Bob Dylan "Shadows in the Night"

Been some mention of this on the Dylan nominations thread but probably needs its own thread. The album title is not yet confirmed but looks that way from the splash screen on bobdylan.com, which is also streaming new song "Full Moon and Empty Arms" (cover of a song previously sung by Frank Sinatra).

Pat Benatar cover!

blue note-style cover suggests bob's gone hard bop??? *fingers crossed*

I joked on the Dylan poll thread that this was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder; but that's something that should definitely happen.

wait so that cover image is real?!

http://www.shadowsofknight.com/homepage/SOKadps.jpg

Squinting hard in the serious moonlight, he means it man and ma'am. Okay, but what I like best, so far: the 40s-appopriate, mainland-Hawaiian steel guitars.

appropriate, too.

​"This track is definitely from a forthcoming album due later on this year," a spokesperson for the singer tells Rolling Stone. While the rep wouldn't confirm an album title, Dylan posted an image of himself with the phrase "Shadows in the Night." With its distinct vertical bars and crisp, minimalist text, the image appears to be in the style of graphic designer Reid Miles' iconongraphic covers for jazz label Blue Note.

Dylan doesn't stray too far from Sinatra's original track, though his version replaces the string section with guitars. "Full Moon and Empty Arms" was written by Ted Mossmann and Buddy Kaye and based around Sergei Rachmaninoff's 1901 composition "Piano Concert No. 2 in C Minor." The song has been covered by everyone from Robert Goulet to The Platters, but Sinatra's rendition remains the most famous. Dylan's last few albums were strongly inspired by popular music from this era.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-releases-frank-sinatra-cover-plans-new-album-20140513#ixzz31oJgYZRp
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

this one is apparently on the album (which has been pushed back to early 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceosVcHvuvE
i like it!

Wishing that was a Faces cover.

A Dylan-obsessed cinephile friend tells me it's the theme from Otto Preminger's The Cardinal.

And yeah, it's beautiful. Can't wait for the record.

I can't read the thread/album title without thinking of this:

But, the thing was, there’s a lyric on the song where Bob sings, “The leaves cast their shadows on the stones,” and, when he was singing it live, he was reading his lyrics off a piece of paper, and, I guess, for a split-second, he got dyslexic, because on the live take, he actually sang, “The leaves cast their stadows on the stones.” So, the only time I did any editing on that song, was when I heard this word “stadows” go by, I knew he meant shadows, because I had the lyric sheet in front of me. So, when I tried a remix, I took the vocal, and I found a “sh” from somewhere else, and I chopped the “st” out and put that in, so he was singing “shadows,” y’know. And Bob was listening to all these mixes, and he kept saying, “Nah, man, I really wanna use that rough mix.” Finally, I said, “Well, you know, on the rough mix, you don’t sing ‘shadows,’ you sing, ‘stadows.” And he took a long hit on his cigarette, and he kind of looked at me deadpan, and he went, “Well, you know:‘stadows.’”

lol yeah, love that story.
he's playing tomorrow night in denver and i'm feeling like a jerk for not getting at ticket... pretty pricey though.

looks like it's official: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/news/new-album-shadows-night-out-feb-3

Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan's new studio album, Shadows In The Night, will be released on February 3, 2015. Featuring ten tracks, the Jack Frost-produced album is the 36th studio set from Bob Dylan and marks the first new music from the artist since 2012’s worldwide hit Tempest.

Upon Columbia’s announcement of the album’s forthcoming release, Bob Dylan commented, “It was a real privilege to make this album. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That's the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.”

As Columba Records Chairman Rob Stringer explains, “There are no strings, obvious horns, background vocals or other such devices often found on albums that feature standard ballads. Instead, Bob has managed to find a way to infuse these songs with new life and contemporary relevance. It is a brilliant record and we are extremely excited to be presenting it to the world very soon.”

SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT TRACK LISTING:

1. I'm A Fool To Want You
2. The Night We Called It A Day
3. Stay With Me
4. Autumn Leaves
5. Why Try to Change Me Now
6. Some Enchanted Evening
7. Full Moon And Empty Arms
8. Where Are You?
9. What'll I Do
10. That Lucky Old Sun

obvious horns

obvious 5 horns

we've been jamming the Christmas album so I'm stoked for this one, hoping for a related vibe

should've called the album NIGHT OF THE LIVING SINATRA w/ a zombie Frank on the cover.

this is such an awesome move. like it smacks of just acting on impulse to me. rad as hell.

My most anticipated release of 2015. I love the Christmas record and I expect this'll sound a lot like it.

well, most anticipated after The Feelies.

So glad to hear this will feature stripped-down arrangements. And despite the fact that his voice has been shot for years, Dylan can still croon pretty well when he wants to. Expecting something similar to "Return to Me" from the Sopranos soundtrack.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1012933_1000745106609325_3787896402328852938_n.jpg?oh=2f5abb8ce8a7223eabfe148277a4f7e5&oe=5506C8E8&__gda__=1426673716_4d49b5dbb9e90eb472ca6c7f53592bbe

Shut up is that real??

Unfortunately no. Drew Friedman posted it on FB this morning, and is doing a limited edition print of it (not in the album cover setting, just the art).

I so wish that was real.

Seriously! Maybe Dylan will see it and say "hey wait a minute, scrap whatever we had planned before."

bob dylan's phlegm sings the frank sinatra songbook

love the blonde on blonde vibe

lengthy, pretty excellent interview ... in AARP Magazine!
http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/style-trends/info-2015/bob-dylan-aarp-magazine.html?intcmp=AE-HP-ALRT-BAR-BOBDYLAN

Very cool! Bob's surprisingly political here.

http://i.imgur.com/iwuBSa4.jpg

I love that AARP magazine now looks like an old issue of SPIN.

that was one of the better dylan interviews i've read in a while

"Dylan's Greatest Hats" lol

xp Ditto, and Dylan seemed to dig it, too. "You actually asked me about music!"

dylan's greatest hats killed me because they got most of the years wrong. give me a break.

Ooh I'm going to see if my dad has this issue yet when I swing by there tonight

"you can have it when i'm done with this tony danza interview, son"

man i saw don jon recently and danza is fucking ripped

Total strike out, I guess my dad last month decided "why am I paying 15 bucks a yr for this?" and canceled his subscription.:(

still the voice of his generation

For once it's Bob following Bruce's lead: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/09/23/health/boss_250.jpg

By the way, how is it Bob Dylan has never named an album "The New Dylan?"

"you can have it when i'm done with this tony danza interview, son"

― tylerw, Thursday, 22 January 2015 19:53 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Has anyone ever done the Elton John joke?

hold me closer?

mm hmm

not a bad interview, but at his age he sort of ends up relating the same anecdotes and opinions for the 23,000th time

"did i ever tell you what fats domino meant to me as a kid?"

Telegraph loves it. Don't know the author though.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/bob-dylan/11366536/Bob-Dylan-Shadows-in-The-Night-review-extraordinary.html

Here's the full 9,000 word version of the AARP interview:

http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/style-trends/info-2015/bob-dylan-aarp-the-magazine-full-interview.print.html

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20190-shadows-in-the-night/

Deusner says, in part:

Shadows in the Night may pose some compelling questions for the Bobophiles who scrutinize every line and every word of every Dylan song, but for the more casual, less obsessive listener, it can be a bit of a snooze. The songs are well chosen and certainly revealing, but Dylan and his band play them all pretty much the same, sacrificing any sense of rhythm for stately ambience. Once they strike a mood on opener "I’m a Fool to Want You", they never stray from it. That gives Shadows a distinctive identity in Dylan’s catalog, but it also has a leveling effect. Each song hits the same tempo and strikes the same tone, so that swoon quickly turns somnambulant. As the album progresses, the songs sound more and more emotionally muted, as though this style of American pop songwriting was good only for providing ruminative ambience rather than sophisticated humor, feisty insight, or infectious rhythm. Say what you want about Sinatra, but at least the man could swing.

Sounds like he's never actually listened to those slow bummer Sinatra records.

It's a great record. But I loved the Theme Time Radio Hour shows and the Christmas record. This is squarely in that wheelhouse.

he's not wrong about the overall uniformity of the arrangements, but like that approach -- really enjoyed this on my first listen.

but I like that approach, is what i meant

It’s an idea seemingly as weird as his phlegmy Christmas album

yea there is really nothing weird about dylan doing this album at all! ez snappin otm, this is totally in line with theme time radio hour, it's all part of the dylan picture

I don't get the insistence on how Weird This Is. The guy's been covering the songbook in concerts and rehearsals for at least 30 years.

If he'd done this immediately after Highway 61, THAT would've been genuinely weird. But what Alfred said: Dylan's never made a secret of loving (and covering) standards.

and certainly at least a handful of tracks on every album since love & theft (maybe even time out of mind) have taken this kind of music as inspiration

and i know that plenty will still complain about his vocals, but SITN really is a showcase for Dylan as a singer.

oh man the lap steel on this!

yeah, was reminding me of friends of dean martinez!

it's 7am and i've been sitting here since 11pm trying to review this, it's great, destroys tempest

In a Mikal Gilmore story from '85, Dylan and the Heartbreakers cover "That Lucky Old Sun."

*according to

yeah they played it at farm aid! i think he may have even done that one back w/ the rolling thunder revue?

it's 7am and i've been sitting here since 11pm trying to review this, it's great, destroys tempest

I told Tyler yesterday it's his best record since Love and Theft.

better than the Xmas record?!

a little. Better material.

ha, i'm not sure i'd go as far as best since love & theft just yet, but i do really like it.

there's a whole disk in the Genuine NET covers bootleg box called "Croonin' In The Night", from the late 80s and early 90s

http://www.bobsboots.com/CDs/cd-g41_6.html

i like modern times a lot too though

but yeah where has this singing been?

i know he was smoking at least fairly recently, i'm wondering if maybe he gave up cigs and tempest was the time period when he was clearing out and now maybe his lungs are a little better? i dunno, it's kinda striking

might be the absence of drums that's kinda letting him open up a bit more?

I can see the Mediterranean from my front step and yet it's going to snow here tonight and so this is the perfect album right now

re: smoking - the main detail my daughter seems to have retained about Dylan is that if you smoke cigarettes for 50 years, you sound like he does on the Xmas record

so he's a cautionary tale, basically

although she likes 115th Dream, cuz it's just a funny story

I don't think there's any Dylan voice I dislike, apart from whatever he was doing on Nashville Skyline (and it's only tough to take on "Country Pie").

I absolutely love Gravelly Bob. Easily my favorite Bob voice/approach after the live 1966 stuff.

wow on "That Lucky Old Sun" I hear a little of 1966 live singing, or "Positively 4th Street": "paradise", "wash all our TROUBLES away", and so on

and that is the best Dylan singing era ever imo

I absolutely love Gravelly Bob. Easily my favorite Bob voice/approach after the live 1966 stuff.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, February 3, 2015 11:46 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it may have been an "approach" to a degree, but -- for example -- "Soon After Midnight" off of Tempest isn't far from a song off Shadows in the Night, but contrast how this sounds like he just physically can't sing some of the notes with how assured he is on the new album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCt9Tfv-Ft4

yeah i mean, the amount of shows he does can't be great for wear and tear on the vocal chords. maybe this one was recorded during an extended break?

Seriously, though, Dylan is 73. Springsteen is 65 and plays shows twice as long with three times as much yelling. Macca is 72 and we're really just starting to hear the cracks, and he goes long and loud, too. Only voice I can think of worse than Dylan's is Leonard Cohen, and he is 80, but he owns his croak a bit better than Bob. Also, Cohen could never really sing to begin with, imo.

what's the deal w/ this some enchanted evening cover? we know what it sounds like from one of the greatest bass voices ever so let's now hear it in dylan's scratchy mumble?

bob felt like doing it

i mean i also love singing some enchanted evening [tho only in the shower] so i understand

i mean i'm not being flip it's just asking "what's the deal with [something bob dylan did]" that's p much the answer

anyway i'm digging the album on the whole even though i don't really dig sinatra type stuff that much

whether you like it or not, isn't the whole concept of the "standard" based on how a song changes in the hands of different interpreters?

i've been listening to a lot of nina simone interpreting the old standards recently (she made some great choices) and i'm really in love with the simple but solid as a brick house lyrics. they're just these perfectly formed things.

Mordy a partisan for Il Divo, who knew

lol had no idea they covered enchanted

wonder if Dylan is referencing this album, which also leads off w/ "I'm A Fool To Want You"...?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/LadyInSatin.jpg

I wish our copy of AARP mag would show up -- maybe I got one of the 50,000 free copies.

Seriously, though, Dylan is 73. Springsteen is 65 and plays shows twice as long with three times as much yelling. Macca is 72 and we're really just starting to hear the cracks, and he goes long and loud, too. Only voice I can think of worse than Dylan's is Leonard Cohen, and he is 80, but he owns his croak a bit better than Bob. Also, Cohen could never really sing to begin with, imo.

This is all wrong, except the bit about Springsteen. Macca's voice may not be technically worse than any of the others but given the range he aims for it's now embarrassingly quavery and weak, as anyone who heard live version of the songs from his last album will be able to tell you. Cohen could never sing in the first place but there's so much more richness and depth to his voice than there used to be, it's such an undeniable presence on his newer records.

Dylan also smoked consistently since at least the early 60s, but cut back considerably in preparation for this record (I remember reading somewhere).

Springsteen never smoked, and McCartney stopped smoking cigarettes in the 60s, I believe (though continued to smoke weed like a chimney). Paul figures that hitting the note is more important than the quality of said note when hit, but still has a fairly impressive range for his age.

Paul should switch to vape

Dylan also smoked consistently since at least the early 60s, but cut back considerably in preparation for this record (I remember reading somewhere).

cool i that was my theory

suffering for his art

unfair to compare him w/ springsteen since that dude has clearly found some kind of fountain of youth

Bruce has always been a health/fitness nut, though. Never smoked, never drank to excess, few (if any) late night post-show crazy parties.

Though rumor has it his upcoming autobiography reveals his rampant mid-90s crack addiction.

i was shocked at how good willie sounded considering his weed intake + lung issues.

Willie's voice is a miracle

It's never shocked me that Dylan's voice has been croaky, the point I was making was that even compared to his peers (even those forces of nature) it's dramatically croaky. Is there anyone else whose voice has fallen so far over the years? Marianne Faithfull? Is smoking the evil secret? Surely others have smoked for decades.

Tom Waits claims he quit smoking before Swordfishtrombones or Rain Dogs and his voice actually got worse!

Is there anyone else whose voice has fallen so far over the years?

I hate to say it but from all accounts: Joni Mitchell (and tbf her voice had much farther to fall)

yeah joni is a real shame....

marianne's got "bad" in a more cool way imo kinda like dylan/cohen/waits

but joni was just, man, what a singer :(

yeah

Kurt Wagner was always a croaker, but the last time I paid attention to any Lambchop he sounded much, much worse than on their first couple of records.

also marianne's "ruined" voice is kind of the whole crux of her breakout album (broken english)

Marianne's ruin, period.

Dylan's voice is an interesting topic for sure, but maybe it needs to go a bit further than good/bad improve/deteriorate. This Lanois quote is interesting to me:

I’ve heard Bob have several voices over the decades and I like them all. I liked the Nashville Skyline era a lot. There was a particular tone that he adopted. The thing about Bob’s voice is that he has very dense print. The microphone loves his voice. He’s got about a 20 dB advantage over other singers – in the sense that he’s got that mid-range in his print. To we record-makers, that means that you get to turn the microphone down 20 dB, because he’s delivering an extra 20, which means you then get a 20dB improvement on your signal to noise ratio. So the bleeding into Bob’s mike is not a problem, it’s an enhancement. But if a quieter singer was in the room, with a lesser print, you could not get away with that recording that we did on Time Out Of Mind cos it would just be junky and mumbo-jumbo.

It's from http://www.uncut.co.uk/bob-dylan/bob-dylan-tell-tale-signs-special-part-ten-interview

Also the p4k quote abt Bobologists scrutinizing lyrics must be from the 60s. Anyway, will see my local record store tomorrow, psyched for this from reading all the posts!

I hate to say it but from all accounts: Joni Mitchell (and tbf her voice had much farther to fall)

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, February 3, 2015 4:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Another heavy smoker, too.

has p4k really been behind any dylan album in the last howevermany? i still occasionally remember, who is it, the one they got douglas wolk in for, sniffing at how 'if this were not by dylan people would think it was meh', and then get irked

personally the last one i legit loved was love + theft, and maybe 30% of modern times

same

and i get the point of a covers / standards album but like --

do u know like when ppl are singing songs in the voice of a particularly recognizable singing voice? like axel rose sings X, scott stapp sings Y, bob dylan, etc. this album just sounds like a bunch of friends singing popular songs in "dylan" voice except not as funny. and it's especially egregious on songs that are notable particularly bc of famous/exciting vocal performances. u know what it's really missing is dylan singing old man river.

I absolutely love Gravelly Bob. Easily my favorite Bob voice/approach after the live 1966 stuff.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat),

i LOVE his nashville skyline voice

what is wrong w/ people?

I dunno, what do you think is wrong with people?

too many opinions

Pat Benatar cover!

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn),

when i saw him in november he still sounded like a gremlin burning in the pits of hell

I dunno, what do you think is wrong with people?

― it takes 14 to make a baby (WilliamC), Tuesday, February 3, 2015 8:17 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

everything IIRC

when i saw him in november he still sounded like a gremlin burning in the pits of hell

― brimstead, Tuesday, February 3, 2015 10:31 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is killing me

Is there anyone else whose voice has fallen so far over the years?

paul young takes the cake. the poor fella just can't hold a note anymore and we're talking about a former "golden voice" who's only in his 50s. shocking!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2hzLpZftLQ

i watched about one minute of a video of a recent "comeback" concert by shirley collins (english folk singer) and she can't stay on pitch at all, her voice is extremely weak, it's basically shot to hell. worse than paul young IMO. very sad. i do wonder whether these people realize how they sound and wonder why people are listening to them.

i mean in paul young's case i guess he has to make a living.

in shirley's case i think people sort of coaxed her to come out of retirement.

if people get some enjoyment about of listening to them even now, i guess who am i to stand in their way, right? but it's sad.

We're running with the shadows in the night
So baby take my hand, it'll be all right
Surrender all your dreams to me tonight
They'll come true in the end

-B. Dylan

can we get stet to code 'shadows' to change to stadows' the way the hatcat pops up

Cliff's voice is still holding up pretty well, shame about the material tho.

OMG the tinymixtapes review

Bob Dylan plays the basic totems of the 20th century's repressed occult psyche
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/bob-dylan-shadows-in-the-night

watched about one minute of a video of a recent "comeback" concert by shirley collins (english folk singer) and she can't stay on pitch at all, her voice is extremely weak, it's basically shot to hell.

Shirley Collins stopped singing altogether in 1978 because she suffers from dysphonia (inability to sing, basically – Linda Thompson suffered from the same condition). The "comeback" you refer to was not a concert but an unannounced guest slot at a Current 93 gig – David Tibet has been championing her for years and she said she would not have sung onstage again for anyone except him.

I thought she sounded pretty good

Linda sounds great now at least on her last album

i'm well aware of that, anagram. it was still sad because she had almost no voice, and couldn't stay on pitch at all.

if you think she "sounds great"... wow.

oh, you mean linda. well, i don't think shirley sounded "pretty good" at all, unless you're measuring that against, i dunno, dysphonia.

if you're aware that she suffers from dysphonia then it seems peculiar to note her inability to stay on pitch without acknowledging that fact. also not to acknowledge the fact that it was not a comeback concert.

Linda Thompson has sounded great since her comeback several years ago.

i contributed to the shirley collins doc kickstarter and the link to the video was advertised as a "comeback" appearance. i recognize that it's more complex than that.

dysphonia or not, it was very hard to listen to her, and i couldn't make it through more than about a minute.

you gonna be ok?

jeez, people on ILM are touchy today

sorry i set off your sensitivometers for daring to point out that she can't sing anymore and it made me sad

while you're at it, spare a few tears for paul young

like honestly all our bodies will betray us before it's over

what do you want? she knows she can't sing like she did, that's why she retired

if she came back for one night because a friend talked her into it and there was a crowd of people who wanted to appreciate what she meant to them, why on earth is that wrong?
so fucking what if she doesn't have a strong voice anymore? she doesn't owe you or anyone else shit. fuck "legacies", it's hard for people when they can't do the things that once defined
who they are anymore. you don't think she's thought about this?

i seemed like it was a nice moment, a nice evening for everyone who was there. that's all that matters.

there's nothing wrong with it, as i said above. i'm glad she and her fans got something out of it. i was just sad at what had happened to her voice. a little shocked, even. that's it.

why don't you actually read what i wrote instead of projecting all this crap onto me?

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-thanks-jimi-hendrix-johnny-cash-in-musicares-speech-20150207

Dylan also poked fun at critics who trash his singing voice. "Why don't they say those same things about Leonard Cohen?" Dylan said. "Why do I get special treatment?"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/02/07/people-bob-dylan-dissed-musicares-speech-merle-haggard-tom-t-hall/23030167/

More of the folks Dylan praised or dissed

"Yakety yak, don't talk back. Charlie Brown is a clown. Baby, I'm a hog for you. Novelty songs. They weren't saying anything serious.

"But Doc's songs, they were better. This Magic Moment. Lonely Avenue. Save the Last Dance for Me. Those songs broke my heart. I figured I'd rather have his blessings any day than theirs."

Weird that he sort of trashed Merle Haggard, since he opened a tour of Bob's not too long ago.

Lol at the sketchy visual provided by the artists referenced in his "sure Atlantic had good acts but sun was REVOLUTIONARY" bit, why not say Atlantic had a lot if natural talent but sun was intelligent bob

"Y'know I never cared what people thought of my tunes but I gotta say everyone who dug me was outstanding and everyone who didn't was ok at best."

I hope his tombstone reads "I was probably better than you"

Poor Marsha Ambrosius!

If she had only had the opportunity to go compliment him, before she sang the national anthem

is dylan off his meds? what a meany.

Merle, on FB today:

Bob Dylan I've admired your songs since 1964. "Don't Think Twice" Bob, Willie and I just recorded it on our new album.

It's not half as mean in context. But who cares about that?

i read the context. it's still pretty churlish. oh well.

when will the never-ending tour end? when the heroin runs out

haha why don't people say that about… tom waits… or leonard cohen… or lou reed…

uh bob

Don't think anyone's linked the whole transcript yet:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-grammys-2015-transcript-of-bob-dylans-musicares-person-of-year-speech-20150207-story.html#page=1

It seems weird that someone who has received as much critical acclaim as Dylan has over the years should still remember and seem bothered by ancient slights. I guess no matter how much praise you receive as an artist it's never enough. Still seems a bit petty. The story about Billy Lee Riley was genuinely touching though.

The whole thing isn't nearly as bitter as ppl are making it out to be. There are a lot of really poignant parts, weird parts, goofy parts, mean parts, very dylan I guess.

A good and slightly boring album.

The speech is pretty consistent with that last big Rolling Stone interview, where he hit some of the same petty grievances. Difference this time is naming so many names. (And weird ones, too -- I would've figured him for a Tom T. Hall fan, but maybe he never listened deeper than "I Love.") Anyway, hard to be surprised that the guy who wrote "Positively 4th Street" 50 years ago has grown into a surly old man.

Well, he's got Bob Lefsetz on his side, so...

He also takes on two ILM sacred cows, ABBA and Steeely Dan. I don't think he's a fan of them being in the rock and roll hall of fame.

The song choices were confounding. A track from “Saved”? Another from “Oh Mercy”? Even the most dedicated Dylanologist would not only be disappointed, but would struggle to know the lyrics of these obscurities.

so what kind of Dylan fan would you be if you didn't applaud these choices?

Kiki from Brooklyn, NY comments in the nytimes:

"Dylan was always just himself."
I strongly disagree. Robert Zimmerman has NEVER been himself in public, always appearing in character as Bob Dylan, and, really, that has been a key to his greatness. He plays the character of an idealized, oracular, mysterious poet, ever speaking truth in riddles and indirection. He has acted in movies, but he only plays the Bob Dylan character. He plays is so well, that most people don't even realize he's in character all the time when he's in public. I'm sure if we'd known the inside details of the middle class kid from Hibbing, or the details of where his lyrics came from, it would diminish our ability to take the character seriously. I suspect that there is a highly analytical and ambitious man behind the character, but we'll probably never know.

Sam Cooke said this when told he had a beautiful voice: He said, "Well that's very kind of you, but voices ought not to be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth." Think about that the next time you [inaudible].

i just died laughing at this

Kiki otm

Right. It's not like the clear demarcation between, say, Jim and Iggy.

many lols, especially at

"Y'know I never cared what people thought of my tunes but I gotta say everyone who dug me was outstanding and everyone who didn't was ok at best."

― da croupier, Saturday, February 7, 2015 2:05 PM (4 days ago)

I don't find this boring. I just want more. I'm glad that a Rogers & Hammerstein tune gets play, and I've always been a fan of 'Lucky Old Sun.' Frankie Laine due for some sort of revival. There's something so chill about this album. I had it shuffled with a Buddy Guy antholgoy and the new Father John Misty and it sort of felt like some sort of cranky-classy mdidle ground.

I want more score-settling with fellow musicians for perceived slights.

Dylan needs to do series of McConaughey-style car ads were he throws other musicians out of said cars.

Merle Haggard just knows what you need
But Buck Owens knows what you want

follow up to the musicares speech
www.bobdylan.com/news/conversation-bill-flanagan

or:
Holland-Dozier-Holland said Bob Dylan was just an illusion but Bill "Smokey" Robinson said his talent was growing, like the size of a fish that a man claims broke his reel, and we know who America's greatest living poet was, don't we?

(xp obv) thanks for link for weekend reading

Bob Dylan has second album of standards, says Daniel Lanois

stadowing e-40 on the day shift

I'll take another volume. I love this one.

yeah i think it said early on that he had recorded something upwards of 22 tracks... yeah, i'll take another volume, I'm really enjoying this album. wonder if the stuff he left off of Shadows is different in tone or the same general mellow vibe.
new noir-y video (starring robert davi!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOxy_hy22CA

good video, needs more davi

god, both dylan and davi look like they're in warren beatty's dick tracy, but they don't actually need a bunch of makeup/prosthetics

still laughing at that video, especially bob's period-appropriate hair styling

kind of violent though (again)

still disappointed this isn't called Stadows in the Night

what do you mean, it is

I thought it was Saddos in the Night

This is a pretty cool performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=157&v=u_djZiswcrQ

yeah sounded great...
he added autumn leaves to his set on the most recent neverending tour jaunt.

man he looks spooked tho, give the man a guitar to at least hold or something

This is my most played record of 2015 thus far. I truly adore it.

I guess I should get around to listening to it. The only post-2000 Dylan albums I don't own are this one and the Christmas one.

It's a great record for late night listening

gave it a spin sunday and lots of tunes now stuck in my head

RUMORS!!!!!!!
Bob Dylan's next album is called "Fallen Angels." Four-song 7" is coming out for Japanese tour and Record Store Day. Side A: Melancholy Mood, All or Nothing at All. Side B: Come Rain or Come Shine, That Old Black Magic.

Cool! Forgot to paste this, from Rolling Country 2015 & Nashville Scene ballot comments (now archived on thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com)
Bob Dylan's Shadows In The Night tracks a worn but sometimes surprisingly poised, limber, white-bluesy growl---in effect like the later Sinatra's shrewd conservation and investment of remaining resources (look for the 1980s cable concert from Wolf Trap, for inst) through the moonlight, with acoustic bass and steel guitar navigating, Cap'n D always at the wheel. The romantic ritualism could just seem like the "elaborate sentimentality" tag twhich young Nik Cohn applied in passing, but this is the sound of conviction, beyond excuses for getting wasted: the opener, "I'm a Fool To Want You" is spooked realization--this time is like the first time, and now he can't shake the chil. Ditto matter how many times those "Autumn Leaves" have drifted by, and how mellow the sadness they can bring, he dreads the the sign of their coming once more(oops, spoiler, but I never noticed the dramatic climax written in before, maybe because I never listened to the end before, so give the grizzled tones more points for that).
And love songs can be like work songs here---another old-school country association---nevertheless, somehow he gets into a drift that gradually spins him around, in his spacey, autumn leafy way---"I go away for the weekend, and leave my keys in the door"---which leads to a happier realization, "I've always been your clown"---happier because, hey "Why try to change me now." He enjoys the quest, the cruise, the growlin' prowl in the blue moonlight (and shadows, yes)! So the second half reflects this, at least 'til "That Lucky Ol' Sun" flips the light on: more work ahead, but he sounds ready for it, even if complaining and jealous of the Sun (can't get too happy, or it wouldn't be country).

"Elaborate sentimentality" tag which young Nik Cohn applied in passing to country music as a whole; in his 60s collection Rock From The Beginning, AKA A Whop-Bop-A-Loo-Bop-A-Lop-Bam-Boom and maybe other titles.

Sounds cool, is it presumably outtakes from Stadows sessions?

is this out or what?

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

was a RSD thing right? album is out in a couple weeks, i think.

was just checking out a recent show: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=2855

http://exclaim.ca/images/16worst.jpg

^^mentioned in a "worst covers of 2016" listicle... gotta say, it is very uninspired...

From wiki entry for "Amour Fou" (Season 3) episode of the Sopranos:

The music played when Ralph returns home to comfort Rosalie is a Bob Dylan cover of a Dean Martin song, "Return To Me". It was recorded for this episode at Dylan's request, as he is an admitted fan of the series [David Chase mentions this in the DVD/Blu-ray audio commentary for this episode].

this is really odd and I never noticed it before. Was this the beginning of his American songbook phase?

that one is pretty nice -- he was doing a handful of old crooner tunes throughout the neverending tour, though -- http://www.bobsboots.com/CDs/cd-g41_6.html

that's interesting!

there is of course also "Blue Moon" on Self Portrait, really it's probably an interest of his that's been there all along - reading Chronicles it's interesting to see how many artists from different genres (even different art forms) Dylan (at least retrospectively) identifies with