Tag Archives: Bob Dylan
Blonde on Blonde at 50
A quick Google search finds Blonde on Blonde on most every top rock albums shortlist and it always places high in rankings of Dylan’s best. I take Highway 61 Revisited over Blonde, but Blonde is probably in any Dylanologist’s top three. Blonde‘s epic poetics in songs like “Visions of Johanna” and “Sad-Eyed Lady of the [...]
Looking for Richard
This spring we mark 50 years since we lost Richard Fariña in a tragic motorcycle accident on April 30, 1966. The author of this great article at The Guardian assumes most readers will be familiar with Fariña as a literary figure who wrote the novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me [...]
Dylan (Re)Discovered
One of the most interesting things about Bob Dylan is how many Bobs Dylan there have been: folk-Guthrie-Dylan, folk-Jack-Elliot-Dylan, Dylan Thomas-Dylan, Rimbaud-Dylan, St. August…Dylan, Bobby Cash…Dylan has evolved through more musical influences and personas than anyone other than Bowie. One of the only artists that comes to mind when discussing Dylan is Picasso — nobody [...]
Kill Me A Son
Here’s a great documentary from the BBC’s Arena program. “Tales of Rock ‘N’ Roll – Highway 61 Revisited” maps-out the iconic American highway while illuminating Bob Dylan’s rock masterpiece which turns 50 this year. Critics often hear Blonde On Blonde as Dylan’s greatest, but I’d pick this one over that one. See for yourself… Stay [...]
Dylan, Electrified
50 years ago, Bob Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home. Side two of the album featured the acoustic sound that most of the singer/songwriter’s fans may have expected — Dylan’s previous release, Another Side of Bob Dylan, found the artist abandoning the topical subjects that marked his earlier releases in favor of increasingly hypnotic [...]
Who is Tom Wilson?
I’m fascinated by the career of lesser-known music producer Tom Wilson. One reason Wilson is so fascinating is the fact that he played a central role in the development of crucial musical movements of the 1960′s, but even today’s most informed music maniacs offer only blank stares at the mention of his name. That’s why [...]
Leonard Cohen’s Heroes
My last post about Leonard Cohen’s early recordings has me excited to curate this conversation about someone we all seem to care so much about. Leonard’s not everyone’s bag and it’s really wonderful to see so many folks interested in the man’s complex, felt lyricism. Not sure if I can find more unique documents to [...]
Basement Tapes Surface
While the Dylan-osphere continues to reverberate with revelations from his former road manager’s new book, a quick search for “Bob Dylan” tonight didn’t yield one post about his just announced next release in his Bootleg Series of unheard recordings. Why is that a big deal? Because the box set that’s coming out in November is [...]
Basement Band
45 years ago, in 1969, The Band released their classic sophmore album and changed rock ‘n’ roll forever. But, how did a group of nearly-all Canadians seem to absorb the entire history of American music from folk, to blues, to country to jazz and recreate it in their own inimitable way? While the band received [...]
Dylan & Bloomfield
In 1965 Bob Dylan released Bringing it all Back Home — the record’s first side featuring the folk music hero playing with an electric band. In July of that same year, Dylan played the Newport Folk Festival and made history when he took to the hallowed stage with the fully amplified Paul Butterfield Blues Band [...]
