Is Bob Dylan overrated?

*overt

I know he went to a lot of shows with his sons in the early '80s - IIRC The Clash, Elvis Costello, Squeeze and X were favorites - and he was always interested in hip hop. (I think the Oh Mercy chapter of Chronicles talks a lot about what he was listening to when he made that album around 1988/1989.) But Dylan draws from a broad array of material, far more than most songwriters. Arguably the majority of it comes from folk songs and literature that pre-date rock n' roll. On some level I'm surprised there aren't more songwriters who do this because it seems to supply Dylan with unending inspiration. You almost have to be a musicologist in order to do that though, and usually someone like that will cover the songs rather than recombine them into something new.

"CIA Man". Good choice, Bob.

In Chronicles, I recall he mentions a few rappers (Ice-T and maybe someone else), and says – "Those guys weren't sitting around bullshitting."

Right, all good points, but there's still an aura about him that he's not quite attentive to his surroundings. Like despite actually being in a band with Jeff Lynne - how many ELO records do you think he's heard?

John Prine had a story about a release party for his first album. Dylan showed up. Prine had never met him before. Prine gave a performance and Dylan sang along, knowing all the words of Prine's songs even though his record wasn't out yet. Prine later learned that Dylan had been given an advance copy.

Jeff Lynne may not be the best example - it may have been more like "well, if George, Tom and Roy want him..." (more George than anyone else) Also 1988 was well after ELO's heyday. I think Dylan was probably better off looking into Public Enemy in his spare time than ELO, and IIRC that's exactly what he was doing.

I'll add that Dylan seems to keep people at a distance. Like it comes off as aloofness but I think he just does it more as a protective measure. This comes up when he toured with Jack White. I can't remember the details, but White approached him one time about something movie-related. I can't remember if he saw something on a guitar or what, but he saw something that made opening the discussion appropriate. Dylan didn't say anything though, and White kind of went away, feeling embarrassed. Then later that day or the next, there's a knock on his bus and he finds out Dylan has sent over a stack of movies related to whatever subject he was talking about - so in the end, he was listening, did process all of it, and did appreciate whatever White said, but he just wasn't going to launch into a discussion about it at that time.

xxxpost John Prine's first album! Well, it's post-'67, but John Prine came out in '71. Which is also when Tom Waits started recording, at least---could swear I've heard some on the radio announced as being from 1969, but earliest I'm seeing now are '71 sessions released in 90s as The Early Years, Vols 1 & 2. The point of mentioning Watis is that mention of Prine reminds me of my ancient Pazz & Jop blurb:

Love and Theft is the best Tom Waits album Ever

(And Prine's whole career in based on, "What if sweet early Bobby D. had stayed in the same sad-funny mode his entire career, aging gracefully, of course?" Not so much The New Dylan, as he among others was called at the time, as The New Old Dylan.)

So yeah, both are post-67, at least in terms of releases, but still not exactly Cardi B. They ollld.

But that's okay; Dylan has learned how to keep intimations of Antique Americana, new as olde, fresh again, like he did on the basement tapes, though not really thinking of them as an album, and John Wesley Harding, down to his 21st Century originals, for the most part.

Noel Stookey is best-known by his middle name: Paul. That’s “Paul” as in the iconic musical trio Peter, Paul, & Mary. They first found success in the ‘60s folk music boom — and, along the way, helped a certain young songwriter with an acquired-taste voice reach a broader audience. Their “Blowin’ in the Wind” was the first recording of a Dylan song to top a Billboard chart (Bob wouldn’t top a chart with his own recording until “Murder Most Foul” in 2020).

Six decades on, Stookey’s still going strong pursuing both music and activism. On the music front, he released his latest album Fazz earlier this year, fusing folk and jazz (hence the title). And on the activism front, he co-founded the nonprofit Music to Life with his daughter Elizabeth Stookey Sunde. Over the summer, Music to Life received a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to train musicians across all geographies, genres and generations in social-justice work. Interested musicians can join Music to Life’s mailing list for more information on the 2023 program.

“These artists are activists, really,” he explains. “This is not just holding a benefit dinner where somebody gets up and sings a song, and we donate $100 to move it along. I fall into the camp of the guy who's called to do the benefit, but these activists that Music to Life supports actually go into the community, from the prisons of Maine to the homeless of Houston. There's an element of hands-on participation that wasn't there in the '60s.”

When I called Stookey up recently, we, naturally, mostly talked Dylan. That means the heady days of Greenwich Village in the ‘60s, of course, but also when he spent time with Bob and The Band up in Woodstock after the motorcycle accident, and also several later run-ins in the ‘80s.

(Always dug PP&M's cover of "Too Much of Nothin'")

My dad was acquainted with Stookey in high school (suburban Detroit), and played alto on this pre-PP&M record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5OdE8hZFvU

Ah noice, thanks. These connections!

If you’re a guitar player who likes Bob Dylan enough to, say, subscribe to a whole newsletter about him (heh), you’ve probably discovered Dylanchords.

The site is an indispensable resource for guitarists both amateur and advanced. It offers tabs for way more songs than any other site — every Dylan song on every Dylan album, of course, but also covers, live versions, and more. Want to learn how to play that cool guitar riff in the At Budokan version of “Maggie’s Farm”? It’s here. Larry Campbell’s amazing fingerpicking part in “Girl of the North Country” circa 2003-4. Head here.

But even if you’re just a beginner hoping to strum along to “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the Dylanchords page will be a more reliable source for those chords than anywhere else.

The man behind Dylanchords is Eyolf Østrem, who’s been tabbing out Dylan songs for twenty-five years now (and recently launched his own Dylan newsletter, Dylanology, which specializes in deep dives and music theory). I recently asked him about all things Bob-on-guitar, from how he started the site to what tabs he’d recommend to what he actually thinks of Bob as an electric guitarist. Some of what’s below will primarily be of interest to guitar players, but much of it will appeal to anyone interested in how Bob writes and performs his music.

Note: This is the second in an occasional series chatting with Bob superfans creating interesting, for lack of a less annoying catchall word, content. Here’s the first if you missed it:

Flagging Down the Double E's
A Guide to Some of the Best Live-Dylan Compilations Out There
As I’ve mentioned here before, after a decade of fairly obsessive Dylan fandom starting in the mid-2000s, I semi-checked out in the early 2010s. No big reason, and not even a conscious decision. I was just doing other stuff. Living in NYC made it easy; I could still see him once a year when he inevitably came through, but otherwise not pay super close attention…
Read more
2 months ago · 11 likes · 13 comments · Ray Padgett
Here’s me and Eyolf:

jeez, i had never heard this live version (the only one) of "abandoned love". heads will already know it, i'm sure, but it's new to me and it's an incredible performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNeZVC2sn4A

(that song/tab was mentioned in the interview dow just posted -- thanks for that link dow! dylanchords is an amazing resource, prime example of old school internet and why it ruled)

You're welcome, and I think tylerw said that "Abandoned Love" was from around the time of Desire, right? If he'd put that one on there, with "Golden Loom" (from the Desire sessions, I think), the album could have been so much better---or at least, had not just left "Abandoned Love" along the way---

(Yet more golden wtf moments in Dylan)

that performance of Abandoned Love kills me every time. and the crowd knows what they're getting. perfect.

now i'm working through the dylanchords guy's how to play guitar in 2 weeks tutorials, and learning how to play and sing A Hard Rain's (in drop-d, i find) i'm once again profoundly moved by

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

which is just fucking brilliant and a thing for humanity to be proud about achieving

otm

then Bryan Ferry steals it from him.

i know that musically it wouldn't make sense to go back to the parental figure asking the questions at the beginning of each verse. but i also like how it ends with him saying what he says, and the parental figure doesn't have a response or a further question. it's just like "damn, blue eyed son, you sure did tell me what'll you do now"

Yeah, and that power comes through even/especially as xpost Ferry deflates the occasional overblown bits w sound effects and "Greek Chorus"/concerned citizens for the poet who dies in the gutter etc---the ending and overall goes w the punk messenger warnings, forecasts of "The Times They Are A-Changing."

The part that has blown me a way for 30 years is that he was 22 when he wrote that - it seems so timeless like it's been handed down for a thousand years.

KM otmfm on Hard Rain

It's crazy that the only live performance ever given for "Abandoned Love" was an off-the-cuff performance at someone else's gig...and by sheer luck someone in the audience had a tape recording going.

I wish the fidelity was better, but we're lucky we got anything at all. The version later recorded in the studio during the Desire sessions is pretty good, but the live version is even better. Dylan's vocal just kills and even the words were tweaked a bit for the studio recording - more polished but a bit less raw and affecting as well.

Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'

I love how unexpectedly modest this is, after all that stirring imagery - the way it gestures toward being messianic and then swerves away at the last moment, and instead it's about just doing your work to the best of your abilities and for as long as you can.

Terrific posts in today’s thread revive.

‘O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal, my son?
And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?’
‘I ha’ been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ hunting, and fain wad lie down.

‘An wha met ye there, Lord Randal, my son?
An wha met you there, my handsome young man?’
‘O I met wi my true-love; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ hunting, and fain wad lie down.’

‘And what did she give you, Lord Randal, my son?
And what did she give you, my handsome young man?’
‘Eels fried in a pan; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ hunting, and fain wad lie down.’

‘And wha gat your leavins, Lord Randal, my son?
And wha gat your leavins, my handsome young man?’
‘My hawks and my hounds; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’ hunting, and fain wad lie down.’

‘And what became of them, Lord Randal, my son?
And what became of them, my handsome young man?’
‘They stretched their legs out an died; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m weary wi’ hunting, and fain wad lie down.’

‘O I fear you are poisoned, Lord Randal, my son!
I fear you are poisoned, my handsome young man!’
‘O yes, I am poisoned; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.”

‘What d’ ye leave to your mother, Lord Randal, my son?
What d ‘ye leave to your mother, my handsome young man?’
‘Four and twenty milk kye; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’

‘What d’ ye leave to your sister, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ ye leave to your sister, my handsome young man?’
‘My gold and my silver; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’

‘What d’ ye leave to your brother, Lord Randal, my son?
What d ‘ye leave to your mother, my handsome young man?’
‘My house and my lands; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’

‘What d’ ye leave to your true-love, Lord Randal, my son?
What d ‘ye leave to your true-love, my handsome young man?’
‘I leave her hell and fire; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’

took that form and just blew it to smithereens

Conceit is the disease that the doctors got no cure
They've done a lot of research on it but what it is they're still not sure

ok bob

They're getting closer now!

Everything is broken!

Cynthia Gooding is perhaps best known to Dylan fans as the host of a ‘60s radio show called Folksingers Choice. In early 1962, she conducted what appears to be the first major interview with Dylan, which has since circulated widely. It is extremely engaging, as a Dylan who sounds unusually comfortable sings songs and spins yarns. A bit of it was animated a few years ago for the PBS TV show Blank on Blank:

But Cynthia Gooding did more with Dylan than just that famous interview. Among other things, she was a regular taper at Gerde’s Folk City, recording artists’ sets to play on her radio show. She was in the crowd with her gear on October 1, 1961, taping an early Bob performance as part of his residency with The Greenbriar Boys. This was the same residency that Robert Shelton reviewed so favorably in the New York Times, the review that kickstarted Dylan’s career.

On October 1, the night Gooding was recording, that review had just run. Dylan even talked about it from the stage.

Sadly, the tape is not available to us to hear. It does exist though! The Bob Dylan Archives acquired Gooding’s tapes in 2018, and it includes this show. Our old friend Parker Fishel from the Bob Dylan Archives, who has access to the tape, noted down Dylan’s onstage comments about Shelton’s New York Times rave for me:

"I said before, I'm sort of sick. I've been up [three?] nights reading the New York Times. I just can't let go, but I've got it with me downstairs. I've been reading it over and over again and haven't gotten any sleep for the last three nights. And I'm just reading and reading it to death. I bought 500 papers."

In 1979, a Dylanologist named George Rothe visited Gooding at her apartment. She played him a bunch of her reel-to-reel tapes. He tooks notes and, many years later, wrote about it in a letter to Dylan author Clinton Heylin. He posted this fascinating document to rec.music.dylan, which I gather was the early-internet Dylan messageboard of choice (well before my time). The whole thing is worth reading, but here’s Rothe setting the scene:

Well, I got to the apartment and 'dumbstruck' is the only way to describe what I saw. Cynthia Gooding is a tall woman, easily six feet tall, good looking with a good figure and greying hair. She had a small bookshelf unit filled with reel-to-reel tapes. The spines of the tape boxes read like a who's who of Bleeker Street. Names like Ochs, Paxton, Van Ronk, and of course Dylan stood lined up together. I gave her the discography. She gave me a bottle of red wine to open. After glancing at the first few pages, she said, "You're missing so much from the early days." She then pulled the first Dylan box from the shelf. She started to play it on her Sony reel-to-reel and realized it was all backwards. She said something about "not having played the tapes for years and years", and that this particular tape was recorded for broadcast on a show she used to do for WBAI in the early 60's. I rewound the tape so it would play properly. By the opening bars I knew I had never heard this song before. I asked her if she would allow me to make a copy of the tape. She hesitated and told me of the bad experience her friends (the McKenzies) had had with a Dylan biographer (Scaduto) and that she would only allow me to copy the tapes if "Bobby or his office said it was alright." I knew my chances were less than slim so I didn't pursue the topic. Instead I took out a pad of paper, a sharp pencil, sat forward, balanced my glass and listened closely for the next hour or so.

He goes on to lists the setlist of this October 1 Gerde’s recording. It is, as far as I can tell, the source for pretty much all the info about this show that has circulated ever since. It is, unfortunately, not quite right.

(sorry for this tangential question -- dylanchords is such a great resource. and then there's lennon chords, mccartney chords, harrison chords. is there a "beatleschords" equivalent? it's odd that their solo work gets dedicated sites but for the beatles (i'm thinking "any time at all", this morning) you're back to ultimate-guitar.com?)

Good question, didn't know about that gap.

xpost a couple stand-outs in that piece:

A few years ago, the Dylan camp floated the idea of a Bootleg Series installment called The Villager looking at Bob’s early folkie days. If that ever happens, I imagine the Gooding tapes would make strong candidates for inclusion.

Bob Dylan Plotting Coffeehouse Years Collection for Future Bootleg Series
Dylan's team is also considering a release of his 1969 duets with Johnny Cash along with a 'Time Out of Mind' box set

Bob Dylan — New York, 1961
7,775 views Premiered Sep 26, 2021 This is just a compilation of audio recordings that I have put together of Bob playing in different places around New York in 1961 (Including some songs played at Gerde's Folk City, 60 years to the day) .. I don't think any of these have been officially released. I have attempted to post this a few times today, but had to take songs out for copyright reasons. There's still 2 hours and 9 minutes of songs here.
Just about to type out the track details and timings here, so they should appear here:
1. Handsome Molly — Riverside Church. 29th July, 1961 0:00
2. Naomi Wise — Riverside Church. 29th July, 1961 4:27
3. Harmonica holder — Riverside Church. 29th July, 1961 8:50
4. Poor Lazarus — Riverside Church. 29th July, 1961 12:17
__
5. Man on the Street — Gaslight Cafe. 6th September, 1961 17:58
6. He Was a Friend of Mine — Gaslight Cafe. 6th September, 1961 20:21
7. Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues (incomplete) 24:56
8. Song to Woody — Gaslight Cafe. 6th September, 1961 31:08
9. Pretty Polly — Gaslight Cafe. 6th September, 1961 34:16
10. Car, Car (with Dave Van Ronk) Gaslight Cafe. 6th September, 1961 40:47
__
11. Ranger's Command — Gerde's Folk City. 26th September, 1961 43:14
12. San Francisco Bay Blues — Gerde's Folk City. 26th September, 1961 46:53
13. The Great Divide — Gerde's Folk City 26th September, 1961 50:03
__
14. Fixin' To Die — Izzy Young's Folklore Centre, October, 1961 54:00
__
15. Pretty Peggy-O — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 59:48
16. Bob talking 1:03:20
17. In The Pines — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:05:38
18. Gospel Plow — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:11:47
19. 1913 Massacre — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:16:13
20. Backwater Blues — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:22:40
21. Young But Daily Growing — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:27:49
22. Fixin' To Die — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:35:22
23. Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues — Carnegie Chapter Hall 1:39:07
24. Man On The Street — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:44:37
(This Land Is Your Land - taken out, for copyright)
25. Talking Merchant Marine — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:47:08
26. Black Cross (Hezikiah Jones) — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:51:37
27. Freight Train Blues — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 1:57:27
28. Song To Woody — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 2:00:44
29. Talkin' New York — Carnegie Chapter Hall. 4th November, 1961 2:05:15
_
The photograph is by Joe Alper, taken on the 25th September, 1961
_
I will type in the details of which songs are which, and the timings of them in the description here.
_
It looks like there is going to be a Bob tour announced tomorrow, starting in the Midwest and heading east .. Pretty good news
http://www.bobdylan.com/

Ray Padgett, whose Dylan-related interviews in the Flaggin' Down The Double-Es news letter have been linked and quoted here, is self-publishing a book that incl. all of those and a bunch of others, also in-depth, that have never seen the light of day:

The book-exclusive interviews so far are:

Ray Benson - Asleep at the Wheel frontman, opened for Dylan in 2000 and sat in several times

Dickey Betts - Allman Brother, sang his own “Ramblin’ Man” with Bob onstage

Jeff Bridges - Masked & Anonymous co-star, on-set guitar-picking parter

Harvey Brooks - Bass player for Highway 61 Revisited and New Morning and Dylan’s first post-Newport electric shows in NYC & LA

Gary Burke - Percussionist for 1976 Rolling Thunder tour

Marshall Crenshaw - Auditioned to play bass in the first Never Ending Tour band. Didn’t get the gig.

Karl Denson - Lenny Kravitz sax player who jammed with Bob onstage at the Beacon, 1990

Leslie Dowdall - In Tua Nua singer, sang with Bob and Bono at Slane Castle, 1984

Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Folk-era friend and 1975 Rolling Thunder featured performer

Kinky Friedman - Featured performer for 1976 Rolling Thunder tour (taking Ramblin’ Jack’s slot) and wild 1991 Chabad telethon duo

Barry Goldberg - Newport 1965 keyboard player, only person to both produce Bob Dylan and be produced by him

Freddy Koella - Cult favorite Never Ending Tour guitarist (2003-4) whose short tenure left a big mark

Spooner Oldham - Gospel-era keyboard player, 1979-80

Michael "Soy Bomb" Portnoy - Grammy stage-crasher

Duke Robillard - Time Out of Mind guitarist and, briefly, Never Ending Tour band member

Fred Tackett - Guitarist for Dylan’s entire gospel run, 1979-81

Richard Thompson - Accompanied Bob at Guitar Legends 1991, had his “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” covered by Bob 20+ years later

Happy Traum - Greenwich Village compatriot, back in the fold a decade later for Greatest Hits II tunes

Those exclusives are, of course, on top of all the other interviews I’ve already done with Dylan bandmates and guests, which will also be collected in the book. Too many to bullet out there, so I’ll just recap the names quickly:

Rich Alderson, Colin Allen, Ronee Blakley, Cidny Bullens, Larry Campbell, Billy Cross, Keith Diercks, Richard Fernandez, John Fields, Fuzzy Frazer, Paul James, Jim Keltner, Louie Kemp, Dickie Landry, Claudia Levy, Stan Lynch, David Mansfield, Regina McCrary, Chris O’Dell, Christopher Parker, Alan Pasqua, Scarlet Rivera, Luther Rix, David Robb, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Noel Paul Stookey, Fred Tackett, Benmont Tench, Bobby Valentino, Winston Watson, Jon Wurster

Whew!

There’s more information about the book at the Indiegogo page. I hope you’ll consider supporting the project by preordering it there, and maybe consider one of the other perks too.

https://c2.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-media-prod-cld/image/upload/c_fill,w_695,g_auto,q_auto,dpr_1.3,f_auto,h_460/vpyauik908xprzolene8

Click web page version of this at bottom to check the links in here, incl. to reports on other recent shows and audio from this one :

Last Night in London
2022-10-23, London Palladium, London, England
Ray Padgett
7 hr ago

As I did at the earlier Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour shows I saw (Milwaukee, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans), some quick next-morning thoughts on last night’s show. With — bonus — an early recording! I’ll do it again after tonight’s show.

The more things stay the same, the more they change. Last night’s show had the same setlist as the last one I saw in New Orleans back in March (minus one non-Bob song). Same band and stage arrangement. Same Bob too. But for all that similarity, it felt quite different.

For one, it’s a slower, more meditative performance now — and it wasn’t exactly a punk show before! Most of the uptempo songs have been paced down. “False Prophet” in particular has lost most of the bite I loved so much in New Orleans. What works better though, is the near-solo piano openings to several songs: “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” “To Be Alone with You,” and “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Hearing these, you could envision what it might be like for Bob to hit the road solo, just him and the ivories taking his piano-man routine from town to town. I’d go.

Take a listen to all three songs’ piano openings from last night’ show, before the band kicks in (thanks to Brian for getting me a tape so fast!):
Those are some things that changed since the spring, but here are some things that almost changed…but didn’t:

Guitarist Bob Britt. At the London show two nights earlier, he was nowhere to be seen onstage. I assumed illness (Covid?), but the rumor circulating last night, which I can’t verify, was that he had to fly back to the U.S. for some corporate gig. Gotta be more to the story though; I find it unlikely Dylan just lets his band members leave whenever they want now.

The tour’s opening show in Oslo saw two changes that didn’t stick. Most notably, “When I Paint My Masterpiece” was played as a trio with the two Bobs and Donnie Herron on violin. The other band members left the stage. The arrangement showed potential, but didn’t really land. Dylan must not have thought so either, as it was gone by night two. You can hear it here.

Also gone: Dylan playing guitar. He’d opened most shows on the most recent U.S. tour with a few minutes of instrumental guitar on “Watching the River Flow,” but dumped it after the first night in Europe. Too bad. It didn’t sound great on bootlegs, admittedly, but I’m sure Bob strumming away was fun to see live.

Dylan opened at least one show recently with a short instrumental snippet of “Oh Susannah.” You can hear it here. Whatever he played last night didn’t sound like “Oh Susannah” to me, but it did sound like more than ambient noodling. Can anyone ID it?

Keep Reading With a 7-Day Free Trial

Dylan opened at least one show recently with a short instrumental snippet of “Oh Susannah.” You can hear it here. Whatever he played last night didn’t sound like “Oh Susannah” to me, but it did sound like more than ambient noodling. Can anyone ID it?

ah yes, to be a dylan fan

Lol!

The daughter of a deceased Hibbing native is auctioning off a stash of 42 “love letters” that teenage Bob sent her mom in 1957-59.

jeez, that's embarrassing. i'm sure robert zimmerman's love letters are better than most teenagers. but still, maybe just wait til he dies until that stuff comes out

James Joyce's are still the gold standard.

OMG. I seem to recall Vladimir Nabokov shaking his head at Joyce’s rhapsodies on Nora’s callipygian splendors, to paraphrase.

I'm picturing a major discovery where we find out his most famous protest songs are simply rewrites of dirty missives from his youth.

it's a hard
it's a hard
it's a hard
it's a hard
it's a hard thiiiiiing to say but we're breaking up, babe

OMG, these Joyce letters!

what does “blocking” mean?

(ok, I get it now)