Early Xmas shopping

Thanks to Matthew Zuckerman:

“Gordon Macniven writes:

> ³I'm intrigued, however, by the timing of this unfortunate venture - why bring
> out a CHRISTMAS album before mid-October? Surely a late November/early
> December release would have been more appropriate?

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“I presume it is connected to the fact that profits from the album will go towards feeding the hungry at Christmas. In order to do so, the money will be needed sooner than the week before Christmas.

As for its "mawkish sentimentality" being "deeply embarrassing": in 1969 and 1970 when Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait were released, much of the indignation was aimed a the very fact that Dylan had chosen to sing country music. I mean, country music!

“To newly serious ears that had forsaken "pop" music a few years earlier for "rock", this seemed the ultimate betrayal. Redneck music. That the world of country music might have anything to teach
these young pioneers was a ridiculous thought.

“Now, of course, we know better than that. We have outlaw country, country rock and alt country, we listen to music from all over the world, Paul McCartney writes classical music and classical musicians perform arrangements of Jimi Hendrix.

“Sentimentality is the last frontier, and it seems to be a tough one. We listen to Jimmie Rodgers' Blue Yodel, In the Jailhouse Now and Waiting for a Train and we applaud, but when he starts to sing The Soldier's Sweetheart or Mother the Queen of My Heart, we look the other way.

“My wife calls Sony the prince of darkness, the Walkman being the devil's tool. It taught generations of music lovers how to listen in private, make their own musical world, and lose the sense of music as a shared experience.

“Why do people chat during a concert? Why do people recoil at music that is designed to be shared across the generations? Why do people treat music as a way to retreat from the world where it used to be a cement to hold it together?

“Christmas in the Heart may not solve this state of affairs, but if it can awaken a few people to the fact that fun, sentiment and the quality of sharing are at least as central to music as being cool, then it will have more than justified its existence.”

Shop early for Xmas

Thanks to Gordon Macniven:

“For what it's worth (having listened to the samples) I won't be buying the Christmas album either.

“Its mawkish sentimentality is deeply embarrassing, but I expect it to be a hit on "Sing Something Simple" (English radio series aimed at over-80s early school leavers – Ed).

“I'm intrigued, however, by the timing of this unfortunate venture - why bring out a CHRISTMAS album before mid-October? Surely a late November/early December release would have been more appropriate?

“Very odd.”


And thanks to Humberto:

“Yes, agree with Johanna...

"If anybody wants to cry "sellout!" once again, so be it. Probably
Bob will just smile to himself and know people still care enough to be outraged. And maybe, they will listen with an open mind and judge the performances, not the idea."

Mary Travers RIP: she introduced Baby Boomers to Dylan

Thanks to Pete Mackie:

“Mary Travers' death prompts me to write that for the baby boomer generation, my guess is that 99%-plus of us were introduced to Bob Dylan via Peter Paul and Mary. Grossman's strategy worked and PPM were crucial in that.

“The other 1% had US connections or went to the folk clubs in London in dec 1962 or happened to see Madhouse on Castle Street.

“In the Wind didn't come out till Dec 1963, probably later than that in the UK. I remember sitting on a bus in spring 64 saying 'who is this Dylan'-- listed on the album as author of Blowing in the wind, Don't think twice and Quit your lowdown ways and a schoolmate turning around and saying 'you ought to listen to Freewheelin'.

“So, given Dylan's extraordinary pace of development, the timescales were even more compressed for the fans, just a year or so to absorb the four albums from Freewheelin' to Bringing it all back home.

“No wonder there was a bit of a backlash when he went electric.

“Fast-moving times!”

More on the Christmas album

Thanks to Kenneth Crouch:

“I’ve just listened to samples. I’ve been a fan since the sixties but this a joke; the only good thing if any are sold is that the money goes to charity.

“If my son buys me it, then it will stay in the wrapper.

“No more like this, Bob, please.”



And thanks to Johanna Moore:

“The ongoing discussion about the new album makes me smile... Bob Dylan has done it again, created something that some of his fans are unwilling to forgive him even before they got the chance to listen.

“Many of "us" of course will buy it anyway, I know I will. It is really only just history repeating. People seeing electric guitars and disagreeing with the idea, without giving it a chance. People shuddering at the idea that "the voice of promise of the 60s counter culture (etc etc)" will be heard singing Christmas songs.

“It has nothing whatsoever to do with whether any of "us" ever bought Christmas albums before. Would it really be the first time for Bob to introduce "us" to something new, that we hadn't considered thinking about before? I guess it will sell okay in this time and day.

“If anybody wants to cry "sellout!" once again, so be it. Probably Bob will just smile to himself and know people still care enough to be outraged. And maybe, they will listen with an open mind and judge the performances, not the idea.”

Christmas album: in defense of the artistically indefensible

Thanks to Matthew Zuckerman:

Gerd Hain writes:

“Can those who defended the idea honestly say that they have ever bought a Xmas album; and even if they have, do they ever listen to it? Xmas albums are abysmal, not worth hearing again after 1 January. Like Chris, I¹ll be avoiding it."

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“I have three Christmas albums and all get played at Christmastime:

* "Xmas From Great Old Friends" features Lightning Hopkins, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter and others.

* "Black Christmas" features The Staple Singers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, Freddy King, Lightning Hopkins, Amos Milburn, Charles Brown and others.

* "Soul Christmas" features King Curtis, Clarence Carter, Carla Thomas, Booker T & the MGs, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding and others.

“No doubt Gerd Hain has heard these albums, otherwise how could he state so emphatically that "Xmas albums are abysmal"? I, however, think they are seasonal fun and a great antidote to the jingly fare that is generally heard around Christmastime.

“I look forward to another antidote next month. I doubt that I will play it as often as Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks or Modern Times, but what does that matter? I wear gloves less often than trousers. I use balsamic vinegar less often than white wine vinegar.

“For the past few years, Bob has been trying hard to get people to understand that he sees himself a working musician, not as a great artist of and for the times. (That doesn't mean he isn't a great artist, just that it is unproductive and even destructive for him to see himself as such.)

“So he has a radio show at which he is at pains to play music across the board: How Much Is That Doggie in the Window is, to many people, at the very bottom of the musical barrel.

“Bob does not agree. "Here's a record that everyone always talks about when they talk about how dull radio was before rock and roll. Personally, I don't agree with them; I think Patty Page made beautiful records."

“He repeatedly namechecks Bing Crosby and other less-than-hip singers as influences. He mentions in Chronicles how he feels an affinity with Tiny Tim, Rick Nelson and Frank Sinatra Jr.

“Of the five non-original songs he has performed this year, one is by Charles Aznavour, one by Dean Martin, and one, I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, by George M Cohan, known as the "man who invented Broadway". (George Harrison's Something and Elvis's Heartbreak Hotel were the other two.)

“Christmas In The Heart may indeed be a dreadful album. If so, it will no doubt receive a flood of reviews saying just that. Then again, it may be a small delight.

“And if it is a surprise delight, will Gerd's having raged that it is
"artistically indefensible, a big mis-judgment by Bob, utter waste of talent" make it harder for him to share the pleasure?

Christmas album: indefensible, waste of talent

Thanks to Gerd Hain:

“I was mildly shocked by the balance of responses on Dylan Daily to C Walker’s critique of the idea of a Xmas album by Dylan.

“Can those who defended the idea honestly say that they have ever bought a Xmas album; and even if they have, do they ever listen to it?

“Xmas albums are abysmal, not worth hearing again after 1 January. Like Chris, I’ll be avoiding it.

“I’ve always supported Dylan’s changes of directions – it’s what artists do. I even welcomed the Christian conversion stuff all those years ago. But this release is artistically indefensible – a big mis-judgment by Bob. Utter waste of talent.”



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Thanks to Chris Walker:

“I’m surprised that no Dylan Daily readers have recoiled in horror at the very idea of Dylan releasing an album of Xmas songs.

“Xmas albums are for lame brains. I wouldn’t have one given for free. Whoever recorded it. For whatever charity. Xmas albums are strictly for sentimental bozos.”

“I’ve been an ardent Dylan fan for many years, but I’m afraid this kind of showbiz bullcrap is the final straw – I ain’t gonna sing Dylan’s praises no more: the greatest creative artist of the 20thC has lost it: so long, Bob.”

All Along the Watchtower: the US in decline?

“In "All Along the Watchtower," Bob Dylan envisions America's decline and accepts the role of warning people about it… “

So begins Lawrence J Epstein’s pithy analysis in his Dylan Watch blog on The Best American Poetry site. Recommended.

http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com

Beatles v Bob

You’d need to be media-averse to have missed today’s launch of the re-masters of The Beatles’ albums. Newspapers, mags, tv and radio, in this part of the world at least, are overflowing with Fab Four hype.

It’s all gone over my head, though: the Beatles were – and are – over-rated.

I loved the first two albums and the early singles: massively refreshing, the Fabs swept away half a decade of appalling pop pap.

Yes, the Beatles were the biggest pop musicians ever, far more popular than everyone else. And yes, their influence was far wider than the pop charts.

But they were less interesting than the Stones; and they weren’t even my fave mid-1960s Scouser popsters – take a bow, Gerry… The Searchers… The Big Three… and several more Merseybeat bands.

To compare the Beatles’ legacy, as many halfwit journalists have done in the current frenzy, to that of Dylan is plain stupid – it’s like comparing Dylan with Madonna or Abba. The Beatles were show biz entertainers. Dylan is the 20thC’s dominant musician.

I haven’t played a Beatles record for over 20 years; there’s little chance of that changing, re-masters or not.


Gerry Smith

Christmas album: I can’t wait

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“I laughed like a drain when I read Chris Walker's comments about the upcoming Dylan Christmas album.

“Chris would no doubt have been there with Pete Seeger hacking through the electricity cables at Newport '64 and booing and heckling in '66 and '79-'80!

“Creative artists will always be pushing the boundaries and it's interesting that what Dylan is doing here is perceived as both pushing further into the mainstream ("showbiz bullcrap") and behaving in a boundary pushing way (not afraid of the reaction of his fans).

“Personally, I can't wait for the LP, and I hope that the end result is as good as it could be (the difference between an album like "Good as I Been To You" and an album like "Down in The Groove").

As we know with Dylan, either is possible!

Christmas album

Thanks to Matthew Zuckerman:

Chris Walker writes: 'I've been an ardent Dylan fan for many years, but I'm afraid this kind of showbiz bullcrap is the final straw. I ain't gonna sing Dylan's praises no more: the greatest creative artist of the 20thC has finally left me behind: so long, Bob.'

Amazing... Even the Judas-crying hecklers of the mid-1960s gave the music a listen before they started to boo. Nowadays, it seems we are so strait-jacketed in our thinking that the music itself is a mere signifier for whatever we wish to believe.

Over the years Dylan has enraged various people by:

Playing rock & roll at a high school dance
Singing with a less-than-angelic voice
Insulting the audience at a Tom Paine awards ceremony
Turning away from writing songs with overt political content
Playing rock & roll again
Playing country music
Playing all kinds of pop and schmaltz on Self Portrait
Making a long and hard-to-follow movie
Playing evangelical music
Speaking up for American farmers during a concert to raise money for
starving Africans
Changing the arrangements to his songs so they don't sound like they do on the records
Allowing a Canadian bank to use one of his songs
Advertising ladies underwear
Advertising a gas guzzling Cadillac
Selling a deluxe version of Tell Tale Signs at a ludicrously high price
Using and adapting melodies and lyrics from a wide range of sources
Recording a Christmas album

This list is off the top of my head and far from complete. Did he have good reasons for doing all of these things? No doubt they seemed good enough to him.

Personally, I am not sure that Live Aid was the place to speak up for relatively well off American farmers; I feel the Cadillac ad was in poor taste (I know the company sponsored his radio show, but that doesn't justify it); and charging £100 for the 3CD set of Tell Tale Signs seems inexcusable.

Should any of this affect my appreciation of one of the greatest artists of our age? Well, we all have our limits. If he were arrested as a child molester, for example, I might well find it hard to separate the fact from my enjoyment of his art.

But a Christmas album? I think I can handle that. I have heard Christmas songs recorded by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and many other great singers, and while those recordings rank low on their artistic achievements, they have not lessened my love or regard for their work.

And I imagine Bob would be delighted to see the bile he has stirred up.

More on: The Christmas album: so long, Bob

Thanks to Jonathan Greenwood:

“While I respect Chris’s right to junk Dylan, I welcome the idea of the Christmas album.

“To me, it’s yet another example of Dylan’s espousal of diverse musical styles – surely his trademark across the years.

“And it shows Dylan moving even further into the mainstream. He clearly craves the mass popular acceptance which has been steadily growing since TOOM. I think it’s churlish for aficionados to wish to keep him boxed into a Counter Culture niche to be enjoyed only by a backward-looking small cult.

“I’ll be buying the CD; if I don’t like it I’ll simply file it (like a few other Dylan albums over the years) and give praise that the man is still developing, and always in bewilderingly unpredictable ways.”



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Thanks to Chris Walker:

“I’m surprised that no Dylan Daily readers have recoiled in horror at the very idea of Dylan releasing an album of Xmas songs.

“Xmas albums are for lame brains. I wouldn’t have one given for free. Whoever recorded it. For whatever charity. Xmas albums are strictly for sentimental bozos.”

“I’ve been an ardent Dylan fan for many years, but I’m afraid this kind of showbiz bullcrap is the final straw – I ain’t gonna sing Dylan’s praises no more: the greatest creative artist of the 20thC has lost it: so long, Bob.”

Dylan's literary context

I’ve been catching up with the writers documenting instances of Dylan writing which is similar to that of earlier work by other writers.

Readers will be familiar with the well-documented similarities of phrases on Modern Times with Henry Timrod’s writing, and of “Love And Theft" fragments with Japanese writer Junichi Saga’s Confessions of a Yakuza, but many might not have seen the work of zealous scholars scrutinising Chronicles.

Writers whose prose, it’s alleged, find echoes in Chronicles are: Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, Mezz Mezzrow, Jack London, RL Stevenson, Henry Rollins, Hemingway and Pynchon.

Dylan fans and literati alike differ in their reactions to these textual similarities. My own instinct is that they add a new dimension to Dylan’s rich art, placing it ever more firmly in high culture, but that I need to delve far more deeply.

Fascinating stuff…

The literary detectives studying these textual similarities include Edward Cook and Scott Warmuth, mainly on Cook’s blog, Ralph the Sacred River (especially September 2006 and August 2009):

http://ralphriver.blogspot.com



Gerry Smith

New: rare 1966 limited edition photographs

Serious Dylan fans will be familiar with the photographs of the leading Dylan chroniclers – Elliott Landy, Daniel Kramer and half a dozen more.

But new names keep appearing on the radar – photographers whose work is little known outside collector circles.

One such is Charles Gatewood, whose photographs, shot in Stockholm in 1966, are about to published in limited edition book format. (They’re also available as single images.)

The press release follows.


Gerry Smith


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MEDIA INFORMATION
For immediate release

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
- Deluxe Artist’s Book Available Sept 1 2009 –
- Limited to 61 Signed and Numbered Copies -

Each 11 x 14-inch handmade book contains quality reproductions of rare Dylan photos, shot in Stockholm, Sweden on April 29, 1966 by renowned photographer Charles Gatewood. Most of these extraordinary photographs have never been seen or published until now. This edition is designed and published by Dana Dana Dana Limited Editions.

“I was 23 years old, and had been photographing for two years. It was my first published photograph,” recalls Gatewood, referring to his now-iconic image ‘Bob Dylan With Cigarette,’ which was taken on April 29,1966. “Dylan was in his prime. He’d just released Blonde on Blonde and his song Like a Rolling Stone was a huge hit. The picture became a best-selling poster.”

Only 61 copies of A Complete Unknown (plus 5 artist proofs) will be printed. This exciting signed and numbered Bob Dylan collectible--showing Dylan at the peak of his musical career--will sell out quickly.

For complete information and to view a maquette of the book, please visit:

http://danadanadana.com/gatewood/

as well as

http://acompleteunknown.com


The book will be available starting September 1, 2009.

New Illustrated Biography: fine book, misleading title

Thanks to Phil Stokes’ timely tip, I duly picked up a copy of Bob Dylan: The Illustrated Biography, for £4.99, at a local branch of The Works.

It’s a fine album of Dylan photographs from across the ages, with brief textual commentary. In fact, it’s the finest career-spanning Bob photo album available: if you only need one book of Zimpics, this is the one to go for.

The title, Bob Dylan – The Illustrated Biography, is an own goal by publisher Transatlantic Press, though. The subtitle – A Unique Collection of 200 Classic, Rare and Unseen Photographs – is more accurate, even if the “Rare and Unseen” proportions are small.

A must-buy? Certainly. Especially at £4.99.


Gerry Smith

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New Illustrated Biography @ £4.99!

Thanks to Phil Stokes:

"Just bought this said hardback book, from The Works, in Sutton Coldfield (near Brum) for... £4.99! They have the same titles available for the Stones and Led Zep as well @ £4.99."

(The Works is an extensive chain of discount bookshops. To locate your local branch, check out:

www.theworks.co.uk

Gerry Smith, Ed)

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New this week - Bob Dylan: The Illustrated Biography

New this Thursday, another book for the groaning Zim shelves - Bob Dylan: The Illustrated Biography.

Regular readers will know that I’m an addicted buyer of Dylan books - and I’ll be buying this one and scrutinising with interest. But I have to wonder whether the world needs yet another Dylan biography. The main appeal of this bio is its “dazzling array of never-been-seen images”.

Best price I’ve seen (£11.89, saving £5+ on cover price, is at Amazon.co.uk)

Author Chris Rushby is “marketing director for a major UK book wholesaler”, so you can expect the book to get an extraordinary PR/promo push.



Gerry Smith

New this week - Bob Dylan: The Illustrated Biography

New this Thursday, another book for the groaning Zim shelves - Bob Dylan: The Illustrated Biography.

Regular readers will know that I’m an addicted buyer of Dylan books - and I’ll be buying this one and scrutinising with interest. But I have to wonder whether the world needs yet another Dylan biography. The main appeal of this bio is its “dazzling array of never-been-seen images”.

Best price I’ve seen (£11.89, saving £5+ on cover price, is at Amazon.co.uk)

Author Chris Rushby is “marketing director for a major UK book wholesaler”, so you can expect the book to get an extraordinary PR/promo push.



Gerry Smith

Mainstream Dylan

It never ceases to amaze me how, in the last decade, the Dylan brand has been transformed into a mainstream commodity.

This week’s evidence, from the two leading local supermarket chains:

* Tesco has the new starter compilation CD, Bob Dylan: The Collection on its value racks, at £3!

* Sainsbury’s is stocking the paperback edition of Dylan On Dylan, the latest book of interviews, edited by Jonathan Cott, on its high volume sales racks – at a giveaway £4.99.

For those of us who grew up regarding Dylan as a cult figure, this mass market visibility – and the positioning of Dylan product as impulse buys alongside the BOGOF foodstuffs and discounted cases of beer – is little short of amazing.

And not a little challenging.



Gerry Smith

Ovid – better than Viagra

Thanks to Renata Schultz:

“If you’ve a Dylan fan in your life whose enthusiasm for the pleasures of the night are, er, waning, I strongly recommend that you buy him a copy of Ovid’s Erotic Poems, The Art Of Love.

“If he resists reading highbrow classics, just remind him that Dylan himself is a follower of Ovid. I bought Erotic Poems for the overtired Dylan fan in my life and I’ve had a smile on my face ever since…Ovid - better than Viagra!”


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Dylan and Ovid

Thanks to Anne Ritchie:

“Forgive me if this is common knowledge among Dylan Daily readers, but in delving into Zim’s debt to Classical culture, I’ve just come across another striking example which I haven’t seen noted anywhere else.

“In Erotic Poems, The Art Of Love Book 1, line 346, Ovid uses the phrase ”Draw a blank…”.

“Dylan’s exhibition of paintings, developed from his 1990s book of drawings, was, of course, entitled Drawn Blank.

“Seems to me Bobby has been a closet Latin scholar for some years.”

Dylan songs withdrawn from Spotify

Thanks to Jason C:

“Are any other readers annoyed that Dylan’s tunes have been pulled from the great new streaming service, Spotify?”

(I’m not! In fact, I’m surprised that ANY rights owners allow Spotify to stream their music: I can’t think of a surer way of losing sales. Only last week, I was going to replace old vinyl with a CD comp of Dory Previn material but, after listening a few times on Spotify, decided not to bother. Gerry Smith, Editor)

Rome interview, late 2001

Thanks to Anne Ritchie:

“Can anyone here direct me to a full transcript of Dylan’s Rome interview, held in late 2001 to promote “Love And Theft”?

“I’ve seen the extracts published in The Times Magazine, La Repubblica and Dagens Nyheter, but none of these has the full transcript of the long interview with a collection of journalists I heard on CD some years ago. They’re all tantalisingly informative, though.

“A link to a full transcript (in English) would be appreciated.”

Dylan and Ovid

Thanks to Anne Ritchie:

“Forgive me if this is common knowledge among Dylan Daily readers, but in delving into Zim’s debt to Classical culture, I’ve just come across another striking example which I haven’t seen noted anywhere else.

“In Erotic Poems, The Art Of Love Book 1, line 346, Ovid uses the phrase ”Draw a blank…”.

“Dylan’s exhibition of paintings, developed from his 1990s book of drawings, was, of course, entitled Drawn Blank.

“Seems to me Bobby has been a closet Latin scholar for some years.”

Elliott Landy’s Woodstock photographs

Though the current Woodstock 40th anniversary “celebrations” (aka commercial exploitation) leave me cold, the new edition of Elliott Landy’s book, Woodstock Vision, looks like a must-have.

It’s a feast of 300 of Landy’s wonderful photographs. The famous Dylan shot – hat, guitar, vintage car – dominates the cover.

It’s not obvious how many Dylan pics are in the book, but the Landy website has 50 Dylan thumbnails, many of which were new to me:

http://landyvision.com



Thanks to Jim Linderman whose blog alerted me to the new Landy book:

http://dulltooldimbulb.blogspot.com



Gerry Smith

Dylan “too selfish”, according to female singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter Dory Previn regards Bob Dylan as selfish. In an interview with Jonathan Wingate published in Record Collector (Jan 2008?*), she tells of a gig she performed where Dylan asked to meet her backstage:

“Yes that was the worst… you can’t have a chat with him because he’s too selfish, so he won’t give you anything…“

Dory Previn was a cult favourite in the early 1970s. Her bleak confessional lyrics documented her mental health problems, marital breakdown, and a world going wrong.

In my list of favourite women rockpop artists from the 1970s, I’d place her second only to Joni Mitchell, and well ahead of every other female writer/performer.

(* The interview, pulled out the monthly mag Record Collector, looks as if it promoted the Jan 2008 release of The Art Of Dory Previn, a must-have compilation CD summarising the gifted singer-songwriter’s legacy.)



Gerry Smith

Dylan, Virgil, Ovid et al

Thanks to Anne Ritchie:

“I’ve been following your unique recent coverage of new Dylan Studies books - I’m particularly interested in Dylan’s debt to Classical writers, especially Ovid.

“I can recommend to readers of The Dylan Daily with similar interests a series of articles available free on the web site of an academic journal, Oral Tradition.

“Oral Tradition Volume 22 no 1 2007 was a special Dylan issue. Among a lot of very meaty articles, there’s one by Harvard Prof Richard F Thomas, The Streets Of Rome – The Classical Dylan (pp30-56), examining Dylan’s references to Ovid, Virgil, Homer et al in depth.”

http://journal.oraltradition.org

Another new compilation CD - Bob Dylan: The Collection

Though it’s not aimed at readers of specialist web sites such as this one, Bob Dylan: The Collection - yet another new official compilation CD – demonstrates that Sony are keenly developing the Dylan market among younger listeners.

The new CD was on sale last night in my local supermarket on the bargain “CDs from £3” racks – suggesting it’s targeted at older cheapskates as well as new converts.

But can you represent Dylan’s vast songbook in just 12 tracks? Well, Sony/Camden have had a fair crack, resisting the temptation to treat Dylan as a 1960s museum piece by including songs from four decades – but note, there’s nothing from the
1980s:

Blowin' In The Wind
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Mr. Tambourine Man
Like A Rolling Stone
Positively 4th Street
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Lay, Lady, Lay
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Tangled Up In Blue
Hurricane
Not Dark Yet
Things Have Changed



Gerry Smith

Bob v Richard

Thanks to Liam Mogan:

“It’s been interesting to read the Bob v Van debate, especially the seriousness with which some of your (admittedly fine) contributors take it.

“I find any barbs at Dylan quite humorous really and take it all with a pinch of salt. His genius is unquestionable and his longevity to be marvelled at. Sure there are fallow periods, even within albums, never mind over decades, but ultimately you will always find moments of unparalleled insight and humanity.

“Similarly, I listen to Van on a regular basis and enjoy the majority of his work. The only criticism I can really level at him is there is a certain homogeneous quality to a lot of his albums especially on the later ones which can be boring after a while.

“Listen to any of his songs independently from this period you'll find almost all perfectly acceptable. However, if you try a whole album, you'll soon be twiddling your thumbs, looking out the window or reaching for a good read.

“The debate though has got me thinking about other artists in the post-60s era who could possibly compare to Dylan.

“Springsteen? - certainly as a performer but not as a writer; Neil Young? - possibly but again suffers from a Van-like late period decline; Costello? - musically he may be more adventurous, but where's the human connection?.

For me only that quintessential British talent, Richard Thompson comes even close. After starting out with Bob covers, he dropped the 'dylanisms' of his early songs to concentrate on creating a stunning body of work which encompasses folk/pop/rock/country and any other genre you care to name.

“At least 3 of his albums 'I Want to See the Bright Lights..', 'Shoot Out the Lights' (the nearest thing to the passion Blood on the Tracks I've ever heard) and 'Rumor and Sigh' are genuine classics.

“Whilst the quality does soar and dip throughout the catalogue, even some of the poorer releases contain their moments. He even has an advantage on Dylan of being able to match his brilliant song writing with almost peerless guitar playing - anyone who has heard his live epic 'Can't Win' on the 'Watching the Dark' box set can vouch for that.

“If you also take into account his time with Fairport Convention (the best Dylan covers band ever?), his constant touring schedule and his sterling session guitar work, you have an artist who deserves to be named in the same breath as Dylan. Even if it is just for a moment.”

Highway 61 Revisited, new University of Minnesota book: recommended, B+

Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan’s Road From Minnesota To The World is an intermittently fine addition to the Dylan bookshelf.

Inevitably in a collection of 20 essays (originally delivered as papers at a 2007 symposium), it’s patchy, its chapters veering from the must-read to the, frankly, risible.

Half a dozen of Highway 61 Revisited’s articles cover important aspects of Dylan’s art, and do it with enviable expertise.

The star piece is Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace by Robert Polito, a minute dissection of Dylan’s literary references on the last few albums - from Ovid, Timrod, but oh so many more.

David Yaffe on Dylan’s debt to black musics, Charles Hughes on Civil Rights, Marilyn Chiat on the Jewish settlement of the Iron Range and Anne Waldman on the Beats are original and illuminating.

A second group of papers is solid, workmanlike, without adding much to the knowledge or perspective of the seasoned Dylan buff, though they will inform the book’s primary (student) market.

Several contributions are so peripheral that it crossed my mind that they might be put-ons.

As the Dylan book market grows, the rock scribes with limited horizons who used to rule the roost are being elbowed out by salaried intellectuals; many of them, bright and well-educated, have a lot to offer the seeker after Zim Truths.

Highway 61 Revisited is a welcome addition to the library. Place its best pieces alongside the pick of the recently published Cambridge Companion (reviewed on The Dylan Daily on 29 May) and it’s clear that Dylan Studies is coming of age, successfully addressing the mass market as well as the callow strollers in the Groves of Academe.

Recommended: B+.

Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan’s Road From Minnesota To The World, edited by Colleen J Sheehy and Thomas Swiss, Minneapolis, University Of Minnesota Press, May 2009, pbk, 278pp, $22.95. ISBN 978-0-8166-6100-8






Gerry Smith

Take 2: Van Morrison - a greater talent than Dylan?

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“Need to take issue with Andrew from Adelaide on a couple of points:

1) Dylan v Van

I'm not sure you can compare Van's "Astral Weeks", "Moondance", "St Dominic's Review" and "Veedon Fleece" (released over a 6 year period) with Dylan's "rolled gold" classics as selected by Andrew, "Freewheelin’", "Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited", "Blonde on Blonde" which were not only released over just 4 years, but the last three were recorded and released over a ridiculously tight time frame:

* Bringing It All Back Home (14 and 15 Jan 1965); (2 days)
* Highway 61 (15 June, 29/30 July, 2/4 August 1965 (5 days)
* Blonde on Blonde (14 -17 Feb, 8/9 March 1966 (6 days)

So, three undeniable classic LPs recorded in 13 days over a 14 month period! Can anyone else match that? And wasn't he touring during that time too...?


2) Dylan's second golden era

Planet Waves 1973
Blood on the Tracks 1974
Desire 1975
Hard Rain 1976
StreetLegal 1978


3) Classic songs

I would suggest that Dylan has more classic songs in his songbook than Van that are more well known to the public at large eg Blowin in the wind, lay lady lay, knockin on heaven's door etc


4) Sustained sequence of clunkers

Can anyone top Van's output of clunkers from 1995 to the present?

· Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison (1996)
· The Healing Game (1997)
· Back on Top (1999)
· The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast 1998 (2000)
· You Win Again (2000)
· Down the Road (2002)
· What's Wrong with This Picture? (2003)
· Magic Time (2005)
· Pay the Devil (2006)
· Live at Austin City Limits Festival (Live) (2006)
· Keep It Simple (2008)
· Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Live) (2009)

That's not to deny the brilliance of "Astral Weeks" which is unique in the Van canon, and possibly one of the greatest albums of all time.

Van Morrison - a greater talent than Dylan?

Thanks to Andrew Robertson:

No surprise that Oh Mercy was rated the best Dylan album of this period (1978-89) – it was, indeed, the only album of that period that I would rate as a classic Dylan album or potentially a Desert Island Disc.

To provoke debate among other music lovers (and perhaps to annoy Dylan Diehards) I would like to repeat my previously expressed view that this confirms Van Morrison as the greater music talent, and indeed, the greatest in contemporary music.

The same period (1978-89) was Morrison’s second golden era in which he produced 6 “rolled gold” classics, as follows (in chronological order):
Into The Music
Common One
Beautiful Vision
No Guru No Method No Teacher
Poetic Champions Compose
Avalon Sunset

In addition, several other worthy additions to his canon (also in chronological order):
Wavelength
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart
Live at the Belfast Grand Opera House
A Sense of Wonder
Irish Heartbeat (with the Chieftains)

And not one weak album, not one that is not a worthy addition to my music collection.

A very significant difference to Dylan’s output from the same years, as your reader poll confirms.

Ah, but what of Dylan’s early years, do I hear you – and Bernard McGuinn – say (defiantly)?

OK, ignoring Bob Dylan, on which he only wrote 2 tracks, Dylan’s only golden era comprised 7 albums of which 4 were “rolled gold” classics:
Freewheelin’
Bringing It All Back Home
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde

While 3 were simply excellent:
The Times They Are A-Changing
Another Side
John Wesley Harding

In Van Morrison’s case, ignoring Them and the Bang output, his first golden era also comprised 7 albums of which, similarly, 4 were “rolled gold” classics:
Astral Weeks
Moondance
Saint Dominic’s Preview
Veedon Fleece

While 3 were simply excellent:
His Band and the Street Choir
Tupelo Honey
Hard Nose the Highway

I would argue that Morrison’s “best of the best” (namely Astral Weeks) is better than Dylan’s but putting arguably subjective judgments aside, my point is that Morrison had two golden eras compared to Dylan’s one (not that Dylan hasn’t had other great albums – Oh Mercy being a case in point – however he hasn’t, in my opinion, had another sustained period of such extraordinary excellence).

Let the debate begin…

Andrew in Adelaide

The ‘80s: a “lean period” for Dylan albums?

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“Interesting to see the voting on this period of Dylan's releases.

“Not sure about "lean years" though (if you disregard weaker contractual obligation albums).

“Compare:
Street 78
Slow Train 79
Saved 80
Shot of Love 81
Infidels 83
Empire Burlesque 85
Oh Mercy 89

(all very strong albums, in my opinion), with:

TOOM 97
L and T 01
Modern Times 06
Together Through Life 09

“Which is the leaner?”

Top Dylan albums of the 1980s: the fans’ ratings

Oh Mercy is easily the most popular album from 1978-1989 among Dylan fans.

The Daniel Lanois-produced album, released at the very end of the period, is the clear favourite among the Dylan Daily readers who ranked the 13 releases of these relatively lean years.

Street-Legal, Slow Train Coming, Infidels and Biograph also enjoy substantial support, but the other eight albums from the period have very few supporters among Dylan Daily readers.

Dylan albums 1978-1989 rated by fans

1. Oh Mercy (108 points)
2. Street-Legal (75)
3. Slow Train Coming (67)
4. Infidels (58)
5. Biograph (56)
6= At Budokan (8)
6= Saved (8)
6= Shot of Love (8)
9. Dylan and the Dead (6)
10. Empire Burlesque (5)
11. Down in the Groove (3)
12. Real Live (2)
13. Knocked out Loaded (1)

Seventy readers submitted entries in a competition to win a copy of the new DVD - Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow. The winner has been informed, and the two-disc set will be sent tomorrow.

Competition entrants were asked to rank their three favourite albums from the period. Each nomination in first position was assigned 3 points, second place nominations got 2 points, and third choices were given one point. Scores were then aggregated to produce the ranked table, above.

Thanks to all 70 readers who voted.



Gerry Smith

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Knocked Out Loaded: least popular Dylan album?

Is Knocked Out Loaded the least popular Dylan album?

It certainly seems so, according to a preliminary analysis of fan rankings of the 13 albums released between 1978 and 1989, Dylan’s least popular decade.

Knocked Out Loaded managed to pick up only a single nomination and it was the respondent’s least favourite of three albums selected.

So which are the most popular albums of the period? Come back to The Dylan Daily on Monday for a full analysis of the impressive response to this competition.



Gerry Smith


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Win new DVD - Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow

Thanks to MVD Entertainment Group’s Clint Weiler for supplying Bob Dylan 1978-1989 on DVD as the prize in a new Dylan Daily competition.

To win a copy of the new Special Edition 2 Disc Set of Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow, all you have to do is rank your three favourite Dylan albums released in the period covered by the DVD – number your three favourites 1, 2 and 3 – in an email sent to info@dylandaily.com, with the subject header “DVD comp”.

All entries will be put into a (virtual) hat and the winner will be drawn this Friday, 17 July, @ 1600 GMT and announced on The Dylan Daily (unless the lucky winner has specified “privacy” in his/her email entry).

Here’s a reminder of the albums to consider in your ranking:

Street-Legal (1978)
At Budokan (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Saved (1980)
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
Real Live (1984)
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Biograph (1985)
Knocked out Loaded (1986)
Down in the Groove (1988)
Dylan and the Dead (1989)
Oh Mercy (1989)

Good luck!


Gerry Smith

Knocked Out Loaded: least popular Dylan album?

Is Knocked Out Loaded the least popular Dylan album?

It certainly seems so, according to a preliminary analysis of fan rankings of the 13 albums released between 1978 and 1989, Dylan’s least popular decade.

Knocked Out Loaded managed to pick up only a single nomination and it was the respondent’s least favourite of three albums selected.

So which are the most popular albums of the period? Come back to The Dylan Daily on Monday for a full analysis of the impressive response to this competition.



Gerry Smith


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Win new DVD - Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow

Thanks to MVD Entertainment Group’s Clint Weiler for supplying Bob Dylan 1978-1989 on DVD as the prize in a new Dylan Daily competition.

To win a copy of the new Special Edition 2 Disc Set of Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow, all you have to do is rank your three favourite Dylan albums released in the period covered by the DVD – number your three favourites 1, 2 and 3 – in an email sent to info@dylandaily.com, with the subject header “DVD comp”.

All entries will be put into a (virtual) hat and the winner will be drawn this Friday, 17 July, @ 1600 GMT and announced on The Dylan Daily (unless the lucky winner has specified “privacy” in his/her email entry).

Here’s a reminder of the albums to consider in your ranking:

Street-Legal (1978)
At Budokan (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Saved (1980)
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
Real Live (1984)
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Biograph (1985)
Knocked out Loaded (1986)
Down in the Groove (1988)
Dylan and the Dead (1989)
Oh Mercy (1989)

Good luck!


Gerry Smith

Win new DVD – final call for entries

This is the final call for entries to the competition to win a copy of Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow.

Entries close tomorrow, Friday 17 July, @ 1600. Details of how to enter: below.

Thanks to all readers who have already entered.



Gerry Smith


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Win new DVD - Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow

Thanks to MVD Entertainment Group’s Clint Weiler for supplying Bob Dylan 1978-1989 on DVD as the prize in a new Dylan Daily competition.

To win a copy of the new Special Edition 2 Disc Set of Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow, all you have to do is rank your three favourite Dylan albums released in the period covered by the DVD – number your three favourites 1, 2 and 3 – in an email sent to info@dylandaily.com, with the subject header “DVD comp”.

All entries will be put into a (virtual) hat and the winner will be drawn this Friday, 17 July, @ 1600 GMT and announced on The Dylan Daily (unless the lucky winner has specified “privacy” in his/her email entry).

Here’s a reminder of the albums to consider in your ranking:

Street-Legal (1978)
At Budokan (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Saved (1980)
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
Real Live (1984)
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Biograph (1985)
Knocked out Loaded (1986)
Down in the Groove (1988)
Dylan and the Dead (1989)
Oh Mercy (1989)

Good luck!


Gerry Smith

London signing for new book tomorrow (Wednesday)

If you’re in central London tomorrow evening (Wednesday 15 July, 6-9pm), you’re warmly invited to attend the signing event for my new book, Music For Grown-Ups.

Dylan will doubtless be mentioned – he’s one of the book’s central characters!

I’ll be signing copies from the numbered limited edition; Music For Grown-Ups is not available from High St bookshops.

The evening is hosted by AMUTi, the specialist collectable and book dealer, at its delightful gallery/shop near King’s Cross/St Pancras/Euston railway stations.

I’ll be giving a short talk about music for grown-ups, before enjoying a drink with the audience.

You’ll be able to marvel at AMUTi’s unique selection of music-related rare books and collectables.

If you manage to make it, please ensure that you ID yourself to me as a reader of this website - I look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening!

Details:

www.amutionline.com



Gerry Smith

Win new DVD - Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow

Thanks to MVD Entertainment Group’s Clint Weiler for supplying Bob Dylan 1978-1989 on DVD as the prize in a new Dylan Daily competition.

To win a copy of the new Special Edition 2 Disc Set of Bob Dylan 1978-1989: Both Ends Of The Rainbow, all you have to do is rank your three favourite Dylan albums released in the period covered by the DVD – number your three favourites 1, 2 and 3 – in an email sent to info@dylandaily.com, with the subject header “DVD comp”.


All entries will be put into a (virtual) hat and the winner will be drawn this Friday, 17 July, @ 1600 GMT and announced on The Dylan Daily (unless the lucky winner has specified “privacy” in his/her email entry).

Here’s a reminder of the albums to consider in your ranking:

Street-Legal (1978)
At Budokan (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Saved (1980)
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
Real Live (1984)
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Biograph (1985)
Knocked out Loaded (1986)
Down in the Groove (1988)
Dylan and the Dead (1989)
Oh Mercy (1989)

Good luck!


Gerry Smith

London signing for new book next Wednesday

If you’re in central London next Wednesday evening (15 July, 6-9pm), you’re warmly invited to attend the signing event for my new book, Music For Grown-Ups. (Bob Dylan is the key musician featured in the book.)

I’ll be signing copies from the special numbered limited edition; Music For Grown-Ups is not available from High St bookshops.

The evening is hosted by Amuti, the specialist collectable and book dealer, at its delightful gallery/shop near King’s Cross/St Pancras/Euston railway stations.

I’ll be giving a short talk about music for grown-ups, before enjoying a drink with the audience.

You’ll be able to marvel at Amuti’s unique selection of music-related rare books and collectables.

If you manage to make it, please ensure that you ID yourself to me as a reader of this website - I look forward to seeing you next Wednesday!

Details:

www.amutionline.com



Gerry Smith

Roger McGuinn, ex-Byrd, tells his Dylan stories

Completing a short English solo tour in St Albans last week, Roger McGuinn spared us his born-again folkie stuff and focused mainly on the luminous Byrds legacy.

His likeable 90-minute performance thrilled the crowd of 500 ageing pop-pickers, well up for a night of comforting nostalgia. In delivering it, McGuinn, using only his 12-string Rickenbacker and his 7(!)-string Martin HD-7 acoustic, demonstrated that he’s a fine multifaceted musician and singer, and an engaging, generous-minded raconteur.

His debt to Dylan was all over the evening. As well as My Back Pages, the opener, McGuinn explored the Zim locker with Mr Tambourine Man, All I Really Want To Do and You Ain’t Going Nowhere, plus the Dylan-influenced Ballad Of Easy Rider.

He recounted his story of the writing of The Ballad Of Easy Rider – how Dylan, too busy to supply a song for the movie soundtrack, scribbles a few lines of lyrics on a paper tissue, gives it to lead actor Peter Fonda, tells him to fly coast-to-coast and hand it personally to Roger - “Give it to McGuinn, he’ll finish it…”.

McGuinn also recounted how, when The Byrds first played Dylan their version of All I Really Want To Do in the studio, he expressed a liking for the song - before being reminded that he’d written it!



Gerry Smith

Hattie Carroll quoted on Question Time: Dylan in the ether…

Thanks to Andrew Kelly:

“I can't have been the only fan watching Question Time last Thurs (BBC TV, 2 July).

“In answering a question about Jack Straw's recent intervention in the matter of Ronnie Biggs' parole, columnist Peter Hitchens described the Justice Secretary's statement as calling "strongly, for penalty and repentance".

“The 21st century Weltanschauung is permeated!”

New Heylin book – signed copies and 25% discount if you buy direct

Thanks to publishers Constable Robinson for offering Dylan Daily readers limited signed copies of Clinton Heylin’s new book, Revolution In The Air, at 25% discount.

Access the web page below and enter promo code Dylan1.

http://www.constablerobinson.com/?section=books&book=signed_revolution_in_the_air_9781849011549_hardback



Gerry Smith

“Bob Dylan Speaks”: new issue of MOJO has Flanagan interview

“Bob Dylan Speaks” is the banner headline on the cover of the new (UK) issue of MOJO, the achingly beautiful heritage rock monthly.

But if you printed off Flanagan’s three-part promo interview for Together Through Life from the official Sony site in March/April, you might not need the “Ultimate MOJO Interview”.

When I copped a quick glance in the supermarket tonight, it looked like the same interview – worth checking before buying.


Gerry Smith

Clinton Heylin’s new Dylan book: challenging… essential

Clinton Heylin’s challenging new book, Revolution In The Air, is a welcome addition to the burgeoning Dylan library.

The first volume of a pair, Revolution In The Air covers Dylan’s songs from the juvenilia of 1957’s Song to Brigit to the grown-up angst of Planet Waves’ Wedding Song. A second volume, Still On The Road, bringing the story up to 2006, is promised for next year.

Covering 300 songs – in the order they were written, thus imposing narrative and context – the book is a potted history of each title, focusing on composition, recording and/or performance. It eschews in-depth analysis of either lyrics or music and evaluates the songs’ quality only in passing.

Heylin adopts a scholarly approach to his mammoth task. His sources include recording logs, manuscripts, performance set lists, published works and other utterances by Dylan, the testimony of collaborators and eye-witnesses, and a handful of favoured websites.

Heylin’s strengths are the depth of his expertise, based on half a lifetime of heavy-duty research, and a lively, literate writing style.

Weaknesses? Not many. You need to be a dedicated fan to welcome the level of detail here, but the book is targeted at precisely such readers. And there’s bound to be an element of speculation in such a work, though Heylin’s musings are worth your attention.

Revolution In The Air: Bob Dylan’s Songs is, according to the publishers, “informative, opinionated, packed with new insights and revelations….”

Pretty fair summary, I’d say – it’s an essential purchase; volume two is eagerly awaited.

Heylin’s legacy now includes three key Dylan books, the new volume standing proudly alongside Behind The Shades (biography) and Behind Closed Doors (recording sessions). He’s a nuanced guide to Dylan and his peerless art.


Revolution In The Air: The Songs Of Bob Dylan vol. 1: 1957-73, by Clinton Heylin, Constable, 2009, 482pp, £20.

www.constablerobinson.com



Gerry Smith

“Dylan” DVD series from Wienerworld: what do you think?

This week’s review on The Dylan Daily of the new DVD Bob Dylan - Never Ending Tour Diaries attracted loads of interest.

I’ve yet to see the rest of the “Dylan” DVDs in the series from Wienerworld, so I would value your opinions: are they worth buying?

If you’ve seen any of five DVDs in the series, listed below, please let The Dylan Daily know what you think – info@dylandaily.com:


* Bob Dylan - Never Ending Tour Diaries (Winston Watson)


* Bob Dylan - 1966 World Tour – The Home Movies (Mickey Jones)


* Bob Dylan World Tours 1966 – 1974 (Barry Feinstein photos)


* Bob Dylan – 1975 – 1981: Rolling Thunder & The Gospel Years


* Inside Bob Dylan's Jesus Years


Thanks in advance.



Gerry Smith

Drummer Winston Watson reflects on the Never-Ending Tour in the 1990s

Such is the hunger for Dylan-related product, a whole new genre of unofficial DVDs has recently found a ready audience. Lacking official Dylan performances and appearances, they either focus on the testimony of former sidemen and associates or gather the opinions of critics and writers.

They’re aimed at the hardcore fan who’s exhausted all the official releases (and the best of the bootleg performance footage).

So the new DVD from Wienerworld, Bob Dylan: Never Ending Tour Diaries: Drummer Winston Watson’s Incredible Journey, was approached with a degree of scepticism.

Watson, Dylan’s flamboyant drummer in the mid-1990s, performed over 400 shows in five years. He saw enough to be able to tell an interesting tale, though he remains respectful and discreet.

This charming 100-minute film quickly won me over. Given the limited resources at his disposal – interview with Watson, the drummer’s rough video footage, fan bootleg videos, graphics and footage of their Dylan tribute band – director Joel Gilbert has worked wonders in creating a very watchable, occasionally revealing, documentary.

Gilbert was lucky in his subject – Watson’s an engaging, disarming, likeable character who’s walked the walk but is still modest enough to be thrilled by the memories. He was, and is, a big Dylan fan.

You share his triumphs, then sympathise that he lost the gig (and his wife), and that he’s now earning his living working as an electrician back in Tucson, Arizona. When a film draws you in like this, you know it works.

Bob Dylan: Never-Ending Tour Diaries is enjoyable and informative. Watson’s anecdotes and reflections help to flesh out what we know about Dylan the working, touring musician.

Recommended.

I’ll be exploring the rest of the Wienerworld Dylan DVDs.

Info: www.highway61ent.com


Gerry Smith

Highway 61, Beyond Here, Heylin, Barker, Watson DVD

Thanks to readers who sent three interesting links:

* To Larry:

“The new Dylan Watch is a re-interpretation of some songs on Highway 61 Revisited. I thought you'd find the approach interesting:

http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/


* To Patrick:

“Pretty interesting video and interview on Behind Here Lies Nothin:

http://pitchfork.com/news/35479-directors-cut-bob-dylans-beyond-here-lies-nothin/


* And to Stav for a link to a Catholic Herald review of new Heylin and covers books, and Winston Watson DVD:

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/reviews/r0000464.shtml



If you some across links you think other Dylan Daily readers might appreciate, please let me know – info@dylandaily.com


Gerry Smith

The Basement Tapes: debt to TS Eliot?

The “Say hello to Valerie…“ verse in The Basement Tapes song Too Much Of Nothing always struck me as very clever, and very funny. But it had never occurred to me that it referenced another great writer.

Until Saturday’s TS Eliot Arena programme on BBC2, when I stumbled upon the connection – Vivienne and Valerie were the names of Eliot’s two wives.

Crowing about my discovery, I smugly turned to Gray’s Encyclopedia, entirely confident that there’d be no mention - that I was the very first fan to get the connection.

Lo and Behold!

The redoubtable Gray had been there before me. He credits recent Dylan Daily contributor Matthew Zuckerman with the discovery, first aired years ago in an article in ISIS fanzine.

Gray, Zuckerman: respect!



Gerry Smith

Your Dylan book recommendations #4 & #5

Thanks to Peter Mackie:

“It all depends what is meant by analytical but, after Ricks and Gray, I think Mike Marqusee - Wicked Messenger, and Betsy Bowden - Performed Literature are well worth reading.”


And to Martin Cowan:

“Heylin – Behind The Shades”

TS Eliot TV doc uses Desolation Row, With God On Our Side

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“I'd commend the superb BBC2 documentary shown Saturday night about TS Eliot, as part of the BBC's celebration of poetry.

“It opens with a generous snatch of Desolation Row and should be of interest to all Dylan fans.

For those that missed it, it can be viewed (for seven days after broadcast) on the BBC iPlayer here:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/


And thanks to Peter Mackie:

“The excellent Arena programme on Eliot featured Desolation Row and also the first verse of With God on Our Side. Could that verse really have been written with Eliot in mind?”

Your Dylan book recommendations #2 & #3

Thanks to Gerald Bamford:

“I would recommend the Paul Williams series of books to Jonas and everybody else for that matter, dealing with Bob Dylan as a 'Performing Artist' from 1960 onwards and these together with his book of Dylan related essays - 'Watching The River Flow' - make for a wonderful assessment of Bob as the most extraordinary artist of our time and are essential to an understanding of what makes Bob tick.

“The three 'Performing Artist' volumes can often be found very reasonably priced at 'The Works' bookshops.”


And thanks to Bernard McGuinn:

“Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with the Gray recommendation, I find, personally, that Ricks' style, and his obsession with puns, makes for rather painful reading.

“And the latest offering from Heylin - Revolution in the Air - totally eclipses his previous worthy efforts. It's a great read, and I await volume 2 with eager anticipation.

“I also think that any serious student could do far worse than begin with the three volumes of Paul Williams’ Performing Artist series. He never fails to re-ignite my urge to dig out the appropriate recordings whenever I dip back into his writing.”

Your Dylan book recommendations #1

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“To add to your list:

* I have always enjoyed dipping into "Oh No Not Another Bob Dylan Book" by Patrick Humphries and John Bauldie;

* the Anthony Scaduto biography is worth seeking out because although very out of date now, he did at least get to interview Dylan;

* and Nigel Williamson's Rough Guide to Bob Dylan is intelligently written and provides a good overview of the man and his music.”

Louis Armstrong’s canon more important than Dylan’s?

Thanks to Matthew Zuckerman:

“As much as I value Dylan's art, I think many would argue otherwise, and with powerful ammunition. Arguments could surely be made for Louis Armstrong's 'canon' being the most important in 20th century music.

“I would argue, come to that, that Armstrong's musical influence is pervasive in every strand of music -- jazz, blues, pop, classical, gospel, r&b, rock, country and most facets of world music -- and that he may be the most important musical figure since JS Bach.

“Bob may just be the key jazz musican to follow in the wake of Armstrong (as opposed to Parker, who is generally mentioned in that regard) but that's another story.”


> Editor Kevin Dettmar¹s Introduction is a wide-ranging survey of the field of
> DylanLit. But, even here, I found myself challenging basic premises: according
> to Dettmar, ³Dylan¹s is arguably the most important canon in all of twentieth
> century American popular music².
>
> Arguably? Who would argue otherwise? Dettmar could safely delete ³arguably²,
> ³American² and ³popular² and his assessment might still undervalue Dylan¹s
> art. And the Editor¹s depiction of Dylan¹s voice as ³unlovely², the voice of a
> ³crow², rather than a nightingale, also raises questions.

New Dylan Studies textbook: adequate, good in parts, grade B-

The new Dylan Studies textbook, The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, is good in parts. While the book’s aim – to showcase the range of thinking about Dylan’s art - is admirable, its execution is only partly so. As you’d expect from a book by almost twenty academics and writers, it’s uneven.

Editor Kevin Dettmar’s Introduction is a wide-ranging survey of the field of DylanLit. But, even here, I found myself challenging basic premises: according to Dettmar, “Dylan’s is arguably the most important canon in all of twentieth century American popular music”.

Arguably? Who would argue otherwise? Dettmar could safely delete “arguably”, “American” and “popular” and his assessment might still undervalue Dylan’s art. And the Editor’s depiction of Dylan’s voice as “unlovely”, the voice of a “crow”, rather than a nightingale, also raises questions.

The book is split into two parts. The first, Perspectives, has nine short thematic chapters. David Yaffe’s location of Dylan in the poetic tradition, particularly his detailing of Zim’s debt to Ovid, is a key piece. Anthony Decurtis is engaging on Dylan’s songwriting.

Lee Marshall is perceptive on Dylan Studies, warning against treating him merely as a lyricist – the music and vocal performances are also important. But Marshall’s assertion that you can’t study high and popular culture in the same terms makes me slightly uneasy: it’s perfectly feasible to compare and contrast, say, Puccini and the Everly Brothers.

The fourteen-page piece on religion has some insights, but I’d have welcomed more. Few of the other thematic chapters ring bells in this parish. Wild horses couldn’t persuade me to read the chapter on Dylan and gender politics, though I wouldn’t expect many in the book’s fresh-faced, right-on audience to share my prejudice.

Part 2 reviews eight “landmark” albums. The book would have been better doubling the thematic coverage, instead. Dylan’s catalogue has already been reviewed to death and these new pieces add little to the mountain of press and fan evaluations. Except, that is, the essays on “Love And Theft” and Highway 61 Revisited. They’re both insightful, rapping on the magnitude of Dylan’s achievement.

Having graduated from the academy well before deconstruction, structuralism and the like took root, I was disappointed not to find a detailed, readable assessment of Dylan’s art filtered through the Post-Modernist lens. I suspect that PoMo academia has much to offer the seeker after Dylan Truth.

As is traditional in books about Dylan, you encounter erroneous rock-ist clichés – “first to release a themed album”; “first pop writer with grown-up lyrics”: er, no - in both cases. (I didn’t come across their sibling, the hoary claim that Dylan was the first musician to be bootlegged, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find it.)

The sub-editorial rigour you expect from a CUP book is fitful – for example, we encounter a Martin “Scorcese”, and find Dave Van Ronk in “Mcdougal” Street. If the book emanated from a Squirrel Press of Nether Wapping, it wouldn’t matter much, but it’s published by one of the world’s great university presses. Time to reassess the “Cambridge” brand?

Dylan’s great body of art can withstand rigorous, high-minded scrutiny, placing him in the wider flow of both high and popular culture: I much prefer BobLit by intellectuals with writing skills to the musings of brain-lite rock hacks. But earlier, admittedly more extensive, academic studies by profs such as Ricks, Marshall and Negus are not matched by The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan.

For a Dylan book to have lasting value, it needs to enrich our understanding of the man’s work - as creative artist, songwriter, thinker, performing musician and curator of American music. The Cambridge book does it intermittently, but not enough.

So, The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan achieves a grade of B-. It’s adequate, good in parts, but it needs more analysis and less narrative.




Gerry Smith



Info: www.cambridge.org

Together Through Life – “a stinker that’ll soon be forgotten”

I suspect I’m not the only Dylan Daily reader who’s yet to make up his mind about Together Through Life.

But I doubt there’s be many who share the views of a certain Russ Smith (no relation - honest!), who’s posted a very dismissive review on Splice Today.

Not all Dylan Daily readers think that the Sun shines out of Dylan’s a**e. Russ Smith certainly doesn’t. I enclose a few extracts, below - just to whet your appetite!

You can see the full review online at

www.splicetoday.com




Gerry Smith

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Nothing Is Delivered, by Russ Smith

* Together Through Life, Bob Dylan’s latest recording, is a stinker that’ll soon be forgotten.

* the last time Dylan released an exciting bunch of new songs was in early ’75, Blood on the Tracks, and that coincided with my most recent cavity. And, let’s be honest, that record, while a step up from Planet Waves and New Morning, hasn’t aged all that well, with the clunkers “Meet Me in the Morning” and “Simple Twist of Fate,” getting in the way of his two gold-standard 70s songs “Idiot Wind” and “Tangled Up in Blue.”

* his last 20 or so records, including his latest, Together Through Life, really stink, and I imagine that once this article is complete I’ll relegate the CD to the pile of near-discards, maybe next to Imagine or anything Morrissey released after he and guitarist Johnny Marr broke up the Smiths, the best band of the 1980s.

* Dylan’s value today is as an archivist (of his own songs and those artists he admires)

* Listening to Together Through Life, it’s possible, I suppose, to believe that Dylan really thinks he’s making exceptional new music… the songs, mostly co-written with Robert Hunter (immediate tip-off), have little lyrical merit and while reviewers have somehow fallen for the singer’s p.r. that he’s incorporating his love for old Chess Records classics with his own tweaks and observations, this record’s a bust. Not wholly embarrassing, but a bust.

* David Hildago’s brain-numbing accordian…

* with very few exceptions (maybe “Catfish,” “Seven Days” and “Jokerman”), the songs he’s composed since the mid-1970s are half-baked and would never even be considered by the staff who help him compile the playlist for his radio show…

Cover painting of Dylan special edition of Rolling Stone (France)

Thanks to Eric Wolfe:

“Thought you'd like to know that the painting by Scott Laumann accompanied the review of Tell Tale Signs in the American edition last fall.”

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Article of 22 May:

The French Rolling Stone has a delightful new 100-page Collector’s Special Edition (Hors-Serie) devoted to Dylan.

Beautiful cover portrait by Scott Laumann… 15 articles… many great photos… a magnificent addition to the library – allez, allez – vite!

NB1: it’s in French.
NB2: the content is nothing like the recent Dylan-covered issue (no 1078) of the US edition of Rolling Stone, though I’m going from info supplied by RS - I’ve yet to see issue 1078 on the racks where I get my occasional fix…

Vive le Rolling Stone francais!

www.rollingstone.fr



Gerry Smith

Delightful Dylan special edition from Rolling Stone (France)

The French Rolling Stone has a delightful new 100-page Collector’s Special Edition (Hors-Serie) devoted to Dylan.

Beautiful cover portrait by Scott Laumann… 15 articles… many great photos… a magnificent addition to the library – allez, allez – vite!

NB1: it’s in French.
NB2: the content is nothing like the recent Dylan-covered issue (no 1078) of the US edition of Rolling Stone, though I’m going from info supplied by RS - I’ve yet to see issue 1078 on the racks where I get my occasional fix…

Vive le Rolling Stone francais!

www.rollingstone.fr



Gerry Smith

Before The Flood: encore

Thanks to Jon Talbot in Seattle, Washington:

“I enjoyed reading your take on Before the Flood. I bought the re-mastered CD last month, but hadn't listened to it yet. Your comments encouraged me to play it last night. You are right - the sound is much better, even when comparing it to the original CD.

“But I wouldn't recommend it for the average Dylan fan. Despite what you called an impressive set-list, the songs for me are delivered in a rushed and robotic fashion that strips them of their integrity and potency. They come from his lips in a spitted-shouted-spoken flurry.

“Others have also noted how Dylan whizzed through them, deliberately in a hurry. The monks often say, "hurry is the death of prayer," and on Before the Flood, hurry is nearly the death of Dylan on this live performance.

“But I would recommend the CD for those serious about Dylan (and fans of the Band), for there are a few bright moments. Some aspects of "Just Like a Woman" become less rushed and hurriedly delivered to show its truthful intent, and you feel that Dylan's heart is in the singing.

“ "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" works very well for a number of reasons. First, its staccato-type format fits Dylan's need to hurry things along. Secondly, the crowd is following each stanza carefully (all the words are clearly articulated--no lyric sheet needed there) and they explode over the line about the President of the United States. Lastly, there's an audience member who ought to get royalties as he (maybe she, as the re-mastered CD gives this person a higher voice) cheers almost rhythmically in response to a number of the lines of the song. There's one place where it appears Dylan is a bit distracted, but immediately gets back on track.

“Of the final Dylan pieces on disc two, "Highway 61 Revisited" is my vote for the best performance. I also enjoyed the warm-up and introduction to "All Along the Watchtower," which could have been dynamic if Robbie Robertson did an extended guitar solo, but as soon as you get into their Hendrix-infused groove the song immediately ends.

“The Band glowed; my favorite moments are two: "The Shape I'm In," exceptionally sung by Richard Manuel, despite his hoarse voice, and played equally well by the top-notch musicians. And "When You Awake", with lead singing by Rick Danko--lovely.

“Ironically, it was my first Dylan concert. I attended the evening concert at The Forum (now the Staples Center) in Los Angeles, February 14--I think the year was 1973, my ticket doesn't show the year. The price of the concert was cheaper than the re-mastered CD: $8.50!

“I believe it was the last leg of the tour, and that most of the CD's tracks were taken from the afternoon concert of that same date. (Your faithful readers can verify and/or correct that.) I think Dylan and the Band also performed a track or two from Planet Waves, "Forever Young," sticks in my memory.

“The experience of the concert outmatched the CD, of course, but my lasting impression wasn't the music. It was the manner in which Bob Dylan left the stage and bowed: he held up his harmonica in one hand and the guitar in the other, as if to say, you could do this too...or maybe to say "you're right from your side, I'm right from mine; we're just one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind."

“Thanks Gerry, for encouraging these thoughts.”

The Roy Silver interview DVD: encore

Thanks to Steve Rostoski:

“I was involved in a project related to No Direction Home and got to read all the interview transcripts (except Bob's!) before it was released.

“I remember the Roy Silver interview and I doubt they would have gone to the trouble of transcribing all the retakes and asides if it were staged. The guy did sound like a character, so I'm not surprised some think he's an actor.

“Another thing I remember about the interviews was that most of them were rough and broke down when they had to change film or something needed rephrasing.

“Except for Greil Marcus. His interview read like one of his essays with not one word out of place. The only time he stopped was when he asked if the skateboarding kids outside were making too much noise.”


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(8 May): The Roy Silver interview DVD

Watching the Roy Silver interview on DVD, one of the bonus discs in Together Through Life, I thought at first it was a spoof.

Never having heard of Silver and conscious of the hammy presentation style (Groucho Marx?), it seemed like a well-executed Dylan put-on.

My suspicions were strengthened when a check of the Trager and Gray encyclopedias failed to turn up Silver. Ditto Heylin’s bio, Behind The Shades Take 2.

But then I found him in a biography I’ve rather neglected – Howard
Sounes’ Down the Highway: the life of Bob Dylan (Black Swan, 2002, paper, 624pp). Sounes documents in some detail Silver’s early association with Dylan in the Village, before he was signed by Albert Grossman.

Bravo, Howard Sounes. I’ll have to read him rather more carefully.

And I’ll have to watch the Roy Silver DVD again – but as a factual interview this time, not an elaborate joke.




Gerry Smith

Euro Tour 2009: final thoughts

Thanks to Gerald Bamford:

“Bob has been here and gone once more at a time when his stock is as high as it has ever been what with his new album at the highest reaches of the album charts both sides of the pond and all manner of media programmes dedicated to all aspects of his unbelievable career. Must be the end game.

“One thing is for certain: Bob is still the spokesman for our generation gently leading us to understand what it feels like to be getting old.

“But not infirm - the energy needed to sustain a tour of recent proportions must be enormous, so all power to Bob.

“I like to organise my part in the tour by selecting shows where I think my wife might like to visit, so we went off to Tuscany and Florence in particular where Bob and the band played in the Nelson Mandela Forum - which did Bob no favours since the sound, at least where we were seated to the left of the stage, was atrocious - hurtful to my ears at times.

“The acoustic songs were much easier to listen to so these were the highlights of a frustrating experience.

“The sound at the O2 was very much better and even though the set list was strangely similar to Florence and the huge arena makes for a dislocated feel, I really enjoyed the concert sitting in the infamous Block 101.

“So we went to Scotland and, even though we stayed in Glasgow, went only to the Edinburgh Playhouse, which is a fine Victorian theatre at the end of Prince's Street and one of those more intimate venues that Bob seems to like to fit in.

“Of course this was the highlight for me, setting me in mind of the two fantastic shows at the Portsmouth Guildhall in 2000 and a wonderful show in Oporto some years back, also in a small theatre.

“Song tour highlights for me were:

Hollis Brown - Florence and O2
'Till I fell in Love with You - O2
Return To Me - Fl (just a jester's gesture)
Working Man's Blues #2 - Florence & O2
Just Like A Woman - Edinburgh (actually most of Edinburgh from Pill Box Hat onwards)

“Strange how we view and assess the shows - our enjoyment depending on so many external and internal factors (as Leonard Cohen said about the financial and geographical inconvenience of attending his concert at the O2, or simply what we had for lunch having some effect on mood), and our built-in desire to criticise having come out so far with so many expectations.

“Let's hope that familiarity does not breed a degree of contempt, since Bob seems very happy with his current band and sound. I guess most of us were hoping for at least a song from Together Through Life but he saved that for Dublin - the luck of the Irish indeed.

“Still, all things being equal, Bob will be back touting his wares once again in a town near us very soon.


“It's all good!”

Before The Flood re-mastered: very impressive

You’re not supposed to like Before The Flood.

It’s supposed to lack subtlety. You look for subtlety in rock music? If I want subtlety I avoid rock and turn to jazz or opera instead.

I think Before The Flood is a spellbinder in which Dylan reinvents his ‘60s songbook into a cacophanous tumult; rock has rarely been this raw.

Great vocals, inspired band, set-list without equal. What’s not to like? Dylan’s performance is impassioned, vituperative, driven. What more could the nay-sayers reasonably expect?

I’ve listened to Before The Flood in the car, on a cheap tape, recorded from worn-out vinyl via a scratchy needle, for years, so the sound on the new re-mastered double CD set is a revelation to me; maybe if you’re used to a hi-fi version, the sonic upgrade would be less impressive.

If you delete the intrusive (if otherwise excellent) tracks by The Band, you have a legendary, almost seamless, Dylan rock concert.

Before The Flood re-mastered: very impressive


Gerry Smith

Basement Tapes re-mastered: impressive

You learn some useful stuff from expert contributors to The Dylan Daily.

First, Liam Mogan raved on about the sonic improvements on the newly re-mastered Basement Tapes 2CD. So I made a note to buy it.

But where?

Right on cue, Martin Cowan told us that HMV are discounting all four newly re-mastered albums. And even my sorry little local branch had a digipack copy of The Basement Tapes in stock, at only £8 (though it had none of the other three titles).

So I bought it and, like Liam, I’m very impressed by the sound: it’s like hearing the album for the very first time.

Even after degrading the sound by ripping/burning a CDR copy via iTunes, to excise the Band tracks, the production is still a revelation, with Dylan well up in the mix and the mud cleansed.

The improvement was more noticeable after I’d tagged on the three official Basement Tapes sessions out-takes, released on Biograph and Bootleg Series 1-3, and listened to them back-to-back with the newly cleaned-up album.

So, tomorrow I’m off to a bigger HMV, to buy Before The Flood, a long-time favourite tape in my car, though often derided by the Dylan Police.

And, as a bonus, I can park all the non-Bob tracks from both the re-mastered albums onto a dedicated The Band CDR.

If, like me, you’d never bothered buying The Basement Tapes on CD, now’s the time!



Gerry Smith

Dylan back catalogue CDs: HMV bargains, and phantom new re-masters

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“Dylan is HMV artist of the month. This means that a whole bunch of the hefty back catalogue is available at £5 per throw, and in my local branch they also had the new re-masters of "Basement Tapes" and "Before the Flood" for £8 apiece.

“This is a good chance to pick up any LPs that are missing from your collection!

“But, further to all the column inches sounding the death knell of CDs in favour of inferior downloads or inconvenient streaming, I’ve discovered that it is almost impossible to buy all the new Dylan re-mastered CDs anywhere.

“Amazon lists them, but only from other sellers, though it does seem possible to track them down via Ebay.

“Have any other Dylan Daily readers come across the latest wave of Dylan reissues in physical form?

New Barry Feinstein exhibition opens at National Portrait Gallery, London

Thanks to Gordon Macniven

“In case you don't know, the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition of Barry Feinstein's 1966 photos of Bob began on 11 May and finishes on 30 August.

“The NPG is a magnificent gallery so well worth a visit. The exhibition is in the basement. Not worth a special journey but definitely worth a look if you're near.”

(NPG is in central London, just off Trafalgar Square, round the corner, east of the National Gallery - GS)



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Related DYLAN DAILY article from 2008:

Feinstein’s Dylan exhibition extended, plus new Sub H Blues photo

Birmingham’s Snap Galleries is extending its Barry Feinstein exhibition of Dylan photographs until Saturday 9 August. Snap is selling prints from the photographer’s iconic catalogue, as published in his new book, Real Moments.

And Snap has unearthed (and is selling) a new colour still, by Tony Frank, from the Subterranean Homesick Blues black and white film shoot.

Snap Galleries runs a remarkable series of rock photography exhibitions.

Their newsletter – itself a visual feast; any rock fan should subscribe (free) – announces some enticing forthcoming shows:

1. "Majesties and Exiles", new Rolling Stones exhibition starts 13 September 2008

2. Dylan “Gets Born” - glorious colour from the Subterranean Homesick Blues film set

3. Oasis: awesome early years singles and albums portfolio collection launches in November 2008

4. Soul with attitude

5. Feinstein Dylan show extended

6. Pepper drumskin at Christie’s

7. Wonderwalls

8. More out of print and 'sold out' books


Snap Galleries Limited, Unit 7 - Ground Floor, Fort Dunlop, Fort Parkway, Birmingham B24 9FD


www.snapgalleries.com




Gerry Smith

London O2 gig and the overpriced tour programme – encore…

Thanks to Paul Ryles:

“I think I share your opinion of the O2 Arena, but maybe not completely.

“The transport arrangements were nothing short of ridiculous for such a big venue. The boat service was woeful, the boat on the way there left early, so we missed it, along with 20 or so other people. We actually left the show early to catch the return trip, needless to say to the boat on the way back left late. I’d hate to go to another event where the tube wasn't running.

“The lack of screens did create a detachment from the performance, we sat in a corner of the top tier far from the stage. The experience was like listening to the music, but not really like attending a live show, quite an odd experience.

“I'm trying not to be the grumpy old man, but I agree 100% with your view about sales of food and drink. I don't understand why you would pay for a ticket then spend your time queuing at the bar or the toilets. I can understand why Van Morrison wanted to stop bar sales during his shows.

“For me the O2 was so huge it bordered on the incredible, not quite oppressive, even though you could probably fit the village I live in into the arena 10 times. From where I was sitting the view of the audience looking amazing, the sound was good, slight bassy reverb off the roof, but not half as bad as the SECC in Glasgow the next weekend.

“I'd actually like to go back to see an artist that really does connect with the audience, Prince in 2007 might just have been the perfect artist, but I wasn't there.

“The show itself, I thought, was excellent, as was your review. Highlights for me 'Til I Fell In Love With You, Hollis Brown and Hattie Carroll, my wife thought Workingman's Blues was better than the recorded version.”


And to John Jeffrey:

“I, too, thought the (European tour) programmes were over priced (£12), but I bought one in Glasgow on Saturday night when the price was "reduced" to a tenner.”

Please click over to the master web site

This blogging site will not be updated for the next few days. Sorry for the inconvenience.

You can still see all the daily updates by clicking over to the master web site:

www.dylandaily.com

This site will be operating normally again from 11 May. See you soon.


Gerry Smith

Bob Dylan: 5 Songs – fine complement to the Drawn Blank catalogue

Dylan the painter was revealed to an unsuspecting world by Chemnitz’s Kunstsammlungen in 2007/2008. Aficionados the world over are indebted to curator Ingrid Mossinger who, seeing the potential in a largely ignored series of pencil sketches published years earlier, encouraged Dylan to develop them into a massive series of colourful, Expressionist watercolours and gouaches.

Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series, the resultant large format hardback catalogue (published in 2007 in two editions – identical content, different covers - by the museum and commercial publisher Prestel), has 170 evocative paintings developed from 85 of the original pencil sketches. Plus four short essays. It’s a must-have on any decent Dylan bookshelf.

Bob Dylan: 5 Songs, the follow-up, is fine complement, another must-have Drawn Blank collectable. It’s in the same hardback large format, but it focuses on Dylan’s words rather than his images.

The book collects the transcripts of five lectures delivered by German writers and academics at the museum during the exhibition. They each cover a Dylan song from a different decade: Visions Of Johanna, Tangled Up In Blue, Blind Willie McTell, Cold Irons Bound and Beyond The Horizon. The book’s 33 images, though delightful, are secondary.

All Dylan books, mostly by American or English writers, have a deep cultural bias: we can’t help being influenced by where we live. So it’s instructive to read writers from Germany: as anyone who has seen Dylan in concert in Germany will confirm, there’s a refreshingly different mindset to Bob following in Europe’s largest country.

All five pieces in Bob Dylan: 5 Songs are stimulating. I quickly became a fan of writer/academic Heinrich Detering. His lecture on Visions Of Johanna is perceptive; it comes as no surprise to learn that his academic work centres on German literary greats like Goethe and Mann. Detering’s an original thinker – for example, he rejects the usual suspects as the subject of his song and proposes, instead, that “Johanna” is, in fact, based on Brecht’s St Joan!

Rainer Vesely’s analysis of Tangled Up In Blue, a coherent, sustained rumination on the theme of betrayal, is also striking. I’m less convinced by Thomas Steinfeld’s hymn of praise to Cold Irons Bound – “the most successful song on the album”. I’ve always heard it as throwaway, lightweight. Steinfeld’s espousal did force me to listen again, very carefully, though my reaction remained the same. Even where you disagree, Steinfeld, like the others, challenges you to think about the songs afresh.

The highlight of the collection is the bonus track – a luminous, lengthy analysis of Theme Time Radio Hour by the aforementioned Heinrich Detering. It’s one of those lovely pieces which has you alternately nodding in agreement, as you find your own reactions duplicated, and then stopping in surprise at another original thought – “why didn’t I think of that?” Detering’s is the most literate dissection of the artfulness and significance of Dylan’s radio series that I’ve seen.

Publishing Bob Dylan: 5 Songs as a bi-lingual edition gives the book global appeal, but it has a downside, of course: half the pages are unnecessary, whether you’re an English or a German speaker.

Ingrid Mossinger’s vision in staging the Drawn Blank exhibition helped to reposition Dylan as a serious multi-faceted artist, not merely the pre-eminent musician of the age. The resulting pair of books she’s edited furnish irrefutable evidence.

Bob Dylan: 5 Songs is the second fine Drawn Blank collectable: if you’re seriously into Dylan, you need both.



Bob Dylan 5 Songs: Lectures accompanying the exhibition Bob Dylan. The Drawn Blank Series at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Edited by Ingrid Mossinger and Wolfram Ette with watercolours by Bob Dylan.
Published by Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/Keber Art, 2009. Large format hardback, 288pp, euro 22.

(Current special deal on museum website: 5 Songs PLUS Drawn Blank catalogue – euro 40; check that you get English ed of catalogue, if that’s what you require; check carriage costs; and, if ordering from outside the eurozone, ensure you’re familiar with currency conversion costs.)



www.kunstsammlungen-chemnitz.de




Gerry Smith

Bluesfest on BBC4 this weekend

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“More delicious viewing for Dylan Daily readers:

Friday 1 May BBC4

9.00pm: Blues Britannia - Can Blue Men Play The Whites? Documentary charting the British love of the blues.

10.30pm - Blues at the BBC. Archive footage of blues performances from the last 50 years.


Saturday 2 May BBC4

8.00pm - a repeat of the previous evening's Blues at the BBC.

9.00pm - Bobby Bland - Two steps from the blues. Profile of the blues singer.

10.00pm - Blues on .....Later. A selection of blues performances from the Jools Holland show.

11.55pm - Long John Baldry. Profile of the late British singer.

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With this embarrassment of riches, it makes me wonder how we managed before the advent of BBC4!”

And don’t forget: you can probably see the programmes online - some BBC programmes are accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission (though copyright restricts the territories in which they’re available:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer



Gerry Smith

Together Through Life: first impressions

An evening with Together Through Life was a pleasant experience: better than expected, not as strong as secretly hoped.

First impressions:

* musically engaging – urban blues and Tex-Mex styles more suited to Dylan than the easy crooning and plodding rockabilly of the previous two albums.

* lyrically - worth careful scrutiny, though words seem a trifle lightweight on a superficial hearing.

* the De Luxe package is intriguing: extra content a mixed blessing - already have TTRH show on tape, doubtful will ever listen to CD; DVD a hoot, presumably intentionally; bits of paper not destined for the bedroom wall or the car windscreen. Another beautifully designed artefact – for the third studio album in a row.

Dylan’s USP, to me, is poet, philosopher and musician, in that order. This CD’s songs, though more immediately attractive than those on the two previous albums, are probably destined to be cherry-picked for a revised “recent songs” compilation, few if any of whose constituents would make my Top 100 Bobsongs.

That said, I usually revise my opinions upwards after getting to know a new Dylan album.

What do YOU think of Together Through Life?



Gerry Smith

Dylan in London last night: energized, committed, triumphant

Last night’s show in the London O2 Arena was an unexpected triumph.

Dylan was in overdrive from the very first bar of Maggie’s Farm to the closing note of Blowin’ In The Wind. His performance was as energized and committed as any of the shows I’ve seen since 1978 (and my mother has seen since 1965!)

The set opened like a freight train and rarely lost momentum. The setlist (below) was well chosen, with only half the songs repeats of the previous night’s gig.

Highlights – there were many – included Hollis Brown and Workingman’s Blues. The few longueurs, notably Spirit On The Water, were lounge-rhythm songs from the last two albums – they sound better on the hi-fi than on stage.

I’ve rarely heard Dylan sing so well – confident, expressive, assertive, his voice seems to have re-found the strength of 20 years ago.

The sound was first class from my seat, in the gods one too many mornings away from the stage. Dylan was commendably up in the mix. It was a relief to hear the music so clearly, as the jokey intro “… Colombian recording artist…” had sounded muddy, boomy.

I’d gone to the gig with trepidation, not only because of the embarrassing lack of public transport (some jobsworth wag had decided to close the Jubilee Line, the only serious transport link to distant central London, for the day), but also from a fear that Bobby might be getting past it.

The fears were groundless – Bob’s voice, his playing of keyboard and harmonica and his general energy levels were a revelation.

There’s years of the Might Zim left yet. Bob’s still the Man! Why did anyone ever doubt it?


SETLIST:
1. Maggie's Farm
2. The Times They Are A-Changin'
3. Things Have Changed
4. Chimes Of Freedom
5. Rollin' And Tumblin'
6. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
7. 'Til I Fell In Love With You
8. Workingman's Blues #2
9. Highway 61 Revisited
10. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
11. Po' Boy
12. Honest With Me
13. When The Deal Goes Down
14. Thunder On The Mountain
15. Like A Rolling Stone
16. All Along The Watchtower
17. Spirit On The Water
18. Blowin' In The Wind



Gerry Smith

Tell Tale Signs for £3; audio samples of new CD tracks online

Thanks to Peter Wright:

"Fopp in Manchester has Tell Tale Signs CD single edition for only £3."

(Fopp is a small chain owned by HMV; presumably the other half dozen stores in the Fopp chain are also discounting the CD - worth checking if you pass one! Gerry Smith)


And thanks to Martin Cowan:

"Curious Dylan Daily readers can hear 30-second snippets of every track on the new Dylan album on Amazon."

www.amazon.co.uk

Reviews ignoring co-authorship of new album

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“I've seen four or five reviews of the new LP, all of which follow pretty much the same template, and I do wonder about these reviews because not one of them has mentioned that almost all the songs are co-writes.

“There is much mention of Dylan's lyrics, yet as we know the lyrics on the new LP are not solely Dylan's, but also co-writer Robert Hunter's.”

Dylan in Florence on Saturday

Thanks to Gerald Bamford for phoning his report of Saturday’s Florence gig:

SETLIST:

1. Maggie's Farm
2. Mr. Tambourine Man
3. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
4. Man In The Long Black Coat
5. Rollin' And Tumblin'
6. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
7. 'Til I Fell In Love With You
8. Workingman's Blues #2
9. Highway 61 Revisited
10. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
11. Po' Boy
12. Summer Days
13. Return To Me
14. Thunder On The Mountain
15. Like A Rolling Stone
(encore)
16. All Along The Watchtower
17. Spirit On The Water
18. Blowin' In The Wind


IMPRESSIONS:

* Ballad Of Hollis Brown, featuring acoustic guitar and banjo, was knock-out.

* Other highlights: The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll and Workingman's Blues #2.

* Return To Me, an old Dean Martin song, was delivered partly in Italian, drawing the night’s strongest applause.

* I was seated to the side in a 6,000 crowd, in a cavernous venue, not really in the thick of it. The sound was muddy, clumpy, bassy to start with, but improved.

The Very Best Of Bob Dylan ‘60s/‘70s: why?

Have you seen Sony Legacy’s new Playlist series, covering about 50 artists?

It’s a puzzling product range.

The Very Best Of Bob Dylan ‘60s, released just before last Xmas, was followed last month by The Very Best Of Bob Dylan ‘70s.

They’re decent compilations – let’s face it, it would be hard to foul up a 14-track selection from the greatest living songwriter. But, given the availability of so many other official Sony Dylan compilations, you have to question the logic.

At least they’re better intros to the artist than the Playlist devoted to Dylan’s contemporary, Van Morrison. Sony only have access to the interminably reissued Bang sessions – ie the pop material recorded before Morrison found his true voice with his masterpiece, Astral Weeks.

Sony Legacy’s Playlist series: why?



Gerry Smith