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February 20: Bob Dylan at the Grammys 1991

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bob dylan 1991 grammy

To see and hear how the band looked and sounded in February 1991, you just need to view television footage of the Grammy awards ceremony from New York on the 20th , when Dylan was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Dylan’s appearance caused a media stir par excellence on two counts. Talking point one was his performance; number two was his acceptance speech.
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Dylan performed his damning anti-war3 indictment, “Masters Of War” – a striking choice given that the Gulf War was still going on and hawkish jingoism was rife. However, since he chose to sing it without a pause for breath, and backed by this hapless/hamstrung band, no-one who did not already know the song would have got the message. In fact, many who were familiar with the song did not even recognise it. Not only did Dylan’s nasal passages sound blocked (he later revealed he’d had a cold) but it seemed he had swallowed a burst of helium before starting to sing. Some observers thought he was singing in Hebrew. The tuxedoed crowd looked on in utter bewilderment. The next day’s newspapers marvelled how only Dylan had performed a song with any meaning and purpose, but then, being Dylan, he had made it completely incomprehensible.
~Andrew Muir (One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour)

Bob Dylan receives his Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented by Jack Nicholson.

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Bob Dylan – On This Day – February 18
bob dylan tupelo 2002
Bob Dylan performing in Tupelo, MS, USA, Feb 18 – 2002

 

Studio work

Columbia Studio A
Nashville, Tennessee
18 February 1969
5th Nashville Skyline session, produced by Bob Johnston.

Check out -> Feb 18: Bob Dylan’s 5th recording session for “Nashville Skyline (w/Johnny Cash) in 1969

Continue reading Bob Dylan – On This Day – February 18 →

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February 18: Bob Dylan’s 5th recording session for “Nashville Skyline” (w/Johnny Cash) in 1969

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bob dylan nashville skyline

I like Johnny Cash a lot. I like everything he does really.
~Bob Dylan (to Nat Hentoff – Autumn 1965)

In the end, Nashville Skyline is a lovely album but not a heavyweight contender, though its effects were major ones. Country music was despised, hick music when Dylan took it up. People were divided into the hip and the non-hip. The counterculture was in full swing and riddled with its own self-importance and snobbery. Nashville Skyline was a hard pill to swallow: but it did ’em good.
~Michael Gray (Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

The 5th recording session for ‘Nashville Skyline’ took place on February 18, 1969. One master versions emerged.. the lovely “Girl from the North Country”. Johnny Cash shared vocal on all 38 takes…this is a highly bootlegged sessions… and people have uploaded most of it on youtube… 

bob-dylan-and-johnny-cash-tv-special
picture of Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan.. NOT from the studio sessions

 

Some background from wikipedia:

Nashville Skyline is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in April 1969 by Columbia Records.

Building on the rustic style he experimented with on John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline displayed a complete immersion into country music. Along with the more basic lyrical themes, simple songwriting structures, and charming domestic feel, it introduced audiences to a radically new singing voice from Dylan—a soft, affected country croon.

The result received a generally positive reaction from critics, and was a commercial success. Reaching number 3 in the US, the album also scored Dylan his fourth UK number 1 album.

bob dylan nashville skyline back

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Bob Dylan – On This Day – February 17
Bob Dylan Arriving in Tokyo, Feb 17, 1978
Bob Dylan Arriving in Tokyo, Feb 17, 1978

 

Well, protest songs are really love songs, too. They were my most brilliant love songs.
~Bob Dylan (Press conference, International Airport Haneda, Tokyo, Japan – Feb 17, 1978)

Historic event

Feb 17, 1965

Dylan gives a hilarious performance on Les Crane’s one-hour show for W ABC TV, singing a song at the beginning (“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”) and end of the show (“It’s Alright, Ma”), accompanied by Bruce Langhorne on second guitar. Between the songs, Dylan chats with Crane and his other guests. Crane finds it difficult to deal with Dylan’s razor-sharp repartee. Asking Dylan what his main message is, he is told: “Eat … Be. Period.”
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)

Continue reading Bob Dylan – On This Day – February 17 →