I like when music videos are made as short films, not just as promo clips to sell the music. I look at the cinematography, the acting, the writing and, of course, how the music fits the images.
We have chosen these 5 videos as the best of the year 2015.
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
Nice version giving us 6 out of the original 10 verses, and putting the “Einstein verse” after “The Agents”.
NEC Arena
National Exhibition Center
Birmingham, England
24 June 1998
Continue reading Bob Dylan: Desolation Row, Birmingham, UK 1998
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
Oh, I’m sailin’ away my own true love
I’m sailin’ away in the morning
Is there something I can send you from across the sea
From the place that I’ll be landing?–
Studio version released in 1964 on his album The Times They Are a-Changin’.
| Released | January 13, 1964 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | August 7, 1963 |
| Genre | American folk music |
| Length | 4:40 |
| Label | Columbia Records |
| Writer | Bob Dylan |
| Producer | Tom Wilson |
No, there’s nothin’ you can send me, my own true love
There’s nothin’ I wish to be ownin’
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled
From across that lonesome ocean
I’m beginning to hear voices and there’s no one around
Well, I’m all used up and the fields have turned brown
I went to church on Sunday and she passed by
My love for her is taking such a long time to dieI’m waist deep, waist deep in the mist
It’s almost like, almost like I don’t exist
I’m twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound–
‘Cold Irons Bound’ was another case of Dylan trying ro throw off the shackles of sound Lanois was ever seeking to impose. Unhappy with anything uptempo, Lanois sought to dissuade Dylan from recreating his live sound, leaving ‘Cold Irons Bound’ as the one occasion when core elements of that live sound were allowed into Criteria.
~Clinton Heylin (Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2, . 1974-2008)
| Released | September 30, 1997 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | January 1997 |
| Genre | Blues rock |
| Length | 7:15 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Writer | Bob Dylan |
| Producer | Daniel Lanois |
“Cold Irons Bound” is a Grammy Award-winning song written by Bob Dylan, recorded in January 1997 and released on September 30, 1997 on his critically acclaimed album Time Out of Mind.
Continue reading Bob Dylan: 5 versions of “Cold Irons Bound” (videos & audio)