Category: Dylan
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Happy Birthday, Bob!
America's greatest songwriter, Bob Dylan, turns 73 today. We celebrate with some outstanding covers of some of his best songs. There are two reasons for sending you to the covers: Dylan's own renditions tend to get removed from YouTube very shortly after they've been posted; many cannot stand Dylan's voice. If you are among the…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Water High, Wide, Dirty, Troubled, and Moody
Bob Dylan, High Water. This is a late-career Dylan gem from Love and Theft (2001). A tribute to Charley Patton. Demonstrates Dylan's mastery of the arcana of Americana. Our greatest and deepest singer-songwriter. Here is some fairly good analysis by Kees de Graaf: “I got a cravin’ love for blazing speed, got a hopped-up Mustang…
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Suze Rotolo Remembered
Suze Rotolo, who inspired a number of great Dylan songs, died on this date three years ago. Joan Baez, One Too Many Mornings Nanci Griffith, Boots of Spanish Leather Peter, Paul and Mary, Don't Think Twice, It's Alright Ian and Sylvia, Tomorrow is a Long Time Jeff Leach, Ballad in Plain D Related articles Saturday…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Some Recent Dylan Bootleg Releases
Song to Woody. This version from the 1970 New Morning sessions, but not included on that album. Originally heard on Dylan's first album. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues. This version too from the 1970 New Morning sessions. First heard on the 1966 Highway 61 Revisited album. Ramblin' Jack Elliot delivers a haunting version. When I…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Dylan’s Civil Rights Songs
The 1963 March on Washington now lies 50 years in the past. Those civil rights battles were fought and they were won. What could be achieved by legislation and government intervention was achieved. Unfortunately, the civil rights movement gradually transmogrified into a civil rights hustle and grievance industry as the original ideals of Martin Luther King, Jr. were…
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For a Race-Baiter, It’s Always Selma Again
One protestant asks another, "Why is Rome called the Eternal City?' "Because there is always Rome!" For a race-hustler like Jesse Jackson, It Is Always Selma Again. It's a bit of a paradox: leftist race-baiters fly under the euphemistic flag of 'progressive,' while hopelessly stuck in the past. The civil wrongs were righted, but they want to…
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Trayvon Martin was No Emmett Till!
When a liberal race-hustler likens the killing of Trayvon Martin to the torture and murder of Emmett Till he is not exaggerating, but lying shamelessly. To appreciate this one need only know the essentials of each case. Here are a couple of videos to bring you up to speed on Emmett Till. The Story of…
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Cat Blogging Dylan Friday
How do these shots differ? Find at least four differences. Trivia Test: Who is the lady in red?Who is on the cover of Time Magazine?What year is it?What is the name of the album behind the lady in red and who is the artist?Who is the guitarist doffing his hat?The name 'Lotte' appears. The first…
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Happy Birthday, Bob!
Dylan turns 72 today. Check out this performance of his signature number from the summer of '65 with Carole King on piano and plenty of other notables. Bob Dylan's World: An interactive map of every street, town, and country Dylan has ever sung about. Related articles Dylan's New Album Dylan at 72: Revisiting 'Tempest' with…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Dylan on Rick Nelson and James Burton
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…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Outstanding Dylan Covers
Steven Stills, The Ballad of Hollis Brown Jimi Hendrix, All Along the Watchtower Nanci Griffith, Boots of Spanish Leather Byrds, Chimes of Freedom Lucinda Williams, Positively Fourth Street Joan Baez, Daddy You've Been on My Mind Judy Collins, Mr. Tambourine Man Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Peter, Paul and Mary, Don't Think…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Songs From a Passage in Thomas McGuane
Here is a passage from Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, Houghton-Mifflin, 1992, pp. 201-202, to which I have added hyperlinks. He [Frank Copenhaver] turned on the radio and listened to an old song called "Big John": everybody falls down a mine shaft; nobody can get them out because of something too big to pry;…
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
One of Dylan's great 'finger-pointing' songs. Live version. Today Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caughtThey lowered him down as a kingBut when the shadowy sun sets on the one that fired the gunHe'll see by his grave on the stone that remainsCarved next to his name his epitaph plain "Only a pawn in their game."
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Lawrence Auster on Dylan
I was surprised, but pleased, to see that the late Lawrence Auster, traditionalist conservative, photo to the left, 1973, had a deep appreciation and a wide-ranging knowledge of Dylan's art. Born in 1949, Auster is generationally situated for that appreciation, and as late as '73 was still flying the '60s colors, if we can go…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Forgotten Folkies
Paul Clayton, Wild Mountain Thyme. Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone). Dylan borrowed a bit of the melody and some of the lyrics for his Don't Think Twice. This is a proto-version prior to the Freewheelin' album. Dylan talks about Clayton in the former's Chronicles, Volume One, Simon and Shuster, 2004, pp. 260-261.…