde

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On the old blog I wrote a long piece about seeing Bob Dylan live in Sheffield in 1966. After the Afterword site went down the Dylan piece was subsequently picked up by a couple of blog sites and attracted interest from far and wide.

Then I was approached by the BBC to take part in a Radio 4 documentary about the day in question May 16, 1966. It seems that both Blonde and Blonde and Pet Sounds were released on that date.

The documentary goes to air next week.

So Pet Sounds and Blonde On Blonde are half a century old next week. Which one has aged better?

http://i.imgur.com/Za0pxEN.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079pqct

Concert Etiquette – The Do’s and Don’ts Of Gig-Going

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I was listening to the magnificent Goodbye Cream LP today (on vinyl, natch) and as Eric, Jack and Ginger brought the mammoth 9 minute white hot solo of I’m So Glad to a screaming, shuddering halt, steam coming off the brake pads and rivets straining on the engine room boiler, a few people actually began to applaud during the few moments of ensuing silence. Yes APPLAUD. What were they thinking? Didn’t these lightweight fans know that this was just a temporary halt in proceedings before the band launched back into the main theme of the song and the closing vocal verse?

All of which brings me to concert etiquette. Have you ever noticed that there are several levels of gig-going fans? There are those who applaud the instrumental introduction to a song, presumably to show how clever they are. Then there are others who wait until the opening vocal line before the penny drops, at that point it’s safe for THEM to applaud. Still others wait until the very END of the song to clap, which is just as it should be,

Alternatively, some people like to applaud specific passages of a song. For example, Dylan’s It’s Alright Ma, » Continue Reading.

Bob Dylan, but not as you’ve heard him..

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Did you know that @Raymond used to have a thing for Olivia Newton-John?

Or that @todayoutof10 has a thing for George Harrison?

What do Bryan Ferry, Norah Jones, The Isley Brothers, George Harrison, The Foggy Mountain Boys, Manfred Mann, Diana Krall, Miley Cyrus, Roddy Hart and Vonda Shepard have in common?

Is it possible to celebrate the work of Bob Dylan without actually playing any Bob Dylan?

All these questions and more are answered in our latest podcast.

Any more favourite Dylan covers?

https://www.mixcloud.com/carlymck/the-p-list-does-bob-dylan/

Greatest album sleeve

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I’ve just bought a battered old copy of this album simply because I love the sleeve so much. An iconic image of a man on the cusp off becoming the biggest thing in the music industry and much more. It’s the ordinariness of it that strikes me- it looks like what it is ie a picture of two young things caught up in each other and blissfully unaware of what is coming

Any other suggestions for great sleeves ?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Bob_Dylan_-_The_Freewheelin’_Bob_Dylan.jpg