Tell Tale Signs – streaming on NPR Music – NOW!

Thanks to Peter Brookes:

“Tell Tale Signs, streaming on NPR Music, is available in UK – I’m listening to it now! I have cut and pasted the link. I think that’s how it works:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95047293

“Love this informative site. Keep up good work.”

So, some of my Eurocentric whining of yesterday was overdone – copy has been corrected: thank you NPR, thank you Sony.

Tell Tale Signs sounds magical.



Gerry Smith

Tell Tale Signs - streamed on NPR Music from tomorrow

Sony’s Dylan site has announced that “NPR Music will exclusively stream Tell Tale Signs, the highly-anticipated forthcoming album from Bob Dylan, beginning Tuesday, September 30 at midnight, one week ahead of the album's release on October 7.

“The entire 2-CD, 27-song set will be available to hear on-demand at NPR Music for the week leading up to its official release.”

Which is great news. But come on, Sony - please ditch the America-centric worldview:

* NPR? Wot dat? National Public Radio?

* Oct 7 release? I have it down for Oct 6 – new albums, even from Sony, are always released on Monday here.





Gerry Smith

Greatest Hits/Back Pages tribute/Hot Club of Cowtown

Thanks to Gerry Bamford:

“A very minor comment, in passing, on your postings regarding Greatest Hits collections. I came across a CBS official cassette tape some years ago of the first Greatest Hits album and was surprised to find that the original version of LARS had been replaced with the live version from the IOW.

“Now why would they do that, I wonder?”

“And there are two imminent Back Pages gigs: this Saturday Sept 27 at 'Tracks' at The Railway in North Elmham and on Wednesday Oct 1 at The Queen Victoria in Snettisham, both in the county of Norfolk

“I went to Norwich Arts Centre last week to catch The Hot Club of Cowtown (who as you know have an association with Bob): I would recommend anyone to go check them out - a thrilling set indeed. I was told that they expect to do more with Bob in the future.”

FREE DYLAN CD, plus must-buy Dylan cover issue of Uncut

Oh Lordy! Batten down the hatches! Here comes a new Dylan album!

The promo started with the outriders - a trio of well-chosen free audio/video downloads, Dreamin’ Of You and the poignant, stripped-down version of Mississippi.

Now here comes the cavalry, led by the new (November… November?! It’s 25 September!) issue of Uncut, which has just hit the news-stands.

The cover is a 1980s Bob portrait. It announces a welcome 13-page Tell Tale Signs Special, featuring interviews with many who worked with Dylan in the years covered by the new album, 1989-2006, notably Daniel Lanois, Don Was and Jim Keltner.

And the “FREE DYLAN CD”? It’s Radio Bob Volume 2 – “another 17 brilliant tracks from Theme Time Radio Hour”, with tracks by artists such as Al Jolson and Mose Allison.


Uncut November 2008: a must-buy.



Gerry Smith

Mississippi – stripped-down download version from Tell Tale Signs

Thanks to Ken Crouch who spotted this on the guardian.co.uk site:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/competition/2008/sep/22/bob.dylan.download.mississippi

Recommended “hits” compilations: #2 Masterpieces

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“Yesterday I identified "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" as a highlight of “More Greatest Hits”.

“"Tomorrow Is A Long Time"'s other appearance on disc is on what very much looks like a precursor to 1985's Biograph box set, the Japan and Australia-only "Masterpieces" release from 1978.

“This 3CD set is also essential for Dylan fans, including as it does an intelligently selected collection of songs spanning Dylan's career from "Bob Dylan" to the most recent at the time official release, the live "Hard Rain" LP.

“Again, there are first time on an album outings for singles "Mixed Up Confusion" (proof that Dylan's rockabilly credentials go as far back as 1962), "Positively 4th Street" and "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window".

“This collection is essential for a clutch of rarities which to date have still not been made available on any other Dylan album - a 1966 live recording of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", which was the B side of the "I Want You" single, the superb piano/vocal version of "Spanish Is A Loving Tongue", which was the B side of the "Watching The River Flow" single, and the stomping "Rita May", recorded during the "Desire" sessions and released as a B side to the live version of "Stuck Inside Of Mobile", extracted from the "Hard Rain" LP.

“The one other unique recording on this set is the band version of "George Jackson", released in 1971 as a double sided single with the far superior acoustic version of the same song (which is sadly still awaiting its first album release).

“In fact, this album only puts a foot wrong in its inclusion of a live "Like A Rolling Stone", recorded by Dylan and the Band at the Isle Of Wight festival (previously made available on the "Self Portrait" album), in which Dylan (frankly) hilariously uses his "Nashville Skyline" voice to croon his way through one of his greatest songs, and repeatedly forgets the words in a way that has to be heard to be believed!”

Recommended “hits” compilations: #1 More Greatest Hits

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“Further to your recent pieces on Greatest Hits, I thought it would be good to remind Dylan Daily readers of a couple of other compilation albums which contain hidden gems.

“More Greatest Hits (often erroneously referred to as Greatest Hits Volume 2), adorned by a classic Barry Feinstein photo of Dylan on stage at the George Harrison-curated Concert for Bangladesh, contains 20 tracks that were not actually hits for Dylan, and one that was, the smoothly saccharine "Lay Lady Lay".

“As a summary of his musical career up to its release in 1971, this is a more satisfying collection than Volume 1, with a smattering of songs from every album up to that point (except "Bob Dylan", which is not represented at all).

“If anything, the white hot trilogy of albums released in 1965 and 1966 are under-represented here, with only 5 of the 21 tracks coming from this fertile period. But this is only a minor quibble.

“What makes this album special is the inclusion of tracks which were unreleased at that time on any Dylan LP, and in all but one case are still only to be found on this collection.

“CD 2 of the album (which readers should note at 77 minutes in total running time means that it would actually fit onto one disc) closes with the trilogy of Basement Tapes songs that Dylan revisited with Happy Traum's accompaniment in 1971 - "I Shall Be Released", "You Ain't Going Nowhere" and "Down In The Flood."

“These are worth the price of entry alone, with very fine acoustic interplay between the two musicians, and Happy's tight vocal harmonies, recalling Rick Danko's singing on other Dylan recordings.

“In addition to these three songs are the single "Watching the River Flow", which kicks off the whole thing back on CD1, a hoarse sounding Dylan rocking up a head of steam with the assistance of Leon Russell on the ivories.

“Also included is "When I Paint My Masterpiece" recorded at the same sessions, a song which had a new lease of life in 1975 as the show-opener during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

“The final unreleased gem is an intimate live recording from 1963 of the beautiful "Tomorrow Is A Long Time", sung sweetly by Dylan, just him, his acoustic guitar and a silent, awestruck audience.”

Greatest Hits vol 2 – an even weaker compilation

If Bob Dylan – Greatest Hits was a poor compilation, the sequel, Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits vol 2, was even weaker

Rush-released in Europe in 1967 (and totally different to the US release of the same name), following the success of Greatest Hits, it’s an even more cock-eyed compilation.

It duplicates three songs from the first volume. Seven of the 12 tracks come from Blonde On Blonde. And there’s nothing from Bob Dylan or The Times They Are A-Changin’.

And is there a Dylan CD with worse packaging? The cover is apologetically weak and both cover and disc itself tell of a song entitled Absolutely Sweet Mary!

The album has always been elusive. Both Brian Hinton and Michael Gray overlook it in their exhaustive reference books.


1. I Want You
2. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry
4. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
5. Masters Of War
6. Chimes Of Freedom
7. Just Like A Woman
8. Obviously Five Believers
9. Rainy Day Women 12 And 35
10. Gates Of Eden
11. Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat
12. Absolutely Sweet Marie


Gerry Smith

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EARLER RELATED ARTICLE:

Greatest Hits – an embarrassingly poor compilation

I’ve tended to dismiss the critical mauling that Greatest Hits has attracted since release in 1967. Having bought and enjoyed the compilation LP on vinyl on release, I just didn’t get the negative vibes - it was one of the highlights of my nascent record collection. OK, the songs weren’t hits, but I took “hits” as a metaphor for “best-known songs”.

The cover artwork – dark browns dominant, with echoes of Rembrandt – seemed to elevate Dylan to his rightful place among the greats of Western art, well away from the rabble of fellow 1960s popsters.

But when I returned to Greatest Hits recently, the penny suddenly dropped. Good as its songs are, the 12-track UK version from March 1967 was an embarrassingly poor compilation.

The compilers of Greatest Hits had seven Dylan albums and umpteen singles to draw from, yet chose eight of the 12 tracks from just two LPs – Bringing It All Back Home and Blonde On Blonde. Yes, they’re both masterpieces but what a cock-eyed selection to include no singles (unlike the US/world version which had Positively 4th Street), nothing from the first album, Bob Dylan, and only a single track from the other four great albums of the period.

Greatest Hits has long been superseded in the Dylan catalogue. Good thing, too – it was the first missed opportunity in the discography – the first of many, according to some. I’ll be given a fairer hearing to the critics of CBS/Columbia/Legacy/Sony in future. Though the label generally does a fine job in showcasing Dylan, they’re not above criticism, as Greatest Hits demonstrates.



Gerry Smith

Dylan discography – now almost a constant companion

I’m referring more and more to Brian Hinton’s fine book, Bob Dylan Album File & Complete Discography (Cassell Illustrated, 464pp, pbk, £14.99, 2006).

A handy compilation, packed with hard information as well as informed opinion, it’s now almost a constant companion.

If you don’t possess a recent Dylan album guide, Hinton’s is well worth seeking out. I keep seeing the UK edition (blue cover), discounted to about £5, in major London retail outlets. Somewhat surprisingly, I’ve also seen the US edition (brown cover) for £5 in London remainder shops.

Bargain of the year!


Gerry Smith

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EARLIER RELATED ARTICLE

New - Bob Dylan Album File & Complete Discography

Brian Hinton’s new book, Bob Dylan Album File & Complete Discography (Cassell Illustrated, 464pp, pbk, £14.99), is a welcome addition to my library: I’ll be referring to it often.

It’s the most detailed study of the Dylan oeuvre since Clinton Heylin’s Dylan - Behind Closed Doors was published ten years ago. It’s more detailed than the most recent competitor, Varesi’s The Bob Dylan Albums (2002). Oliver Trager’s Keys To The Rain - The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopdia also covers this ground (in less detail) but covers a multitude of other topics, too.

Hinton, biographer of Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell, among others, complements the discographical detail with an occasionally stimulating commentary on every track on every album, so the book is a uniquely systematic appraisal of Dylan recordings. And there’s a handy full-page reproduction of every album cover. So, Bob Dylan Album File & Complete Discography is worth having for its scope, utility and currency.

Reservations? I have a few. Concerning treatment, judgments and accuracy.

Whenever any rock writer starts to describe individual songs – “first we have the hushed drum intro…” – my eyes automatically jump to the next paragraph. This happened here, frequently. Writing about music in this fashion is like dancing about architecture, as the man said.

Once your text starts to judge creative work, you expect readers to demur. A sample couple of demurrals: Saved “sounds wonderful to contemporary ears…”; whaaa? It still sounds awful as ever to these contemporary ears. Hard Rain suffers because “it omits all of the duets with Joan Baez”. Hinton can not be serious? Surely?

In discussing Dylan’s songs, Hinton imports a succession of third party quotes, usefully widening the range of opinions in the book. But he frequently fails to explain who his commentators are – I happen to know of Jeff Tweedy and Derek Barker; many readers won’t. But “Paul Zollo” and “Robert Fisher”? Dunno, got me pal: Hinton’s drinking buddies? How do I know whether their opinions are worth considering?

More troubling are the errors. Spelling and grammatical errors might irritate only pedants, but they sow doubt about the accuracy of factual data. Checking the three small-format pages introducing Desire, I found seven spelling and grammatical errors. Elsewhere, glancing through the text, I stumbled across the World Gone Wrong photo shoot transposed from Camden Town to a neighbouring North London suburb, Crouch End. And Augie “Meters” playing organ on Time Out Of Mind. If these examples are typical, the book is seriously undermined.

And I wish I had a euro for every rock writer who claims that Dylan/The Beatles invented the concept album. Such albums had been around for years before Dylan ever entered a recording studio. Sinatra, anybody?

Bob Dylan Album File & Complete Discography: recommended, with reservations.


Gerry Smith

Theme Time Radio Hour scheduling: not good enough

The Dylan Daily has spared few superlatives in praising Theme Time Radio Hour: there have been few radio series as good as this - ever.

Until recently, series 2 was broadcast from 10pm on Friday night: I know I’m not the only listener who regarded it with gratitude as a reward for a week of toil.

So what did BBC 6 Music do?

Moved it to midnight on Sunday.

Who in their right mind will listen to it in that slot? I’d wager that the small audience for this delightful programme has dwindled to virtually zero.

I’m an enthusiast, but even I forget to tape the bl**dy programme at that time. BBC 6 Music might as well just drop it from their schedules.

Anglo Dylan fans are badly served by this new scheduling. Not good enough.



Gerry Smith

Greatest Hits – an embarrassingly poor compilation

I’ve tended to dismiss the critical mauling that Greatest Hits has attracted since release in 1967. Having bought and enjoyed the compilation LP on vinyl on release, I just didn’t get the negative vibes - it was one of the highlights of my nascent record collection. OK, the songs weren’t hits, but I took “hits” as a metaphor for “best-known songs”.

The cover artwork – dark browns dominant, with echoes of Rembrandt – seemed to elevate Dylan to his rightful place among the greats of Western art, well away from the rabble of fellow 1960s popsters.

But when I returned to Greatest Hits recently, the penny suddenly dropped. Good as its songs are, the 12-track UK version from March 1967 was an embarrassingly poor compilation.

The compilers of Greatest Hits had seven Dylan albums and umpteen singles to draw from, yet chose eight of the 12 tracks from just two LPs – Bringing It All Back Home and Blonde On Blonde. Yes, they’re both masterpieces but what a cock-eyed selection to include no singles (unlike the US/world version which had Positively 4th Street), nothing from the first album, Bob Dylan, and only a single track from each of the other four great albums of the period.

Greatest Hits was the first missed opportunity in the discography – the first of many, according to some. I’ll be given a fairer hearing to the critics of CBS/Columbia/Legacy/Sony in future. Though the label generally does a fine job in showcasing Dylan, they’re not above criticism, as Greatest Hits demonstrates.



Gerry Smith

Two Dylan poems in new issue of New Yorker

Thanks to Zoot Blanco (!?) for the tip that there are two short Dylan poems in the new issue of the New Yorker magazine, published today.

The provenance of the enigmatic pair, entitled “17” and “21”, isn’t explained in the magazine’s online issue, but I’d guess they’re from the forthcoming book by Barry Feinstein, Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric: The Lost Manuscript, covered here on The Dylan Daily last week.

www.newyorker.com




Gerry Smith

Dylan covers album by Andy Hill and Renee Safier

I don’t usually bother with Dylan covers albums. I occasionally enjoy the Byrds’ Dylan stuff in the car, and rate highly Bryan Ferry’s recent foray into the genre, but little else.

But I warmed to It Takes A Lot To Laugh, by Andy Hill and Renee Safier (Hillstruck Music, CA, 2001). I particularly liked the refreshing takes of a trio of Dylan songs I don’t hear often – Emotionally Yours, Seven Curses and Shooting Star. The two singers alternate as main vocals; I warmed to their harmonies and acoustic playing.

www.andyandrenee.com


Gerry Smith

Yet more new Dylan work set for release this autumn

The flow of new Dylan product shows no sign of abating just yet.

Hot on the heels of next month’s new album, Tell Tale Signs, and new children’s book, Forever Young, comes news of yet more previously unpublished Dylan work.

Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric: The Lost Manuscript, by Dylan & photographer Barry Feinstein (due from Simon & Schuster on 17 November, hardback, 160 pages) has two dozen of Dylan’s “prose poems” - written at the request of Feinstein, to accompany his mid-‘60s photos documenting Hollywood’s downside.

Barry Feinstein also photographed Dylan many times, of course - his best-known piece is the cover of The Times They Are A-Changin’, and he recently published his Dylan portfolio as Real Moments, a large format photobook.



Gerry Smith

Suze Rotolo’s new book: sympathetic… revealing… unique…

The Dylan Daily’s exclusive review of Suze Rotolo’s new book, A Freewheelin’ Time - by Anne Ritchie, a contemporary of Rotolo, who first saw Dylan perform in 1965:


I got a lot from reading A Freewheelin’ Time by Suze Rotolo. Subtitled A Memoir Of Greenwich Village In The Sixties, the book is not all about Bob, though every mention of Bob/Bobby quickened the pulse. It wasn’t till around p90 (in a 360+-page book) that Dylan really came into it, when Rotolo describes their first flirty meeting at a folk concert in July 1961, though she’d already seen him singing and playing back-up harp at Gerde’s.

The earlier sketching in of the political and social background to the early Dylan songs interested this reader - the contrast of bohemian Village life in the straitjacket of the fifties – as did her description of her own unconventional upbringing in an Italian immigrant family, where, as a “red-diaper baby” she imbibed her parents’ culture along with their leftist politics at a time of anti-communist fervour.

But it’s the affectionate, gentle reminiscences of the young Dylan that make A Freewheelin’ Time worth reading. Early on in the book we are treated to a picture of the aspiring folksinger, still with puppy fat, trying on one item of wrinkled clothing after another to get the right image. His walk is described as “a lurch in slow motion”; he has a “healthy ego”.

At the beginning of their relationship, Rotolo describes him as “funny, engaging, intense, persistent”, but also mentions his “facility for not telling the truth”, his evasiveness about his upbringing, the contradictory stories. We get a dramatic account of her discovery of his real surname when he drops his draft card: by this time they were living together but he’d kept that from her. To annoy him she would sometimes call him by his real initials, RAZ, though he didn’t mind when she called him Boo Radley.

There are several reminders of Chronicles: from Dylan’s soaking up of influences to his surprising talent for woodwork, using the cabinet housing the second-hand TV to make a coffee table and book shelves.

His letters to Suze while she was in Italy…Italy… are revealing. One, written at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, shows a genuine fear of imminent atomic war and a recognisable reaction: if the world was going to end all he wanted was to be with her. Another, in contrast, shows him responding to her news she’d had her hair cut. He liked it as it was. In one of his letters bemoaning her absence, “hating time”, he surely alludes to the Latin poet Catullus’s wonderfully modern-sounding poem Odi et amo when he says “I hate it I love you”.

Memories of their time together that resonate include Bob singing “Why Must I Be A Teenager In Love?”; watching the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald live on TV; hunting with him for an affordable jacket for the cover of the first album.

The story behind the Freewheelin’ cover is an interesting one. After the Don Hunstein (mis-spelt in the book) photo-shoot in their tiny, freezing apartment, they’re persuaded to go out into the cold. The unsuitable-for-the-weather suede jacket put on by Dylan is “an image choice”, while Suze, in two bulky sweaters and a coat tied tightly round the middle felt “like an Italian sausage”.

There are many intimate photos in the book, and other personal mementoes of her time with Bob. Ones that stand out are a newspaper cutting of “Bob Dylan of Gallup, NM” playing with “rural gusto” and the sheet music for Masters Of War and Train a-Travelin’ illustrated (well) by Rotolo.

That the background to Another Side Of Bob Dylan – which “made tough listening” - was the breaking down of their relationship is confirmed in a section aptly named “Ballad”.

Rotolo’s dissection of the painful break-up rings true, but she doesn’t go into tell-tale detail. She alludes earlier in the book to her mother’s and sister’s antagonism towards Bob and now concedes that her sister “had a valid point” in her assessment of him as a “lyin’ cheatin’ manipulatin’ bastard”. A later heartfelt comment “Yeah, he was a lying shit of a guy with women” is about as far as she goes in her criticism, his infidelities only hinted at.

A Freewheelin’ Time, rather than giving much new insight into Dylan the man, confirms what has often been written about him before. But it does give a more sympathetic picture, without a hidden agenda, one that covers the romantic side of him that concurs with his wonderful songs of love.

Rotolo also gives a valuable definition of the art of Dylan’s songs as “translations of moods and sensations… fictions that allude to these experiences”. More specific assertions are the claim that Mr Tambourine Man was written when Dylan was roaming the streets after a quarrel with her; that “Bobby had become Dylan” after the Carnegie Hall concert.

In her narrative she quite often slips into Dylan-speak (just like many of his fans): “we heard the rooster crowing at the break of day”; “He saw right from his side and I saw right from mine” and some section titles - Time Out Of Mind, Not Dark Yet – are borrowed from his album and song titles. I think they add to the memoir, which, as is revealed in the Acknowledgements at the end, she was encouraged to write after she appeared in Martin Scorsese’s film No Direction Home.

For the non-Dylan content, A Freewheelin’ Time is more of a woman’s book, the personal information - meeting Bob’s parents, hating being seen as a “chick” in a “pre-feminist” time, and resenting the phone calls complementing her as a muse and for standing by her man - would probably have little interest for most men.

There are another 70+ pages after the break-up with Dylan and this is where A Freewheelin’ Time fades away. I wasn’t really interested in her circuitous trip to Cuba or her move to Cambridge, Mass, with her new boyfriend and even mention of the odd meeting up with her erstwhile boyfriend failed to brighten up the narrative.

Nevertheless, I was left feeling warm towards Suze Rotolo and grateful that she’d shared the unique experience of her formative years alongside the towering talent of Bob Dylan.


Publication details: A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir Of Greenwich Village In The Sixties, by Suze Rotolo. London: Aurum Press, September 2008, hardback, 371pp, £16.99. ISBN 978 1 84513 392 4.

Elliott Landy’s Woodstock photos

Thanks to Ken Crouch in Somerset:

“I’ve noticed that there is a interest in Woodstock photos: I’ve managed to pick up a copy from a friend who was about to throw it out - Woodstock Dream, by Elliott Landy.

“This is a wonderful book, 391 pages, published by Te Neues (in Germany; it’s available on Amazon.co.uk – Gerry Smith, Ed), printed in Italy.

“Dylan Daily readers should track this - down great photos of Dylan and the performers at Woodstock. I’ve not seen this book before.”

Elliott Landy’s Woodstock Bakery photograph

Thanks to David McDonald, Director of Woodstock... Can't Get There From Here:

“Don't know if you've been keeping up with the recent discussion of a certain Elliott Landy photograph of Bob taken with two ‘unknowns’ in front of the Woodstock Bakery in 1967.

“But that discussion made me fish through my old hard drives to find a section of "Woodstock Can't Get There From Here" that I had abandoned a few years back because of a fixed audio track I could do nothing about.

“It's really quite a funny story. The two people pictured with Dylan are old Woodstock characters, curmudgeons. Here's the link to the video. It's flawed, like I said, but it's got heart”


http://blip.tv/file/1227232

Italian admirer records 419 Dylan songs - BOBMANIA #31

Thanks to Nakano for news of Michel Montecrossa, an Italian Dylanophile who likes Bob’s music so much that he’s recorded over 400 of his songs:

“Here’s a link for the list of all 419 Bob Dylan and Dylan-related songs covered by Michel Montecrossa:

www.Michel-BobDylan.com


“The list - including all the productions of the respective songs, as well as audio files for some of the songs can be found here:

www.mirapuri-enterprises.com/Michel-BobDylan/bobdylancoversongs.html

Hidden in plain sight: #2-5

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“A few nominees from me:

* Buckets of Rain - BOTT - nice relaxed vocal, elliptical lyrics, "I ain't no monkey but I know what I like", Dylan's slapped acoustic guitar, perfect

* Mozambique - Desire - ironic lyric, sinewy violin, superb harmonising with Emmylou

* Never Say Goodbye - PW - meandering, lyrics which sum up moods rather than images, one of Dylan's most perfect songs, sensitive banking from The Band and nice harmonies from Rick Danko

* We'd Better Talk This Over - S-L - strong melody, magical wordplay, another highly underrated gem.

“It strikes me looking at this list that these songs are all quite similar in structure - no choruses!

“And re the Sopranos song: I believe Dylan's cover of Return to me is quite widely available - even has the old croaker singing in Italian - nice!”

Down The Tracks: admirable new DVD analysing Dylan’s influences

Markets abhor a vacuum. So the scarcity of official Dylan DVD product has opened the door for the release of a growing number of unauthorised products, of variable quality.

Down The Tracks: The Music That Influenced Bob Dylan, a new documentary from White Crow Productions, is one of the more attractive releases in this burgeoning niche.

It covers well the bases you’d expect - 1960s New York, the counter culture, and Dylan’s folk, country and blues antecedents. An interview with Pete Seeger is the highlight.

The impressively varied roster of contributors includes musicians Tom Paley and Sid Griffin, record biz operators Lawrence Cohen and Joe Boyd and writers Mike Marqusee and Michael Gray. Griffin is wisely employed throughout to pull the narrative together. He excels (just as he did in Million Dollar Bash, his recent book on the Basement Tapes).

Together, they provide a coherent narrative: if you need an introduction on where Dylan’s art sprung from, Down The Tracks is an admirable primer.

Its weaknesses are principally budget-related. The main downside is the lack of Dylan footage: presumably it’s too expensive or too jealously guarded. So expect production values below those of, say, No Direction Home – on Down The Tracks, talking heads and stills dominate.

The largely unknown musicians used to punctuate the narrative don’t add much, either – apart from a fine performance from the Handsome Family.

Budget constraints apart, the script occasionally sounds stilted; I’m not over-fond of the narrator. And the jukebox leitmotif palls quickly.

But these negatives are outweighed by the programme’s positives: Down The Tracks is a welcome addition to the Dylan DVD library.

Recommended.


Down The Tracks: The Music That Influenced Bob Dylan. DVD, 1 disc. White Crow Productions for Eagle Rock, June 2008, 95 mins, £10.



Gerry Smith

Return To Me on Sopranos soundtrack

Thanks to Brendan Lyons for this reminder:

“Forgive me if this has been reported before.

"Last night, I was watching an ‘extra’ on the dvd of the final series of The Sopranos. It was an interview with David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, and was about the music used in the series.

“He said the Bob Dylan recorded a Dean Martin song, Return To Me, specially for an episode of The Sopranos. To quote David Chase: ‘Dylan’s manager, Jeff, said Bob Dylan would like to do that song for our show’.”