Continue reading February 18: Bob Dylan BancorpSouth Center, Tupelo, Mississippi – 2002
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)
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
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 4th recording session for ‘Nashville Skyline’ took place on February 17, 1969. Two master versions emerged.. the lovely “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” & “Nashville Skyline Rag”. Johnny Cash joined the session halfway through & they tried out “One Too Many Mornings”, “I Still Miss Someone” (Cash) & “Don’t Think Twice”. A video from one of the takes on “One Too Many Mornings” is available (& included in this post).. fantastic stuff!
Dylan takes his friends up to Central City [Denver], where he had spent a few weeks back in 1960. They then start the long trek toward San Francisco, where he is scheduled to perform on the 22nd. The night is spent in Grand Junction, CO.
Dylan attends Bonnie Koloc’s set at the Other End in New York then heads across town to the Lone Star Cafe where he joins Levon Helm and Rick Danko on stage during their scheduled set, providing backup vocals and guitar on “Your Cheatin” Heart,” “Willie and the Hand Jive,” “Blues Stay Away from Me,” “Ain’t No More Cane,” and “Going Down.” The whole performance is ragged, reflecting the impromptu nature of Dylan’s appearance.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995
Bob Dylan, Levon Helm & Rick Danko performing “Ain’t No More Cane” @ Lone Star Cafe – 1983:
It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right
Continue reading Bob Dylan: Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right @ Wellington, New Zealand 2003