Category Archives: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan Concerts, Bob Dylan video

Bob Dylan: 8 essential videos from the 80’s

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bob dylan 1986

..to draw a crowd with my guitar, that’s about the most heroic thing that I can do. To play a song to calm the king, well everybody don’t get to do that. There’s only certain things a King wants to hear. And then if he don’t like it, he might send you to the gallows. Sometimes you feel like a club fighter who gets off the bus in the middle of nowhere, no cheers, no admiration, punches his way through ten rounds or whatever, always making someone else look good, vomits up the pain in the backroom, picks up his check and gets back on the bus heading out for another nowhere. Sometimes like a troubadour out of the dark ages, singing for your supper and rambling the land or singing to the girl in the window, you know, the one with the long flowing hair
~Bob Dylan – August-September 1985, Cameron Crowe Interview (for Biograph)

I really don’t have any place to put my feet up…. well, we want to play ‘cause we want to play… Why tour? It’s just that you get accustomed to it over the years. The people themselves will tell you when to stop touring.
~Bob Dylan to Kathryn Baker – Aug 1988

It’s not stand-up comedy or a stage play. Also, it breaks my concentration to have to think of things to say or to respond to the crowd. The songs themselves do the talking. My songs do, anyway.
~Bob Dylan to Edna Gundersen – Sept 1989

Here are 8 videos you absolutely need to see. They are chosen for their historical significance and/or blistering performances.

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Bob Dylan, Country, Cover versions, Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash covers Bob Dylan – part 1

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“I love Bob Dylan, I really do. I love his early work, I love the first time he plugged in electrically, I love his Christian albums, I love his other albums.”
~Johnny Cash

In this series of post I’ll present all the Dylan covers by Johnny Cash I could find. They will be presented chronologically with facts related to the recording.

PS! duets are not included, rather check out:

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As an intro, here is a nice video where Bob Dylan talks about Johnny Cash:

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Bob Dylan, The Best Songs

Bob Dylan Girl from the North Country – 6 decades 7 versions

bob dylan nashville skyline 3

Bob Dylan Girl from the North Country – 6 decades 6 versions

“Girl from the North Country” (occasionally known as “Girl of the North Country” or “North Country Girl)) is a song written by Bob Dylan. It was recorded at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City in April 1963, and released the following month as the second track on Dylan’s second studio album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Dylan re-recorded the song as a duet with Johnny Cash in February 1969. That recording became the first track on Nashville Skyline, Dylan’s ninth studio album.

The song was written following his first trip to England in December, 1962, upon what he thought to be the completion of his second album. It is debated as to whom this song is a tribute; some claim former girlfriend, Echo Helstrom, and some Bonnie Beecher, both of whom Dylan knew before leaving for New York. However, it is suspected that this song could have been inspired by his then girlfriend, Suze Rotolo. Dylan left England for Italy to search for Suze, whose continuation of studies there had caused a serious rift in their relationship. Unbeknownst to Dylan, Rotolo had already returned to the United States, leaving about the same time that Dylan arrived in Italy. It was here that he finished the song, ostensibly inspired by the apparent end of his relationship with Rotolo. Upon his return to New York in mid-January, he convinced Rotolo to get back together, and to move back into his apartment on 4th Street. Suze Rotolo is the woman featured on the album cover, walking arm in arm with Dylan down Jones Street, not far from their apartment.

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Bob Dylan, Film, George Harrison, Tom Petty

Documentary: The True History of Traveling Wilburys 2007

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The True History of the Traveling Wilburys

..The real prize of the collection, however, is the film included on the DVD, titled The True History of the Traveling Wilburys.  Watching it makes listening to the albums a totally new experience..
~Michael Franco (popmatters.com)

..a bonus DVD featuring an amazing 24-minute documentary showing unseen footage of the Wilburys and their five video clips, filmed largely on George Harrison’s home video recorder.
~amazon.com

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Blues, Bob Dylan, Cover versions, folk, Gospel, Jazz, Soul

Nina Simone sings Bob Dylan

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Eunice Kathleen Waymon aka. Nina Simone was the sixth of eight children, she grew up in poverty in Tryon, North Carolina. Her family wished for her was that she should be the world’s finest classical pianist. She did  not get into the schools she wanted and always blamed racism.

Born the sixth child of a preacher’s family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. When she began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education and become a classical pianist she was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendering of “I Loves You, Porgy” was a hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958—when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue—and 1974.
– Wikipedia

Simone has dug deep into the american song tradition and it comes as no surprise that she has done several of Bob Dylan’s songs. She is an incredible interpreter of Dylan.

The first song is a contender for best Bob Dylan cover ever done (yes, I am aware of Hendrix’ Watchtower).

The Ballad of Hollis Brown(live,Mickery Theatre, The Netherlands in 1965, see coments…):

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