Bob Dylan "Shadows in the Night"

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.