I just finished a biography of Johnny Cash, written by Robert Hilburn, a long-time music writer with the Los Angeles Times. It’s a page-turner, highly recommended. Not surprisingly, the book has a plethora of Dylan-related material. Background on Cash Cash grew up a very poor country boy from Arkansas. When his family moved to a …
“What is this shit?” to quote Greil Marcus. I was excited when I heard about the new video of Dylan material, Odds and Ends. I’m always interested in hearing something new about my favorite artist. Sounded good to me. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t a bit skeptical. The early Bootleg Series releases were phenomenal, full …
I was listening recently to the traditional song, Mole in the Ground. I always assumed the song was about some poor devil with low self-esteem. Alas, as has been the case many times, I was very wrong. That’s not what the author meant at all. That’s was not it at all. But I did notice …
Fred Neil is most remembered for Everybody’s Talkin’, written for the landmark film, Midnight Cowboy. Neil’s song wouldn’t have been used except that Dylan delivered his song – Lay, Lady, Lay – too late. Performed for the soundtrack by Harry Nilsson, Everybody’s Talkin’ reached #6 on the Billboard Chart. Neil wrote many tunes that are …
Many readers are undoubtedly already aware that Dylan has cited the greatest country music artist of all time, the country Shakespeare – Hank Williams – as his first influence. He wrote in the liner notes of Joan Baez In Concert, Part 2: An my first idol was Hank Williams For he sang about the railroad lines …
Hank William’s Influence on Bob Dylan – Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest Read More »
At the bottom of this post is a link to a very cool article, courtesy of American Songwriter, about the traditional folk song, Barbara Allen. Of course, we all know Dylan covered Barbara Allen many times. The author suggests that Art Garfunkel’s is the best modern version. As much as I like Garfunkel…What! Twas in …
Casual fans might not know of his short-lived collaboration with two members of The Plugz, an unheralded punk band from Los Angeles, and guitarist J.J. Holiday. Their performance on the Letterman Show in 1984 is one of the best of Dylan’s career, wildly raw and energetic. Judge for yourself below. First up was a rocking …
A consummate Dylan fan, Peter Stone Brown, died recently. I knew Peter a little bit way back when the newsgroup rec.music.dylan was a hotbed of Dylan information. The group was an amazing resource in the early internet days, fostering so many stimulating lines of thought, so much sharing of information. (And to be sure, a …
Peter Hamill had died, and it’s a dirty, rotten shame. A few decades ago Hamil was a well-known NYC-based journalist. He was part of a generation of great American newspaper and magazine writers – Hunter Thompson, Jimmy Breslin, Tom Wolfe come to mind – that often came from the hard-knocks school of life but went …
Peter Hamill Has Died – Wrote Liner Notes for Blood on the Tracks Read More »
I haven’t had a chance to browse through the material on this site, but it looks promising! The Dylan Review
