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

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.