August 12 in music history


August 12: Happy 65th Birthday Mark Knopfler (read more) …. Actually we are soul mates. As far as guitar playing goes he never steps all over with fancy licks. Yeah, Mark was incredible. He helped make this record in a thousand ways, not only musically, which in itself would have been enough. Brilliant guy, I can’t say enough about him. ~Bob Dylan (Talking about Knopfler part in the making of “Infidels” – July 1983 to Martin Killer) – The most celebrated British guitar hero to emerge in the 1970s and ’80s, Mark Knopfler rose to fame as the leader of Dire Straits, and his songwriting and incisive guitar work played a decisive role in making them an international success story. At a time when punk and new wave were making technique for its own sake seem irrelevant, and metal was taking the guitar solo in noisier and unpredictable directions, Knopfler’s clean but dexterous picking proved there was still room for traditionalism and chops in mainstream rock & roll. ~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)
August 12: The late Buck Owens was born in 1929, 85 years ago (read more) I like Buck Owens’ songs, he’s alright. ~Bob Dylan (to Nat Hentoff, autumn 1965) – And I said, ‘Why not? It’s the truth! Why can’t I say I’m a Beatles fan?’ I used to get criticized for that. ~Buck Owens – I’d like just to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs, and had a hell of a time. ~Buck Owens
Porter Wayne Wagoner (August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007) was a popular American country music singer known for his flashyNudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour.In 1967, he introduced then-obscure singer DollyParton on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known vocal duo throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954–1983. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.
August 12: Bob Dylan: The 8th and last New Morning recording session in 1970 (read more) This is a quirky album, from a Dylan not pointing a way for anyone, but from a great artist remaining at his work knowingly in the face of not being creatively on top form in the phenomenal way he had been in the period 1964–68.Warm and abiding, it sounds better and better as the years go by. ~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia
Old Ways is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released August 12, 1985. Young refers to this album in interviews as Old Ways II, as he had originally planned to release a country album titled Old Ways in 1983. Geffen objected to this, asking Young for a “rock ‘n roll” album, which Young would give them in the form of Everybody’s Rockin’. Old Ways I would have contained many still-unreleased songs, one of which was “Depression Blues”, which appeared on Young’s Geffen-era compilation Lucky Thirteen.
Spotify Playlist – August 12