Music: February 2008 Archives
And while we're on the subject of Don Was, I don't kow if you have checked out what Don is doing at MY DAMN CHANNEL, but you should --- he's doing a weekly video blog, he's posting free music and free music videos of artists he's produced (Rocket, Jackshit, Sweet Pea Atkinson, Maia Sharp, Wayne Kramer),there are interviews with Ozzy Osbourne and Duff and Slash, it's THE WASMOPOLITAN CAVALCADE OF RECORDED MUSIC. Yes, it is!
I should mention that these videos are shot, edited and produced by none other than Gemma Corfield who shows great talent and style in this emerging internet format.
There are advertiser sponsored segments like a Detroit road trip and a Nashville songwriter series -- it's very impressive.
But my favorite feature is what is now called Radio Was: The Party Shuffle Show which is basically a free internet weekly radio program where Don streams an hour or so of eclectic music selections from his IPOD -- always interesting, always fun to listen to.
I've checked out a lot of music sites on the web, and I have to say, Don's is compelling. But don't take my word for it.
Check it out!
I should mention that these videos are shot, edited and produced by none other than Gemma Corfield who shows great talent and style in this emerging internet format.
There are advertiser sponsored segments like a Detroit road trip and a Nashville songwriter series -- it's very impressive.
But my favorite feature is what is now called Radio Was: The Party Shuffle Show which is basically a free internet weekly radio program where Don streams an hour or so of eclectic music selections from his IPOD -- always interesting, always fun to listen to.
I've checked out a lot of music sites on the web, and I have to say, Don's is compelling. But don't take my word for it.
Check it out!
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."
Last night I went to the opening of the Dylan exhibit at the Skirball. Let me say this --I've now been twice and I still haven't had the time to look at everything I want to as deeply as I'd like.
My Tommywood column on the exhibit will appear in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles on Thursday and I will post it on this website then. The exhibit, entitled, "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966" opens to the public this Friday February 8 -- so in order to write the article in time for it to appear this week, I had to do most of my research before seeing the exhibit. Then the folks at the Skirball were good enough to let me visit while while it was still being installed.
My first draft was 4,500 words -- that's about 18 pages long. I had Dylan quotes from interviews he's done recently with Jonathan Lethem and Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone and references to some of the obscure artifacts in the exhibit. With direction from my editor Susan Freudenheim, I cut all the more academic references and less personal commentary and managed to rein in my piece at 2500 words -- and I confess it is the better for it [whether it's any good is another matter].
Still I I had so much fun delving into Dylanalia that beginning on Friday for a week I will feature an item about Bob Dylan each day on The Tommywood blog. Consider it "Dylan week" at Tommywood in honor of the Skirball exhibit.
My Tommywood column on the exhibit will appear in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles on Thursday and I will post it on this website then. The exhibit, entitled, "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966" opens to the public this Friday February 8 -- so in order to write the article in time for it to appear this week, I had to do most of my research before seeing the exhibit. Then the folks at the Skirball were good enough to let me visit while while it was still being installed.
My first draft was 4,500 words -- that's about 18 pages long. I had Dylan quotes from interviews he's done recently with Jonathan Lethem and Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone and references to some of the obscure artifacts in the exhibit. With direction from my editor Susan Freudenheim, I cut all the more academic references and less personal commentary and managed to rein in my piece at 2500 words -- and I confess it is the better for it [whether it's any good is another matter].
Still I I had so much fun delving into Dylanalia that beginning on Friday for a week I will feature an item about Bob Dylan each day on The Tommywood blog. Consider it "Dylan week" at Tommywood in honor of the Skirball exhibit.
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