Category: Dylan

Episode Thirty Two: Moon.  The harvest moon is big and bright these October nights.   Informed commentary by a lover of and major contributor to musical Americana. Hear how much you've missed and how much young Bobby Zimmerman sopped up through long and cold Hibbing nights listening to the radio. Around 50:00 Dylan commences reading …

Buffalo Springfield, For What It's Worth Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues Bob Dylan, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bad Moon Rising The Who, Won't Get Fooled Again Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter Bob Dylan, Masters of War Bob Dylan, Not Dark Yet. But it's getting there .…

Johnny Rivers, Positively Fourth Street. Of all the versions of my recorded songs, the Johnny Rivers one was my favorite. It was obvious that we were from the same side of town, had been read the same citations, came from the same musical family and were cut from the same cloth. When I listened to…

I forgot how good this is. He played better guitar in the old days, and could do amazing things with his voice.  

April Stevens' and Nino Tempo's version of Deep Purple  became a number one hit in 1963. I liked it when it first came out, and I've enjoyed it ever since. A while back I happened to hear it via Sirius satellite radio and was drawn into it like never before. But its lyrics, penned by Mitchell Parish, are pure…

As promised last week.  Baby Let Me Follow You Down, 1962. From Bob's first album. Lord almighty it is good to hear this again. Dylan played better guitar and harmonic in the early days.  The surging, full-throated harp beats the sometimes-annoying tweets and toots of his later harmonic playing.  Dylan opens by telling us that…

Hector C. asked me to name my top ten favorite Dylan songs. With pleasure. Don't Think Twice.  I first heard this in the Peter, Paul, and Mary version circa 1962 or '63. Deeply moved by it, I bought the 45 rpm single and noted that the song was written by one B. Dylan. I pronounced…

Can one get tired of Dylan? That would be like getting tired of America. It would be like getting to the point where no passage in Kerouac brings a tingle to the spine or a tear to the eye, to the point where the earthly road ends and forever young must give way to knocking…

Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One (Simon and Shuster, 2004), p. 13:     He was different from  the rest of the teen idols, had a great guitarist who played like a cross    between a honky-tonk  hero and a barn-dance fiddler. Nelson had never been a bold innovator like the early singers who sang like they were navigating burning ships.…