Bob Dylan's new book

[David Houck]

... It was difficult to watch Larry Campbell playing rhythm while Bob played the same repetitive primitive “solo” in every song.

Larry Campbell is a wonderful guitar player, so yes, I imagine that would have been somewhat baffling.

[cozmik_cowboy]

1) Saw Zimmie open for The Dead (as opposed to the Dead) in....'04?  Jimmy Herring & Joan Osborne.  He played (rhythm) guitar all night, and his band was great!  A fine time was had by all (except for when we came in a little late & I missed my one chance at seeing Hunter perform.....).

2) From Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story Of The Grateful Dead (2002, NYNY: Random House.  pg 119):


"The acid tests had a much more enduring legacy than this momentary megalomania, for they would serve as the template that permanently defined the Grateful Dead's view of its audience.  The bond between virtually all theatrical or musical performers and their audience is romantic; the artist seeks love, the audience gives it.  The Grateful Dead certainly sought to entertain and move its audience, but the root basis of their relationship was that of a partnership of equals, of companions on an odyssey.  Ironically enough, these young people, in both the band and the audience, would go on to achieve an incredibly mature bond.  The only parallel in American music might be the relationship of certain jazz musicians to their audience.  Coltrane had truly left his mark."


Peter

[lbpesq]

In the early 2000s I saw Dylan at the UNH hockey arena.  I don’t recall him playing guitar on a single tune, chose to play an electric keyboard all night instead.  Kind of surprising, but interesting

I saw him around then and it was the same thing.  He had a Strat on stage, but never touched it.  A few days later I was at Gary Brawer’s shop (Gary is a noted luthier who has worked on, among others, Jerry’s instruments and Willie Nelson’s Trigger).  Gary told me that Dylan’s guy brought in the Strat for a full set-up when he hit town.   The guy told him that they got the guitar a full set-up in each stop on the tour, and that Dylan hadn’t touched the guitar once!

Bill, tgo

[edwin]

I saw Zappa in Providence once. Got yelled at by the people behind me for standing up and dancing.  I of course continued to dance and suggested they do the same 

As long as you were dancing about architecture, you're cool!

[rv_bass]

[StephenR]

I was finally able to pick up the copy of Dylan's book from the local library that I had put on reserve. Haven't read that much yet but it is graphically a beautifully put together book and I am finding the writing to be really impressive if you like Bob's stream of consciousness style of writing. The tone reminds me of his Theme Time Radio broadcasts. My wife and I both found the writing dense enough that we want our own copy. It will be fun to listen to the songs while reading, there is a CD available with all the tunes but finding them on YouTube will suffice. If anyone has been thinking about getting a copy Barnes & Noble currently has it for sale online for 50% off. I called the B&N store nearby in Emeryville and it is on sale in that store for the same price.

[bigredbass]

So NOBODY could be in the hallway to the stage when he was out there, and dressed up like a homeless woman to fade into the public unmolested.

I'm supposed to take anything this man writes seriously?  Really?

[lbpesq]

Yes.  Really.





Just downloaded it on my iPad. 

Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

Oh, I dunno, Joey; I'm guessing that once you've been dubbed The King, or God, or The Voice Of His Generation, you do what you can to keep people from leaching off you.

As his peer Phil Ochs wrote (in re their respective success levels) "To the loser go the hang-ups/To the victor go the hangers on".


Peter (who, for the record, considers Phil's Pleasures Of The Harbor album superior to anything Bob did - which in no way diminishes Mr. Zimmerman's genius)

[bigredbass]

Coz, I've never understood that mindset of too famous to have a reasonably normal life away from the stage.  They say money can't buy you happiness, but it can certainly buy privacy.  Would certainly buy me NOT having to dress up like a homeless woman . . . . that's just nuts.

[jhamby]

Glad to learn that someone else around here likes Phil Ochs. Phil could have been speaking about now when he said "In such an ugly time, the true protest is beauty."

[cozmik_cowboy]

Coz, I've never understood that mindset of too famous to have a reasonably normal life away from the stage.  They say money can't buy you happiness, but it can certainly buy privacy.  Would certainly buy me NOT having to dress up like a homeless woman . . . . that's just nuts.

Well, I in no way meant to imply that Dylan isn't.....well, perhaps just a tad eccentric.  But I would argue that eccentricity does not diminish artistic impact.

Peter

[cozmik_cowboy]

Glad to learn that someone else around here likes Phil Ochs. Phil could have been speaking about now when he said "In such an ugly time, the true protest is beauty."

While I love a good, strident protest song as much as the next guy, I do think Phil leaned on the form a little too much - which is not to say that he didn't write some damn fine strident protest songs.


But yeah - I have, at some points in my life, sat around dorm rooms stoned playing "Top 10 Desert Island Albums" - and yeah, while some releases have come on & gone off over the decades, Pleasures Of The Harbor has been on that list nonstop since the first time I heard it at 18 (and that's more than a week ago now......!  The genius of the arrangements & production perfectly highlights the genius of the writing.


Peter

[lbpesq]

LOVE Phil Ochs.  On top of some of the most kick-in-the-gut protest songs: “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”; “Cops of the World”; Santo Domingo”, “Is There Anybody Here”; “Love Me, I’m a Liberal” he also wrote beautiful songs like “There But For Fortune” and, especially, “Changes”.   I grew up with his 1966 “Phil Ochs in Concert” album getting lots of play on my parents’ turntable.  He hung himself on my 21st birthday, something I’ve never forgotten.

Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

  I grew up with his 1966 “Phil Ochs in Concert” album getting lots of play on my parents’ turntable. 
Bill, tgo

Wow.  I am so jealous!  My parents' turntable was all Andy Williams, Perry Como, and "Longine's Symphonette" boxed Muzak sets.

Peter (whose life - or at least sanity - was saved when a college girl lived with us for a couple years, and brought folk albums with her; yeah, it was mostly striped-shirt folk, but after Andy & Perry...........)