I’m still listening to the new Fragments Bootleg Series release. The versions of Highlands are among the more interesting tracks (aside from The Water is Wide and Red River Shore). Highlands is a bit of an oddball on Time Out of Mind. Although the tone is dark like the rest of the album, it also …
Red River Shore is another standout track from the new Fragments release. (An excellent accordion-heavy version was included on Tell-Tale Signs.) Two versions are included. The first sounds more like a demo than something that would be seriously considered for the album. Daniel Lanios plays some ragged, heavy-handed guitar. Dylan’s voice is ok but not …
To me, The Water is Wide is the best cut on new Fragments collection. The heartache in Dylan’s voice and the sensitive backup instrumentation accentuate the overwhelming sadness expressed in the lyrics. I thought this said it well. One recording stands above all the others. The old folk song, ‘The Water Is Wide,’ was recorded …
“It’s a spooky record, because I feel spooky. I just don’t feel in tune with anything. quote from Bob Dylan in America -Sean Wilentz p. 255 The other day I was trying to re-connect my phone to a speaker attached to my TV. After several minutes of futilely pressing buttons labeled with inscrutable icons, it …
I’ve been listening to Hazel Dickens a lot lately. I’ve known of her forever, and have listened to her a bit, but never in-depth. It’s been quite an enjoyable experience. I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve learned. I’m not going too much into Hazel’s bio. See “Further Reading” below. But here’s a …
Blind Wille in a hotel room in Georgia Library of Congress site ↗ Like many Dylan fans, I became aware of Blind Wille McTell after the release of The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, released in 1991. That collection includes his nearly lost masterpiece, Blind Willie McTell, which was inexplicably left off Infidels. I immediately sought …
The people that played that music were still around…[in the early sixties], so there were a bunch of us, me included, who got to see all these people close up – people like Son House, Reverend Gary Davis or Sleepy John Estes. Just to sit there and be up close and watch them play, you …
I’ve been listening to a lot of old, acoustic blues recordings lately. Scrolling through Amazon Unlimited (note –> not Spotify), one song stood out to me. Not because of the music, but the name, Special Rider Blues. After a few seconds, it came to me that Special Rider Music was the name of one of …
by Clinton Heylin It’s been a long time since I read a Dylan biography. However, a few days ago I happened across Clinton Heylin’s The Double Life of Bob Dylan on the “New Books” shelf at the public library. I picked it up. I suppose many of you know of Heylin. He’s written much about …
Most reading this are probably familiar with the work of Dorothy Parker, the short story writer, poet, theatre critic, New Yorker staffer, and member of the Algonquin Round Table. One of my favorite of her many famous witticisms: “This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.” I …
