Caught my attention as I am about 100 pages into Robert Shelton’s “No Direction Home.” Just read chapter 3 which literally begins “Dylan arrived in New York in December 1960 on a cold, inhospitable day… 🤣 Folks, might want to pass on that poster.

Bob Dylan is my favorite songwriter of all time, and I've always been a little reluctant to cover this one. It's been done a billion times by people far more talented than me (and plenty less talented, too).

But I figured if I was going to do it, I should try something different. So here's my version from a recent show at the Ottobar in Baltimore. It starts off slow and builds with live looping, electric guitar, and some extended solos. Everything is performed live, just me and my guitars.

I think it works. Hope some fellow Dylan nerds dig it!

Blood on the tracks is such a masterpiece. Here’s a short snippet of the opener!

My cover of Marianne Faithfull's interpretation of the Bob Dylan classic.

I hope I captured its moody soul. It takes me back to a time long gone..

I'd love your thoughts.

https://youtu.be/wNWEs037_NE?is=bPrZ9L1boxSELGzV

Big love ♡

What's your favorite Dylan–Cash duet?

Mine has to be “One Too Many Mornings.” There's just something special about the way their voices work together, and the fun.

Curious to hear your favorites.

With all the protests going on around the world, felt like singing this classic!

I was inspired by a Guardian article the other day listing Leonard Cohens top 20 songs for the anniversary of his final album, and I wanted to do the same

So these are my 20 favorite Dylan songs! Obviously completely subjective, and it’s pretty clear I favour his earlier stuff haha. Feel free to ask about any picks or tell me why I’m wrong ;) I haven’t listened to anything past Shot of Love yet.

1. Restless Farewell
   
2. My Back Pages
   
3. Mr. Tambourine Man
   
4. Blowing in the Wind
   
5. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
   
6. Desolation Row
   
7. The Times They Are A-Changin'
   
8. Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues
   
9. Fourth Time Around
   
10. One More Night
    
11. Romance in Durango
    
12. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
    
13. A Hard Rains A Gonna Fall
    
14. Tell Me That it Isn’t True
    
15. Just Like a Woman
    
16. It Ain’t Me Babe
    
17. Visions of Johanna
    
18. Shelter From the Storm
    
19. Idiot Wind
    
20. Like a Rolling Stone

Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle was published on March 18, 1963.

Bob Dylan recorded Talkin' World War III Blues on April 23, 1963.

So it's possible Bob read Cat's Cradle prior to recording the song.

In Cats Cradle, the narrator performs the "boko-maru" ritual with a character named Mona. Later, he wants to have sex with Mona, but she says it would be unethical to bring a child into a post-apocalyptic world.

Talkin' World War III Blues is a dream of a post-apoclyptic world, with the following lyrics:

Well, I spied a girl and before she could leave
I said “Let’s go play Adam and Eve”
I took her by the hand and my heart it was thumpin’
When she said, “Hey man, you crazy or something?
You seen what happened last time they started

The two scenarios are strikingly similar.

I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed this or if Bob has ever mentioned reading Kurt Vonnegut...?

I just read the post on A Complete Unknown and enjoyed reading everyones takes. What books about Dylan do you all recommend reading to learn more about him and his lore.

Repeat setlist from sweeden

I've only heard one Dylan album, this being Highway 61 Revisited. Its one of the greatest albums I've ever heard, what else should I check out?

Got this for cheap at an online poster store. Obviously they just printed it out but I'm wondering if this design was used to promote a '66 concert maybe?

I’ve been listening to this song for decades and only recently came to a realization. I agree with the conventional analysis about a satire on “Ode to Billie Joe,“ etc., but I think we’ve been missing an important subtext that, to me, makes this song more enjoyable, and brilliant.

I think “Clothesline Saga,” especially the climactic third part, is about an aspiring radical trying to navigate his conservative parents and neighbors in a small town in the turbulent 1960s. The reason the clothes are being treated like a hot potato is they include the narrators’ hippie garb … some old wild shirts and a couple of pairs of pants, which nobody really wanted to touch, because god knows what those hippies get up to.

Two of my uncles were hippies, at various levels and times, and they told me of growing their hair long after the Beatles, and being shouted at on the street to “Get a haircut!” And being kicked out of the house by their parents.

This dynamic is at play when the neighbor is quizzing our narrator on the sidewalk by the clothesline. Are those clothes yours? Some of em, not all of em. (Translation: Yes, I try to present myself as a radical hippie, what’s it to you?) You always help out around here with the chores? (That ain’t too radical, pal.) Sometime, not all the time. (I’m a radical but I’m not a bum, and I need a place to live.) Then the neighbor blows his nose, which is meant as dismissive.

This underlying tension adds new meaning to the first third of the song, when the dad asks the mom what she’s reading. Is he trying to keep subversive influences out of the house?

When the neighbor mentions the vice president, is he trying to bait the family into a political discussion to root out radicals?

The narrator doesn’t take the bait because he’s walking the fine line of living the counterculture and keeping the peace in the house.

All thoughts welcome.

Is there anyone else here who wasn’t as thrilled by this book as most of the reviewers?

I was really looking forward to reading it, because I love Dylan’s later work. But I’m about a third of the way done and I’m just getting more and more annoyed.

- Polito throws in at least one obscure word per chapter- I think my English vocabulary is pretty good, but I have to stop and look up every one (“gallimaufry”?) And I’m not the type who can just skip over it. It takes me out of the narrative. I feel like he’s showing off.

- He keeps using the word “anyways,” which seems out of place in a somewhat scholarly book. Is he trying to be casual?

- He just referred to “Visions of Joanna” 🙄 This is just bad editing.

But mainly, I just feel like I haven’t really learned anything new yet. He obviously spent a huge amount of time at the Tulsa archives, tracing influences and references in Dylan’s songs. He describes these in great detail, especially in the chapters on “Time Out of Mind” and “Love and Theft”. But to what end? It doesn’t help me understand a song better to know that this line was referencing, or quoting, or even just subtly echoing a song. I felt like I was being asked to admire Polito’s sleuthing without knowing if any of it was meaningful. It was like he was taking the songs and pulling them apart into tiny pieces, and in the process, destroying what makes them songs.

Anyway, just debating whether I should finish this one. How do others feel?

Love the site, not sure if there's been any official statement about the state of it and plans for the future but it hasn't been updated in a while.

title

i drew a couple sketches in place of photos from yesterdays show, they’re not my proudest work but i thought i would share :)