“If anybody can be called a genius, he can be. I think it has something to do with his ear, not being able to see or whatever. I go back with him to about the early ‘60s, when he was playing at the Apollo with all that Motown stuff. If nothing else, he played the harmonica incredible, I mean truly incredible. Never knew what to think of him really until he cut Blowin’ In The Wind. That really blew my mind, and I figured I’d better pay attention. I was glad when he did that Rolling Stones tour, cuz it opened up his scene to a whole new crowd of people, which I’m sure has stuck with him over the years. I love everything he does. It’s hard not to. He can do gut-bucket funky stuff really country and then turn around and do modern-progressive whatever you call it. In fact, he might have invented that. he is a great mimic, can imitate everybody, doesn’t take himself seriously and is a true roadhouse musician all the way, with classical overtones, and he does it all with drama and style. I’d like to hear him play with an orchestra. He should probably have his own orchestra.”
~Bob Dylan (about Stevie Wonder – 9 February 1989, Rolling Stone featurette on Stevie Wonder)
Stevie Wonder birthday today (born May 13, 1950):
In this post I will connect Stevie Wonder & Bob Dylan.
Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side
—
Originally due to appear on the English “Tonight” program on the eighth of May, Dylan appears on the program on the 12th, introduced by Cliff Michelmore. He performs a very hesitant version of “With God on Our Side.” The TV footage is obviously a video insert, so it was presumably filmed earlier in the day.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
BBC Studios London, England Early May 1964
Broadcast by BBC 1 12 May 1964 in the program Tonight. Rebroadcast 11 September 1984.
May 11: Bob Dylan’s best songs: “Lonesome Day Blues” recorded in 2001
I overwrite. If I know I am going in to record a song, I write more than I need. In the past that’s been a problem because I failed to use discretion at times. I have to guard against that. On this album, “Lonesome Day Blues” was twice as long at one point.
~Bob Dylan (Robert Hilburn – Sept 2001)
@ #152 on my list of Dylan’s 200 best songs.. comes this hard, tough & tight electric blues.
The master version (Love and Theft version) was recorded @ Sony Music Studios – New York City – May 11, 2001 (according to Clinton Heylin – Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2006).
Few session details are available.
…Dylan growls like a bear cat that hasn’t eaten since the Eighties
~Rob Sheffield (Rollingstone.com)
In the course of a remarkable interview with Horace Judson, from Time magazine, given at the Royal Albert Hall, London, May 9, 1965, Dylan, wired up with youth’s impatience (at least), and moving among lumpen dullards like some beautiful alien from superior space, can say to the 40-something reporter..
-Michael gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)
Bob was being absolutely appalling, but so brilliant. By this time I’d learnt that he could pull strips of skin off people, verbally … [ButJudson] was quite abusive as well. He was extremely upset, he really was; and in a way I suppose it was not really his fault-not properly briefed, treating Bob as some sort of curiosity, not as a serious artist.
–Anthea Joseph
A Restaurant
Royal Albert Hall
London England
9 May 1965
Interview by Horace Judson.
This is not a “best from 1964” list, just 5 Great songs Bob Dylan recorded in 1964.
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