Recently in Dylan Category
Since posting about Dylan covering other people's songs, I stumbled into a bunch of others on MOG -- www.mog.com , a music blog site. (By the way in my last post I said Wolftrap was in Maryland; turns out it's in Virginia -- which speaks volumes about what condition my condition must have been in at the time).
On MOG I found Dylan covering George Harrison's "Something"
There was also a cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change is gonna come" which Ossie Davis in his introduction says was inspired by "Blowin' in the Wind" -- never knew that! (but it can't touch Otis Redding's version).
There's also an audio clip from Dylan's XM radio show of his reciting "'Twas the Night before Christmas" and a clip of his singing some Shel Silverstein lyrics.
DYLAN ON ED SULLIVAN -- NOT
At the Skirball, at the very end of the exhibit, there's a video monitor where Dylan recounts how he walked off the Ed Sullivan in 1963 -- and how he regrets doing so.
MIKE BLOOMFIELD
He also says in another video clip that he thought Mike Bloomfield made a mistake not joining Dylan on the road. I agree -- Bloomfield's searing guitar on Maggie's Farm live at Newport was never matched.
DYLAN INTERVIEWS
In the course of my research for my column I came across two recent interviews with Dylan in Rolling Stone which are worth reading. one by Jonathan Lethem (September 7, 2006) and the other by Jann Wenner himself (May 7, 2007).
In my column, I say that Dylan rejected the whole notion of leaders. To that opinion Dylan has remained true. Here's what he told Wenner:
On MOG I found Dylan covering George Harrison's "Something"
There was also a cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change is gonna come" which Ossie Davis in his introduction says was inspired by "Blowin' in the Wind" -- never knew that! (but it can't touch Otis Redding's version).
There's also an audio clip from Dylan's XM radio show of his reciting "'Twas the Night before Christmas" and a clip of his singing some Shel Silverstein lyrics.
DYLAN ON ED SULLIVAN -- NOT
At the Skirball, at the very end of the exhibit, there's a video monitor where Dylan recounts how he walked off the Ed Sullivan in 1963 -- and how he regrets doing so.
MIKE BLOOMFIELD
He also says in another video clip that he thought Mike Bloomfield made a mistake not joining Dylan on the road. I agree -- Bloomfield's searing guitar on Maggie's Farm live at Newport was never matched.
DYLAN INTERVIEWS
In the course of my research for my column I came across two recent interviews with Dylan in Rolling Stone which are worth reading. one by Jonathan Lethem (September 7, 2006) and the other by Jann Wenner himself (May 7, 2007).
In my column, I say that Dylan rejected the whole notion of leaders. To that opinion Dylan has remained true. Here's what he told Wenner:
“I think what you’re driving at, though, is we expect politicians to solve all our problems. I don’t expect politicians to solve anybody’s problems….We’ve got to take the world by the horns and solve our own problems. The world owes us nothing, each and everyone of us, the world owes us not a single thing. Politicians or whoever….”
In Lethem’s Rolling Stone interview, Dylan makes an interesting point—that a lot of the songs he wrote during that era continue to be played by him and covered by others. He asks how many other artists of the era can one say that about?“I love Marvin Gaye,” Dylan says, “But how often are you gonna hear “What’s going on? I mean who sings it….Where is that being sung tonight?”
Although much has been made of the fact that Dylan's work has been covered-- Dylan himself has covered a great many songs, beginning with the covers he did early in his career.
One of my favorites early on was Dylan's cover on his first album of Eric von Scmidt's "Baby let me follow you down." Dylan did a great version of this song at the 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert that was only available as a bootleg for many years (which was how I first heard it) but was released in 1998 as "Live 1966"-- for me, it has the freedom and joy of what Dylan called "that wild mercury sound" he brought to his albums at that time.
Speaking of that sound -- Robert Zimmerman's stated ambition in his high school yearbook was to play in Little Richard's band. Well, last night, at the Grammys Richard himself -- old as time but timeless nonetheless, performed and I heard in his wild yelps and hollers and pounding rhythm some of that sound that Dylan found in his electric albums.
But back to the covers. Dylan has also done some strange, awful and unusual versions of other people's songs. There was his 1970 cover of Paul Simon's "The Boxer." In 1973, in what I have to believe was a moment of contractual dispute, Columbia released an album mostly filled with covers that is now called "Dylan" (I think it may have been called "13" at one time). It includes covers of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles," Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and Elvis' "Can't help falling in Love."
Recently, as Warren Zevon was living his last days, Dylan started performing some of his songs.
However, one of the most unusual set of covers I ever saw Dylan sing, was at a concert at Wolf Trap in Maryland where he performed Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree," Jimmy Buffett's "Pirate looks at 40," and -- this I'll never forget -- Dion's "Abraham, Martin & John."
One of my favorites early on was Dylan's cover on his first album of Eric von Scmidt's "Baby let me follow you down." Dylan did a great version of this song at the 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert that was only available as a bootleg for many years (which was how I first heard it) but was released in 1998 as "Live 1966"-- for me, it has the freedom and joy of what Dylan called "that wild mercury sound" he brought to his albums at that time.
Speaking of that sound -- Robert Zimmerman's stated ambition in his high school yearbook was to play in Little Richard's band. Well, last night, at the Grammys Richard himself -- old as time but timeless nonetheless, performed and I heard in his wild yelps and hollers and pounding rhythm some of that sound that Dylan found in his electric albums.
But back to the covers. Dylan has also done some strange, awful and unusual versions of other people's songs. There was his 1970 cover of Paul Simon's "The Boxer." In 1973, in what I have to believe was a moment of contractual dispute, Columbia released an album mostly filled with covers that is now called "Dylan" (I think it may have been called "13" at one time). It includes covers of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles," Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and Elvis' "Can't help falling in Love."
Recently, as Warren Zevon was living his last days, Dylan started performing some of his songs.
However, one of the most unusual set of covers I ever saw Dylan sing, was at a concert at Wolf Trap in Maryland where he performed Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree," Jimmy Buffett's "Pirate looks at 40," and -- this I'll never forget -- Dion's "Abraham, Martin & John."
For today's Dylan du jour item, in honor of the opening of the Skirball exhibit today, "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966" I would like to tell you about one of my favorite artifacts in the show.
It's a typed letter to Joan Baez's mother that Dylan wrote as if from Joan Baez, and got Joan to sign. It's quite funny and impish. In the letter, Dylan makes himself out to be a King Kong-esque beast constantly attacking her daughter.
This is accompanied by a handwritten letter from Joan Baez to her mother, explaining and apologizing for Dylan's joke letter. She talks about Dick and Mimi (Richard Farina and her sister Mimi Farina) but mostly she gushes about "Bobby" and their relationship. It's a wonderful letter. Baez pretends to be so adult, but she is in full puppy love mode telling her mother that Bobby is sweet and buys her gifts, and bathes, and is smart about business, and how she enjoys his genius but, she says, there are "no chains" on their relationship. Oh boy!
Doesn't matter who you are -- Ah to be young, gifted and silly in love.....
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