One line in this particularly caught my eye ; “No disrespect to certain megastars, but Bob Dylan invented “Eras.” If it were a friendship bracelet, his career would be a string of pearls, one semi-precious bead for each of his shapeshifting versions.”
Not saying there aren’t, but I can’t think of another artist,whose career is so distinctly marked by different clearly defined stages.
https://www.westsiderag.com/2023/11/19/bob-dylans-rough-and-rowdy-times-in-new-york-town
I don’t think Bob Dylan is exceptional in that sense. I think any artist who has a long career goes through distinct phases, either initiated by themselves or changing fashions, or just getting older. I can think of four for Stevie Wonder, about seven for Zappa and I’ll let someone else add up for Bowie. I think each of these artists changed more than Dylan.
Bowier definitely. Changing up bands -numbers, instrumentation probably more common than reworking the songs. But I take your point.
Ah yeah, if we’re talking reworking the songs then yes I guess so. But then again there may be a reason why other artists don’t do that! I’m not as big a Bobcat as yourself, though I do like him. But I struggle with most of the live stuff where he changes things up. My favourite Dylan live album is the Trouble no More Bootleg series set, where he plays things pretty straight.
Status Quo had 5. Psychedelic (Pictures of MM etc), Scruffy and Broke (Ma Kelly’s etc), Heads Down Rock Band (Piledriver etc), Sleeker Production (Rocking all over the World etc), and Crap (from then on). Pretty much looked the same for most of it though.
Seven phases of David Sylvian:
1. The New York Doll phase
2. The Giorgio Moroder phase
3. The Bryan Ferry phase
4. The Chinese phase
5. The David Bowie meets Tom Waits phase
6. The King Crimson phase
7. The Shostakovich phase
8. The Blemish/Manafon phase