Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s best songs – Lenny Bruce – #148

Lenny Bruce 2

 Maybe he had some problems, maybe some things that he couldn’t work out
But he sure was funny and he sure told the truth and he knew what he was talkin’ about
~Bob Dylan (From the lyrics of “Lenny Bruce”)

Here’s a song I wrote a while back about a guy who died pretty miserably  actually. I figured I didn’t write this song, nobody would so, somebody had to write it. There’s a great American playwright named Tennessee Williams. He said, “I’m not looking for your pity, I just want your understanding. No, not even that, but just your recognition of me and you and time, the enemy in us all.” Anyway, he died pretty miserably too. So this is a man who got no recognition really during his lifetime. But he laid down a lot of road for a lot of people to walk on. People still walking on that road, making lots of money, living in fine houses. Have plenty of women and eating good food. And he didn’t have none of them things.
~Bob Dylan (before “Lenny Bruce”  @ Nippon Budokan Hall – Tokyo, Japan – 10 March 1986)

@ #148 on my list of Dylan’s 200 best songs. A song about the great stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce.

shot of love

spotify:

The original version from “Shot Of Love” is a very good song.. but there are many live versions that are superior…

Here is a great example:

Live @ Kooyong Stadium – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia – Feb 1986

Musicians playing on this video:

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • Tom Petty (guitar)
  • Mike Campbell (guitar)
  • Benmont Tench (keyboards)
  • Howie Epstein (bass)
  • Stan Lynch (drums)

  • The Queens Of Rhythm:
  • Debra Byrd
  • Queen Esther Marrow
  • Madelyn Quebec
  • Elisecia Wright (backing vocals)

bob-dylan 1986 live

Continue reading Bob Dylan’s best songs – Lenny Bruce – #148

Bob Dylan – Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, New York – 30 June 1988

bob dylan wantagh 1988

A very good 88-concert and the sound on the circulating soundboard tape is incredible.

It is concert #15 of the Never Ending Tour & this tour is “labeled” the Interstate 88 Tour, part 1.

#10 – Eileen Aroon

I know a valley fair,
Eileen Aroon
I know a cottage there
Eileen Aroon
Far in the valley shade I know a tender maid
Flow’r of the hazel glade, Eileen Aroon

#3 – You’re A Big Girl Now

Wantagh, New York

Wantagh New York

Wantagh (pronounced /WAHN-taw/) is a hamlet and census-designated place (an unincorporated section of the town of Hempstead) in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, United States. The population of Wantagh was 18,871 at the time of the 2010 census.

Wantagh is known as “The Gateway to Jones Beach”.

bob dylan wantagh 1988 2

Continue reading Bob Dylan – Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, New York – 30 June 1988

Today: The Beatles played the Rooftop concert, Apple building 30 Jan 1969

rooftop1

“I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition” – John Lennon 

Trying to come up with a conclusion for the film, Let it be, it was suggested that the band play an unannounced lunchtime concert on the roof of the Apple building. On 30 January, The Beatles with Preston played on the rooftop in the cold wind for 42 minutes, about half of which ended up in the film.

The songs performed in the Rooftop concert, Apple building:

  • Get Back (5 versions)
  • I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
  • Don’t Let Me Down (2 versions)
  • I’ve Got A Feeling
  • One After 909
  • Danny Boy (in between the main songs)
  • Dig A Pony (2 versions)
  • God Save The Queen (incompl.)
  • A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody (between main songs)

The Concert:

The Beatles started with a rehearsal of “Get Back,” then played the five songs which are shown in the film. After repeating “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” takes which were left out of the film, the Beatles are shown in the film closing with another pass at “Get Back” as the police arrive to shut down the show.  (Wikipedia)

The songs were used as a whole or in parts on the album, in the film and later on Anthology 3 and on the re-release/reworking of Let it be, Let it be…naked.

The Apple building concert was the first live gig since The Beatles stopped touring 29. August 1966 (tired of  screaming girls and not beeing able to hear themselves through the screams) and it was to be their last. It’s a fantastic show, sweet and short, really makes us long for more. It gives us a glimpse of what could have been, and it shows us what a magnificent live band they were.

rooftop2

 “We went on the roof in order to resolve the live concert idea, because it was much simpler than going anywhere else; also nobody had ever done that, so it would be interesting to see what happened when we started playing up there. It was a nice little social study.

We set up a camera in the Apple reception area, behind a window so nobody could see it, and we filmed people coming in. The police and everybody came in saying, ‘You can’t do that! You’ve got to stop.'” – George Harrison (Anthology)

Whatever animosity there was between the four guys it doesn’t show, it looks like they have the time of their life, it is a magnificent live farewell.

It is also one of the most bootlegged shows in rock’n roll history, both on audio and film.

rooftop_cover1

rooftop_dvd

Let’s hope for an official Let it Be Blu-Ray release, maybe with the rooftop concert as a separate extra feature (with all available footage).

Other January 30:

Continue reading Today: The Beatles played the Rooftop concert, Apple building 30 Jan 1969

Video of the day: Lucinda Williams – Trying to get to heaven (Bob Dylan)

lucinda williams

Happy birthday Lucinda Williams!

This wonderful artist gets both the calendar post and the video of the day on Johanna’s Visions since it’s her 60th birthday.

Lucinda Williams with the Bob Dylan cover “Tryin To Get To Heaven” from the Amnesty International tribute album “Chimes of Freedom” celebrating Amnesty International’s 50th year advocating for human rights, here in two audience recorded live performances and the one from the Amnesty album.

Trying to get to heaven (live, 2011), a bit of chatter on the sound, but still great:

Trying to get to heaven (November 2011):

Trying to get to heaven (Studio version):

– Hallgeir

Today: Lucinda Williams is 60, Happy birthday!

lucinda3

Like som many, I discovered Lucinda Williams when she released the fantastic album, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. I went to the record store (yes, we actually did that in the old days) and bought as many of her albums as I could find. There were four albums before Car Wheels.., great albums, I love them all. Since then I’ve awaited all Lucinda Williams albums with great exitement. She’s always good, most of the time she’s great.

Today she’s 60, happy birthday Lucinda Williams!

Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, blues, and country music singer and songwriter.

Lucinda1

She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album, Lucinda Williams. This release featured “Passionate Kisses,” a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter which garnered Lucinda her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994.

Car Wheels ON A Gravel Road (live):

Known for working slowly, Lucinda recorded and released only one other album in the next several years (Sweet Old World in 1992) before her greatest success came in 1998 with Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. This album presented a broader scope of songs that fused rock, blues, country, and Americana into a more distinctive style that still managed to remain consistent and commercial in sound. It went gold and earned Lucinda another Grammy while being universally acclaimed by critics. Since Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, she has released a string of albums that have also been critically acclaimed, though none have sold in the numbers of her 1998 breakthrough. She was also named “America’s best songwriter” by TIME magazine in 2002. (Wikipedia, READ MORE)

Her wonderful song about Blaze Foley, Drunken Angel:

I could have chosen Car Wheels as today’s album, but insted I’ve made a playlist of my top 20 Lucinda Williams songs. It was easy to find 20 songs, but it was hard  to limit myself to just 25. Anyway here it is.

Hallgeir’s top 25 Lucinda Williams songs:

PS: I have a confession, Car wheels is no longer my favourite Lucinda Williams album, that honor goes to World Without Tears.

Other 26. January:

Continue reading Today: Lucinda Williams is 60, Happy birthday!