Bob Dylan – Old Five And Dimers (Billy Joe Shaver)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver
And I’m reading James Joyce
Some people they tell me
I’ve got the blood of the land in my voice
-Bob Dylan (I Feel a Change Comin’ On)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]«..I’ve lost part of three fingers, broke my back, suffered a heart attack and a quadruple bypass, had a steel plate put in my neck and 136 stiches in my head, fought drugs and booze, spent the money I had, and burried my wife, son & mother in the span of one year…. I’m not proud of my misfortune – I’m proud of my survival»
~Billy Joe Shaver

“I’ve always been real blunt. Most people from Texas are that way. And it seems like all the great writers, they’re not afraid to say anything. I’ve always been pretty blunt, and sometimes it seems, brutally honest, but it’s real close to the bone.”
~Billy Joe Shaver[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Bob Dylan has never played this song in concert, or released it. All we got are the 3 takes from the circulating “Hearts of Fire outtakes”. The solo version is absolutely incredible.

Townhouse Studio
London, England
27 & 28 August 1986
Hearts Of Fire recording session, produced by Beau Hill

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Bob Dylan: 5 Great Live Versions of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez
And it’s Eastertime too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don’t pull you through
Don’t put on any airs
When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outta you

This reminds me of Kerouac’s “On The Road” – conjuring up a dusty character lost somewhere in America, or South America, down on his luck, wanting to go home and singing off with the bleak but also funny line: “I’m going back to New York City/I do believe I’ve had enough.”
~Howard Souness (His 40 Greatest songs – Uncut Magazine)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Tom Thumb´s Blues has been performed:

  • 2 times acoustic w/ band – both in 2002
  • 234 times w/band – top year 1974 (39 times)

First live performance:

  • Forest Hills Tennis Stadium
    New York City, New York
    28 August 1965

Last live performance:

  • Trädgårdsföreningen
    Gothenburg, Sweden
    15 July 2014

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August 24: Bob Dylan – Blind Willie McTell, Vienna, Virginia 1997 (video)

Bob Dylan 1997

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Filene Center
Wolf Trap Farm Park For The Performing Arts
Vienna, Virginia
24 August 1997

  •  Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
  • Larry Campbell (guitar)
  • Tony Garnier (bass)
  • David Kemper (drums & percussion)

Continue reading August 24: Bob Dylan – Blind Willie McTell, Vienna, Virginia 1997 (video)

Bob Dylan: 5 Great Live Versions of “Love Minus Zero/No Limit”





[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful
Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire
People carry roses
Make promises by the hours
My love she laughs like the flowers
Valentines can’t buy her

One of his sweetest love songs – apart from the brothel, death and Apocalypse references.
“My love she speaks like silence.” Tricky, but then she is quite a woman: true, morally elevated, yet winking and laughing like the flowers. The very scent of her swirls through this honeyed river of song, borne along on gentle tumbles and ripples of guitar. Frankly, we’re all enamoured … Until that bastard bridge at midnight trembles, the wind howls like a hammer, and she’s suddenly a raven at the window. So- what?- she’s death?With a broken wing too? Now we’re confused, now we’re in a bit of a pickle. Romance over? What happened? What does it mean? Sigh.
MOJO Magzine – 100 Greatest Dylan Songs[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Performances:

  • 163 times acoustic w/ band – top year 1994 (24 times)
  • 119 times acoustic – top year – top year 1992 (48 times)
  • 1 time as an instrumental – 1978
  • 90 times w/band – top year 1978 (60 times)
  • First performance: Troy, New York – February  12 , 1965
  • Last played: Broomfield, Colorado – October 30,  2012

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Bob Dylan: 5 Great Live Versions of “Things Have Changed”





[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There’s a woman on my lap and she’s drinking champagne
Got white skin, got assassin’s eyes
I’m looking up into the sapphire-tinted skies
I’m well dressed, waiting on the last train[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Lets just start with Dylan´s cool acceptance speech for Winning the “Original Song: 2001 Oscar”:

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