I heard the sound that Gordon Lightfoot was getting, with Charlie McCoy and Kenny Buttrey. I’d used Charlie and Kenny both before, and I figured if he could get that sound, I could…. but we couldn’t get it. (Laughs) It was an attempt to get it, but it didn’t come off. We got a different sound… I don’t know what you’d call that… It’s a muffled sound.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner November 29, 1969)
“I didn’t intentionally come out with some kind of mellow sound……. I would have liked … more steel guitar, more piano. More music … I didn’t sit down and plan that sound.”
~Bob Dylan 1971
This quiet masterpiece, which manages to sound both authoritative and tentative (a mix that gave it a highly contemporary feel), is neither a rock nor a folk album—and certainly isn’t folk-rock. It isn’t categorisable at all.
~Michael Gray (BD Encyclopedia)
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there
—
The classic first appeared in a newspaper in Troy, New York, on December 23, 1823 but no one claimed authorship until 13 years later. Clement Clarke Moore, a professor and poet, said that he wrote the piece for his children and didn’t realize that his housekeeper had sent it into the newspaper to be published. However the family of Henry Livingston, Jr. contended that their father had been reciting “A Visit from St. Nicholas” for 15 years prior to the poem’s publication, writes Stacy Conradt for mental_floss. Regardless of the true authorship, the poem is now an American classic.
– Marissa Fessenden (smithsonian.com)
Dylan, who is having genuine trouble tuning his guitar throughout the first half of the show, receives an unusual crowd response: hostility during the acoustic set. According to one report in Pop magazine, Dylan’s standard seven-song set laste’d 65 minutes. Clearly frustrated, Dylan tells the hecklers, “Go to the bowling-hall until I’m finishe’d'” When he returns with the Hawks for the second half, the curtains open to reveal a massive American flag draped across the back of the stage. The French press respond with predictable fury. The concert is recorded for French radio but it is not broadcast. According to one source, Dylan vetoed it at the last minute.
-Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
A lot of people don’t like the road, but it’s as natural to me as breathing. I do it because I’m driven to do it, and I either hate it or love it. I’m mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it’s the only place where I’m happy. It’s the only place you can be who you want to be.
~Bob Dylan (John Pareles Interview, Sept. 1997)
I do a certain amount of concerts every year. But it’s not a constant never-ending tour. A part of me doesn’t wanna do it at all. Just want to quit right away. Playing is a job. My trade. Like you’re journalists. You are heading for the next news item, I’m heading for the next town.
~Bob Dylan (London press conference, 4 Oct 1997)
–
Here some of the Bob Dylan videos we’ve posted on alldylan.com from 1996-1999:
Clouds so swift
Rain won’t lift
Gate won’t close
Railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!
Bournemouth International Centre
Bournemouth, England
1 October 1997
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
)
