Dylan

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the
key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D"
train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane
Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall
How can I explain?
Oh, it's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze
I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for
him
Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and
say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says
"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"
As she, herself, prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and smells like veneer

I didn't know where to put this and this fucker certainly doesn't deserve his own thread but Zantzinger, don't RIP:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/us/10zantzinger.html?ref=obituaries

A lowlife to the end:

In 1991, The Maryland Independent disclosed that Mr. Zantzinger had been collecting rent from black families living in shanties that he no longer owned; Charles County, Md., had foreclosed on them for unpaid taxes. The shanties lacked running water, toilets or outhouses. Not only had Mr. Zantzinger collected rent for properties he did not own, he also went to court to demand past-due rent, and won.

He pleaded guilty to 50 misdemeanor counts of deceptive trade practices, paid $62,000 in penalties and, under an 18-month sentence, spent only nights in jail.

is Visions of Johanna seriously about having a hard on and wanting to wank in a room full of sleeping/fornicating people? damn

who knows?

Heylin

we were one JBR xpost away from the greatest first response ever

This is amusing: https://www.spin.com/2018/10/bob-dylan-lyrics-drawings-review/

he he it is indeed

Great interview with Larry Campbell about what it was like to tour/play with Dylan. As mentioned in the interview, the Larry Campbell/Charlie Sexton band (first with Kemper on drums, then Receli) is often considered the best band Dylan had on the NET, and I would agree.

https://dylanlive.substack.com/p/larry-campbell-goes-deep-on-his-eight

Thanks for posting this. I've been listening to a lot of 'Love and Theft' tour bootlegs lately. Such a great band. The Warren Zevon covers were so good.

No idea where to put this:

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG by BOB DYLAN coming 11/8/22

60+ essays
150+ photos
350+ pages

the man is simply unstoppable pic.twitter.com/0sheWWgsQd

— Jokermen (@JokermenPodcast) March 8, 2022

I can't wait to read it. Loved "Chronicles Vol 1".

Wow!

The man in me will hide sometimes to keep from being seen
But that’s just because he doesn’t want to turn into some machine 😀

a most reasonable explanation

Splendid song & track---also the Persuasions cover---and an appealing alibi, but not for Self-Portrait, which is like a cut-rate greeting card designed by a bot.

(Thinking of that since New Morning was his return to cred after S-P)

Audiobook has an interesting selection of readers.

saw him live (for the umpteenth time) recently

setlist almost same every night, heavy on the rough & rowdy material (alas, no murder most foul)

key west was great

but really, who am I kidding, he is just the weirdest legacy live act I've ever seen, it's never really bad, but always just so weeeird... money rolling in, tour goes on forever, just the weirdness of it all, maybe this time emphasized by beeing in a big arena, and people were just applauding, happy... seem to recall people used to disappointed, which was practical, I could be enthusiastic and exegetical, now they just love it

anyway, roll on Bob

After visiting the Lou Reed exhibit at the NYPL, I checked out Light in the Attic's preview of the upcoming release of 1965 demos, and this one for "Men of Good Fortune" stuck out - it has NO relation to the song that later appeared on the 1973 album Berlin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLNnlYYhz2M

It's basically a rewrite of Dylan's "Song to Woody," which itself is a rewrite of Guthrie's song "1913 Massacre." (The same demo tape has Reed covering "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.") It's a nice glimpse of a great artist finding his voice, absorbing one influence (in this case Dylan) and virtually mimicking that influence before finding a new path.

xp my MO with Bob shows is to just steadily lower my expectations for the weeks leading up to the show, so I'm usually pleasantly surprised with what actually transpires musically. That said, I haven't seen him in a decade or more, so no idea if that would be different.

I'm surprised how great his most recent shows have been. I almost gave up on going to anymore after the Americanarama tour. Probably a combination of three things: 1) phrasing improved after the per-rock standards project, 2) stopped changing the setlist, which meant the band was very familiar with the material and were sharper and more precise as a result (downside - if you went to multiple shows, you got the same songs over and over again), 3) on the current tour, he had the lyrics laid out for him (at least for the first leg), so instead of trying to remember, he could read them, and honest to God, he hasn't enunciated this well since the '70s. It's pretty amazing.

*pre-rock standards

yeah good points

and that men of good fortune take is hilarious!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/books/bob-dylan-book-excerpt.html

The title of Bob Dylan’s latest book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” is, in a sense, misleading. A collection of brief essays on 65 songs (and one poem), it is less a rigorous study of craft than a series of rhapsodic observations on what gives great songs their power to fascinate us.

Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, worked on these for more than a decade, though they flow more like extemporaneous sermons. The chapter on Johnnie Taylor’s “Cheaper to Keep Her,” for example, is mainly an indictment of the lawyers whose profiteering of heartbreak drives the divorce “industry.”

Elsewhere, Dylan writes in oracular riddles. His one-paragraph piece on “Long Tall Sally,” by Little Richard, likens Sally to the Nephilim giants of the Old Testament, and postulates Richard as “a giant of a different kind” who took a diminutive stage name “so as not to scare anybody.”

About half the essays in the book — his first collection of new writing since “Chronicles: Volume One,” in 2004 — are accompanied by what Dylan’s publisher calls “riffs”: even shorter, even looser pieces, in which Dylan attempts to embody the spirit — the philosophy? — of the song itself. On “Poor Little Fool,” by Ricky Nelson: “She sized you up, she was captivating and shrewd and lousy with lies. Oh yeah, you were an absolute blockhead beyond a doubt.”

Dylan on "My Generation" by The Who via that NY Times article

This is a song that does no favors for anyone, and casts doubt on everything.

In this song, people are trying to slap you around, slap you in the face, vilify you. They’re rude and they slam you down, take cheap shots. They don’t like you because you pull out all the stops and go for broke. You put your heart and soul into everything and shoot the works, because you got energy and strength and purpose. Because you’re so inspired they put the whammy on, they’re allergic to you, and they have hard feelings. Just your very presence repels them. They give you frosty looks and they’ve had enough of you, and there’s a million others just like you, multiplying every day.

You’re in an exclusive club, and you’re advertising yourself. You’re blabbing about your age group, of which you’re a high-ranking member. You can’t conceal your conceit, and you’re snobbish and snooty about it. You’re not trying to drop any big bombshell or cause a scandal, you’re just waving a flag, and you don’t want anyone to comprehend what you’re saying or embrace it, or even try to take it all in. You’re looking down your nose at society and you have no use for it. You’re hoping to croak before senility sets in. You don’t want to be ancient and decrepit, no thank you. I’ll kick the bucket before that happens. You’re looking at the world mortified by the hopelessness of it all.

In reality, you’re an eighty-year-old man, being wheeled around in a home for the elderly, and the nurses are getting on your nerves. You say why don’t you all just fade away. You’re in your second childhood, can’t get a word out without stumbling and dribbling. You haven’t any aspirations to live in a fool’s paradise, you’re not looking forward to that, and you’ve got your fingers crossed that you don’t. Knock on wood. You’ll give up the ghost first.

You’re talking about your generation, sermonizing, giving a discourse.

Straight talk, eyeball to eyeball.

enjoyed that will probably read the book

Dylan on "My Generation" by The Who via that NY Times article

Is that actually Dylan's excerpt? I was confused at first, but it looks like that is actually Ben Sisario channeling Dylan's style. The actual excerpt from the book comes later, in italics, and is read by Oscar Isaac.

They’re both by Dylan. The part in italics is a “riff” on the song; the article points out that many of the essays are accompanied by these additional “riffs.”

Also, Dylan OTM. I’d be interested to hear Townshend’s reaction/response.

Because Dylan is really known for his riffs

Has Bob really been irritated by this song for nearly 60 years?

Ah now it makes sense, thanks! xxp

Didn't realize this:

https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/the-psychedelic-furs-tim-butler-david-bowie-pretty-in-pink-2808731

NME's Q: Which Bob Dylan song did you reject when he sent it to you for inclusion on the Psychedelic Furs 1984 album ‘Mirror Moves’?
Tim Butler's answer: “Clean Cut Kid.”

CORRECT.

“It had about 15 verses – it was a long song! (Laughs) He sent it to us because his son Jakob was a fan back then and said: ‘Hey, Dad, these guys are cool’. Richard still has the cassette of it, and it was a huge deal because our father was a big Bob Dylan fan and would buy his records on the day they came out and we’d all sit round and listen to them. He was a massive influence on Richard and I, so to have a song that was written by him sent to us was a great pat on the back.”

From a new interview with John Mellencamp by the NY Times:

Mellencamp: I’m going to quote Bob Dylan to you. Bob and I were painting together one day, and I asked him how he wrote so many great songs. In all seriousness, he said, “John, I’ve written the same four (expletive) songs a million times.” I’m going to get in line with Bob on that. It’s always the same song, just more mature or with a different angle.

Haha, that's perfect

Surprise set at Farm Aid, backed by Tom Petty's Heartbreakers! And he's switched back to guitar for the first time in many years!

https://vimeo.com/867585062

so awesome. i’d been watching the Farm Aid livestream for a while & the way i YELLED when he appeared

and with the goddamn Heartbreakers!

best surprise

I love that his most stunning move to play a set of songs everyone knows with a band everyone loves. This is great!

I love this. I have tickets to the Chicago show. But i really think this might leg of the Never Ending tour

*might be the last leg of the Never Ending Tour

I hope I'm wrong obviously.

Funny that one of the first things I see on here after having the first disc of Blonde on Blonde on for the first time in ages is a thread started in reference to one of its songs.

I'm not getting the image of the guy who builds a fire on main street and fills it full of holes. Unless it is a call for better gun control or something.

& I thought for a moment I was just about to read that Bob had died.

The book was quite fun and a quick read though I to still need to listen to a lot of it. Though think I was already somewhat familiar with a load of those tracks

“Absolutely Sweet Marie” came on in the car yesterday and I cranked it up, the way it just careens along, it’s like the band are riding flat out alongside each other and grinning.

Not strictly necessary o course, but v. fun:
Jason and the Scorchers, "Absolutely Sweet Marie" (original studio version, haven't checked the live ones yet)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKqQJuJqN6Q

Dylan is playing new songs every night (usually two) and they are covers with some relation to the city he's in. He opened the tour in Kansas City and played Wilbert Harrison's standard "Kansas City." In St. Louis, he bookended his show with two Chuck Berry covers ("Johnny B. Goode" and "Nadine"). And last night in Chicago, it was "Born in Chicago" (probably in tribute to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band as it was the opening track of their debut and Dylan famously recorded and performed at Newport with its members) as well as "Forty Days and Forty Night" by Muddy Waters.

Saw him tonight. No surprise covers unfortunately. But I loved the new version of Key West that he did. He closed with Every Grain of Sand and it was one of the best live versions I’ve ever heard.

i will be seeing Dylan in Springfield, Mass in a couple weeks and I will be satisfied with nothing less than a medley of musical numbers from The Simpsons

He covered Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me To the End of Love" in Cohen's hometown of Montreal the other night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAVmw94Zds

Picked up the new book from the archive yesterday, Bob Dylan: Mixing up the Medicine, and based on a quick flip through it looks like a great trove of stuff I haven't seen before. Enjoyed the Lucy Sante piece from it that Dow linked in another thread.

Glad you liked it: https://lithub.com/how-bob-dylan-blurred-the-boundaries-between-literature-and-popular-music/ ("Not my title!" LS sez)

Last night's show at the Beacon Theater opened with a verse from Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind." Then towards the end of the show, after introducing his band, Dylan said, “Jann Wenner is here tonight. He was kicked out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We don’t like that. We’re trying to get him back in.” Yeeesh.

Next month is 50th anniversary of the 1974 tour. I’m completely unfamiliar with this era—is Before the Flood the best document of the tour, or is there an individual show/bootleg compliation that’s better?

My short answer would be that it’s the best available and best sounding representation we have.

Long answer:

The tour was more interesting at the start because the setlist wasn’t set in stone and had a number of surprises. The first show above all had the most (and welcome) surprises, opening with “Hero Blues,” unveiling a few more songs from Planet Waves (nearly everything from that album was eventually dropped from the tour after a few weeks), the great lost outtake “Nobody ‘Cept You” (one of my favorites) and for the only time of the tour, Dylan plays on a Band number, playing harmonica on their great cover of “Share Your Love with Me.” If I could have one show in pristine sound, it would be that tour opening show - I hope a soundboard recording was made but I have my doubts one exists anywhere. That’s the problem with the early shows - they may be more interesting, but they mostly exist as audience recordings and can be rough listening. A soundboard or PA feed was recorded on January 14 but by then the setlist was becoming much more standardized with much fewer surprises. However Dylan’s singing wasn’t quite as mannered as it would be in the final two weeks when he was shouting more and more with less nuance in his phrasing. Unfortunately those later shows are the only ones that were professionally recorded. The upshot is that the Band played better as the tour went on and come off great on the final two shows performed on Valentine’s Day - selections from those shows dominate the official live album. Frustratingly, the final show had the tour’s only performance of “Mr. Tambourine Man” which was dedicated to Sara (her favorite song) but it was not included on the official live album.

“Professionally recorded” meaning multi-track recordings

Thanks! I’ll check out Before the Flood and the opening show—I’ve heard enough Dead AUD tapes that maybe I won’t mind so much.

i'm blanking on where I read this, but i want to say there are more multitracks of the 1974 shows in the dylan archives ... maybe i dreamt it. some of the soundboards are decent (oakland, NYC). will be interesting if they do anything to commemorate the 50th anniversary — with Robertson's recent passing, seems like a good time?

it's really too bad there isn't a concert doc of this tour, though — I feel like the energy would suit itself to that format ...

However Dylan’s singing wasn’t quite as mannered as it would be in the final two weeks when he was shouting more and more with less nuance in his phrasing.

yeah, as loved as Before the Flood is - I can't really stand Dylan in that mode, such a waste

even Levon gets a bit shouty on some of the Band things, but that said I've always loved Dixie here

The shoutiness totally works for me, Dylan's and Levon's. I prefer several versions here to the originals, even: for inst, the original "Don't Think Twice" sounds fussy faux-hillbily compared to the reggae-oid "someone to give his ha!-ha!" heartiness on the electric set, while the solo acoustic has him flashing back (or experiencing a Blood On The Tracks-related?) mixed-up confusion, like, what just happened? What did she do? Should he even be leaving, and anyway where is he going? But he's going alright, and "Don't think twice it's alrieeet---" Also the jittery raspy proto-rap of "It's Alright Ma." which Lester Bangs compared to Paul Newman in Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill Among The Indians, Or, Sitting Bull's History Lesson: the return of the battered Americana hero "in full scraggle." One of the great arena rock albums of the 70s, esp. by older guys, in there with Rock N Roll Animal(although I've played BTF a lot more than that) and Van Morrison's It's Too Late To Stop Now (almost too sensitive at times to qualify for "arena," but the overall effect of the 2-LP is v. powerful.) I know we all hear what we hear, but gotta say that.

Sure, would love to hear a 50th Anniversary expansion, with or without audience tapes, esp. of songs not on Before..: whatever, bring it on.

your enthusiasm makes me want to revisit this, and I'm down for an official release of more tapes

I've had a good bootleg recording of October 17, 1987 for years - Dylan's backed by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and IIRC the 1987 tour is held in higher regard than their 1986 tour together.

This show is supposed to be the highlight, and amazingly TWO different amateur videos exist of the concert, both from very different angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXbDllRrT5k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pja9JSWE0Fk

Should mention, Roger McGuinn makes a guest appearance for "Chimes of Freedom" during the encore, then later George Harrison pops in for a guest appearance.

(Should also mention the sound on the camera close to the stage is abysmal.)

Awhile back there was a discussion on Dylan's heavy drinking during the '80s and I think I was trying to remember where it was well documented. I just stumbled on this paragraph from Clinton Heylin's bio:

By 1987, his drinking had again begun to get the better of him and when Kurt Loder arrived in Jerusalem on September 7 to interview him for a special twentieth-anniversary issue of Rolling Stone, he proceeded to sit through the interview drinking Kamikazes like they were Kool-Aid. Two days after he predicted tomorrow might be his dying day, an almost totally incoherent Dylan fell out of his chair after a hotel piano jam had found him hamming it up on ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ and ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco.’ He was consuming up to four Kamikazes or, later on the tour, Kahlúa, cream, and cognac, before each show. That he could even stand some nights qualified as some kind of achievement. Journalists at the shows couldn’t resist commenting on his shuffling demeanor, referring to his new image as the death-mask look.

Hey, Kamikazes! Those used to be my pleasure, er, downfall

Reminds me of a scene in a Tony Tyler book where an intoxicated Dylan, backstage in '66, pours so much cream or sugar into his coffee that it overflows onto the floor.

Random Internet story: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4JiGvzOY6P/

Incredible arrangement! What a fey trickster, he's clearly having a ball with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZB7QJjqmL0

I love Bob.

Just stumbled on a very handy site dedicated to lyric changes Dylan has made whenever he re-interprets a song. There are already a few sites that extensively document those changes, but this one allows you to toggle back and forth easily between lyrics, bolding the sections that are different:

https://dylyricus.com

What do we think of “jokerman?”

I fucking LOVE it. On paper it should fail miserably, in practice it is one of his best songs from the decade. Who's gonna argue with the rhythm section, for one?

Punk version is great, too.

love jokerman

caetano version rules imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syaoz-wLy_Y

The Bob Dylan Center's Director Steven Jenkins is presenting Dylan-related films again in NYC, and I went to the free presentation at the New School, but there's another tonight (Thursday) in Pleasantville at the Jacob Burns Center and another in Brooklyn at Nitehawk Cinema near Prospect Park. These screenings aren't free, you need to buy tickets to either event, but the Nitehawk screening will also have Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo moderating the post-screening discussion. (Also, regardless of which one you go to, you'll be entered in a free raffle for two complimentary round-trip plane tickets to Tulsa—redeemable within one year on American Airlines or Delta—and a tour of the Bob Dylan Center.)

Anyway, a lot of what was shown at the free screening looked familiar and was likely circulating in some form, but there are some new discoveries and I know for a fact the Jacob Burns Center will screen at least one different clip. A quick rundown:

The first clip is the real find but brief. It's a clip of Dylan’s first film soundtrack contribution, before his first album even came out! The late Tony Glover apparently discussed it when they interviewed him in the '90s for the project that evolved into No Direction Home, and it happens during the train ride interview seen briefly in that film. They took the relevant portion and use it to frame the relevant footage they found from that rediscovered film - a documentary put together by a Catholic group in response to HUAC (which they were very much against). Produced in 1961, it was called Autopsy on Operation Abolition. Unfortunately, Dylan's music is mixed into the background, so much that an interview subject dominates the audio, but it still has historical value. (I'm guessing the 20-minute raw recording Glover mentions is still lost. He says he remembers it well because it was the first time he saw magnetic tape, which in this case was mag-track complete with sprocket holes, the kind of tape you'd use for a motion picture.)

Next clip was a solo rendition of “Ballad of Hollis Brown” from the 1963 TV special Folk Songs and More Folk Songs. Great performance, they even cut to some extraordinary close-ups of Dylan - it's just startling to see him looking this young yet seeming very old at the same time, and despite the fact that it's vintage TV footage, the quality is really good. (Not to oversell it, it's not like you're looking at 35mm footage, but it still looks really good.)

After that, it's a clip shot by D A Pennebaker of the 1966 tour, a performance of "Baby Let Me Follow You Down." I forgot which show it was (they have a title card that indicates when and where) but it's amazing to watch. It's one angle, one complete and unbroken take, shot from stage right. When Dylan sings, it's a close-up on him, but when he backs away during an instrumental break, no matter how brief it is, Pennebaker zooms out so you can see Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson before zooming back in when Dylan sings again. Robbie and Garth looked incredibly young on this tour, especially without facial hair. I don't think I've ever seen Hudson without a thick beard after the 1966 tour.

Next was “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” from the Hard Rain footage from 1976. Joan Baez is there playing maracas and singing in the same mic as Dylan. Rob Stoner is prominently shown too. Not much of the other band members though. You do get a close-up of the pianist - can't tell if it was T-Bone Burnett or Howard Wyeth as I don't know how either looked in 1976 and they appeared too briefly for me to remember the face well. Fun almost jokey stop-start arrangement that seemed real "showbiz" - each of the stops was basically like a fake ending. In some way, this kind of makes the next tour - the bizarre one from 1978 - seem less of a surprise.

However, the next clip skips to 1981 where Dylan and his new band performs "Blowin' in the Wind" at one of the Florida shows, and it's another single, unbroken take, but this time the cameraman walks around the entire stage, almost simulating a tracking shot as best as they can with a handheld camera. Starts off with Clydie King, Regina McCrary and Madelyn Quebec wearing what may be choir gowns, then it circles around Dylan at the piano, then we see Jim Keltner appear, then another drummer, Arthur Rosato, and eventually Al Kooper who sounds magnificent playing a simple solo. The cameraman keeps moving and we see the rest of the band, and then Dylan hops down, grabs his guitar and finishes the song. The place (which looks like a small arena but per Bjorner is supposed to be a theater) is packed and the crowd is very enthusiastic - people in front are raising their hands like it's a revival.

Next clip is from one of the 1986 Australian shows for Hard to Handle, and a card tells us it was, at the time, the biggest multi-camera 35mm shoot in Australia's history. The Center is currently scanning ALL of the 35mm footage still in existence from those shows - I don't know if that implies some footage is lost, but afterwards they kind of suggested that they had a ton of footage they're scanning, so they still have plenty regardless. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers as well as The Queens Of Rhythm (Debra Byrd, Queen Esther Marrow, Madelyn Quebec, Elisecia Wright) back Dylan, and they kind of make the performance because by now (and this applies to the 1981 clip too) Dylan's singing has kind of gone downhill, turning into the kind of thing comedians would exaggerate when spoofing Dylan.

But the next clip from 1993 is much better. It's the Supper Club performance of "Ring Them Bells" which was officially released, first on a CD-ROM then in audio form on Tell Tale Signs. It's a great clip and maybe the definitive performance of a great song. (The master take from Oh Mercy was already a perfect performance, so that's saying something.) Too bad the whole video hasn't been released, but the audio for all four Supper Club shows are out there in top-notch quality. Tonight's program at the Jacob Burns Center will feature "Tight Connection to My Heart" from these shows.

Next is the performance of "Train of Love" that was taped for a tribute to Johnny Cash. Home recordings of the broadcast special are on YouTube, but what's nice about this clip is that it's the original video so you're not seeing a screening of it in an auditorium or hearing people applause. Dylan's official Facebook page uploaded the same raw video a few years ago so it's not rare. This is also one unbroken take from one camera, and you see Larry Campbell, David Kemper and Tony Garnier, no one else from Dylan's band (if there's anyone else that was playing).

Next is "Cold Irons Bound" as it was filmed for Masked and Anonymous, also one unbroken take from one camera. Dylan's best band outside of the Hawks, though Kemper is now replaced by George Receli, a recent new addition when they filmed this performance. This is a very common clip - the audio was on the soundtrack, but the footage was put on promo DVD's, it's in the film itself, it was one of the first clips uploaded to YouTube and elsewhere whenever Dylan's camp would upload video to some new platform for the first time...IMHO it's still THE definitive performance of this song, and I even replaced the original album version with it whenever I listen to Time Out of Mind. I'm certain Dylan loves this clip, and not just because of the performance - Jenkins said when they filmed this clip, Dylan basically directed it. He set up the camera and the blocking then told Larry Charles THIS was the setup and not to touch anything - just roll camera and Dylan would start things off. Debate the film all you want, but for at least this particular scene, Dylan did a great job directing.

Next was a tribute to Tony Bennett, again one-camera, one unbroken take, with Dylan and the band performing "Once Upon a Time." I'm not a huge fan of this era but Charlie Sexton does a marvelous job here as he would on tour whenever Dylan did these songs. This was also broadcast so it's not rare.

The last thing they show was anticlimactic but worth seeing. Advertised as "a glimpse into the Archive’s film restoration project with never-before-seen footage of 'It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue' from 1966," it really is a glimpse. The restoration demonstration is pretty good - frustratingly they don't go into technical details (how was the original transfer of Pennebaker's 1966 footage "incorrect" per their words?) but you see the results. I don't want to say it's just "brighter" because that would imply they simply pushed everything in the lab, and it's not like they simply boosted the footage, otherwise the highlights would blow out. They manage to pull a lot more detail in the darker areas that originally fell off really fast, so while overall it does look about a stop brighter, it's as if you're seeing a much wider dynamic range and all this stuff that was sinking in the shadows is now clearly visible. (Sort of like the difference between seeing a show with your own eyes and looking at a video of it afterwards - your own vision adjusts all the exposure so everything's visible, but that's not how it shows up in the video.) At the very end of the demo, they show "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and it looks great, but we only get like 20 or 30 seconds before they fade out.

The Q&A afterwards was okay, but I don't remember it too well because it seemed to cover things I've already seen stated by the Center many times. A lot of Dylan-related people were apparently there that night, including Terri Thal, Dylan's first manager, and Mitch Blank, the famed Dylan collector. (Plus some other names that Jenkins pointed out, I think people who did some technical work for them or put together things like video for the exhibits at the Center, but I can't remember their names.)

One hilarious revelation - Clinton Heylin was at the Center for ten weeks to do research, and whatever he did outside of the Center really pissed off some of the locals because there are places in Tulsa where he's been permanently banned.

What do we think of “jokerman?”

― calstars, Saturday, August 24, 2024 2:53 PM

top ten Dylan -- one of the songs I play to non-fans to show how well Dylan can stress and throw away key syllables.

xp bitw thank you - fascinating account!

yeah, that is all very interesting! even with the No Direction Home film, it does seem like the 66 Pennebaker footage should be put together in some kind of cohesive package. it's just such great stuff — every time I see clips, I can't believe it exists.

that blowin in the wind 1981 clip went around at some point, it really is sublime.

in ray padgett's newsletter there was a recent/interesting interview with the filmmaker who shot the supper club shows, some discussion about why Dylan wasn't into releasing them ...

here are the unheard dylan tapes I want to be sitting in some box in Tulsa: "I did some sessions once with Don Cherry and Billy Higgins. I really don't know what happened to that stuff."

You're welcome! And I was actually wondering the other day why Dylan never tried working with full-on jazz musicians. If it happened now, I imagine it would be pretty conservative given his recent standards albums, but I don't think it would be too much of a stretch if it was an ace combo like Jason Moran, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Bill Frisell.

I saw that interview with Michael Borofsky! He even talks about the train interview with Glover since he filmed it - the moderator at the New School program mentioned that some people in the audience chuckled because they recognized some of the sights outside of the window, which apparently gave away which train line they were taking. (It's the one that follows the Hudson River.)

yeah he did a couple songs with wynton marsalis about a decade ago (or longer?) that ... were pretty good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwE_zj8Y0X0

not exactly don cherry / billy higgins in the early 60s good ... but yeah, something like "Murder Most Foul" feels almost like it could go in a minimal modern jazz direction. almost surprising he hasn't done anything with frisell.

Stylistically Wynton Marsalis makes sense though it's interesting to see the differences in the way they both revisit the past (even the same pre-WWII eras). They've had a great deal of success in doing so - Dylan's modern-day resurgence comes directly out of it, and Marsalis has made himself synonymous with that approach - but Marsalis has been called a reactionary for adhering to a doctrinal philosophy whereas Dylan is very much a restless apostate.

But Marsalis has taken his old school stance into more of a good-humored, songster, Compleat Entertainer vein sometimes, like on his albums with Willie Nelson---I especially like their "tribute" to Ray Charles, which covers RC songs but for instance with some horns that sound more like Cab Calloway Orchestra soundtracking one of those bizarrely imaginative Fleischer Brothers cartoons in the 1930s---though also with relaxed vocals from Willie and Wynton (cool blue breezes of Norah-no-longer-Snorah Jones passing through sometimes).So I think WM and BD might go together well.
I saw Hard Rain in '76, on ABC, I think. Really fun, and the versions of "Oh Sister" and "Shelter From The Storn "uptempo, with slide guitar hook! Just follow that dream, boy), at least the ones on the HR LP, which is not all the same performances as the TV doc, top the originals, I think.
Don't remember a lot of particulars about the doc, but seems like it would be worth an official release, streaming license, something (as we were saying about other possible releases over on the Masked and Anonymous thread).

And speaking of Frisell, he's been on some strong Lucinda albums, and she's with him and the rest of Charles Lloyd & The Marvels on several Vanished Gardens---also their live "Masters of War, " which I hope suggests further possibilities to Mr. D.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgVFLdwIRPU

Several Vanished Gardens tracks, that is.

Very true re: Marsalis. I don't follow him that closely, but I get the impression he's far less dogmatic than he was before, and collaborating with rock, pop and country stars is probably a reflection of that.

Frisell's pretty amazing - he just did a three week run at the Village Vanguard playing with three different combos. I was only able to catch one, but it's really impressive how he fits himself into any given context.

Man are there a lot of Dylan threads.

I was doing some belated research into Post Malone, who I know next to nothing about, and came across this old quote of his:

" ... when I wanna sit down and cry, I sit down and I listen to Bob Dylan and his guitar. Just like everyone else, no matter how hard you are, no matter where you're from, you're gonna have times where you sit back and reflect on your life and you listen to what you wanna listen to. For me, that's Bob Dylan."

I don't doubt the guy's honesty, I'm sure Dylan looms large for him. But I was struck by the idea of putting on *Dylan* when you wanna sit down and cry because if I wanted to sit down and cry, Dylan might be the *last* songwriter I reach for. There are a couple of sad Dylan songs, I suppose, but little that would come close to making me weepy, at least few (or none?) that I can think of. Dramatic Dylan, sure. Funny. Clever. Profound, sometimes. But tearjerker? I dunno. Am I forgetting some obvious candidates?

There are Dylan songs that have made me cry (Sad Eyed Lady, Sign Language, Covenant Woman, What Can I Do for You, Pressing On, Mississippi, a bunch of the co-writes from Lost on the River) but none are from his solo guitar days. I could see some of the songs that didn't make The Times They are a-Changin' doing the trick. Pretty deep vein of sadness there.

yes? xpost

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall is the most obvious example

“Standing in the doorway”

If You See Her Say Hello
Sara

Bucket Of Rain

Forever Young is a weeper for me now, it reminds me of my dog

I'll be the only one to say "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts".

I understand why someone would say this, because Dylan wears a lot of masks and operates at a lot of remove sometimes. But I put Dylan on all the time when I'm feeling emo. Some Dylan songs that make me want to cry:

Restless Farewell
One Too Many Mornings
Let Me Die in My Footsteps
Seven Curses
Every Grain of Sand
Love Henry
Pretty Saro
This Evening So Soon
Mr. Tambourine Man
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

More often when I am feeling emo and want Dylan, I put on The Complete Basement Tapes. The humor and laid back casual profundity help me weather the storm.

Tambourine Man, good call. And the Basement Tapes as medicine music, yes.

Strap yourself to a tree with roots and all that.

. . . the majority of Blood on the Tracks

A lot of good answers here!

I think you could argue he'd still have been a major songwriter even if he never released anything but his love songs.

More often when I am feeling emo and want Dylan, I put on The Complete Basement Tapes. The humor and laid back casual profundity help me weather the storm.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Tuesday, December 3, 2024 3:52 PM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i love this. the humor on that recording is so absurd and delicious.

if you don't feel a certain way listening to You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go ... don't know what to tell you

i mean ... Ballad in Plain D ? what is this business about no tearjerkers in the solo guitar era

A lot of people here don't like that one. I get it, Dylan is pretty mopey, but that last couplet is so ridiculous I love it.

It's like if Dylan wrote a Twilight novel.

I think you could argue he'd still have been a major songwriter even if he never released anything but his love songs.

Yes -- you ever give Lost on the River attention, Halfway? I know Costello / Giddens / Goldsmith / James / Mumford doesn't *sound* like it'd make for an inspired album, but most of the most beautiful love songs Dylan wrote are on that record, and the C-G-G-J-M band did a stellar job with them.

...sorry, "did a stellar job" is dumb. Let's be more precise: Costello kept his guard up but contributed pretty good stuff regardless; Giddens was new to both Dylan and songwriting, and vulnerable and curious; and Goldsmith, James, and Mumford transcended themselves and became, for a moment, Dylan's equals. I spent a couple years paying close attention to all three, hoping I'd find more in their catalogues to explain what happened on Lost on the River, but no, it seems collaborating with a 26-year-old Dylan allowed for a unique, and temporary, level-up...

How have I never heard of this Lost on the River?? You say it’s good, eh? Will have to give a listen

It's been in my Bob Dylan top five since it came out in 2014; even though Dylan doesn't play on it.

It got buried in an avalanche of "ugggh, who do these assholes think they are, recording new versions of lyrics from the Basement Tapes era? They will never ever be as good as Dylan & The Band, so why are they trying."

This was unfair because, one, they *didn't* try to call up the sprit of Big Pink at all, it's more like New Morning meets Desire -- seriously beautiful (T-Bone Burnett produced, at Bob's request). And two, because although the lyrics were from '67 or thereabouts they *weren't* Basement Tapes outtakes. They were a whole different writing session, probably from when Dylan was laid up in hospital after the motorcycle crash, which is why he never set them to music -- by the time he was back on his feet, he was writing new and different songs (the Basement Tapes stuff). They're as different stylistically from the Basement Tapes as John Wesley Harding. But just as ageless.

I think the reviews in the usual music mags were good, and I remember three or four people on the Expecting Rain forums who actually listened a few times and said "hold on, guys, this is awesome," but nobody cared.

Dylan himself likes the record too, by the way.

Also: if anyone's going to give Lost on the River a listen, make sure it's the 20-track version.

If You See Her Say Hello
Visions of Johanna
Sara
Simple Twist of Fate

are my emo crying go tos

re-reading bird's excellent xpost on Dylan footage, incl. his fave "Cold Irons Bound," reminds me of a strong version on this live comp, which I think was on Sony Japan only, though I bought it at Coconuts, so not too elusive---it does incl. a number of things from earlier albs, then OOP, and maybe still (that live various artists Woody G, trib has some more very electric Dylan & The Band, like "I Ain't Got No Home" like pre-Sex Pistols at their best, also "Dear Mrs. Roooooosevelt," and worthy performances by other performers)--from the most helpful The Band-related archive I know of:

"...Bob Dylan Live 1961-2000 is a phenomenal collection of 16 live tracks bringing together nearly 4 decades of great concert performances by one of the greatest singer/songwriters of the last 40 years. Featuring many 'rare' and previously 'unreleased' tracks Bob Dylan Live is the definitive performance album and will appeal to fans and collectors alike..."

This limited edition album, released in Japan in March 2001, contains previously unreleased live recordings (tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 15 and 16) and tracks that have never been released on a Bob Dylan album (tracks 6, 8, 10, 13 and 14.) Track 6 is from a compilation that is no longer in print, track 8 is from a promo only album, track 10 is the "B" side of a cassette single and tracks 13 and 14 were released on EP only.

The Hawks/Band are present on tracks 5, 6 and 7, from 1966, 1968 and 1974, respectively.

Tracks
Somebody Touched Me
9/24/2000 (Portsmouth, England)
Wade In The Water
12/22/1961 (Minneapolis)
Handsome Molly
1962 (Gaslight tapes)
To Ramona
1965 (Outtake from the film Don't Look Back)
I Don't Believe You
5/17/1966 (Free Trade Hall, Manchester, released on the album, Live 1966)
Grand Coulee Dam
1968 (from Woody Guthrie Tribute Album)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
1/30/1974 (Madison Square Garden NY from Before the Flood)
It Ain't Me Babe
1975 (from Renaldo & Clara)
Shelter From The Storm
1976 (from HARD RAIN)
Dead Man, Dead Man
1981 (New Orleans)
Slow Train
1987 (from Dylan & the Dead)
Dignity
1994 (from Unplugged)
Cold Irons Bound
12/16/1997 (El Ray Theatre, Los Angeles)
Born In Time
2/1/1998 (New Jersey Center, New Jersey)
Country Pie
2000 (Portsmouth, England)
Things Have Changed
2000 (Portsmouth, England)
Bob Dylan - Live 1961-2000- 2001 - Sony SRCS2438

(there was also a promo-only EP floating around, consisting of "Cold Irons Bound" and others from this album.)

So what's with him recording a song for the Reagan biopic?

Hmm:

Dylan's cover of "Don't Fence Me In" was a welcome addition to a star-studded soundtrack that included a cover of the 1930s song "Stormy Weather," performed by Gene Simmons of KISS, and country music star Clint Black covered John Denver's "Country Roads," according to Spin.com.

Maybe Bob is friends with Dennis Quaid

Sara is another weeper for sure

Out of curiosity, I checked out the two ILM "songs that make you cry" threads, and Dylan does make a few appearances (maybe even the first post?). I'm genuinely glad I prompted the discussion, because aside from a song or two Dylan just never struck me that way. But there are definitely a few pretty ones that, even though they don't make me weepy, I do find affecting and/or sentimental, like "If You See Her, Say Hello" or "I Threw It All Away" or "Every Grain of Sand;" for sure "Forever Young" I've heard at plenty a wedding, graduation, etc. In a lot of cases I think my affection stems from cover versions that have meant something to me, tbh, like Yo La Tengo's "Threw It All ..." or Emmylou Harris' "Every Grain of Sand." I guess I just don't really listen to Dylan for tearjerkers, or certainly can't imagine putting him on while I cry over a pint of beer. But I *can* see him as particularly suited to intense solitary listening, which in turn I can also see sparking those feelings. Context. Which I suppose is true for a lot of songs that make you cry.

"Every Grain of Sand" is top ten.

...sorry, "did a stellar job" is dumb. Let's be more precise: Costello kept his guard up but contributed pretty good stuff regardless; Giddens was new to both Dylan and songwriting, and vulnerable and curious; and Goldsmith, James, and Mumford transcended themselves and became, for a moment, Dylan's equals. I spent a couple years paying close attention to all three, hoping I'd find more in their catalogues to explain what happened on Lost on the River, but no, it seems collaborating with a 26-year-old Dylan allowed for a unique, and temporary, level-up...

― TheNuNuNu, Tuesday, December 3, 2024 5:00 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm far from a dylan head but you sold me on this enough to check it out. it's nice!

xps thanks Dow! I recently bought that comp off Discogs for peanuts. I remember when it was an expensive import back in the day but I guess that's changed thanks to the deflation of the CD market and the enormous redundancy created by so many archival releases since then.

Going back to Josh's post, I would also single out the outtake "He Was a Friend of Mine" from the debut, the second album's hurt and bitter "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (memorably used to close season 1 of Mad Men even though the record didn't actually exist yet) and "Boots of Spanish Leather" from the third album as well as the outtake "Percy's Song."

Dylan's always recorded heartbreaking songs, but with Post Malone's comments in mind, I would go with the original NY version of Blood on the Tracks, and it would be the original mixes, complete with desolate-sounding reverb. Under the right circumstances, for me there's nothing better, and even though Greil Marcus and Robert Christgau have argued vehemently against it in favor of the half re-recorded version that replaced it, both of them aren't fans of Nick Drake either, and I would argue what makes the NY version all the more powerful can be found in the similarly-produced (or not-produced) sound of Pink Moon.

And "Every Grain of Sand" is indeed one of Dylan's best, absolutely beautiful. Truth be told, I've always had mixed feelings about the evangelical period, and the Christian right's recent rise to power thanks to Trump has only increased whatever distaste I have in many of the songs from that era. But there are a handful of gems that break out from the pack, and "Every Grain" is my favorite out of all of them.

And I too have no idea what Dylan was thinking when he recorded that song for the Reagan biopic. Maybe it was a favor?

Speaking of biopics, I'm surprised to see Paul Schrader lavish praise on A Complete Unknown. The trailer looks terrible to me and I was not a fan of James Mangold's Johnny Cash biopic. I'll probably wait to sample the movie via streaming, but I can't see sitting through 2+ hours of it. Nothing against the actors, I actually like them all, but Chalamet doesn't seem convincing as Dylan (it's funny how close his performance seems to be to Heath Ledger/Robbie Clark as Bob Dylan/Jack Rollins) and I could say the same for the rest, but that's typical of a lot of biopics, especially I Walk the Line. One of the things I love about I'm Not There is how it doesn't try to impersonate or compete with real life, it knowingly presents us with theoretical representations of everyone.

"Every Grain of Sand" is a song that changed for me when I heard Dylan sing it in concert a couple of years ago, and so I have two equal and separate understandings of the song, both of which I find very moving. I don't know if I'll be able to get it into words but here goes.

To me, there's a deeply unpeaceful, agonized quality about the song as Dylan first performed it; it reminds me a lot of the Terrible Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins, esp. the one that ends "the lost are like this, and their scourge to be/ as I am mine, their sweating selves, but worse." There's a sense of intense loneliness, and of grasping for comfort in the most meager of reassurances: that it must somehow be worse not to believe; that if God knows every leaf and every sparrow he must also know you. And so, while it's never made me want to cry, I do find that ending deeply painful. When he sings, "I am hanging in the balance," I hear someone who doesn't want to be hanging in the balance, who wants to be safe and secure in his faith, and who is clinging to it as he starts to feel it deserting him.

And then I heard him sing it on the last tour, and it had taken on a quality of age, and reflection, and peace. And it felt to me like it was now a song about accepting not knowing, about living with both of those parts of himself at once: the side that has faith and the side that does not. And that last verse was now about old age to me: the singer standing on the shore, knowing that he is nearing the end, not knowing just what is coming, but taking comfort in the knowledge that this uncertainty is something he shares with everyone and everything that has ever existed.

I'm sorry, that's cheesy as hell, I couldn't get it into words that weren't. Dylan has never made me cry, but thinking about Dylan as an old man singing "Every Grain of Sand" kind of makes me want to.

beautiful, lily <3
thx for sharing

great post!!!!

i forgot til just now that “Murder Most Foul” made me fully weep the night it released

i was so fucking miserable from quarantine shutdown & i was so overwhelmed by the fact that Zimmy still had something like this in the chamber, thinking “by what miracle do we still get to have him??” yknow & i just lost it. i bawled my eyes out

*actually maybe it wasn’t quite full shutdown but def in a bad freaked-out headspace nonetheless

xps That was a very beautiful post Lily.

I can never remember the title (which one of the “dream” songs it is) but my never fails Dylan cry song is the one that goes
I dreamed a dream
That made me sad
Concerning myself
And the first few friends I had

My top Dylan tearjerker is “Tomorrow is a long time”

Once after a tough breakup, organ stabs with Dylan croaking “I’m love sick” would appear in my head every 30 min or so

He's not someone known particularly for sad songs, but there is something about Dylan's voice that can get to me, on too many tracks to name.

xp The version of Greatest Hits Vol. II is wrenching. (From his famous Town Hall concert from April 12, 1963, all of which circulates.) He's done several good-to-great recordings of it, but that's still my favorite one.

Yeah it took me a while to realize that was not a widely heard song. Greatest hits vol 2, side 2 was what made me fall in love with Dylan.

I get the sense that the vol 2 I was raised on wasn’t the original? The one with the acoustic version of I shall be released is what I always knew

I love this version of Tomorow is a Long Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXz0gyUh0O4

xp That's kind of a complicated answer because following common practices in the folk world, Dylan published that song and let a lot of people perform and record it before he ever put it out on one of his own albums. Besides Dylan's own shows, Joan Baez performed it at hers, and soon Ian and Sylvia released a version on one of their albums in 1963. Within a year or two, Judy Collins, Odetta and many others released their own versions, but the big one IMHO was Elvis Presley's, recorded and released in 1966. No surprise that Dylan was familiar with it - he was always a big Elvis fan - and it's one of Elvis's best recordings in the vast wasteland between the Elvis Is Back! sessions in 1960 and his legendary comeback in 1968.

After that, Rod Stewart recorded an excellent version for Every Picture Tells a Story, and given how massively popular Stewart was (particularly that album), I think that was enough to get Dylan to include the Town Hall recording on Greatest Hits Vol. II, which was released almost six months after Stewart's album.

But Dylan also recorded a demo for Witmark in 1962 that's really good, more for the guitar work than the vocal (which is solid, but also a bit perfunctory compared to his singing on the live recording). He also revisited the song in 1970 during the New Morning sessions, giving it a tongue-in-cheek arrangement that's pretty entertaining in its own right. Both were widely bootlegged and officially released decades later, but I think Dylan made the right call to release the Town Hall version first - if there was any version that could compete with Elvis's or Rod's as the definitive version, it was the Town Hall recording.

Beyond that, Sandy Denny also released a great version in 1972 and Nick Drake made a home recording that wouldn't see release for decades. Chrissie Hynde also recorded an excellent version during lockdown. I could go on - there are likely dozens of great covers out there!

"Tomorrow Is A Long Time" is so good. Always seems to bring out the best in him whenever he plays it.

the 1987 versions w/ Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell are sweet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCRnD8DJVxM

Tench: For small talk, I said, "What do you want to do for a slow song?" He said, "Do you know, ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Let's do that, just you and me and maybe Mike." When the time came, he started playing “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” with just me and Mike. It was Gothenburg, Sweden, and it was 20,000 people. We had never played it with him before, or with each other. It was transcendent. It was transcendent.

The New York Times: "A correction was made on Dec. 14, 2024: Because of an editing error an earlier version of a picture caption with this article misidentified the role played by Edward Norton. It is Pete Seeger, not Bob Seger."

Dylan went electric after hearing “Old Time Rock n” Roll.” True story.

Against the Mighty Wind

https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/fred-tackett-talks-three-years-playing

In this interview Fred Tackett says that Bob would play Night Moves in tour rehearsals

With Chalamet dressing like Dylan eras on his publicity tour, there was talk online yesterday about his 2002 Newport Folk Festival wig and hat, which led me to listen to the actual show. Enjoying it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ7qlhzzOLw

hi thread, I just bought a cheap vinyl copy of Infidels, geez what a lineup! never heard it before, will report back.

With Chalamet dressing like Dylan eras on his publicity tour, there was talk online yesterday about his 2002 Newport Folk Festival wig and hat, which led me to listen to the actual show. Enjoying it.

I was there. Took forever for Dylan to take the stage. They played that warmup music at one point and then turned it off, and we all waited for at least 20 minutes. There was a big cruise ship at anchor in Newport Harbor right behind the crowd, which the band would have been looking at. The ship finally pulled anchor and started moving up the river. As soon as it passed behind the stage and out of view, Dylan came on. I'm convinced to this day that he demanded the ship leave his line of vision before he performed.

speaking of Dylan love songs, Maria Muldaur's got a good collection---my only complaint is that it's not weird enough---but for instance she did provide my special first time with "Golden Loooom":
http://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nIyJ4izZM6kbZb5BrQJcZdEtoPvam9AUc

but then we already had Marianne Faithfull's "Visions of Johanna":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpzSObamHo

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0da3dac6-c68b-4ae8-b2c0-8398d96eb385_3000x3000.jpeg?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
If image goes away, it's for

A Complete Unknown: A Listening Companion from Smithsonian Folkways
Written & Curated by Elijah Wald

Bukka White – Fixin’ to Die

Mance Lipscomb – Corrine, Corrina

The Carter Family – John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man

Jean Ritchie – Lord Randall

Bascom Lamar Lunsford – Mole in the Ground

Sonny Terry – Lost John

Woody Guthrie – Mean Talking Blues

Blind Lemon Jefferson – See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry – We Shall Be Free
Audrey Coppard – Scarborough Fair

Big Joe Williams – Baby, Please Don’t Go

Lightnin’ Hopkins – Mojo Hand

Jesse Fuller – Crazy About a Woman

Harvey Andrews – The Patriot Game

The Bently Boys – Down on Penny’s Farm

Pete Seeger – Wimoweh

Mike Seeger – Man of Constant Sorrow

Eric Von Schmidt – He Was a Friend of Mine

Dave Van Ronk – Wining Boy

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You

Pete Seeger – Wasn’t that a Time

Woody Guthrie – 1913 Massacre

Bob Dylan (Blind Boy Grunt) – Only a Hobo

*New World Singers – Blowin’ In the Wind

The Freedom Singers – We Shall Overcome

Phil Ochs – Ballad of William Worthy

Len Chandler – Father’s Grave

Peter La Farge – Ira Hayes

Bob Dylan (Blind Boy Grunt) – Train A-Travelin'

Nina Simone – Mississippi Goddamn

Dave Van Ronk – Buckets of Rain

*New World Singers had first release of this, according to Wald.

Taking up the "Dylan songs that make you cry" conversation from a couple months ago: yesterday I was listening to "Tempest" and found myself unexpectedly tearing up at the lines

The watchman he lay dreaming/ the damage had been done/ he dreamed the Titanic was sinking/ and he tried to tell someone

It's odd because when the album first came out I thought of that song as a kind of elaborate joke on the idea of a disaster song, and to some degree I still do, and yet that line always gets at something beyond the song for me and hits me hard.

I imagine anyone who cares is already hip to this; but for the past six weeks or so, Dylan himself (presumably) has been sharing an eclectic selection of videos via his Instagram account… concert clips, scenes from old movies, etc. (Bob stuff, basically). The fan comments can be fun, too

Second volume of Chronicles is apparently coming. Various signs are popping up around the web, but in terms of a live human being confirming it, there's Sean Penn in this podcast conversation:

But, you know, this whole thing about like the best actors in the world, and although it's like I was saying earlier, I think I'm seeing the or who do I consider a peer? I'm seeing performances of some young actors where I feel like I should quit and become an accountant. They're so good, you know, and...

Go on, who? Chalamet?

I haven't seen that movie yet.

Which one? There's so many.

Oh, I actually haven't seen his movies yet.

The Dylan one?

No, I haven't seen it yet.

You're speaking as the voice of Bob Dylan because you read his audio book, didn't you?

Yeah, I think I'm about to do the second one actually.

What is it? Has he got a new one out?

Yeah, Chronicles 2.

Have you read it?

No, I wait until I record it.

Really?

Yeah. I like this.

It's such a good book, right? The first one. I loved it.

I think it's terrific. I read it.

I didn't listen to you. Maybe I should listen to your version.

Well, you already know the material, so I think you move on.

Great news!

will read, loved the first one, I think it conjures the same vibe as the Scorsese movie in terms of "not quite true"

Bob Dylan covered “Rainy Night in SoHo” by @poguesofficial tonight and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard: pic.twitter.com/UvPf2shEXX

— Michael Glover Smith (@whitecitycinema) May 14, 2025

such a great song

I kind of hope Chronicles 2 covers the same ground as the first book, but provides contradictory takes on all of it. Would be very Dylan.

Contents:

-Behind the scenes of the "Duquesne Whistle" video
-Impressions of Japan from the '78 tour
-the whole story about Hearts of Fire
-Chronicle of the train ride down to Nashville for JWH
-70 Pages about his guest shot on Dharma & Greg

damn just seeing this, super excited for chronicles 2. sleeve otm about truthiness being the appropriate aspiration for documenting dylan. also lol at sean penn on chalamet

the book's emotional/thematic climax = meeting w/Chumlee on Pawn Stars

Some great video of his cover of "Garden Party" too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvDGGCyQwiI

Tony Garnier beaming the whole time, and Dylan is totally enjoying himself - throws in an ad-lib, actually laughs and smiles on one of the final lyrics...hilarious when there's two Dylan references in the songs (one re: George Harrison aka "Mr. Hughes" being at the height of his Dylan fandom and also Nelson's own hit cover of "She Belongs to Me")

Saw him last night outside Sacramento, my first time seeing him play. Good band, good tunes, Dylan's voice mostly darting around mischievously, although I was surprised at how nimble he could be with it when he wanted to weave between notes. Was great to hear Watchtower and Don't Think Twice, both pretty upbeat. Saw Willie Nelson for a half-dozen songs too, amazing he's still doing it at 92.

What instrument is Tony playing in that video?

Looks like a guitar or else some kind of baritone guitar/tic-tac bass

Oh, maybe he does have a Fender VI.

In just the first two shows of his summer tour, Bob Dylan has sung six songs he hasn't performed in over 5 years:

• Mr. Tambourine Man (1st time in 15 years!)
• Forgetful Heart
• To Ramona
• Lonesome Day Blues
• Blind Willie McTell
• Don't Think Twice

Not only that but…

he's covered 6 songs he never has before:

• Rainy Night in Soho (Pogues)
• Garden Party (Rick Nelson)
• Route 66
* Axe And The Wind (Willie Dixon)
• I'll Make It All Up To You (Charlie Rich)
• Share Your Love with Me (Bobby Bland)

Slight asterix on the last one bc he played harmonica on it once in 74 while The Band performed it, which I don't really count

Ray Padgett Bluesky posts

xp yeah it’s a VI

xp that Bluesky post is what got me to the show! I read it on Saturday night and wondered if Dylan was coming by soon ... hey he's playing California tomorrow ... where the hell is Wheatland ... oh, it's only a couple hours away ...

Heard a clip of the Blind Willie revival on YT. Bob and his band really sounding pretty great.

Back in 2021 or so I got knee-deep into a Neverending Tour obsession before getting sidetracked, but one of these years I'm bound to dive in the deep end and listen to nothing but Dylan bootlegs for years straight.

Bob Dylan & his band perform „Gotta Serve Somebody“ at the Outlaw Music Festival in Nampa, ID (May 20, 2025)

🎥: https://t.co/Al7O4CA60R.time (Insta)#bobdylan #dailydylan #outlawmusicfestival #outlawtourdiary pic.twitter.com/6SMZP8uzpS

— Daily Dylan (@the_daily_dylan) May 21, 2025

I like the high wire act of the band all watching Bob to figure out how he wants the song to go.

Today’s Bob IG post is the Shangri-Las performing Out in the Streets (on “Shindig!”) <3

This is a really great installment of Ray Padgett's blog because it's another example of someone who gives real insight into Dylan as a person, to the point where it demystifies a lot of nonsense.

https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/guitarist-ira-ingber-recalls-1980s

And here's the second half of the same interview with Ingber:

https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/inside-bob-dylans-shadow-kingdom

yeah, once again, just weirdly fascinating. Shadow Kingdom was such an odd concept (and it seems even odder after reading those interviews), but it's good! That soundtrack has some really great/unique performances.

There's a great article now with one of the musicians who "played" on the video--really excellent stuff.

https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/inside-bob-dylans-shadow-kingdom-10a

Has anyone told you about his assistant? He had a guy who looked like a cowboy. Jeans, cowboy boots, white shirt. He sounded like he was from the South. Every day before filming, he would come up and be like, “I got a friend coming. You might recognize him, you might not, but there’s a few rules. You can’t talk about the past, how much you love any of his art that you might know about, and you can’t talk about the future, what he’s planning on doing. You can only talk about the present. Nothing about the present is off limits, but you’re not allowed to talk about the past or the future.”

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYWI1NjE3YjUtY2Q0NC00Y2JhLTljODYtYTMxMTMxZWEyZGQ1XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UX388_.jpg

wow thx for sharing! what a crazy experience. funny how it seems to him like it felt like a dream, but even the piece itself READS like a dream. Zimmy, man.

I asked Google AI, "Does Bob Dylan have a new book coming out in 2025 or 2026?"
Answer:

Yes, Bob Dylan has a new book coming out in 2025. It's titled "
Point Blank (Quick Studies)" and is a collection of his black-and-white drawings created between 2021 and 2022. It is set to be released by Simon & Schuster on November 18, 2025.
In addition, an unabridged audiobook version of his 2004 memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One", narrated by actor Sean Penn, is also set to be released on November 18, 2025

Speaking of Chronicles, I think that's where he mentioned going to the New York Public Library in early 60s, reading olde newspapers, and he probably noticed how they used to print "poetry" etc., incl. about the Titanic, even before it sank (if it didn't, still readers would see that the bard was on top of it). Sounds like Dylan was aware; I agree with Lily Dale about "Tempest" seeming like something of a takeoff on disaster songs; also he mentions DiCaprio etc.
Great sing-along tune, which he acknowledged lifting from The Carter Family, and it sounds Irish in origin, speaking of the xpost Pogues---but imagine singing along to this whole "epic" thing: seems like something in a Pynchon novel (not the first time he's rung that bell, and of course they're in the same age group, there was the Farina connection etc.)

Bob Dylan & his band perform „Gotta Serve Somebody“ at the Outlaw Music Festival in Nampa, ID (May 20, 2025)

🎥: https://t.co/Al7O4CA60R.time (Insta)#bobdylan #dailydylan #outlawmusicfestival #outlawtourdiary pic.twitter.com/6SMZP8uzpS
— Daily Dylan (@the_daily_dylan) May 21, 2025
― the way out of (Eazy), Thursday, 22 May 2025 09:47 (two months ago)

So that was 2 months and 2 weeks ago, yet here it is again at Jones Beach last night, in a whole new arrangement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXZCRQ4VZzs

so good

And this was another highlight, a version of "All Along the Watchtower" which Rob Sheffield described as a Pretzel Logic arrangement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N014-e1YYM0

From Ray Padgett's Never Ending Tour diary, the free part:

Flagging Down the Double E's

Notes from night two of my Outlaw weekend! Plus videos and a tape.

After some sloppy moments in Saratoga Springs, Dylan was on in Gilford last night. The six-song stretch from “All Along the Watchtower” through “Blind Willie McTell” was one of the strongest chunks vocally I’ve seen in a few years. “Desolation Row” especially was perhaps the best I’ve ever seen it sung in person. “Blind Willie” was just as good, with him almost whispering the lyrics. It was so powerful I forgot to applaud after. I was just sitting there.

I joked in yesterday’s dispatch that I kept writing the word “jaunty” in my notebook (and it turns out I wasn’t the only one! We should rename this Jaunty Tour 2025). Last night the word that popped up a couple times was “bite.” He bit into the lyrics for “I Can Tell,” really making a meal of them and riffing at the end “no no no no no!” Ditto an equally biting “Love Sick,” propelled by Anton Fig’s theatrical drumming.

The centerpiece of this set to me is the “All Along the Watchtower” / “Til I Fell in Love with You” combo. “Watchtower” benefits from the wonderful new arrangement, and Bob leans into the vocals, extending the final word of each verse (“hoooooowl,” etc). Then “Til I Fell,” as I mentioned yesterday, has that wonderfully strange backing, the band members making ambient noises behind Bob. I got some video of it last night:

That blog has gotten so much attention (and rightfully so), I'm kind of bracing for the day when it all goes behind a paywall.

Letterman's YouTube channel posted this four days ago - a 1997 Billy Joel interview where he recalls asking Dylan how he remembers all of his words (as well as a surreal encounter involving Dylan and his Billy Joel-loving daughter).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUY-mkPeDCo

Thanks!Remember when Dylan and Liberace were on Letterman? Think it was Rolling Stone came up with a pic of the three of them at Letterman's desk during rehearsal (Letterman with big grin, big glasses, big t-shirt, big pants). Reportedly Dyl asked Lee for autograph, "for my kids." Was that the time BD sang "Don't You Start Me Talkin'?" A guy who claimed to have played with him on that show popped up on one of these threads.

Hahah, yes! That was the first song they played, and I think they didn't even rehearse it - Flagging Down the Double E's has a great interview with the bassist on that whole experience.

The Ira Ingber who gave the interview upthread about working with Dylan (and has an aunt by marriage who is related to Dylan) is the brother of Eliot Ingber, who worked with Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

Saw the Outlaw tour last night at Merriweather Post Pavilion between dc and Baltimore. Tour features Willie Nelson, Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Waxahatchee, and Madeline Edwards.

Dylan did a 17 song set like his set in Philadelphia a day or a few before. No talking to the audience before songs or between songs or after. When I had seen him a few years back at the Anthem in DC his piano was positioned in a way that from the balcony level I could look down and see him play. Last night though at this big huge venue he had the piano with the big main part pointing straight out to the crowd and he on keys right in front of the drums. The stage was largely dark except for some lights on the piano . Temperature was warm but starting to get a bit colder out. All just about anyone could see of Dylan was a winter hood of a coat over a head bent down over the keys hidden between the bright lights on the piano. Oh, the 17 songs mostly sounded good- I like the 4 covers- Bo Diddley, George Butler, Charlie Rich, Bobby Bland. I didn’t like arrangements of All Along the Watchtower or Highway 61 but I knew that was what I would get. His rasp had range at times. The band helped convey his bluesy lounge Americana roots sound well. After he closed with “Don’t Think Twice” he stood up did a quick bow , raised his arms over his head like a boxing champ and strolled off .

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bob-dylan/2025/merriweather-post-pavilion-columbia-md-4b5adf52.html

Sounds like the same setlist he played at the New Jersey show I almost saw Saturday night.

After he closed with “Don’t Think Twice” he stood up did a quick bow , raised his arms over his head like a boxing champ and strolled off .

lol

I would be pretty happy with both Desolation Row and Blind Willie McTell.

Desolation Row sounded good despite a slightly different arrangement. "Blind Wille McTell" also strong. Dylan's voice had a bit of range and changes in emotional tone and band was strong but you just couldn't see him back there on the piano and except for standing up once to talk in a guitarist's ear, he wasn't visible to crowd until the 17 songs were done. He also never said a word to crowd.

I've never really heard him talk much at any of the shows I've seen.

I saw him on Saturday at PNC and it was the same as everyone's describing. Not sure if this was a particular lighting quirk of the venue but because of the way those lights in front of his piano were placed, it was basically impossible for anyone to actually see his face. (And yeah, he was wearing a hoodie too.) This sent many of the older folks in front of me scrambling to ID if it was really him...using their cameras at max zoom to take pixelly images of his silhouette, googling images of "Bob Dylan" to determine which figure was him up there. In some ways it felt comically appropriate for him but I did feel a little bad for the folks who were likely hoping to hear any song they knew in any recognizable form.

If the sets had been reversed and Willie had played before him, I'd wager half the audience would have walked out. For me, it was my first time seeing him and I think I had appropriately open expectations...it was cool to hear him so radically rework things but it did drag a bit.

I was at PNC too.

Bob and the band sounded great but I couldn't see his face either. And we had pretty good seats.

I know it's Bob and he does what he wants, and smartphone cameras drive him nuts. But it feels like part of the social contract that if you sell tickets to a live performance, the audience gets to actually see you perform.

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I've heard so many bootlegs and watched so many videos, I'm not entirely sure which songs I've actually seen him perform aside from a handful that really stood out or because he does them very often.

Dylan’s camp doesn’t fuck around. Not only did they identify the person who runs Daily Dylan, they kicked them out before a show and said he was banned as a “unwelcome person,” presumably for sharing concert footage when there’s been a no phone/recording policy.

*they were banned

His Farm Aid '25 set, in HD---faves are "To Ramona," which makes me think of primo Stampfel and Pogues (something about the cadences), and "Don't Think Twice," kinda Shadow Kingdom, plus lovely interplay of voice and piano---whole set works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBOe5K

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBOe5KbKgcY

Also, who the hell is Samuel Smith? His "I Can Tell: totally works here (listening on headphones, multiple times in a row, noticing more each time)

"To Ramona" now trippin' om "Winterlude"

these are worth checking out if you haven't already! https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/the-outlaw-soundboards

re: daily dylan ... kind of lame to single out that one account — maybe just an overzealous venue security team?

Yeah those ALD recordings are fantastic. And Dylan's performances are so good. He sounds rejuvenated, energized by... something. I mean, he's 83 now. Incredible.

I think I somehow made it through the looking glass and back in that I used to cherish these audience and soundboard recordings and now I listen and think people are grasping at straws

same for the concerts tbh, last time I saw him was 2022 and did not feel like seeing him again when the rough and rowdy tour came by recently

anyway, I may come round again some time in the future

I was lucky enough to see him a bunch post Time Out of Mind through 2005 or so, but the last time I saw him I fell asleep and thought, nah, I think I'm done. I've heard good things and bad things about his shows the past 20 (!) years. Sometimes the band is great, sometimes the band is blah. Sometimes Dylan is engaged, sometimes Dylan is sort of checked out. Sometimes he hides behind a keyboard he isn't playing, sometimes he hides behind a guitar he isn't playing. Sometimes he dusts off some seldom played (these days) tunes, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes you can even tell what song he is singing. But by and large the bar has been dropped pretty low, tbh. On the other hand, he is the only Dylan we'll have ever have, which also automatically makes him the best, and whenever anyone asks me if they should see him I ask them, well, do you want to ever see Bob Dylan? Because there's no one else.

Another straw:

Bob Dylan 2025 14th November Leeds Beginning Middle End Sampler
A Woolhall Original
This is a rough edit of a 6 mins sample , the full show will be edited & redubbed in the coming weeks and released in 4k only here on ‪@woolhall‬
Please Subscribe for free as to not miss any further releases
inc 3 x Swansea !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6t6u35JfxY

Bob Dylan — Dublin, Ireland. November 25, 2025. Full Rough and Rowdy Ways Show. nm recording

705 views Premiered 20 hours ago DUBLIN
Bob Dylan and his band. This is the first time I have posted the full recording. I have posted the lossless audio files over on the Dublin post at nightlymoth.substack.com. More recordings /notes and films to be posted in the coming days.

Thank you Bob Dylan and his band, Tony Garnier, Bob Britt, Doug Lancio, and Anton Fig.

Best wishes,
nightly moth.

Ending with a cover of The Pogues' "A Rainy Night in Soho."

That It Ain't Me Babe is wonderful, especially the little jam in the middle.

More of that good Nightly Moth sound quality in Kilarney, band's pretty sweet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xOGJDXUZWE

"Killarney," that is, sorry!

this is still so funny to me

https://www.spin.com/2018/10/bob-dylan-lyrics-drawings-review/

“Stadows” is my all-time favorite Dylanism.

The Larry Charles story about he and Dylan writing and pitching a pilot for HBO for a slapstick comedy starring Dylan has so many little weird Dylanisms. My wife and I sometimes say to each other when ordering coffee, "I want a hot beverage" in mock-Dylan voice.

Charles also reporting that when Dylan was asked by someone why he went electric, he would respond, "why did you go electric?"

xp “It’s too slapstick-y” is fun to say in a Dylan voice.

nice gesture with rainy night in soho, what a song

Ha-ha, wow! Halfway through Stephen Hyden on The Rough And Rowdy Tour, and it's already one of the best Dylan pieces evah---"an 18-minute read," and now Ashely Monroe's Tennessee Lightning is rising out of the background to command my attenntion so will finish later (one thing: based om YouTubed shows, seems like the setlist, though it doesn't vary much, is inherently flexible/vibey/spacey enough that I [unlike Hyden and Padgett] don't feel the need to zoom in on minute differences---on the other hand, I haven't seen it nearly as many times as Hyden or Padgett [whom the author says has been to the stage well 21 times, RARW Tour-wise) https://www.theringer.com/2025/12/12/music/the-rough-and-rowdy-way-of-life

Second volume of Chronicles is apparently coming. Various signs are popping up around the web, but in terms of a live human being confirming it, there's Sean Penn in this podcast conversation:

You're speaking as the voice of Bob Dylan because you read his audio book, didn't you?

Yeah, I think I'm about to do the second one actually.

What is it? Has he got a new one out?

Yeah, Chronicles 2.

I think Penn misspoke because Dylan's camp just realized an excerpt from the newly-recorded....Chronicles Vol. I. The UNABRIDGED version. (Penn had previously recorded the ABRIDGED version when the audiobook version first came out.)

*released (not realized)

A good “Man in the Long Black Coat” starting the tour. Love that he’s hitting the smaller cities: La Crosse to Rockford to Waukegan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM5-Q6k0LM

If you have a few bucks for a good cause: https://pitchfork.com/news/bob-dylan-launched-a-patreon-for-some-reason/

Late last night, I saw The Twilight Zone's "Come Wander With Me," and was struck by the somewhat spectral, somewhat sensible young singer of a suitably intriguing folkoid song, the kind that sounds traditional, with words that prove increasingly relevant to the present situation: turned out to be Bonnie Beecher, of the Minneapolis Party Tape---backstory here, by son of the teen recordist: https://www.salon.com/2019/05/08/my-father-recorded-bob-dylan-at-19-how-the-historic-minneapolis-party-tape-was-made/

Beecher is married to Wavy Gravy.

Wonder if the Bil Golfus involved in the recording is Billy Golfus, Minneapolis radio DJ who made the documentary When Billy Broke His Head, documenting his life after suffering a traumatic brain injury when his Vespa scooter was rear-ended by a car.

(and Beecher was originally Boettcher. Curt Boettcher was also at the University of Minnesota, where he started the GoldeBriars, before moving to LA)

OMG, are they related? Was wondering---wiki cited her orig name, but didn't mention him.

Curious, but couldn't find anything on limited digging

Either way, I can imagine them working together---dig Michelle's cosmically professional Saturn Rings, produced by frequent colleague CB:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHETecO9sjw

A US appeals court on Friday declared a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling to be unconstitutional. (Still illegal to sell, but not for personal use and consumption.)

Brought to mind my favorite track from Self Portrait, which I now prefer in its original unadorned form:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Oo32gIydM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpuCOTxTiFI

I’m taking guitar lessons and that’s the first song I’m learning to play. Been listening to it a lot slowed down and it sounds like Ween. Who do a good version of “Mountain Dew.”

One of my favorite Big Bopper originals. His version is good too.

Was wondering how many more shows Julian Lage was going to do with Dylan. Lage is scheduled to play at the Stone next Thursday, July 2. (Smokey Hormel is playing the following night. Both shows are duos with bassist Greg Cohen.) The Stone hasn't changed the schedule, and Dylan's got a show the same night in Oklahoma, but assuming Lage keeps the Stone gig, maybe three more shows? (Hopefully he'll get some numbers where he can stretch out a bit.)

Ah, he's actually got quite a few gigs coming up. (The Stone's not listed, but if he keeps the Town Hall gig on Monday, I guess tomorrow night would be the last show?

Man, I had no idea. I love Lage's playing, I'll have to check out a few videos to hear how he fits in.

He's a nice addition, but he'll sound reigned in compared to his own shows - as much as Dylan likes to shake up the arrangements to his songs, his guitarists are usually limited to a handful of solos. I remember when he used to let them loose for at least one number, like "Honey Pie" or "Summer Days" - I honestly can't remember if he did that at the last few shows I saw, but I do remember him letting Charlie Sexton play some exquisite but brief solos on the "Sinatra" numbers I saw in the late 2010s.

Still got Lage, apparently, but two other long-time guitarists are gone---this brief report has links and show vid:
https://stereogum.com/2503777/bob-dylan-mysteriously-splits-with-two-tour-guitarists/news
Here's hoping he gets Jeff Parker in there;that could work (prob listening to the Flea album right now).

Lage is gone as of last night, replaced by Chicago jazz guy Joel Paterson. Sounds pretty good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COfTE79UsDc

show i saw last week w/ Lage was great, he definitely got in a few really nice solos.

As expected, Lage had a gig in Brooklyn last night and his own tour is about to start.

Looks like the Lage tour isn't until September? I'm going to try to catch this tour in Philly in a couple of weeks, I'll be less bummed losing Lage (who I love) for Joel Paterson (who is also good) than I will be at losing Lucinda Williams and John Doe as openers.

He’s also got two dates with Christian McBride coming up in Montreal and Rotterdam (no way he’s ditching McBride, that would be in really bad form) and he’s taking part in Jacob Collier’s Hideaway in Tuscany which is sold out and a four day commitment. That does leave time for him to rejoin some shows, but for practical reasons I don’t think that’s a good idea and would also send the wrong message if his new guitarist is indeed the new replacement and trying to settle in.

I was actually going to see him on Thursday at the Stone but I’m probably going to skip it now - I ain’t venturing out in swampy 100 plus degree weather.

Lucinda Williams, Jimmy Vaughn & the Tilt-a-Whirl Band are opening for Dylan @ outdoor but partially covered for some seats but not the lawn ones Wolf Trap near Washington DC on July 24th and 25th. July 24th is sold out.

Here's a write-up with sound clips of last night's show in Austin. Patterson is such a fluid, effortless, and genuinely memorable guitarist that it's both a total surprise and a good fit that he's in the band (I've seen him in Chicago at the Green Mill, Hideout, and the dive-bar Simon's).

I've seen Paterson play a few times at the Hungry Brain. He's really good. I'm excited to see the Chicago show next week

When was the last time Dylan toured as a quartet? Was it the first legs of the NET with G.E. Smith (after Neil Young left) at the end of the '80s?

Thanks Eazy! Does Dylan still have that backup keyboard player, maybe offstage? Golden didn't mention him, did he?

Backup keyboard player? I've never heard that.

The GE years were probably the last time he had such a small band, unless I'm forgetting something.

Think somebody mentioned it in passing, maybe on another thread, or something linked---oh well, just wondering.

my friend knows Joel Paterson, says he's a killer player. he did appear with the Cactus Blossoms in Twin Peaks

https://www.wbez.org/music/2026/07/01/bob-dylan-taps-chicago-guitarist-joel-paterson-green-mill-music

His appearance Tuesday in Austin, Texas, came in a tumultuous moment for Dylan who reportedly let go two guitarists the week prior. Peterson had received the invitation at least two weeks ago, said friend Casey McDonough. The Western Elstons, their long-time country and western swing band, was scheduled to play Simon’s in Andersonville tonight, but Paterson announced on the band’s text chain that he couldn’t make it because he “was going to work with someone named Bob.”

“I guessed that didn’t mean Seger or Saget,” said McDonough. “Everybody was really happy for him. Why wouldn’t you be? He’s our pal.” (Tony Kidonakis is filling in for Paterson at Simon’s tonight.)

FWIW Britt posted a statement making it clear he wasn't fired, he quit for reasons he prefer to keep private.

FWIW, Bob Britt's wife just posted that "he is all clear and all done" after getting checked up by his doctor at Ingram Cancer Center. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, an aggressive blood cancer. (At the time he was playing with Delbert McClinton, not Dylan.)

Here's an old Nashville Scene article published in 2016 that reported on his diagnosis, and Britt even talks about the time he first met Dylan. (Dylan actually introduced himself to Britt after catching a show, and Britt was later one of the guitarists recruited for Time Out of Mind.)

(Just for clarification, his wife's post means his doctor says he is now cancer-free.)

It’s stunning how well Facebook’s algorithm works as it’s called up a flood of posts on Dylan’s lineup including what I posted above. Now I’m seeing day old posts from Britt’s wife saying he didn’t leave because of Lage - they got along great - but adds “word is he’s coming back” so I guess there will be more of him later during his down time.

World Gone Wrong outtake just leaked

sweeeeet

I hope they release all of those sessions.

We got both new guitarist, Lage & Patterson, last night and it was great

They did "When I Paint Masterpiece" rhumba-style a la "Jockey Full of Bourbon" and it was just incredible

Oh shit. that may settle it, I guess I'm buying a ticket to see him in Philly next week.

who knows with Bob but I really hope this two guitar lineup stays together for a bit, some really amazing moments and Bob was letting them stretch out a bit with solos

glad you guys caught a good show. Bob Dylan, what a character.

This just popped up (some of it had made its way into the world previously). Pretty cool remakes from a few years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETXZTiUXTRA

Are those "Shadow Kingdom"-era outtakes? They sound great

from roughly the same era as Shadow Kingdom, but different sessions afaik. These were produced by T-Bone Burnett for his weird "edition-of-one" ionic discs which were auctioned off to the highest bidder. i think maybe Don Was is playing bass? Not sure of the other musicians. But they sound great — apparently the only tune missing is "Not Dark Yet" which would be great to hear.

already a tape of last night's show, what a time to be alive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t03004NAkJE

Joel Paterson is great, I've seen him at the Green Mill before (w/a former ilxor), and another friend of mine also knows him.

yeah, me too, lol. a good friend worked with him at jazz record mart, and I've seen him play in various contexts over the years.

listening back, Lage and Paterson have such chemistry for being thrown together like that

tbf, jazz dudes know how to play together really well, that's sort of their deal, lol

Paterson (along with Chris Ligon, also in small Chicago bars/clubs) always seems like he could pick something up on the fly.

(Whoops, Scott Ligon, I mean)

Ligon rules, he's got a lot in common with Paterson, between his Flat Five jazz/country stuff, and of course his NRBQ tenure. I could totally see him in Dylan's band, too. I think I've seen Paterson play at the same local burger place I've seen Ligon at.

Tickets procured! He's hit or miss, or requires a high tolerance for what he does, but people still take Dylan for granted, so ticket prices are nowhere near what other boomer legends command.

I've been guilty of that. I stopped going to Dylan shows for several years after a disappointing show at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL in 2013. I didn't think I was missing much because soon after he was doing standards instead of his own songs. I reluctantly went back to see him at the Beacon in November 2017, thinking I shouldn't take a chance to see Dylan for granted, and to my shock it was the best Dylan show I had ever seen. Mostly his own songs with a few standards, and even those were sung well with exquisite solos by Charlie Sexton. There were several theories for that - singing standards for several years may have improved his diction, and he stopped changing his setlist so everything was now extremely well-rehearsed with the band locked in like a high-precision machine. A year later, Rolling Stone noticed and published an article proclaiming that Dylan was doing his best shows in years. I went again in 2019 and it was even better, again at the Beacon in November, this time with a Matt Cameron on drums. Next time was his first tour after the pandemic hit, again the Beacon in November (but he hasn't been back since) with a completely new band and a setlist focused entirely on Rough and Rowdy Ways, and unbelievably that was better, one of the greatest shows I've ever seen, period. Again, having the lyrics in front of him might've been a huge factor, that and wanting to sell all-new material to a crowd that could have been restless for his older songs - we were definitely won over.

He's had so many line-up changes since then, I haven't been able to keep up. (I wish I saw those shows with Jim Keltner.) I wasn't planning to be in town for Forest Hills, but hopefully I can change my schedule around.

I saw a bunch of shows post Time Out of Mind comeback. Most were pretty good, but then I saw him in 2005 iirc (mostly to see Merle Haggard open) and I fell asleep, so figured, well, that's that. But I did hear he was better post standards run, and even if he wasn't/isn't, it's still Bob Dylan. These two guitarists are ace, so they are reason alone.

I'm really digging the way they fused the lyrics for "When I Paint My Masterpiece" to the music of "Puttin' on the Ritz."

it was really fantastic I can't believe I almost didn't go

he was wearing a plain black hoodie (hood on) at the show my dad saw a few weeks ago in Berkeley, can't find any pictures to post though.

i saw him around the time of Together Through Life. His voice was shot at the time but when he got loud it sounded like he was screaming from the depths of hell.

xxp Apparently they've been doing that arrangement since spring of 2024.

brimstead, I remember at either the 2017 or 2019 show, when he did "Thunder on the Mountain," he screamed "I've got the pork chop, she's got the PIE!" in that manner as well. It was crazy.

A fantastic show in Chicago, with the usual caveats about the crowd at an outdoor venue. (Two dudes behind me chatted through the music for a third of the show, and for all the flack that "the youth" get for phone usage, it's primarily boomers who were pulling out phones here and when I saw Patti Smith.) The band was tight, with cheers after guitar solos, and he played "Tryin' to Get to Heaven", one of my all-time favorites.

I've only seen him once before, in high school, when he toured with Phil Lesh. Before writing this post, I looked it up and saw that it was exactly 26 years ago last night. I did feel a bit of a pang; I wish I'd seen him more in the interim, since who can say how many chances I'll have to see him again. You know how it goes, though: thanks to my boomer mother (I'm 42), I got into the Sixties stuff in junior high, but my passion waned as I grew up, and my taste expanded. I didn't need to hear Blonde on Blonde for the umpteenth time.

I've reconnected with his work in the last five years after realizing how much archival stuff has been released since then, exploring the periods I'd never listened to in my first phase. It's a wonderful feeling, to think one is overfamiliar with an artist and realizing there's still years' worth of stuff to dig into. So, it was really special, aside from the quality of the show, to see him again. Even if it did make me feel old myself!

(I didn't get into the Dead until 15 years ago, so had no appreciation for Lesh at the time. I doubt I even knew who he was. I was probably some dumb kid who talked through his set.)

A fantastic show in Chicago, with the usual caveats about the crowd at an outdoor venue. (Two dudes behind me chatted through the music for a third of the show, and for all the flack that "the youth" get for phone usage, it's primarily boomers who were pulling out phones here and when I saw Patti Smith.) The band was tight, with cheers after guitar solos, and he played "Tryin' to Get to Heaven", one of my all-time favorites.

I've only seen him once before, in high school, when he toured with Phil Lesh. Before writing this post, I looked it up and saw that it was exactly 26 years ago last night. I did feel a bit of a pang; I wish I'd seen him more in the interim, since who can say how many chances I'll have to see him again. You know how it goes, though: thanks to my boomer mother (I'm 42), I got into the Sixties stuff in junior high, but my passion waned as I grew up, and my taste expanded. I didn't need to hear Blonde on Blonde for the umpteenth time.

I've reconnected with his work in the last five years after realizing how much archival stuff has been released since then, exploring the periods I'd never listened to in my first phase. It's a wonderful feeling, to think one is overfamiliar with an artist and realizing there's still years' worth of stuff to dig into. So, it was really special, aside from the quality of the show, to see him again. Even if it did make me feel old myself!

(I didn't get into the Dead until 15 years ago, so had no appreciation for Lesh at the time. I doubt I even knew who he was. I was probably some dumb kid who talked through his set.)

Man, the show was great tonight. Warm Philly night, hanging with one of my oldest friends, Lage and Paterson soloing and comping, Bob in good form, interesting setlist. Loved it.

Ah, nice view of Stage AE show, in Pittsburgh, I assume, chilled out w some chills toward the end:
https://triblive.com/aande/music/review-bob-dylan-brings-chilled-out-intimate-feel-to-stage-ae-show/
Other descriptions of Philly show all paywalled so far---what more say you, Josh? Far Out does provide a set list:
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-dylan-philadelphia-full-setlist/

I'd say it sounded great, volume/mix and band. I could understand his voice reasonably well, he seemed to be into it, and my friend said it was so much better than the show she saw a couple of years ago. Had a really nice late night vibe; I could easily imagine listening to a recording of it while I made dinner. The guitar interplay was subtle and distinct and added a nice element. Felt almost as if Paterson was the "lead" guitarist and Lage was happy to follow along, but they both got some time to solo.

I hadn't seen him since 2005, maybe, something like that, and this one lacked but didn't try for some of the energy of the early '00s sets I saw. It was indeed pretty chill and intimate, in the best way. Not to mention the mind-blowing fact that he could be imo *better* 20 years after I last saw him.

Interesting tidbit: Brittney Spencer was one of the openers, and she covered "Make You Feel My Love." Openers don't usually cover the headliner, lol.

I will never understand how “To Make You Feel My Love” has become a standard, its bathos drags down the brilliance of TOOM every time.

Possibly my least favorite Dylan song.

some of y'all have never spent any time with Wiggle Wiggle and it shows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4t02aR6AWg

Gene Ween and Slash have spent time with Wiggle Wiggle.

I watched/listened to this younger dude rank all the Dylan albums, there are definitely some controversial takes but I appreciated his perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35cQhGD6-YI

Iirc he puts Under the Red Sky almost at the very bottom.

Wiggle Wiggle is awesome. Multiple lines are household staples around here. If anything is ever pointed out to wiggle, someone else inevitably adds "like a bowl of soup".

Under the Red Sky, the album, is in my top 5 Dylan! It's a raggedy quarter-century-later revisit of John Wesley Harding.

Finally hearing this song for the first time, and "Wiggle to the front, wiggle to the rear / Wiggle 'til you wiggle right out of here" is a couplet that can't be improved!

I have to wonder if releasing it just after the solemn Oh Mercy didn't help its reputation.

Also, I was double-checking the lyrics and the 'new and improved' Google AI search results said "Here's where you can hear the song" and embedding a video for Wiggle by Jason Derulo (feat. Snoop Dogg).

Paul Nelson and Robert Christgau both gave enthusiastic reviews to UTRS, and it does work a lot better when you think of it as Bob's version of a children's album. It is dedicated to his daughter ("Gabby Goo Goo"), which makes it plausible, but I've only heard Dylan express his disappointment, saying he was stretched too thin because he was going back and forth making this album and writing the bulk of the next Traveling Wilburys album, and IIRC he was basically rushing to do both in order to complete them before other commitments.

I prefer the alternate cuts of "Handy Dandy" (with Stevie Ray Vaughan on slide guitar) and "TV Talkin' Song," which were soon bootlegged, and I prefer Oh Mercy's outtakes of "Born in Time" (the song fits better on that album anyway), but otherwise I don't think it's a bad album, certainly much more listenable than Down in the Groove or Knocked Out Loaded.

That kid I posted, his bottom tier is Tempest, Red Sky, Together Through Life, Triplicate and Infidels. All this stuff is subjective, and he explains his decisions, so I appreciate his view that, say, Blood on the Tracks is "B" tier and Self Portrait and Desire are "S" tier. To each their own!

I prefer the alternate cuts of "Handy Dandy" (with Stevie Ray Vaughan on slide guitar) and "TV Talkin' Song," which were soon bootlegged, and I prefer Oh Mercy's outtakes of "Born in Time" (the song fits better on that album anyway), but otherwise I don't think it's a bad album, certainly much more listenable than Down in the Groove or Knocked Out Loaded.

As it happens, Elizabeth Nelson posted a defense of the latter today:

https://theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/driftin-too-far-from-shore-the-miasmic

I kinda like Down In The Groove.

I watched/listened to this younger dude rank all the Dylan albums, there are definitely some controversial takes but I appreciated his perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35cQhGD6-YI

Dude appreciates Saved, I appreciate him.

I have to wonder if releasing it just after the solemn Oh Mercy didn't help its reputation.
-(Eazy)

Paul Nelson and Robert Christgau both gave enthusiastic reviews to UTRS, and it does work a lot better when you think of it as Bob's version of a children's album. It is dedicated to his daughter ("Gabby Goo Goo"), which makes it plausible, but I've only heard Dylan express his disappointment...
-(birdistheword)

Under the Red Sky [Columbia, 1990]
This Was Bros. pseudothrowaway improves on the hushed emotion, weary wisdom, and new-age "maturity" of the Daniel Lanois-produced Oh Mercy even if the lyrics are sloppier--the anomaly is what Lanois calls Oh Mercy's "focused" writing. Aiming frankly for the evocative, the fabulistic, the biblical, Dylan exploits narrative metaphor as an adaptive mechanism that allows him to inhabit a "mature" pessimism he knows isn't the meaning of life. Where his seminal folk-rock records were cut with Nashville cats on drums--Kenny Buttrey when he was lucky, nonentities when he wasn't--here Kenny Aronoff's tempos are postpunk like it oughta be, springs and shuffles grooving ever forward. The fables are strengthened by the workout, and as a realist I also treasure their literal moments. I credit his outrage without forgetting his royalty statements. I believe he's gritted his teeth through the bad patches of a long-term sexual relationship even if he still measures the long term in months. And when he thanks his honey for that cup of tea, I melt. A-

I'm sure I've mentioned, but even though I don't love listening to Dylan I do like listening to the Jokermen podcast. Their whole thing is appreciation for the later, less critically praised work.

That's one of the fun things about Dylan, even among fans there are a zillion ways to differentiate by favorite eras and albums, which songs are better in their alternate takes, which albums are under/over estimated, it's a rich trove.

I'm not a big Under the Red Sky fan, but I like "Handy Dandy." Christgau's right about Kenny Aronoff, he gives it some kick. Oh Mercy's not great either imo, but "Everything Is Broken," "What Was It You Wanted" and "Man in the Long Black Coat" are all-timers imo.

Ring Them Bells is all time

I actually don't think Oh Mercy's a great album either, but Sony has released so many alternates that it's possible any and all shortcomings (depending on one's take on the album) can be fixed through substitutions. For example, some people think it's overproduced, but now you've got earlier mixes that can address that. And some of his best outtakes - like "Series of Dreams," "Dignity" and the original "Born in Time" - can obviously replace the weakest cuts too. I think the version I made for myself only kept four tracks from the original CD, and then there's three song substitutions and three more mix substitutions.

Also, weather forecast for Dylan's Tuesday show in Queens is looking pretty bad (thunderstorms all day, maybe all evening). Bummer, I'm pretty sure this would've been one of the Lage shows.

The Man in the Long Black Hoodie

dow, I've never been able to find Nelson's original review published in Musician, but it's been quoted elsewhere (I think in one of Heylin's books?) where Nelson calls it “a deliberately throwaway masterpiece.”

xpost that alternate Most of the Time that sounds like a Blood on the Tracks style version is great too

thanks tylerw for posting this link upthread, it sounds great

from roughly the same era as Shadow Kingdom, but different sessions afaik. These were produced by T-Bone Burnett for his weird "edition-of-one" ionic discs which were auctioned off to the highest bidder. i think maybe Don Was is playing bass? Not sure of the other musicians. But they sound great — apparently the only tune missing is "Not Dark Yet" which would be great to hear.

― tylerw, Tuesday, July 7, 2026 9:04 AM

pretty good stuff!

re: UTRS, I think it'd be a pretty great record if it had been recorded in the style of Love and Theft or Modern Times. Something about the performances and production always seems a little off ... maybe it could use a remix???

I don't think it's just the production, it's the songwriting and singing too. imo what you can hear on UTRS is him beginning to pare things away, trying to get back to something — which took its most literal form in the two folk albums that followed, and I think let him kind of recenter himself artistically. (Also the start of the archive releases, which probably played a role.) Time Out of Mind is the first step forward after that recalibration and then Love and Theft and Modern Times are its culmination.

Oh, I love that gleaming Poppy Bush-era mix.

lol

later live performances are worth seeking out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ToBPc1wfAI

But for me TOOM is an endurance test. Exceptions aside, the songs aren't there, and Lanois' velvet fog creates inessential mysteries (at least on Oh Mercy I can hear every instrument and there's only, like, two guitarists per track). If I think of TOOM as a late '80s Bryan Ferry album on which the vocalist brings biography and personality to a host of malnourished songs, it makes more sense.

The real Dylan comeback imo starts with L&T.

oh man except for Million Miles TOOM is all time Dylan for me

Standing in the Doorway? Trying to Get to Heaven? Love Sick? Can't Wait?

Re Paul Nelson and UTBS: I've searched through Musician back issues Sept '90 to Feb '91 and no review.

it's reprinted in the Nelson bio Everything Is An Afterthought ... says that it's in Musician, Oct. 1990.

Never mind – found it. Also reviewed: Ragged Glory and Graffiti Bridge.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Musician/1990/1990/Musician-1990-10.pdf

That youtube dude I posted, I appreciate his perspective that Dylan is best when paired with a good or the right producer, and that even some of his worst (or, you know, "worst") songs and albums are often better in alternate forms. Mixes, demos, etc. It's rarely just the songs or material, it's how it's handled, played, produced, things Dylan has always been ... ambivalent about.

Cold Irons Bound is better by orders of magnitude than anything on UTRS, especially the live arrangements in the early 00s, which get downright apocalyptic. It's dark and brooding and they ham it up in the most fun of ways.

It's rarely just the songs or material, it's how it's handled, played, produced, things Dylan has always been ... ambivalent about.

yes, this is accurate -- when people say songs are different from one album to the next...sometimes he's more inspired and sometimes less, OK, and sometimes people may not jibe with his choice of subject, but esp. in the case of TOOM I think they mean the Lanois veil masks the craft. "Not Dark Yet," Jesus, that's a top 10 Dylan tune right there. play it on an acoustic guitar with a folk strum pattern, arrange it any number of other ways, it's an incredibly solid song, and this is true of most of the songs on that record. Still, "Love & Theft" is better

My keepers: "Tryin' to Get to Heaven," "Not Dark Yet," "Love Sick," maybe "Cold Iron Bounds." I run screaming from "Make You Feel My Love," a song so generic that no wonder it ranks among his most covered.

highly recommend robyn hitchcock's various live covers of not dark yet btw ESPECIALLY this one
https://archive.org/details/robynhitchcock2018-08-30.aud.flac16

I urge those put off by the Lanois production on TOOM to check out the Bootleg Series for that album. The mixes for the alternate versions are so good and it is fascinating hearing Dylan figure out the songs.

xp YES, that Robyn H "Not Dark Yet" w/ William Tyler and Benmont Tench is outrageously good.

there's a Can't Wait on the bootleg series that is a top 5 dylan song for me

man robyn hitchcock doing not dark yet after doing I wanna destroy you is blowing my mind

I like the sound of TOOM. It's a perfectly reasonable premise to just push all modern recording debates and questions aside and say forget it, you're just going to hear the musicians in a room.

Another fine live-take "Not Dark Yet": Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer.

Re: TOOM, I rarely hear any Dylan fans wishing they could change anything about it - IIRC Elvis Costello himself says it's the best record Dylan's ever made - but I even tweaked that for myself on the back end. The Masked & Anonymous version of "Cold Irons Bound" (complete cheat since it was recorded six years later, but it's just for me), "Red River Shore" instead of "Make You Feel My Love," and the 'demo' version of "Can't Wait" (with Dylan's instructions carefully removed from the start). I enjoy the remix that was done for Fragments, but ultimately I stuck with Lanois's originals. Jim Dickinson once criticized them as sounding like monitor mixes, but I think that's being harsh - I don't doubt Lanois muted a lot of stuff, but it reminds of what a lot of mixers have said, that mixing is like film editing where you're not supposed to put every second in, you're making choices of what should go or stand out in the finished work.

(should clarify I meant the same "Can't Wait" waterface mentioned)

Leaving "Red River Shore" off is an exclusion par with leaving "Blind Willie McTell" off of Infidels, I don't know what goes through his head sometimes, stunning song.

i mean, he left "mississippi" off of TOOM too! at least he had the good sense to go back to it eventually.

i feel like mississippi fits better on love and theft anyway, would have stuck out on TOOM. kinda like that Not Dark Yet on Fragments, version 1 i think, it's all upbeat and happy. doesn't work that way!

I love those new and unreleased songs on Telltale Signs, even the one for the Civil War movie with the actors wearing scowly beards.

I listened to TOOM a lot when it came out and I like it overall. But I like Love & Theft and Modern Times better, and I put those on a whole lot more. I am pretty sure I have not listened to TOOM in this decade, and I’m not even sure about the last one. Whereas I put on Love & Theft like 3 days ago.

xxp I much prefer the L&T version of "Mississippi" too. I was surprised to see people (I think Mikal Gilmore for one, Clinton Heylin another) say they prefer the TOOM versions of "Mississippi." I enjoy those versions, especially the earliest one, but I enjoy them the way I'd enjoy a stripped-down acoustic version of any given full-band song, as a way to focus on the basic elements of a song or to hear it in a different way, but not as THE definitive way.

("Can't Wait" is a different case though, that's not only a completely different arrangement but has pretty substantial differences in lyrics)

I like the Lanois production and playing on TOOM.

Sheryl Crow's version is quite good too -- I dig the organ.

The Dixie Chicks released a live version that's a lot of fun - I think they used Crow's arrangement and changed the organ to fiddle.

It's rarely just the songs or material, it's how it's handled, played, produced, things Dylan has always been ... ambivalent about.

Sure production is important, but to come out like that guy does and say Dylan's contribution is basically a constant ("he's going to do his thing") and its the vision of the producer that matters struck me as bizarre, tbh. Maybe he got that impression because he listened to the albums in reverse chronological order. And bad production has been an intermittent issue in Dylans' long late phase. But I would maintain that the best late period albums are the one where the producer mostly stays out of the way (or where Dylan produces himself). And certainly its a strange statement to make about a guy whose best material often shines best when recorded in a basement somewhere or with a minimum of takes. And the earlier you get in his career, the more obvious that becomes.

Tempest (near the bottom of that ranking JiC shared and near the top of mine) is one of those late-period self-produced Dylan albums that sound straightforward and live, doing the job just right.

That's the wild thing, isn't it? There's room for all sorts of opinions with this guy. Even the guy I posted, he doesn't rate Blood on the Tracks particularly high, and that one's usually a given in best-of lists. And he acknowledges as much.

I think in general it's hard to record a guy who rarely does the same thing twice and doesn't always give anyone a heads up when he's going to do it differently. Just get the mics in the right place and hope for the best, I guess. I always thought his (literal) work with Lanois was intriguing, because by all accounts their relationship was contentious recording "Oh, Mercy," and yet Dylan still worked with him again. It's a good example of no constants: "Time" has a great batch of songs *and* sounds pretty radical (or murky, or whatever), I'd have to go back to reviews at the time and read what resonated. I know well before the album came out I was helping Greg Kot with something, and he had an advance copy of the record on repeat (maybe he reviewed it for Rolling Stone?), and iirc it was really clicking with him well before there was any sort of public consensus. I remember being dubious, and he was basically, no, trust me, this one is well worth your time.

I remember reading about the sneaky approach Lanois took with TOOM. He had Dylan and band set up in one room, playing pretty straight forward, and Lanois set up in another room, sort of mixing in effects and whatnot in real time. (It's not unlike what Eno did on Zooropa and Wah Wah). So Dylan heard it one way, and Lanois heard it a slightly different way, and then messed with it more. Of course nothing is getting released without Dylan signing off on it.

Dylan's produced himself since 2001 tbc.

that's because he can. people know blake mills is why rough & ready ways sounds like it does, chris shaw & al schmitt & scott litt are the engineers of recent years...these are not guys who twiddle knobs at the whim of the producer, these are producers of hit records & winners of grammys who are taking a "lead engineer" credit because it's bob dylan. if dylan's doing the mic selection on the kickdrum I'll eat my shoe.

well, sure, we know the old racket of demoting engineers who are actually producing. On the other hand Lou Reed liked to give his engineers co-producing credit in the '80s.

The Cure's David Allen is another essential engineer-producer.

in the case of dylan I can imagine engineers saying "I don't want the producer credit." the person "producing," with an artist whose stature is so huge, is gonna either get to wear an "I produced the dylan album everybody loved" button on his lapel (lanois, who himself was assisted by engineers of uncommon talent & vision, specifically trina shoemaker) or is gonna catch "this album would be good if dylan got a different producer" heat. I once had a producer try to talk me into giving myself a producer credit because I was very controlling about shooting down instrumental parts I didn't like. some of this is why albini thought the term was some bullshit, and while there's more to it than that -- some artists need a producer to help them make sense of their vision, to make it cohere -- albini wasn't entirely wrong, either.

I think I mentioned this before, but Chris Shaw gave a pretty great podcast interview that included a lot on Dylan. (I think it was Gear Club?) It's a nice view into how those sessions go down and how Shaw supported him. He clearly didn't want to step on his toes, but 1) he seemed to have a good feel about when to ask certain questions, like if they could use Pro Tools instead of Dylan's preference for analog tape, and 2) he's really observant even when it came to things he couldn't control, and he could tell what the musicians were going through. (For example, he noticed only Sexton and Campbell were bold enough to test the limits of Dylan's edict that "you're not soloing when I'm singing," and they would play a game of cat-and-mouse where they'd plug in a fill here and there whenever they saw an opening. Later guitarists weren't so bold and that push-pull more or less evaporated once Sexton and Campbell were gone.)

On the other side of the story, one of my favorite things in the gigantic Cutting Edge box set was how Tom Wilson produced Dylan. The way they were recorded during a few exchanges - Dylan sounding distant and Tom clear and upfront through the intercom feed - perfectly captures this teacher-student vibe going on, with Dylan being the impatient and agitated one and Wilson being an unperturbed rock who did not hesitate to correct or lecture Dylan.

Anyway, all this brings to mind Lenny Kaye's interview for a book on Todd Rundgren, where he discussed one thing he learned from Rundgren during Patti Smith's Wave:

"I learned his philosophy which is, and something I’ve repeated many a time to any band I’ve produced with, it’s a great aphorism which is: ‘If you know what you want, I’ll get it for you. If you don’t know what you want, I’ll do it for you.’ And that’s pretty much the job of a producer, and producers like it when artists have ideas."

Shaw's account pretty much paints a picture of the former, and he's doing his best to get what Dylan wants in handling the technical side of things. otoh, I think Lanois was usually doing the latter even when Dylan knew what he wanted, and that's what led to the tense accounts about both of their albums.

Haven't listened to Oh Mercy (almost wrote Have Moicy) in a long time, but Dylan seems very candid in Chronicles about the differences between him and Lanois, with whom he sympathizes, though no apologies: He says, I think, that he went in the studio with some chords and some words, figuring it would work out, as it had before sometimes, and DL wanted him to do proper versions of things he'd left in the can long ago---says the Dead wanted this too---but something about hadn't really lived with those songs---also, DL had a lot of splendid NOLA musicians lined up, but Dylan just wanted a setting, nothing distracting from whatever songs he might come up with. Doesn't mention the swamp gas, as I recall, although says Bono urged him to go with DL, and I guess he might have heard the DL-treated U2 albums.

Speaking of Chronicles, Lucy Sante's 2005 NYRB take on that (now paywalled, but in her collection Kill All Your Darlings, builds on the tension in Dylan's work that xgau touched on, when he xpost wrote:

This Was Bros. pseudothrowaway improves on the hushed emotion, weary wisdom, and new-age "maturity" of the Daniel Lanois-produced Oh Mercy even if the lyrics are sloppier--the anomaly is what Lanois calls Oh Mercy's "focused" writing. Aiming frankly for the evocative, the fabulistic, the biblical, Dylan exploits narrative metaphor as an adaptive mechanism that allows him to inhabit a "mature" pessimism he knows isn't the meaning of life.

Sante talks about the struggle that Dylan also says something about in Chronicles: the pressure of being 60s Dylan, people hanging on your every word, also turning up on your front porch with revelations and questions---and he says he tried to blow all that off with Self-Portrait (which always did sound like an attempted escape from his life and those often sickening times). Also, somewhere, he says that he already wanted to do normal music, but found himself writing John Wesley Harding for the critics (think it was the "literary critics.")
Of course he re-established his cred with the equilibrium of New Morning, and, although some crits complained about its seediness, demonstrated how to keep balance even in a more overt grab bag, Planet Waves. successfully tackled Arena Rock and old expectations in Before The Flood, and then we get the tasteful 70s Singer-Songwriter set, Blood On The Tracks.

As Sante says, it's, eh, good of its kind, like a sad but still charming old friend, with occasional postcards and calls setting the stage for late-night diner coffee and sympathy, then over to your place with a little wine, grass, and acoustic guitar---but not wearing out his welcome, well maybe getting little boring overall, despite most of the songs being pretty good in the same way. but then he's out, see you next year.
(When he recorded "Abandoned Love," where he actually takes some responsibility for the marriage going bad, but then he abandoned it to next decade's Biograph, though also to the Everly Brothers.)

But then the sometimes stinky midlife crisis of Street Legal, and the Purpose-Driven Life of Slow Train Coming and Saved (also the good music, even the singing, and that rattlesnake tambourine leading into that performance of "Gotta Serve Somebody," and those purple paranoid rants, that another ilxor summed up as "The Gospel According To Cocaine," on that live box: the tension, man!)
(Gotta say also that S-P was a great publicity device, much moreso than just another masterpiece would have been---somehow, some of him knows these things, and can't resist such moves---like "Joey" is the antipodal "Hurricane," one of his antianthems as anthems---)

Blood On The Tracks is the only album that I recall Sante describing, and I expanded on that a little; all the other stuff in that post was stimulated by her philosophical investigation of Cap'n D.

Remember, you can get around most paywalls with archive.ph and pasting the URL.

https://archive.ph/uK7Dv

Part of an awesome story Mike Campbell has in his book about working with Dylan:

We worked on two more songs that day. “Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll” and “Look Yonder.” Bob didn’t ask what I thought of those. But at the end of the session, as I was slipping the Broadcaster into the case, he walked up to me.

“‘Boys of Summer.’ That’s you.”

I latched the case and stood.

“I just wrote the music.”

Bob gave that statement a quizzical look and shook his head.

“Drum machine.”

“Yeah.”

He leaned over and spoke low out of the corner of his mouth, like he was putting a crew together for a heist.

“You know how to use it?”

“Yeah, that’s my beat on it.”

Bob nodded, thinking.

“That sounds pretty good.”

“Thank you.”

“‘Boys of Summer.’ That’s a big hit.”

He looked around. He leaned forward. He spoke under his breath.

“You still got it?”

“The drum machine? Yeah.”

“Same one?”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you bring it next time?”

“Okay.”

“Yeah, bring it with you next time. Bring that drum machine. I wouldn’t mind having a big hit too.”

A few days later, I put the Broadcaster and the LinnDrum in my trunk and drove back over to Cherokee for another session. We worked on a new song of Bob’s called “Trust Yourself.” Keltner played a low rumble that swayed in time with Bob at the mic. Bob had his back to me, and I watched him motion—to Benmont, to Jim, to the other musicians—guiding them through the song. Benmont watched Bob like he watched Tom, listening and responding to Bob’s nods and looks and gestures with organ splashes and slash chords and simmering, sustained notes that answered Bob’s phrasing. Bob glanced back at me, holding his Strat tight to his ribcage with his forearm as he fingerpicked. He smiled like Pops Staples. I leaned forward and tried to play it like “Stop Breaking Down,” and as Bob nodded to the beat, my right hand naturally moved with him like we were boxing or dancing.

We played the song a couple more times, then Bob waved it away with his hand. He looked to the control room window and told them to erase those takes. In the Heartbreakers, the tape started rolling ten minutes before we walked in, just in case, and we saved every second.

I said, oh no, don’t do that. Bob shook his head.

“I’m never going to listen to that. Why keep it?”

Bob asked me if I had brought the drum machine.

I set up the LinnDrum in the main room. As Bob showed me the tempo and changes of a new song he was working on, I programmed a simple beat. Bob strummed his guitar to it softly.

Bob called the rest of the band back into the studio. I got the beat pulled up as everybody took to their instruments. Jim Keltner appeared in the doorway and watched with a small smile, like he knew all along what would happen.

The LinnDrum beat started and Bob strummed along. We all fell in with him. After a minute or so, Bob started to fall a little behind the beat. Within a few more measures, he was way off. Nobody knew whether to stay on the LinnDrum or to follow Bob. We sounded like three pairs of sneakers in a dryer.

Bob raised his arm to bring the song to a close. I stopped the beat on the LinnDrum. Benmont and I exchanged a look. Bob nodded. He wanted to hear it back.

The engineer rewound the tape and pressed play. We all watched Bob. He listened, nodding his head softly. Then he heard his guitar go off the beat. He looked at me and furrowed his brow. He cocked his head and listened closer. When we got to the part where he had strayed badly, Bob had the engineer stop the tape.

He turned to me.

“That ain’t right.”

“No,” I agreed.

Bob waited for me to expound. There was a tense silence.

“Well, yeah. You kinda went off the beat a little there, Bob. You gotta stick a little closer to it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You gotta follow the drum machine a little closer.”

“I have to follow it?”

“Yeah.”

“It doesn’t follow me?”

“Uh, no, Bob, it doesn’t.”

Bob shook his head.

“Then what good is it?”

Excellent Bob story

Baby Let Me Follow Your Linn

Amazing. That one goes in the 100 funny Dylan stories thread for sure.

Ha, I forgot we have that thread! Posting a favorite there right now.

I loved campbell's book so much

great show last night even though i think they dropped a song from the setlist. dylan clearly engaged, the band mostly playing high-stakes follow-the-leader. a couple songs sounded prearranged like that crazy rhumba on "masterpiece." have to say those insouciant vocal inflections, while charming, lend a sameness to the songs and can suck the drama out of the serious ones. that's a quibble. nice night (despite the tornado warnings), great band, crystal clear sound (could have been louder but the neighbors complain) and bob freaking dylan. i posit that hoodie is to trim the high frequencies from the cymbals he stands near.

Hmm, good theory, but Bob seems like he's been a hoodie guy (at least in his off time) for decades. Drummer was pretty quiet, too.

It looked like a raincoat to me. https://i.redd.it/md1zr6glmpeh1.jpeg

Full show here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YuTKdRBydY

I was going to try my luck with Stubhub but the forecast was looking so dire and I decided to pass. I'm glad everyone else got to enjoy it but for me, I don't think I would've been able to shake my concerns about the weather, would've been too distracting.

Thanks again, bird!
Seems like a long way for him from Mike Campbell to Blake Mills. From what I've read, he seems to have latched on to TP and the Heartbreakers because they were the big commercial-critical success most suited to his most popular approach, and "I wouldn’t mind having a big hit too.” That was the main thing on his mind, not finding new sounds of serendipity, just digging for gold, like with their tour together.
I've also read, maybe on this very thread, that later he could be very passive, like asking an engineer to do something, and the engineer says it wouldn't sound good, like taste more than tech, and D is like, "Oh, okay." But I think all of his this-century albums have sounded pretty good.