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Bob Dylan -- Eephus's Reviews From Walking With His Beloved Dog Bosley During 2019: The Nobel Poet And A Fine Essayist With A Musical Corpus (3 Viewers)

I Contain Multitudes isn't as grand as Murder Most Foul but it's more musical.  In an age where everything gets exposed so quickly, I'm amazed that these recordings are shrouded in such mystery.  None of my Dylanologist follows have figured out when they were recorded and who are the other musicians.

 
Scorsese's 2005 Dylan documentary No Direction Home is available on Netflix.  I'm pretty sure I saw it when it was first shown on PBS but it's a fine time for a rewatch.  There's a ton of footage available and Scorsese's team knows how to cut a Rock documentary.

Bosley got his sunglasses a year ago today.  They made his life better during daylight hours.

 
Funny, was thinking of you both yesterday. I pulled out The Times They Are A-Changin' and gave it a listen. I don't think I've really pulled that one out and given it its due. Loved it. Love "Ballad Of Hollis Brown" and "Spanish Boots Of Leather." Great songs.

 
rockaction said:
Funny, was thinking of you both yesterday. I pulled out The Times They Are A-Changin' and gave it a listen. I don't think I've really pulled that one out and given it its due. Loved it. Love "Ballad Of Hollis Brown" and "Spanish Boots Of Leather." Great songs.
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Dylan was so damn good. What a poet. 

 
False Prophet is another new song, not an album but it's a lot livelier than the other two.  It's a rollicking Blues number with some quality boasting from Dylan.  It sounds like it came from an older session than Murder Most Foul or I Contain Multitudes based on how Dylan's voice sounds.

I search the world over
For the Holy Grail
I sing songs of love
I sing songs of betrayal
Don't care what I drink
Don't care what I eat
I climbed the mountains of swords on my bare feet

 
I couldn't wait so I downloaded a leak.  Rough and Rowdy Ways is pretty amazing on first listen.  There are seven tracks in addition to the three already released.  A couple of mid-tempo blues but mostly ballads and laments. 

I was curious to see whether his half decade spent exploring the Great American Songbook would affect his songwriting.   It really hasn't as this record isn't particularly rich in melody.  Dylan's voice is in good form; it's singing is probably better as he approaches 80 as it was when he was 60.  I mean that as a compliment.

On first listen, my standout track is Crossing the Rubicon but it's going to take more time to figure this one out.  It's very dense with images and some of the long songs cover a lot of territory.  There are other songs that namedrop like Murder Most Foul.  I heard references to Patton and Zhukov.  The image I'm trying to get out of my head now is Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song but that's not going to be easy.

 
I knew Charlie Daniels had played on some of Dylan's Nashville sessions in the 60s and early 70s but I had no idea he put out an album of Dylan covers in 2014. 

It's not bad so far but who knows what awaits on side two.  Charlie ain't much of a singer but the band is tight and everyone sounds like they're having a good time.  Bosley probably would have dug it.

 
Eephus said:
I couldn't wait so I downloaded a leak.  Rough and Rowdy Ways is pretty amazing on first listen.  There are seven tracks in addition to the three already released.  A couple of mid-tempo blues but mostly ballads and laments. 

I was curious to see whether his half decade spent exploring the Great American Songbook would affect his songwriting.   It really hasn't as this record isn't particularly rich in melody.  Dylan's voice is in good form; it's singing is probably better as he approaches 80 as it was when he was 60.  I mean that as a compliment.

On first listen, my standout track is Crossing the Rubicon but it's going to take more time to figure this one out.  It's very dense with images and some of the long songs cover a lot of territory.  There are other songs that namedrop like Murder Most Foul.  I heard references to Patton and Zhukov.  The image I'm trying to get out of my head now is Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song but that's not going to be easy.
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I like it a lot - my one complaint would be the lack of variety but that likely has to do with his current signing style which really only works on "ballads and laments". Pretty amazing that he still has it in him to put out something like this at close to 80 years old.

 
Dr. Octopus said:
I like it a lot - my one complaint would be the lack of variety but that likely has to do with his current signing style which really only works on "ballads and laments". Pretty amazing that he still has it in him to put out something like this at close to 80 years old.
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Agreed. One of my favorite authors of the past decade or so, James Salter, was still writing to great effect in his nineties. He passed a few years back, but his writing was something else. I once had a girlfriend that was getting her doctorate in psychology from a prestigious university, specializing (not sure what doctorates call their track) in cognitive aging. The news, she said, wasn't good for people over thirty in terms of math and science, but research had found that there was an expanded vocabulary and facility in storytelling in men that actually increased slightly as we age. So Dylan doesn't have the music/poetry/math aspect going for him, but he should be able to tell a story with his lyrics. Just something potentially interesting from the annals of my life applied to the message board.

 
Got a new dog yesterday.  He's our third all black mutt but the smallest one yet.  He's full grown at age 5 and around ten pounds.  There's presumably some Chihuahua in there along with something like a dachshund because he has a long skinny torso.

He's a very good walker so we listened to some Dylan yesterday to get him accustomed to the route.

 
Eephus said:
Got a new dog yesterday.  He's our third all black mutt but the smallest one yet.  He's full grown at age 5 and around ten pounds.  There's presumably some Chihuahua in there along with something like a dachshund because he has a long skinny torso.

He's a very good walker so we listened to some Dylan yesterday to get him accustomed to the route.
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:pics:   What's his name?

 
Eephus said:
Got a new dog yesterday.  He's our third all black mutt but the smallest one yet.  He's full grown at age 5 and around ten pounds.  There's presumably some Chihuahua in there along with something like a dachshund because he has a long skinny torso.

He's a very good walker so we listened to some Dylan yesterday to get him accustomed to the route.
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Good luck. I’m sure you guys will give the new guy a great life.

 
Eephus said:
The committee is still in session.  His pound name was Terrell which the girls don't like.  He was rescued in Tulare county so I suggested Merle but that went nowhere.

Louis is the current favorite because he seems more like a Louie than an Archie or Timmy.
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Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie Louie Lou-ay/Louie Louie Louie Louie

Yep. Sounds good. Pop culture kitsch check. Solid. Kingly name check. Word. Sun King. Check.

It's all signs point North. 

 
Guess we'll be hearing more nasally vocals in commercials everywhere.

eta* Nine figures? If I ruled the world...

 
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rockaction said:
Guess we'll be hearing more nasally vocals in commercials everywhere.

eta* Nine figures? If I ruled the world...
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It's for his song publishing.  I believe any performance rights would be separate. 

Dylan has six children.  It's easier to divide money than songwriter mechanicals.

 
Eephus said:
It's for his song publishing.  I believe any performance rights would be separate. 

Dylan has six children.  It's easier to divide money than songwriter mechanicals.
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I think technically you're right. I'm now sad I took Accounting For Lawyers instead of following up my Copyright: The Music Lawyer with IP Licensing.

I know the rights are severable. I'm not sure what the difference is between selling your publishing rights vis a vis mechanicals. I thought they were generally one of the same.

 
Just saw this and figured I'd post it here. A little bit highly nonsensical. Here's Dylan, in an interview with Playboy in '66.

PLAYBOY: Mistake or not, what made you decide to go the rock-'n'-roll route?

DYLAN: Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a ********. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a "before" in a Charles Atlas "before and after" ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy - he ain't so mild: He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I'm in Omaha. It's so cold there, by this time I'm robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain't much to look at, but who's built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything's going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say?

PLAYBOY: And that's how you became a rock-'n'-roll singer?

DYLAN: No, that's how I got tuberculosis.

 
rockaction said:
Just saw this and figured I'd post it here. A little bit highly nonsensical. Here's Dylan, in an interview with Playboy in '66.

PLAYBOY: Mistake or not, what made you decide to go the rock-'n'-roll route?

DYLAN: Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a ********. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a "before" in a Charles Atlas "before and after" ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy - he ain't so mild: He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I'm in Omaha. It's so cold there, by this time I'm robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain't much to look at, but who's built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything's going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say?

PLAYBOY: And that's how you became a rock-'n'-roll singer?

DYLAN: No, that's how I got tuberculosis.
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Dylan was hilarious, especially in the early days when talking to journalists who didn't understand his music (or, in some cases, any music) at all. 

 
neal cassady said:
Thanks for the heads up.  Unfortunately I don’t care for Willie near as much as Bob.  Having said that, maybe I need to meet the new best dog ever 🐶
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I'm only a week in but Willie's records don't provide strong opinions like Dylan's did. They're uniformly pleasant and have their individual charms but they haven't reached the heights or depths of the Dylan catalog.

 
Eephus said:
Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin - Willie Nelson (2016)

Willie has recorded a number of Great American song book albums since his huge crossover hit Stardust in 1978.  As the title suggests, Summertime sticks to the songs of Gershwin.  The arrangements here are simpler than Stardust and oddly similar at times to Dylan's standards records.  The Western Swing elements are mostly hidden here, only surfacing on "They All Laughed". 

I understand why modern singer-songwriters have returned to the standards as they grew older.  There's an undeniable craftsmanship to these songs.  They're more sophisticated than most rock 'n roll melodies and lyrics.  Songwriters like Nelson, Dylan and Mitchell have been banging out tunes for over half a century.  They can better appreciate the artistry of Gershwin, Porter and their contemporaries.

Summertime is a lovely album with a casual relaxed feel.  Willie's voice is a natural treasure.  In my mind's eye, I can see him tilt his head and sing out the side of his mouth as he stretches for a high note.  Willie occasionally picks a few bars on Trigger but his longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael is the most prominent instrumental soloist.  I could do without the duets with Cyndi Lauper and Sheryl Crow who aren't really simpatico with what Willie is up to.  Ironically, the song with Lauper is "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off".

Tough to pick a favorite but I'll go with Someone To Watch Over Me.  It's a perfect love song that Nelson recorded previously on Stardust.  The 2016 rendition is better I think.  Willie's voice has an added poignancy and the sparse arrangement suits the song better than the strings and organ that accompany Nelson on the Stardust version.

I can hear Bosley walking up and down the hall of our apartment.  When I don't hear him, I need to check whether he's in his bed or stuck somewhere again.
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I vaguely remembered listening to a Willie Nelson album during this thread but I had to search to be sure.  I guess I can cross Summertime off my list in the other one.  The version of "Someone to Watch Over Me" is still absolutely lovely.

 
Eephus said:
Everything ends but at least we're going out on a high note

Blonde on Blonde (1966)

This thread started off to discuss the best Dylan album for RA to buy on audiophile vinyl.  I guess this one has as good a claim as any.  I've listened to a lot of Dylan this summer from throughout his career.  Although almost every record has its charms I think I agree with the conventional wisdom about peak-Dylan.  The two albums he made in the year between going electric and his motorcycle crash are about as good as rock 'n roll gets.
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I've been taking the past few days to listen to this album, in full and uninterrupted -- other than the requisite changing the sides of the records. I'm listening tonight. I did eventually get the audiophile vinyl for this recording, a Mobile Fidelity box set reissue. So far, I'm delighted by "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again." Much is made of Dylan's songwriting, but really, "Rainy Day..." might be the standout of this album because it's a ton of mischievous fun masquerading as an overt double entendre sing-along. Dylan knew the Bible; knew how and when to break its prescriptive covenants once in a while; understood language; contemplated fate, free will, society and its limitations, misdirections, and grotesqueries; and was thus able to come up with something so simply raucously and timelessly brilliant as deciding, when the world is against you and gathering stones for casting, that

I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned 

 
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There's a new/old Dylan release that's worth a listen in advance of the upcoming Bootleg Series #17. Dylan and Columbia is emptying the vaults of recordings made in 1996-7 during the sessions for his great Time Out Of Mind album.

The single is Version 2 of "Mississippi", which was one of the standout tracks of the album that followed Love & Theft. The new/older version 2 has a rolling shuffle beat that's kind of reminiscent of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry". On first listen, I though the tempo was faster on the outake version but upon returning to the original I discovered there wasn't as big a difference as I rememberd. I think Bob's vocal is stronger in the Love & Theft but version 2 is really, really good.

 
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