Is Bob Dylan overrated?

booming post dlh

Vertigo?

https://i.imgur.com/uFbte9G.jpg

The vertigo probably explains why on his recent tour he was mostly perched at the keyboard and would get up and sort of dance in place for just a minute or so at a time.

(stewart there gazing down at his collection of signed bob dylan paraphernalia xp)

very much a statement written by Bob Dylan, has all the hallmarks of his voice
irl lol

just for a moment "to my fans and followers" has it, in consonance if not in sentiment

The vertigo probably explains why on his recent tour he was mostly perched at the keyboard and would get up and sort of dance in place for just a minute or so at a time

Maybe he heard the hidden Balearic beats in "Blowin' in the Wind."

The vertigo probably explains why on his recent tour he was mostly perched at the keyboard and would get up and sort of dance in place for just a minute or so at a time.

Honestly, he was doing this almost every time I saw him a bunch in early '00s.

It takes a crew of five working in close quarters with me to help enable these signing sessions

Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw

dlh otm

Thought the dancing was a tribute to Thelonious Monk, just like the cover of The Basement Tapes.

What

I don't get it.

this?

http://www.amiright.com/album-covers/thelonious-monk-underground-parodies/

I only got
Aaaa shirt to go
---Vertigo.

Dan Chiasson's New Yorker reviews turned me on to some good poetry (better than most New Yorker poetry), and his review there of a Joni Mitchell bio was also astute---this Philosophy of Modern Song coverage starts great, makes me want to subscribe and read whole thing:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/12/08/road-maps-for-the-soul-philosophy-of-modern-song-bob-dylan/

It is surprising to find the bratty sneer of “My Generation” (“I hope I die before I get old”) moved to an assisted-living facility. Dylan, though, is “being wheeled around” not by nurses but by buses, as he moves from town to town and continent to continent on his Never Ending Tour...

I thought that ended some time ago

NFT embedded in splinter of the true cross of Blonde on BLonde

ok, I know Dylan imitations are typically shit but this is pretty great

James Austin Johnson sings “Jingle Bells” as Bob Dylan through the decades. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/kuPegi5Dhw

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) November 29, 2022

LMAO that guy really knows his Dylan. He even wisely avoids Dylan circa 1978-1988 - the voice of that era is too easy and parodied too many times already.

Aw... that's the voice I always do (to no one in the family's amusement)!

"I think Calvin Coolidge said that"

My favorite is Before the Flood Dylan, when he admittedly was so exhausted by the end of the tour that the singing lost all "sensitivity" and became "full out power" (i.e. just yelling the words out). Almost every track came from the very last day and it shows. Every word is enunciated with clarity, but it's the most random and bizarre phrasing he's ever done.

Which reminds me, Johnson gets one thing wrong - the 1975 tour wasn't incomprehensible, if anything that was the very last tour where Dylan was able to enunciate every single word clearly (until the current one where having the lyrics in front of him have done wonders).

sounds like a recipe for a good album

Lay Lady Lay sounds more like a command on this album

The Guardian actually did an article looking into signed books:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/29/do-the-write-thing-do-authors-use-autopen

Crime author Louise Candlish once signed 6,000 books in one day, which “involved a team of five people each doing different jobs” such as “opening the book to the title page, sliding the book towards me, taking the signed book and stacking” and so on. The endeavour was “exhausting” and Candlish burned through eight to 10 pens. She says she had to take regular breaks “to do hand exercises, stretching and squeezing and waggling”.

The Roots really nailed it in that sketch, too

god, Jimmy Fallon is so repulsive. loved the impressions but it was hard to watch

why would someone want an autograph taht was performed so mechanically and with no personal touch - may was well have farted into a ziploc bag and tied that to the book

xxxpost Before The Flood is one of my faves too, and agree about force x clarity---glarity, even, at times---but always heard it as plenty expressive too, and never "random and bizarre," though can be startling, esp. somewhut reggae-ish realignment of "It Ain't Me Babe"---but the goin'-away-struttin', and "ha-ha-heart" in particular, soar and zing 'way past the guilt-tripping, pouty, passive-aggressive original---and overall, I quickly came to think of almost all these as the definitive versions, so far (hoping he would keep going with the realignments, as he did, of course). It's one of those great examples of relative geezers getting on the Arena Rock gravy train, like Van Morrison's It's Too Late To Stop Now (original double-LP, that is; the expanded reissue might be too much), and Rock & Roll Animal, though it's maybe a tad too close to the Arena Rock usual, in its way (Peter Laughner's Creem take: "Reed has Johnny Winterized his classics...")

Still haven't heard D.'s Real Live and Budokan, but am told they have their moments. Agree about the '75 tour, as heard on ye olde Hard Rain LP and Renaldo and Clara inclusions, though some of that is a little too bombastic (the live "Isis" from this era, sometimes on YouTube, is strong as hell/can't touch this).

I think I know what you mean. Looking up Christgau's original review, I think he picked up on the same: "his voice settles in at a rich bellow, running over his old songs like a truck. I agree that a few of them will never walk again, but I treasure the sacrilege; Uncle Bob purveying to the sports arena masses."

I was actually surprised when I found out how much the press loved Before the Flood when it came out (though Greil Marcus has since walked back his initial rave) but it made more sense when I heard Dylan's prior tours to see where people were coming from.

Re: Real Live I haven't done a deep dive into that tour, but IIRC Dylan fans typically say that 1) he should've kept the trio he had on Letterman rather than hiring big-name accompanists and 2) regardless, the album they compiled was poorly chosen and ignored better performances. I think "Tangled Up in Blue" is supposed to be THE highlight, and Rob Sheffield has singled it out. It was definitely the highlight when I put on the album, but it stands out in a good way only in that context - I once played six different versions of that song from six different tours just for the hell of it, and the Real Live version seemed to be the least enjoyable.

Budokan has passionate fans but I'm definitely not one of them. Thoroughly awful to me without a single performance I ever want to hear again.

Budokan is the one Dylan album I have a hard time getting through. The arrangements are just…. ugh. Way too much flute for a Dylan record.

What do yall think about the Isle of Wight set?

The one in the deluxe "Another Self Portrait"?

I think it's great. And I found the "Budokan" album unlistenable.

Guess I'm the only one who digs Budokan. But then again, I love Street Legal as well.

Ballad of a Thin Man budokan is p cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmVLH0PtZ4Y

but yeah in the long run the flute and Vegas vibes a bit much

some say the Japan shows were the worst on the tour and later American shows much better, never bothered to look into it but maybe a bootlegger can enlighten us

I like Isle of Wight. I don't want to oversell it - it's not one of his great shows and some things don't work as well as others - but it's tough to complain because Dylan wasn't touring at the time and I think it's the only full-length show he put on between the 1966 and 1974 tours (though he's had plenty of guest appearances and one-offs, including two others with the Band).

"Highway 61 Revisited" is THE highlight of the show - great pick for the standard two-disc edition of Another Self Portrait. I generally prefer the part with the Band, but from the solo numbers, I think "Wild Mountain Thyme" and "It Ain't Me, Babe" are standouts. The former may be the only recording we have of Dylan doing that folk standard (anyone know?) and the latter's beautiful - that would've been a better pick for the original Self Portrait.

there isnt much time left for a Dylan + McCartney - Brian wilson record as supergroop

I think it's already too late - I don't think Brian's in any shape for anything more than a nominal collaboration.

xxpost speaking of early 70s one-offs with The Band, they scorched on A Tribute To Woody Guthrie (a good various artists album overall )http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k8_rJWRWITN_1bUfE1yfqXpZTo8b2SaPI

Yeah, only a few numbers, but they're great, especially "Grand Coulee Dam"!

It could make a nifty and useful compilation to put those one-offs together (maybe not counting Isle of Wight which takes up a whole disc on its own). The Concert for Bangladesh sets, the encore at the Academy show with the Band on New Year's 1971 rolling into 1972...

And *all* the Last Waltz box set performances, incl. "Hazel" etc.

xpost That version of "Grand Coulee Dam" is on Live 1961-2000---my copy isn't at hand, but was thinking it had more than these 16 tracks---anyway, pretty hot: https://www.amazon.com/Live-1961-2000-Bob-Dylan/dp/B000059RJ3

ust got his new book from library (as w all his deluxe adventures, will wait for deal on Used, but the $45.00 list price seems reasonable: it's between standard and coffee table sizes, handy enough, yet big enough for impact of new art elements x splendidly reproduced photos, both of which are always apt, frequently witty).
Text is tightly loose, tight enough that it can't be described in any detail w/o spoilers. Will say that he frequently (but not always) starts a discussion by splattering his projections, living all over the song----with a fly-eyed shotgun blast of rock salt, nails, pills, Reader's Digests, Fidel Castro's beard, suggesting that even though he's told interviewers he can't write songs like that no more, that he mebbe can---surely he could come up with appropriate 3-chorders from wherever ----then he steps back, says, "In this song---", discusses it as song, though still in quite a lively way, also may trace in backstory, of song x singer, though eventually says that such may overshadow or weigh down other aspects of the music (speculates that many songs from the Golden Age of Video may have been submerged by such associations).
Can't resist mentioning: "An argument could be made that Ricky (Nelson) was more of a rock & roll ambassador than Elvis": EP made an impact via occasional Ed Sullivan Show etc. appearances, sure but Nelson was on his family's sitcom every week, singing whatever song he was promoting, and (as I recall) in the living room with James Burton and other A-level cats, who looked like they could be his high school classmates.
Of course! And now I also recall Woody G.s line, "I'm the man who's gonna show you what you already know." But Dyl goes waaay beyond that too, duh.
Sometimes with disappointing results (doesn't slow down enough to hear "London Calling" very well). But he gets "Ball of Confusion" as pre-rap riffling of the headlines topicality that's really hard to pull off, also bluegrass and heavy metal as two faces of same thing---in midst of droll, analytical, also gothic presentation of the Osborne Brothers' "Ruby Are, You Mad?"(gets Jack Ruby in there too)---also lends gothic glamor to "The Pretender," goes beyond that for "The Little White Cloud That Cried."

the motorcyle accident changed Dylan forever - ?

Or was it the sweet chyme of fmae

The chimes of famedom laughing?

There are some pretty good quotes in this WSJ interview (I found the full text posted on some messageboard). What Bob’s watching:

I recently binged: “Coronation Street,” “Father Brown,” and some early “Twilight Zones.” I know they’re old-fashioned, but they make me feel at home. I’m no fan of packaged programs or news shows. I never watch anything foul-smelling or evil. Nothing disgusting, nothing dog ass.