A 50-Year Memory: An Iconic Day

Fifty-years ago today, Dylan recorded one of his fun and classic songs- Subterranean Homesick Blues." It was became famous for two reasons. First, the last line of the second verse was the founding name of a radical group:

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

And second, the video of the song from a documentary became a template for future videos. Here, first, is the video with a talkover by director D. J. Pennebaker and Bob Neuwirth.

But we can't let it just go without hearing the whole thing without extraneous commentary.

Thanks, Bob, for this amazing song.

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues - HQ
from Noisefield on Vimeo.

Remembering Pete- Part 5

Pete's Influence

Pete didn't just bring the past to today's issues. He had an impact on what others thought about music.

Take Bruce Springsteen, for example. A number of years ago he put out two albums, one a studio recording and the other a live set. He called them "The Seeger Sessions." He didn't use Pete's music, he used Pete's inspiration and songs that met that standard. They were unlike any of Springsteen's other albums and they brim with life overflowing.

Here's Bruce Springsteen at Pete's 90th Birthday:




Conservation
Pete lived on the hill overlooking the Hudson River. In the 60s and 70s it was anything but a healthy river. So Pete decided to do something about it. He formed a coalition, built a sailing sloop and proceeded to lead the forces to clean up the river.  It worked.

Not amazing when you consider Pete's intensity and commitment.



Occupy Wall Street
On October 21, 2011 Pete joined others to march as part of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Still marching, still protesting, still working to make this country better and the world a safer place. When they got to Columbus Circle they sang a song that Pete had once made famous. Here is an earlier version of Pete and "We Shall Overcome."




Amnesty International and (of course)
Bob Dylan:
A few years ago Amnesty International released a compilation of Bob Dylan songs covered by others, "Chimes of Freedom." It was only fitting that one of those covers was done by Pete. He was the Grandfather of folk music and one of his children was Dylan. The Greenwich Village scene into which Dylan arrived would not have had nearly the chance of success it had without Pete. Pete was obviously more than happy to oblige.

He sang the perfect song for him and his legacy. It was Dylan's beautiful benediction-style anthem, "Forever Young." As Pete proved over and over for 75 years:

You're never too old to change the world...

Forever.... Young

A Hymn to the Father of Day and Night

Mill City Museum

Minneapolis, MN

August 4, 2013

Happy #72, Bob!

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, music producer, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.

Pre-Pentecost Thought

In Hebrew and Greek the word for Spirit is also the word for wind and breath. 

I have always considered this a song for Pentecost- the gift of prophecy- telling it like God sees it. 

Getting ready for Pentecost Sunday again.

The Ragged Figure

Mike, at Waving or Drowning found an interview with John Cusack back in December. Here, for me, is a money quote:

Vanity Fair: Who are your heroes in real life?

John Cusack:Let’s go with Jesus. Not the gay-hating, war-making political tool of the right, but the outcast, subversive, supreme adept who preferred the freaks and lepers and despised and doomed to the rich and powerful. The man Garry Wills describes “with the future in his eyes … paradoxically calming and provoking,” and whom Flannery O’Connor saw as “the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of [one’s] mind.”

You can read the rest of this interview here.

Made me think of a favorite line in Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man:

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin' swingin' madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Here's a video (Singing starts around 1:45 after he gets an E-harmonica):

Happy Birthday, Bob

Yes, Robert Allen Zimmerman is 70. Bob Dylan.

He's 70!

Oh, how things have changed.

Lot of water under the bridge, Lot of other stuff too
Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

An Early Christmas Gift?

I gather that today is the release date for the next Dylan album- a Christmas album. It is only 2 1/2 months until Christmas so why not.

Anyway, New York Magazine posted a note on Thursday of a leak of the album Sounds like it may be a fun album. Since, in addition to being a Dylan fan I also collect Christmas music, I am sure I will download it one of these days soon.

Or, maybe not. Jim DeRogatis at the Chicago Sun-Times gives it a scathing No Stars review. I guess we will watch for other ideas and see whether it is really that bad.

--HT to Dylan Devotional

Let Me Recommend...

Together Through Life, the latest from Bob Dylan. It is a fairly quick turnaround to release this new album and it is a different direction from his excellent previous trilogy. It is not his greatest album. But it is Dylan at his high quality best.

What makes this different is the sound. It is Zydeco and some Tex-Mex added with some rock and ballads and well, it's Dylan. His voice is as gravelly as ever- and actually continues to add new elements to his style as he ages. There can now be a tenderness to his voice that turns the gravel into a pleasant rod through his musical thoughts.

It is important to remember that in three weeks Dylan will be 68. Yes, 68! I don't expect him to make the kind of pulsing energy in his songs that led to his early fame. But what he still has is his music. Underneath the gravel of age and the generally easy, bluesy, jazzy rock is still Bob Dylan. As one person said in an iTunes review we don't know how many more original Dylan albums we will have. I for one celebrate this one!

Coming in Three Weeks

Bob Dylan has a new album coming out three weeks from today. I heard one cut on NPR's All Songs Considered.

There's also a stream of another song at Newsweek.

Two excellent songs. I can hardly wait!

More on Pulitzer Laureate Bob Dylan's Award

Here's some more on Bob Dylan award. Actually some background that makes this award even more impressive- and just as deserved. This is from the Star-Tribune:

The Minnesota native, 66, will be the first living musician to receive this citation since composer William Schuman in 1985. [It] has gone to the likes of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Dr. Seuss.

Pulitzer special citations are not given every year. Only 38 people -- most of them journalists -- have received one since 1917. They have become a sort of lifetime-achievement award for notables who didn't win a Pulitzer in their field.

The first special citation in music was given to composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein for "Oklahoma" in 1944. Other recipients include jazz legends Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, essayist/children's book author E.B. White and science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury.

And Dylan is still working and writing and singing and touring. I am all for it! (For what that's worth to the Pulitzer committee.)

For All Seasons
Ben Myers at Faith and Theology had a post a couple months ago that caught my fancy. I figure it's good for a Monday. He pointed out that Bob Dylan has an album for every mood and occasion. He is a real poet of the human condition. If we feel it, Dylan sings about it. Here's Ben's list.

When you’re visiting the city: Highway 61 Revisited
When you’re visiting the country: Nashville Skyline

When you’ve just gotten married: Planet Waves
When you’ve just gotten divorced: Blood on the Tracks

When you’re feeling very youthful: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
When you’re feeling very old: “Love and Theft”

When you’re in love with life: New Morning
When you’re sick of life: Time Out of Mind

When you’re dreaming of exotic romances: Desire
When you’ve renounced exotic romances: Down in the Groove

When you’re full of nostalgia: Modern Times
When you’re full of rage: Hard Rain

When you’ve just been born again: Saved
When you’ve just become a pagan: Street-Legal

When you’re feeling smooth: Oh Mercy
When you’re feeling rough and ragged: World Gone Wrong

When you’ve got all the answers: Slow Train Coming
When you’ve got none of the answers: Blonde on Blonde

Over such an amazing musical career Dylan really has covered the bases. Which is the real Dylan? Who cares. The mark of a great poet, songwriter, novelist is that they can address the human condition in all its sides, sizes, and quirks. The fact that Dylan has continued to write and grow and change through all these years and still remain more than listenable is a mark of his uniqueness.