January 1 - 7, 2023
Seven Days in Dylan News
THIS WEEK'S NEWS
- The 200 Greatest Singers – Guaranteed (RollingStone)
- #15 – Bob Dylan: “Once he was fully in control of his instrument, he could use it to express everything from wry disdain (“Like a Rolling Stone”) to deep devotion (“If Not for You”), wrenching pathos (the Basement Tapes masterpiece “Goin’ to Acapulco”) and sardonic venom (“Idiot Wind”). (On 1969’s Nashville Skyline, he even morphed into a clean-voiced crooner.) And in his later years, he’s built an entire mature style out of his increasingly ragged-throated sound, moving freely between wistful romance (see Triplicate readings like “My One and Only Love”) and bawdy black comedy (“False Prophet”).”
- The Top 2 Jewish Singers – Forward
- Bob and Barbara: “We’ve heard it a thousand times: “But Bob Dylan can’t sing!” Listen again. For one, he never sings off-key or out of tune, frequently held lazy opinions to the contrary. Secondly, Dylan ushered in an entirely new style of singing in popular music, a wholly organic blend of blues holler, country drawl, rockabilly shouter and folk melodicist. His was and is the voice of the people as much as his songs spoke for the forgotten hordes and society’s outcasts.”
- 125 Jews Who Shaped Our World – (Forward)
- It’s listacle week: “A 19-year-old guitar player from Minnesota named Bob Dylan came to New York City, where he became an icon of folk, rock and protest music. Fifty-five years later, in 2016, Dylan won the Nobel Prize in literature for his complex and poetic lyrics.”
- BP Fallon on Bob Dylan (Irish Examiner)
- “It was like being strapped to a rocket. It was loud, soulful. It wasn’t necessarily 100 percent in tune. It didn’t matter. It rocked. I haven’t been the same since. The story is that everyone was booing. Well, they weren’t. There was a few idiots booing, but by and large people dug it.”
- Dylan’s WSJ Interview / Slideshow Version
- No changes just a different display format
- Ian Tyson Remembers Dylan Not So Fondly (No Depression)
- “He’s a genius, but he abuses it a lot. He’s an asshole genius.”
Blog Posts About Bob Dylan
- The Sound of Bob Dylan – Poetry For You Ear (Johnny Borgan)
- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
- “The voice embraces tradition, but also brings with it renewal, as if an old soul conveys something fresh and timeless. Dylan does not seek perfection or beauty, but to deliver the song and the song’s content in a way that hits the audience in the heart.”
- Country Pie Pt.2 (Pt3.) (Pt.4) (Pt.5) (Pt.6) (Untold Dylan)
- “None of those three verse lines is unambiguous. In fact, the third, I won’t throw it up in anybody’s face, is downright puzzling.”
- My Own Version of You (Pt.2) (Pt.3) (Pt.4) (Kees De Graf)
- “The idea that the “You” in this song is in fact God, is in line with the main theme of this album: “Rough and rowdy ways”. The rough and rowdy ways are the ways of God’s opponent.”
New Reviews & Releases
- Folk Music by Greil Marcus (zyzzyva)
- “All this may be too much exegesis for some, but Marcus’s willingness to suspend disbelief, walk down the mean streets most of us go out of our way to avoid, is engaging, provocative, and brave.”
- Folk Music by Greil Marcus (Critics at Large)
- “Dylan’s power, Marcus prefers to believe, lies in “a sense of authorless authority” whose richest products, while singular in his hands, are always capable of changing shape in other hands. That’s one thing great art does, it changes; and for Marcus, no musician has exemplified the principle more than Bob Dylan—or “Bob Dylan.”
- John Wesley Harding (Glide Magazine)
- “Nonetheless, this relatively quiet record of Bob’s stands on its own as a labor of pronounced personal meaning. In slightly less than thirty-nine minutes, Dylan manages to conjure up more of a saintly atmosphere than permeates either of his Christian period albums, 1979’s Slow Train Coming and the next year’s Saved.”
- John Wesley Harding (Best Classic Bands)
- “On December 27, 1967, Columbia Records released the Bob Johnston-produced Bob Dylan long-player John Wesley Harding. By January ’68 it was one of the most tracked albums on countless FM radio stations in America and all over the world.”
- The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (Cult Following)
- “There are still cries of protest lingering around, but his main focus is one of growth. His opening track is still the most promising of all his pontification. Blowin’ in the Wind is one of many masterstrokes from Dylan’s discography.”
- Desire (Cult Following)
- “Desire is a coupling of all those fine notes he leaves behind in his earliest works and those that do not make the cut in later releases. It is unclear as to whether Dylan wants a clean break from his past or a new approach to his style, while still keeping the notes that made him the man he is.”
- Triplicate (Cult Following)
- “His production values were strong, his voice was starting to build back to that quality and standard heard earlier in the century, but there is a particular and integral disappointment at the core of Triplicate, regardless of its quality.”
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Blonde On Blonde, Old and New Pressings
Blonde On Blonde, Old and New Pressings via @thevinylprofessor on Instagram
NEW PODCASTS
- Dylan.FM
- Pod Dylan
- No Direction Home (Melissa Tomczak)
- God Knows (Eric Brightman)
- Hard Rain & Slow Trains
- A Headful of Ideas S02E15
- Mr. Tambourine Man (YouTube)
- The Dylantantes
UPCOMING EVENTS
- The World Of Bob Dylan – Tulsa, OK (May 30, 2023)
- Retrospectrum in Rome (Bob Dylan Art Exhibit – Now to April 30, 2023)
- Dylan at Maxxi – Romeing
- Daniel Kramer Exhibition in Boston (Grateful Web)
- The exhibit opens to the public for tours on January 18, 2023, at FARHOF, located in the Boch Center Wang Theatre.
- Bob Dylan Tribute (Pat Tierney) 1/27/23
- Edmundi QLD AU – Tickets
- The Defining 10 with Sid Griffin
- Worthing UK – Tickets
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Prior Weeks
Dylan.FM helps music lovers go deep on Bob Dylan with news, podcasts, interviews, events, posts, and more. Produced by Freak Music Club.
