How do I get into Dylan?

BonB

Live at the AlbHall.

Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Bringing it All Back Home
Blonde On Blonde
John Wesley Harding
Blood on the Tracks
Love and Theft

It's an awesome survey of the man's career. I've recommended it to others, and they found themselves vastly more interested in his music.

You know I'm not entirely sure. I enjoy some Dylan songs, but it seems as though I should -- given my entry-level interest in him -- get to know him as well as all those artists -- who I love -- who've covered him over the years....Byrds, Band, Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley -- you know the list.

But, yes Nick, sometimes I want to say fuck it, I hate the fucker's voice, don't bother.

I'd say get one of his earlier ones next, just because it will be different than the two you already have. I'm a huge fan of Times They Are A-Changin'.

?

His voice has changed quite a bit from album to album. For instance, his current dessicated croak bears little resemblance to the faux-Guthrie-isms of his youth. Or try "Nashville Skyline" wear he had (briefly) stopped smoking and discovered a whole new register.

...he doesn't like good pop music! 'twas a gentle jab.

Ha. I'm continually amazed by the thread-to-thread memories that people have around here....

If that's the case it's no crime to just leave it be for a while, but you should come back. I'd keep going, though--Dylan pays such high rewards to listeners that it'd be incredibly foolish to totally write him off for good.

He is a great, great singer, btw. I agree this is not obvious at first, but he's pretty much up there with anyone else in rock as far as vocals go.

What you could do is, next time you have a yen to play one of the Dylan records you do have, don't, and go and buy one of the ones you don't instead - this would seem more fruitful than making yourself like him.

OTM. I wouldn't go as far as Jack White said ("If you don't like Dylan, you don't like music"), but you are missing out on some of the best shit ever done on tape.

You're missing Dylan and Moby Dick.

Being skeptical is nothing to be ashamed of--I've always been on the fence myself. Get some Byrds albums or even try to find the hard-to-get "Lo and Behold," the Coulson, Dean, McGuiness Flint LP of Dylan Basement-era tunes to loosen up...and shit, you got to read "Moby Dick," it's essential novel just like Gogol's "Dead Souls" or "Anna Karina," like that.

http://www.mr-agreeable.net/stubbs/default.asp?nc=4271&id=135

I don't think it is either. But if you are generally into rock 'n' roll per se, I do think it's odd. I'd say the same thing about the Beatles and the Stones.

Not being into Destiny's Child, on the other hand...

i guess i'm odd then

http://s26.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1UQ9UKLYQHS2L15CW47LD84RNB

The worst thing you can do is try to "decode" Dylan. Because there's nothing to get--the songs are not crossword puzzles. They're just basic rock 'n' roll, with a twist--the twist being his vocal delivery and the language he uses. There's nothing inaccessible about it.

It'd almost be better to hear his debut album first, and then move forward chronologically. The first album is almost all covers, and you can focus on his voice and delivery without being bogged down in the "heaviness" of the canonized works. The subsequent moves then all make logical sense.

http://sfj.abstractdynamics.org/archives/005434.html

Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Bringing it All Back Home
Blonde On Blonde
John Wesley Harding
Blood on the Tracks
Love and Theft

I agree with the sentiment and with the list; although I would be inclined to pick Blood on the Tracks and Love and Theft as the best ones for you to go for next.

Use plenty of lube.
-- Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle_vagu...), June 15th, 2005.

Buy him a few drinks first.
-- Telephonething (ryanhup...), June 15th, 2005.

Yeah it is a snore. So are the Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Steely Dan, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, REM, Beck, Elliot Smith, Bonnie Prince Billy, Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart....

If you do like Blonde on Blonde, then obviously go for Highway 61 (very similar), and from there backwards to Bringing It . . . If you wish he were more traditioanlly folky in those records, try John Wesley Harding and The Times They Are A-Changin', and the last 1/4 of Greatest Hits Vol. 2, and then The Basement Tapes, and from there to Good As I Been To You. Nashville Skyline is faux country, but his voice is 50% less annoying on it.

If you like Blood on the Tracks, you may like Desire (although it annoys me)or Another Side of Bob Dylan (his only other "personal" record).

The Bootleg Series ##4 and 5 are excellent live performances from the Highway 61 / Blonde period and the Blood / Desire period, respectively.

Personally, I wouldn't bother much with anything post-Desire, or with the JWH - Blood gap, until I was pretty enthusiastic. There's nothing on Love and Theft that would have improved Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61, or Blood on the Tracks.

Really, the world can survive without another Dylan expert. You've heard a whole bunch of the good stuff. If that doesn't do it for you, why beat a dead horse?

I guess Bob and I will have to wait...

That's a weird list -- are you trying to suggest those musicians have some affinity or common lineage with Dylan? I mean, I really like Steely Dan and Neil Young and Joni Mitchell and Beck and Elliott Smith and Joanna Newsom, and to be perfectly honest, all of them ones you name have made at least a couple songs I like better than any Dylan I've heard.

How is that even remotely controversial? Bowie and Steely Dan might not be the first comparisons that spring to mind but the rest seem fairly obvious.

Yeah, I don't like the Fall or the Sex Pistols, either!

Steely Dan's lyrics are very Dylan-esque, they've pointed this out themselves many times. Bowie's early stuff (pre-Ziggy) has a definite Dylan vibe to it.

You morphed into Geir at this point.

If you mean that the worst song on those three albums is better than the best song on "Love and Theft" then I would disagree. I would take "Poor Boy" for instance over "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" or "From a Buick 6" or "Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts".

So go to him now. He calls you; you can't refuse.

Joan Baez to thread.

Absolutely right.

Neither is there anything on Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61, or Blood on the Tracks that would have improved Love and Theft.

Completely different sound and feel entirely.

Very true, there's absolutely no reason why anyone should need to own a record by anyone - no matter how "important" or critically acclaimed they may be - in order to have listened to them long and hard enough to have made a fair and balanced appraisal.

You can borrow 'em, tape 'em, download 'em, burn 'em, buy 'em and then sell 'em again....

I do think with someone as "important" and critically acclaimed as Dylan you do have to have listened to them long and hard enough to have made a fair and balanced appraisal before you decide you don't particularly like them 'though.

I spent many years professing a huge dislike for Dylan, based on little more that a vague passing familiarity with his greatest hits from the radio and as re-interpreted by a hundred whining gits with acoustic guitars, plus having been reluctantly force-fed a room-mate's copies of Street Legal and Slow Train Coming (if there's one Dylan album to avoid like the plague at all costs....) until I o/d-ed on them.

It took a combination of The Byrds and Blood On The Tracks to eventually change my mind.

a) life's too short
b) those inverted commas around "important" speak a ton

I love Dylan but FFS nobody "has" to listen to him, the impact he has on today's stuff tends to be buried pretty deep anyway, I'm listening to a lot of 'classic' albums at the moment, rediscovering my inner rockist, and it's great but I'm really glad I'm getting into them at 32 not at 22 or 12!

Well, y'see [looks around nervously] at the end of the day [hushed whisper] it is "only" music.... [gulp!]

As I've got older 'though, I've found that some of the things that I rejected in my youthful impatience are actually worth persevering with 'though.

Not all of them 'though by any means.

munee for nothing...colour tee-veeeeeeh...

marcello, have you heard his debut? i always thought it was pretty intense by the standards of folk at the time (circa 62) - i remember ian macdonald writing in uncut how shocked he and his friends were by how raw and mean it sounded. it's sort of slipped through the cracks because it's comprised almost entirely of covers, but i think it's one of his key works; barely out of his teens, and he already sounds as wired-up and crazy as he did on "like a rolling stone." anyway, if you don't mind his delivery, you might like that one.

With the greatest possible respect to Mr. Carlin, I rather suspect that because he was fortunate enough to have been exposed to so much "difficult" music at such an early stage in his development, he frequently doesn't have to listen to things as long and hard as most of us do in order to have made "a fair and balanced appraisal", and doesn't always realise how much effort it can take some of us simply to get beyond the fact that some music is "difficult".

"I'm listening to a lot of 'classic' albums at the moment, rediscovering my inner rockist, and it's great but I'm really glad I'm getting into them at 32 not at 22 or 12!"

Because you're finding you're more patient and perhaps more open-minded now than you were 10 or 20 years ago, maybe?

We'll have you listening to Beefheart yet, Tom!

It usually works the other way round surely?

no, i like his delivery, he's the albert ayler of folk, i understand why people would see that as new and raw and different. yet i can listen to laughing lenny cohen endlessly, with the same raw materials and "individual" vocal style. yeah i've heard the first one, listened to it in tandem with the world gone wrong album of covers, but i just can't connect to it.

maybe dylan should have used the velvets or the art ensemble of chicago as backing band on a few of his '60s albums.

Also, I liked Beefheart (what I had heared) at around 18, but didn't have any until age 37 or so.

it's not like you see beefheart on the cover of q or on the radio 2 playlist. so his stuff can still be "discovered."

exactly. but would that mean they'd have to get in evan to do the harmonica?

pity, i was looking forward to EP displaying his circular breathing, multiphonic saxophonic skills in a new "harmonica" context.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000C4GJ7.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Michael Moore is among the most accomplished jazz wind players alive. And unless you have very wide musical interests, as well as access to some of Europe's more esoteric labels, such as Moore's own Ramboy, BVHAAST, Between the Lines, and Hat Art, all of whom he has recorded for, you've probably never heard of him. We can be thankful that Amazon.com carries a handful of his recordings (although, alas, none of his Ramboy stuff). During nearly the whole period of the nineties, he lead a remarkable trio variously called Clusone 3, Clusone Three, or Clusone trio, producing about a record a year. Besides Moore, the trio included two of Europe's top improvisers, Han Bennink on drums and Ernst Reijseger on cello. On his own Ramboy label, he has released about 15-20 discs, all of which are certainly worth obtaining if you can find them. I especially like his little big band recording, Available Jelly, as well as a duo recording he did with pianist Alex McGuire, and a thing he did with a Brazilian quartet called Choro Combinado. Besides his own recordings, he was a member of drummer Gerry Hemmingway's group for several years, he continues to play in Misha Mengelberg's Instant Composers Pool orchestra, leads a trio that includes cellist Tristan Honsinger and piano and "Keyolin" (an invented instrument) player Cor Fuhler, and was a member of Thirteen Ways, with Fred Hersch and Gerry Hemmingway. In other words, he keeps busy.

His two main instruments are clarinet and alto sax; he also plays bass clarinet, melodica, and various percussion. He has an instantly recognizable tone on clarinet, unlike anyone else's in the history of jazz. It's very bright and meaty and solid-sounding - though he can also be quite delicate and breathy. His sound is so unique and unlike any other clarinet player (e.g., check out his multiphonics at the beginning of "With God on Our Side") that one wonders what kind of setup he has on his instrument. His alto playing is also completely his own. If one could describe his approach, it might aptly be compared to Michael Blake's tenor sound, again, very solid, somewhat breathy, huge chops lightly worn, "earthereal" (that is, earthy and ethereal at the same time), with absolute command of the entire range of his instrument.

Jewels and Binoculars, which takes its title from a line from a Bob Dylan song, is a disc of all Dylan tunes, save for the traditional song, "Two Soldiers," which Dylan recorded. The most striking thing about the disc is the vast range of emotional territory it covers so effortlessly. The band's MO is a simple one: find the optimal interpretive approach to each song, and, using its characteristic emotive center construct an apposite soundscape and perform variously straightforward or more complex improvizations as are called for on each number. The overall mood could be characterized as poignancy, and this comes through most powerfully on "Pity the Poor Immigrant," "Visions of Johanna," "Dark Eyes," "Sign on the Window," and, almost overwhelmingly, on "Boots of Spanish Leater." There are also strong evocations of dark irony ("With God on Our Side," "Two Soldiers"), wistfulness ("Fourth Time Around"), and crazy blues ("Highway 61 Revisited," "Dear Landlord").

Sound simple? Not at all. The emotional content of this disc is as powerful as any I've ever run across, which is amazing for a record that features such spare instrumentation. One can only attribute it to the brilliance of the concept and the consummate skill of the players. The band carefully uncovers the heart of each tune, lays it bare, and communicates it directly to the listener with great artistry and sensitivity.

Ravishingly beautiful, impossibly poignant, possessed of the highest level of musical integrity, this is one of the top five disc in my collection of over 3,000 and a wonderful introduction to one of the greatest unheard jazzmen alive.

Very special, and not to be missed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr8PZ3ajEWo

Dylan at the recent "Civil Rights" Concert at the White House. Smokey Robinson, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Bernice J. Reagon from Sweet Honey in the Rock, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp and others also performed.

After the song, there was an awkward pause, a handshake with the president and a hasty exit.

Chris Richards review from the Washington Post

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/02/at_the_white_house_civil_right.html

Dylan's voice now live versus Taylor Swift's... That should be a poll

How do I get into Dylan?

Turn left at Springsteen!

i think it helps if you are a black woman

oh man thanks that was beautiful. lovely bass on that too.

is that song always in 3/4 or did he change it?

um, no it was always thus.

good old Tony Garnier

That guy has played bass with Dylan since like 1989! I think he wins the Dylan sideman contest. No one else even comes close.

i think Bob keeps him around just cuz he likes saying his last name: Tony Gaaaahn-yay!

It is nice (which is why I posted it) but I have given up on trying to convince folks that are not music fanatics to listen to Dylan's voice circa 2010.

um, no it was always thus.

― Mark G, Tuesday, February 16, 2010 9:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

weird wonder why i never noticed before, i guess the sorta loping bass makes it a lot more explicit

well, i mean, the original recording is kinda in Dylan-time, not exactly strict time, it's not super obvious ... But I think most live versions of it do a pretty waltzy thing.

haha dylan time, yeah the early folk ones tend to wander around a bit i guess

hattie carroll is the ultimate example of that. try singing along with it.

to say nothing of clapping along..

Enjoyed his DC gig last night more than the 2 90s gigs I saw. Raspy-voiced renditions of mostly non big songs, largely on piano, but a couple on guitar & sometimes just standing. Could decipher some of the lyrics. Great piano playing & impressive vocals enunciation on “Not Dark Yet” & “Trying to Get to Heaven” from Time Out of Mind. Dylan did 4 songs from Time Out of Mind, 3 from Highway 61, 3 from Tempest; & various others from other albums. I liked when the arrangements drew from honky tonk country & rockabilly better than the blues-rock ones.