Is Bob Dylan overrated?

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-dylan-favourite-songs-to-dance-to-ramones-buck-owens/
From the Ramones to Buck Owens: Bob Dylan's 18 favourite songs to dance to
Cool, but think I'd take out the overworked Martha & The Vs (who wants to dance in the *streets* awready), and add Gram P. & Emmylou's take on Tom T.'s "I Can't Dance":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gWkMzWsYWU

lol that all 18 songs have "dance" in the title

That's how he knew. Damn, still wantin those pix, esp. Katz's!

It looks like a Dylan song.

lol that all 18 songs have "dance" in the title

He probably just did a song title search for "dance" in his music collection and picked some he liked when asked.

dow otm

octobeard too

the bunker hill track is so good, truly unhinged

Theme Time Radio Hour is so good; I ignored it when it came out but I've been listening this year and it's really astonishing how much work he put into the details of it: every song has an intro that's surprising, informative, often very funny, and perfectly delivered.

i liked it a lot when it was on, i should revisit it, probably a great quarantine listen. the intros and stories are all great and his vibe & delivery are perfect for that format. (although maybe i'm cynical but i always assumed that a team was programming the shows and writing it and he just showed up to record the breaks - i just have too hard a time imagining that he actually has heard & remembers "dance the slurp" or the dirtbombs or whatever, staying up late sweating over needing to find four more "Tree" songs or whatever.)

He probably just did a song title search for "dance" in his music collection and picked some he liked when asked.

Suggests he's never danced to a song in his life.

I bet he has

Just none of the ones on this list.

Bob busts out some sweet dance moves at the end of this (amazing) video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nheBN2UWAaM

lol xp a youtube search for "bob dylan dancing" produces a handful of videos that really stretch the definition - mostly clips of him bending his knees slightly while playing guitar

as a 'song & dance man' his focus over the years has been a little lopsided imo

xp Yeah, I think there was a team researching it and probably writing a lot of it, but it has a very consistent voice, it sounds like him, and it seems to genuinely reflect his interests in music and history, so I think he must have had a pretty big role in putting it all together. My guess is it's a bit like the Daily Show was back in the Jon Stewart days - not at all a solo effort, but very clearly bearing the creative imprint of the person in charge.

yeah i mean people are acting like this is a too obvious, focus group Obama "songs of the summer" playlist or something, it's pretty weird and seems very "bob" to me

he's probably danced more than many of us, just because of when he was born, just from my mom being a rural minnesotan just a bit younger than dylan. they went to dances all the time. it was just what you did. also people used to know how to couple dance.

xp That is an amazing video! How have I never seen that before?

My guess is that when Bob Dylan is around people he knows and trusts, he does a lot of normal-person stuff including dancing.

There's one show with the theme "classic rock" where he starts by saying he's gotten a lot of requests for this theme, so here you go. And then he plays an hour's worth of songs about rocks. That's the kind of goofy trolling that could only come direct from the man himself.

I'm not putting down his dance list (other than "Dancing In The Streets," which, aside from the unappealing title conceit, never *sounded* like anything I wanted to dance to, no matter who did it)! Songs about rocks looks great, incl his comments:
https://www.themetimeradio.com/episode-55-classic-rock/
(Would maybe add "I am a Rock" and "Boulder to Birmingham")

Is that video footage from Hearts of Fire or filmed specifically for the video?

I'm imagining it's from an 80s sitcom starring Bob - just needs a dog puppet at the end saying, "get a load of this guy."

The "Tight Connection" video? It's its own thing — directed by Paul Schrader!

No, it's from The Never Ending Tour, staring Bob Dylan as himself, Rita Moreno, Rick Schroeder (S1 only), and the voice of Redd Foxx as Scoop the Dog.

He actually did guest on Dharma & Greg.

(Couple more good rock songs: "Love Me Like A Rock," "Big Rock Candy Mountain." And smell what The Rock is cookin'.)

He actually did guest on Dharma & Greg.

lol, i forgot about this.

Reminds that somehow I came across this the other day?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DkP4G1LzNI

Veeps will present Bob Dylan in an exclusive broadcast performance, Shadow Kingdom, which will showcase the artist in an intimate setting as he presents renditions of songs from his extensive body of work created especially for this event.
Tickets are on sale now for his show on Sunday, July 18 at BobDylan.veeps.com.

an intimate setting

"Purchase your tickets for this virtual performance below. “Shadow Kingdom” will remain available to view until 11:59PM PT on July 20, 2021."

I wonder if we can buy tickets AFTER the show and watch it in that two-day window, i.e. wait for fans to say whether it was a good or less-than-good show.

if i know anything about bob dylan fans, there is *not* going to be a consensus on that

Hah, good point!

My favorite take from someone I know who attended Bob Dylan shows throughout his life: "I've seen him a dozen times. One of them was one of the greatest shows I've EVER seen...and for the rest of them, he was fucking terrible."

lol the first time I saw him (around 2010) I thought he was incredible. I talked to someone else later who was at the same show; they were amazed I enjoyed it, they thought his voice was awful lol

Second time in 2014 I had a closer seat and it was just so overwhelming and awesome that I barely remember individual moments. Totally sober at the time!

One of the few shows I've ever seen that put me to sleep, back when he had two fiddle players. At least I got to see Merle Haggard open up. Other times I've seen him he was absolutely great. After the time I fell asleep I kind of swore him off, but I know someone that saw him the last time he came through town and said it was pretty solid, especially when he did the crooner stuff.

The best shows I've seen him do were the two that happened in the last few years, the first one opening for Mavis Staples (who was great). I think I know why - in both cases, he played the same exact setlist for the entire leg of the tour, so by the time I saw him, it was like a smooth, running machine where there was no guesswork. (And even two years apart, both shows I saw still had a LOT of overlap in the setlist, maybe 3/4.) Worst show was unfortunately the one time I was close-up, like in the GA section and close to the edge of the stage. The excitement of being that close really wears off when he's not only messing up the words but doing it so bad that someone in the band reacts in horror.

FWIW, once I became very familiar with Charley Patton, it kind of struck me that Dylan's approach to performing comes from him, especially since Dylan has name-checked him quite a few times in the few interviews he's given in his later years. Read Robert Palmer's classic Deep Blues where he discusses how one of Patton's own peers complained that they couldn't understand Patton - once you make that connection, a lot of the same elements apply, where singing becomes more about rhythmic vocalizing rather than enunciating words. On the one hand, that sounds odd when it's artist who made his name with songwriting, especially the lyrics, but it also makes perfect sense given his connection (especially the musical elements of his songs) to traditional folk music, which also encompasses deep Mississippi blues (and many other things, to be fair).

Also, it looks like my second paragraph may conflict with the anecdote about the worst show I ever saw, but even when Dylan's enunciation isn't crystal clear, it's not the same as forgetting the words altogether. In that show I mentioned, he got clearly forgot an entire line when he got ready to sing, drew a blank, and then very late in that space where the line should be, he dropped a random glob of gibberish like it was a piece of food falling out of his mouth. That ain't Patton.

*he clearly forgot

On the one hand, that sounds odd when it's artist who made his name with songwriting, especially the lyrics, but it also makes perfect sense

Not odd at all, imo. Dylan's lyrics have always prized rhythm and sound over meaning or the words themselves.

The first time I saw him was on a late 70s tour that started (in Japan?) with pix of him in makeup, careful coiff, white scarf,Neil Diamond-Elivs-type glittery outfit, and stage patter: "We;;, as my friend Jerry Garcia says, I must be getting down the road." in Birmingham, his recombinat orchestra swarmed the stage, and then he came out kind of hunched over, blinking, hair flattened on one side, in what looked like a wrinkled Cisco Kind outfit (little black jacket and matching pants, w white fringe and brocade around the inset jewelry, also dirty white tennis shoes (in the 80s, I had a table at a record show across from a dealer who kept showiing excerpts from that whole tour, always with the same outfit clearly visible, unless he had 20 of 'em).
All the performers were standing in small groups, and he would beckon over either a whole subset, maybe put two or more of those together, or some from combo A, some from B, maybe order off-menu from the wings as well, like a guy whom he introduced as having played sax on some famous record of the early 60s or 50s, new providing flute for a verra nice trio "Blowin' In The Wind." Then a pre-speed metal big band "Masters of War." The female black gospel-style group sang all of "Rainy Day Women." I don't remember his own voice that well, but wotta showman.

Sscond time I saw him was in the early 90s, also in North Alabama, this time at Oak Mountain (now or more recently Verizon) Ampitheater. Smaller group, very hot, the Never-Ending Tour band of that era, natch. Vocals were mostly low-key, okay, main thing with him was excellent guitar, rocking out and fingerpicking the acoustica. "Watchtower" was diabolical, galloping up and then by, fading out, then coming back, the Roadrunner bee-beep, screwing with Wile E. Coyote and the folks in the Tower and the Ampitheater too. Eventually the middle of something else swallowed it along the way to "Highway 61," with steel (and maybe slide) guitar as very extended siren call.

"Well, as my friend Jerry" etc that should be

There's some kind of new doc out today: https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/bobdylanoddsandends

Has anyone watched the Shadow Kingdom thing? Just learned that Buck Meek of Big Thief was in his band, which is cool.

(apparently the answer to birdistheword’s question below is “yes”; it’s still available to watch for 2 days. I can see a live performance being handled that way, but a concert film? if I pay $25 to watch something on a computer screen, I’d like at least to “own” it and be able to rewatch it at my leisure…)

I wonder if we can buy tickets AFTER the show and watch it in that two-day window, i.e. wait for fans to say whether it was a good or less-than-good show.

Nice to see "What Was It You Wanted?" on the Shadow Kingdom setlist.

watched it, really really great. he's singing so we'll, band was fantastic. definitely odd almost twin peaks staging, really worked well overall

Yeah, I could have sworn I saw someone post that this band and some of their versions are better than any previous versions, period. Did I hear that Dylan played some guitar again, or did I misread?

He did a bit, sometimes played but sometimes just hanging around his neck, mostly just singing without guitar

His voice is really good, the version of "Forever Young" was really something