Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor.
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears,
Oh, hard times, come again no more.
“Hard Times,” Stephen Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864)
Gary here. After writing up my impressions of the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown for our last outing, I set off to see what else the Archives contained of a Dylan nature, and came up with some superb book, film, and music reviews from our staff and contributors.
David was very enthusiastic about Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume One: ‘What a book! I could hardly believe the voice he chose to tell his stories. Warm, countrified, a sort of a “gosh-a-golly-gee” tone which continues from page one to the end. It’s almost as though Bobby was sitting there across from you, with a fire going, telling you his tales.’
He gave a thumbs up to a couple of books about Dylan, Robert Shelton’s No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan, and Howard Sounes’s Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. ‘Where does one begin talking about the life and work of Bob Dylan? Arguably the most influential songwriter of the second half of the last century, he is largely a mystery. A cipher. A surreal muse floating through the pop charts, influencing others but never fully accepted by the marketplace. Both of these volumes seek to find the man behind the masks. They both provide a glimpse behind the facade, but Dylan remains a mystery throughout.’
David also reviewed four other books about Dylan, his life and art, Carl Benson’s The Bob Dylan Companion: Four Decades Of Commentary; Clinton Heylin’s Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, Day By Day 1941-1995; and Paul Williams’s Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, The Early Years 1960-1973, and The Middle Years 1974-1986. Unusually, he did so mostly in verse, and concluded, ‘ … I’d hafta say… / nobody knows the mystery tramp / but if ya wanta catch a glimpse of him / skippin’ like a stone / across the waters of time / here’s a few books that might, / no, definitely will, help ya on yer way.’
I enjoyed a book about one of my favorite Dylan albums, Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard’s A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the making of Blood on the Tracks. ‘A Simple Twist of Fate tells the story of the making of this watershed work. In language that is remarkably disciplined for a book about a major rock ‘n’ roll celebrity, Gill and Odegard lay out a tale that is surprisingly complex. And it’s a sad and sordid tale, indeed …’
I gave mixed reviews to a couple of other Dylan books, C.P. Lee’s Like the Night (Revisited): Bob Dylan and the road to the Manchester Free Trade Hall; and Derek Barker’s Isis: A Bob Dylan Anthology. He has some minor quibbles with the former book, whose author was a journalist but also attended the legendary “Judas” concert: ‘Lee seems to be of the common school of British music writing; which is to say, sometimes more concerned with an enthusiastic style than with the rules of the Queen’s English.’ Of the latter, he notes that it’s a collection of articles from an old fanzine, with the good and bad that implies: ‘All in all, Isis is an uneven read. Completists probably already have all the issues of the ‘zine, and hardly anybody but a completist will want to slog through the whole book.’
But I gave quite high marks to David Hajdu’s Positively 4th Street, which delves into the lives and times of Dylan, Joan Baez, and Joan’s sister and brother-in-law, Richard and Mimi Fariña. ‘True Dylanologists probably won’t find anything new here, but that’s not what Hajdu is trying to provide. He gives an insider’s look at four young people who were caught up in the explosion of youth culture in the 1960s, and who also helped shape it to some extent.’
David was fascinated by the historic video called Dylan Speaks: The Legendary 1965 Press Conference In San Francisco, when it was released on DVD. ‘Bob Dylan speaks to the press. He looks so young. His face… fresh, almost glowing, topped by a curly mop of hair; his mouth sometimes smirking always expressive, lips pursed as he ponders his next one word response. There is not a bit of music, no songs, no guitar, no harmonica rack… just Bob Dylan in tweedy jacket sitting at a desk behind a motley set of microphones …’
As part of a review of some Dylan tribute CDs, David covered a performance DVD of Bryan Ferry’s Dylanesque Live: The London Sessions, (which was also released on CD). ‘It’s not the most visually interesting ovideo I’ve ever seen. Everyone basically stands there doing their thing, while Ferry sits on the stool, lyrics on a music stand in front of him. OK, he moves his shoulders in time with the beat. He plays a bit of harmonica, he smiles, he adds a touch on the Farfisa. The musicians, though, play well. The arrangements are creative, using the Dylan songs as a jumping- off point. There is no slavish copying here. Ferry finds the melody in Dylan’s songs which are sometimes obscured by Bob’s own voice. He doesn’t oversing anything. There’s no American Idol warbling, just the songs and the odd sizzling guitar solo arising from the mix.’
I reviewed The Traveling Wilburys’ Collection, which brought together the rock supergroup’s two CDs plus a DVD with videos, interviews, and a short documentary film. ‘One of the best parts of the package is that documentary, which captures the Wilburys, otherwise known as George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, in the process of recording Traveling Wilburys Volume 1. If like me you love peering behind the curtain of the recording process, this is a real treat.’
Charles de Lint gave a mixed review to a batch of reissues from 2009, New Morning, Dylan & the Dead, Before the Flood, and The Basement Tapes: ‘I’m a big fan of the remastered series of Bob Dylan’s catalogue that Columbia’s been piecing out to us over the years. I don’t think they sound as good as pristine copies of the original vinyl, but for digital versions, they’re very warm and rich, with lots of detail. But I’m not one hundred percent delighted with this new batch. I suppose it’s not really Columbia’s fault. They’ve pretty much released everything by this point and now they’re just filling holes. But still.’
Charles liked one new Dylan album, Together Through Life, better than the critics initially did. ‘The lyrics, mostly in collaboration with The Grateful Dead’s Robert Hunter, are sharp and to the point, telling stories of love and heartache and the mess of the world, using those smart turns of phrase which we always associate with Dylan. And there’s still room for humour, albeit dark, as in “My Wife’s Hometown” (which is Hell, in case you were wondering).’
David and I teamed up to review a small handful of Dylan albums from the batch that Columbia remastered in 2003, including Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Nashville Skyline, and Blood On the Tracks. Of one of them, David noted: ‘ “Nashville Skyline Rag” was the first instrumental to grace a Dylan album, and on this new version the guitars of Norman Blake and Charlie Daniels, Kenny Buttrey’s drums, Charlie McCoy’s bass, and Pete Drake’s pedal steel are so warm that it feels like you’re right in the middle of the session. This was the second album to feature Dylan’s post-motorcycle accident vocals. No longer the scruffy Woody Guthrie wannabe, the kid had developed a chesty croon to sell these new country songs with. The hybrid Super Audio sound adds depth to the recording.’
David reviewed a small handful of Dylan tribute and cover albums including Highway 61 Revisited’s The World’s Only Bob Dylan Tribute Band, Jackie Greene & Sal Valentino’s Positively 12th & K, and Howard Fishman’s Performs Bob Dylan & The Band’s ‘Basement Tapes’ Live At Joe’s Pub (plus a Bryan Ferry DVD, which we discuss in the Film section above). ‘It’s something every guitar picker out there has done,’ he says. ‘It didn’t matter if you were a great player, or a great singer, you would sit down with your Yamaha FG-180 on your lap and play through the Bob Dylan songbook. Three chord progressions, maybe a relative minor, and you were away. Over the years there have been dozens if not hundreds of albums (or at least songs) performed in interpretive versions by artists all over the world.’
David loved another Dylan tribute album, Caught in the Convent by The Dylan Project, a group of top-notch UK folk-rockers. What’s it all about: ’20 of Mr Zimmerman’s songs, both the well and some lesser known played with the expertise of musicians who have been in the business for almost 50 years and who really know their Dylan. Do not expect any copies of His Bobness’sown performances; the Dylan Project play the songs their own way, not straying to far from the original but adapting it to their own style.’
And I turned in a newly written review of Dylan’s 1992 album: ‘Good As I Been To You at the time was seen as a return to the acoustic folk music of his early career, but with hindsight it also pointed the way to many of his later, very popular albums that have continued to explore the riches of the folk tradition — both Black and Anglo-European — of the United States of America.’
Gary here again. Of course, music goes on here in the present, and I have a review or two of new releases to share with you.
I’m enjoying a new collection of Finnish folk music called Nouse Luonto: Lauluja Monimuotoisuudestat (which means “Songs About Diversity,” as in the diversity of the natural world). ‘As with any collection, some listeners will be drawn more to some songs than to others. It begins with something anybody who knows Finnish music will recognize, a lovely dance tune “Vid Stormyren” from Frigg. And … it ends with a group sing-along on a song titled “Vaskilintu,” the multiple voices accompanied by lots of violins, some accordions, woodwinds and more; it’s lovely and very moving.’
Another winner is Mathias Eick Quartet’s Lullaby, featuring the warm, often melancholy tones of this Norwegian trumpet player and composer. ‘This is such a strong and appealing album from beginning to end, I think it’s going to figure prominently in my listening for some time to come. Whether playing in ballad mode or more upbeat and rhythmic numbers, this quartet truly shines, with the expert touch of Manfred Eicher producing.’
Finally, I found a lot to like on Folk and Great Tunes from Belarus. ‘The collection is two discs, each with songs by the same 10 bands, plus a bonus by an eleventh band on Disc 1. There’s plenty of variety within that framework. One thing that surprised me was the presence of bagpipes in at least a couple of the bands. Turns out the use of pipes in Belarus apparently goes back at least to the 15th century.’
So let’s finish Bob with Dylan and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Al Kooper at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 performing ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. This was the second of the three songs in the ‘Bob Dylan goes electric’ controversy there, played right after ‘Maggie’s Farm’ and before ‘Phantom Engineer’. He then left the stage and came back to play two more songs on an acoustic guitar. Some folkies still are angry at him.
I'm the person responsible for both the grounds and the livestock which are raised here. I live with Bree (my wife) in one of the cottages that has been here for centuries.
I actually enjoy Winters here as my work load is considerably reduced as I let the younger staff members handle the needed work which leaves me time for reading, ice skating and skiing, not to mention just being with my wife. Bliss!
More Posts
What’s New for the 16th of February: Books by and about Bob Dylan, and music by Dylan and others; plus some new world music and jazz
Gary here. After writing up my impressions of the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown for our last outing, I set off to see what else the Archives contained of a Dylan nature, and came up with some superb book, film, and music reviews from our staff and contributors.
He gave a thumbs up to a couple of books about Dylan, Robert Shelton’s No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan, and Howard Sounes’s Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. ‘Where does one begin talking about the life and work of Bob Dylan? Arguably the most influential songwriter of the second half of the last century, he is largely a mystery. A cipher. A surreal muse floating through the pop charts, influencing others but never fully accepted by the marketplace. Both of these volumes seek to find the man behind the masks. They both provide a glimpse behind the facade, but Dylan remains a mystery throughout.’
David also reviewed four other books about Dylan, his life and art, Carl Benson’s The Bob Dylan Companion: Four Decades Of Commentary; Clinton Heylin’s Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, Day By Day 1941-1995; and Paul Williams’s Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, The Early Years 1960-1973, and The Middle Years 1974-1986. Unusually, he did so mostly in verse, and concluded, ‘ … I’d hafta say… / nobody knows the mystery tramp / but if ya wanta catch a glimpse of him / skippin’ like a stone / across the waters of time / here’s a few books that might, / no, definitely will, help ya on yer way.’
I enjoyed a book about one of my favorite Dylan albums, Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard’s A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the making of Blood on the Tracks. ‘A Simple Twist of Fate tells the story of the making of this watershed work. In language that is remarkably disciplined for a book about a major rock ‘n’ roll celebrity, Gill and Odegard lay out a tale that is surprisingly complex. And it’s a sad and sordid tale, indeed …’
I gave mixed reviews to a couple of other Dylan books, C.P. Lee’s Like the Night (Revisited): Bob Dylan and the road to the Manchester Free Trade Hall; and Derek Barker’s Isis: A Bob Dylan Anthology. He has some minor quibbles with the former book, whose author was a journalist but also attended the legendary “Judas” concert: ‘Lee seems to be of the common school of British music writing; which is to say, sometimes more concerned with an enthusiastic style than with the rules of the Queen’s English.’ Of the latter, he notes that it’s a collection of articles from an old fanzine, with the good and bad that implies: ‘All in all, Isis is an uneven read. Completists probably already have all the issues of the ‘zine, and hardly anybody but a completist will want to slog through the whole book.’
But I gave quite high marks to David Hajdu’s Positively 4th Street, which delves into the lives and times of Dylan, Joan Baez, and Joan’s sister and brother-in-law, Richard and Mimi Fariña. ‘True Dylanologists probably won’t find anything new here, but that’s not what Hajdu is trying to provide. He gives an insider’s look at four young people who were caught up in the explosion of youth culture in the 1960s, and who also helped shape it to some extent.’
As part of a review of some Dylan tribute CDs, David covered a performance DVD of Bryan Ferry’s Dylanesque Live: The London Sessions, (which was also released on CD). ‘It’s not the most visually interesting ovideo I’ve ever seen. Everyone basically stands there doing their thing, while Ferry sits on the stool, lyrics on a music stand in front of him. OK, he moves his shoulders in time with the beat. He plays a bit of harmonica, he smiles, he adds a touch on the Farfisa. The musicians, though, play well. The arrangements are creative, using the Dylan songs as a jumping- off point. There is no slavish copying here. Ferry finds the melody in Dylan’s songs which are sometimes obscured by Bob’s own voice. He doesn’t oversing anything. There’s no American Idol warbling, just the songs and the odd sizzling guitar solo arising from the mix.’
I reviewed The Traveling Wilburys’ Collection, which brought together the rock supergroup’s two CDs plus a DVD with videos, interviews, and a short documentary film. ‘One of the best parts of the package is that documentary, which captures the Wilburys, otherwise known as George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, in the process of recording Traveling Wilburys Volume 1. If like me you love peering behind the curtain of the recording process, this is a real treat.’
Charles de Lint gave a mixed review to a batch of reissues from 2009, New Morning, Dylan & the Dead, Before the Flood, and The Basement Tapes: ‘I’m a big fan of the remastered series of Bob Dylan’s catalogue that Columbia’s been piecing out to us over the years. I don’t think they sound as good as pristine copies of the original vinyl, but for digital versions, they’re very warm and rich, with lots of detail. But I’m not one hundred percent delighted with this new batch. I suppose it’s not really Columbia’s fault. They’ve pretty much released everything by this point and now they’re just filling holes. But still.’
Charles liked one new Dylan album, Together Through Life, better than the critics initially did. ‘The lyrics, mostly in collaboration with The Grateful Dead’s Robert Hunter, are sharp and to the point, telling stories of love and heartache and the mess of the world, using those smart turns of phrase which we always associate with Dylan. And there’s still room for humour, albeit dark, as in “My Wife’s Hometown” (which is Hell, in case you were wondering).’
David and I teamed up to review a small handful of Dylan albums from the batch that Columbia remastered in 2003, including Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Nashville Skyline, and Blood On the Tracks. Of one of them, David noted: ‘ “Nashville Skyline Rag” was the first instrumental to grace a Dylan album, and on this new version the guitars of Norman Blake and Charlie Daniels, Kenny Buttrey’s drums, Charlie McCoy’s bass, and Pete Drake’s pedal steel are so warm that it feels like you’re right in the middle of the session. This was the second album to feature Dylan’s post-motorcycle accident vocals. No longer the scruffy Woody Guthrie wannabe, the kid had developed a chesty croon to sell these new country songs with. The hybrid Super Audio sound adds depth to the recording.’
David reviewed a small handful of Dylan tribute and cover albums including Highway 61 Revisited’s The World’s Only Bob Dylan Tribute Band, Jackie Greene & Sal Valentino’s Positively 12th & K, and Howard Fishman’s Performs Bob Dylan & The Band’s ‘Basement Tapes’ Live At Joe’s Pub (plus a Bryan Ferry DVD, which we discuss in the Film section above). ‘It’s something every guitar picker out there has done,’ he says. ‘It didn’t matter if you were a great player, or a great singer, you would sit down with your Yamaha FG-180 on your lap and play through the Bob Dylan songbook. Three chord progressions, maybe a relative minor, and you were away. Over the years there have been dozens if not hundreds of albums (or at least songs) performed in interpretive versions by artists all over the world.’
David loved another Dylan tribute album, Caught in the Convent by The Dylan Project, a group of top-notch UK folk-rockers. What’s it all about: ’20 of Mr Zimmerman’s songs, both the well and some lesser known played with the expertise of musicians who have been in the business for almost 50 years and who really know their Dylan. Do not expect any copies of His Bobness’sown performances; the Dylan Project play the songs their own way, not straying to far from the original but adapting it to their own style.’
And I turned in a newly written review of Dylan’s 1992 album: ‘Good As I Been To You at the time was seen as a return to the acoustic folk music of his early career, but with hindsight it also pointed the way to many of his later, very popular albums that have continued to explore the riches of the folk tradition — both Black and Anglo-European — of the United States of America.’
Gary here again. Of course, music goes on here in the present, and I have a review or two of new releases to share with you.
I’m enjoying a new collection of Finnish folk music called Nouse Luonto: Lauluja Monimuotoisuudestat (which means “Songs About Diversity,” as in the diversity of the natural world). ‘As with any collection, some listeners will be drawn more to some songs than to others. It begins with something anybody who knows Finnish music will recognize, a lovely dance tune “Vid Stormyren” from Frigg. And … it ends with a group sing-along on a song titled “Vaskilintu,” the multiple voices accompanied by lots of violins, some accordions, woodwinds and more; it’s lovely and very moving.’
Another winner is Mathias Eick Quartet’s Lullaby, featuring the warm, often melancholy tones of this Norwegian trumpet player and composer. ‘This is such a strong and appealing album from beginning to end, I think it’s going to figure prominently in my listening for some time to come. Whether playing in ballad mode or more upbeat and rhythmic numbers, this quartet truly shines, with the expert touch of Manfred Eicher producing.’
Finally, I found a lot to like on Folk and Great Tunes from Belarus. ‘The collection is two discs, each with songs by the same 10 bands, plus a bonus by an eleventh band on Disc 1. There’s plenty of variety within that framework. One thing that surprised me was the presence of bagpipes in at least a couple of the bands. Turns out the use of pipes in Belarus apparently goes back at least to the 15th century.’
So let’s finish Bob with Dylan and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Al Kooper at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 performing ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. This was the second of the three songs in the ‘Bob Dylan goes electric’ controversy there, played right after ‘Maggie’s Farm’ and before ‘Phantom Engineer’. He then left the stage and came back to play two more songs on an acoustic guitar. Some folkies still are angry at him.
Gus the Estate Head Gardener
I'm the person responsible for both the grounds and the livestock which are raised here. I live with Bree (my wife) in one of the cottages that has been here for centuries. I actually enjoy Winters here as my work load is considerably reduced as I let the younger staff members handle the needed work which leaves me time for reading, ice skating and skiing, not to mention just being with my wife. Bliss!
More Posts
About Gus the Estate Head Gardener
I'm the person responsible for both the grounds and the livestock which are raised here. I live with Bree (my wife) in one of the cottages that has been here for centuries. I actually enjoy Winters here as my work load is considerably reduced as I let the younger staff members handle the needed work which leaves me time for reading, ice skating and skiing, not to mention just being with my wife. Bliss!