As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden
The wounded flowers were dangling from the vines
I was passing by yon cool and crystal fountain
Someone hit me from behind
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Through this weary world of woe
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
No one on earth would ever know
New York City Center
New York City, New York
20 November 2006
Lost John sitting on a railroad track
Something’s out of wack
Blues this morning falling down like hail
Gonna leave a greasy trail
Gonna travel the world is what I’m gonna do
Then come back and see you
All I ever do is struggle and strive
If I don’t do anybody any harm, I might make it back home alive
New York City Center
New York City, New York
20 November 2006
“No, I don’t belong to her, I don’t belong to anybody
She’s my Christ forsaken angel but she don’t hear me cry
She’s a lone hearted mystic and she can’t carry on
When I’m there she’s alright but then she’s not when I’m gone” -from “I´m Not There”
There are times you just pick up an instrument—something will come . . . some kind of wild line will come into your head and you’ll develop that. If it’s a tune on the piano or guitar . . . you’ll write those words down. And they might not mean anything to you at all, and you just go on. . . . Now, . . . if I do it, I just keep it for myself. So I have a big lineup of songs which I’ll never use.
—Dylan, Sing Out! June 1968
Finally, for its fortieth birthday, it received an official release under the same name as the film it unwittingly inspired, “I’m Not There.” Hallelujah.
-Clinton Heylin (Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973)
“Dylan’s saddest song, achieved without benefit of context or detail. It’s like listening to the inspiration before the song is wrapped around it.”
-John Bauldie (The Telegraph)
Oh all the money that in my whole life I did spend
Be it mine right or wrongfully
I let it slip gladly past the hands of my friends
To tie up the time most forcefully
But the bottles are done
We’ve killed each one
And the table’s full and overflowed
And the corner sign
Says it’s closing time
So I’ll bid farewell and be down the road
–
Dylan is part of an all-star cast who have convened at the Shrine to celebrate Frank Sinatra’s eightieth birthday. While cameras roll and Sinatra is seated in A 18, DyIan unveils a remarkable version of” Restless Farewell,” all five verses sung with a nervy precision, accompanied by his usual musical misfits and a string quartet. The whole thing is actually rather moving, as is Sinatra’s seemingly genuine enthusiasm for the performance, which is subsequently broadcast on cable TV.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, California 19 November 1995 Frank Sinatra 80th Birthday Tribute
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
John Jackson (guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
Winston Watson (drums & percussion)
….. and a string quartet with unidentified musicians
2001 was a fine year for Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour”.
.. the show was superbly recorded and much of the atmosphere does come across. “Forever Young” sounds like a benediction on the self-healing residents of the suffering city. “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and, especially, “Blowin’ In The Wind” with its line “and too many people have died” have a special feel to them; a feeling that you can sense is being supplied almost as much by the audience as the performers. “Searching For A Soldier’s Grave” and Fred Rose’s song “Wait For The Light To Shine” cannot help but do the same, and the carefully-controlled lighting effects all added to the ambience.
~Andrew Muir (One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour)
A great & very special New York concert only 2 months after 9/11.
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