Continue reading August 3: Bob Dylan: Irvine, California 2013 (concert videos)
“I never wanted to write topical songs,…. Have you heard my last two records, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61? It’s all there. That’s the real Dylan.”
~Bob Dylan (to Frances Taylor – Aug 1965)“Dylan had not only changed his sound, but his persona, trading the folk troubadour for a streetwise, cynical hipster. Throughout the album, he embraces druggy, surreal imagery, which can either have a sense of menace or beauty, and the music reflects that, jumping between soothing melodies to hard, bluesy rock. And that is the most revolutionary thing about Highway 61 Revisited — it proved that rock & roll needn’t be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex.”
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
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Wikipedia:
On July 30, Dylan and his band returned to Studio A and recorded three songs. A master take of “From a Buick 6” was recorded and later included on the final album, but most of the session was devoted to “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” Dylan was unsatisfied with the results and set the song aside for a later date; it was eventually re-recorded with the Hawks in October.
Continue reading July 30: Bob Dylan: 4th recording session for Highway 61 Revisited 1965
Continue reading July 28: Bob Dylan @ Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, Texas 1988 (audio)
“See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” is a blues song recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927 that became “one of his most famous compositions”. Son House used the melody on his 1930 recording of “Mississippi County Farm Blues”.
Bob Dylan recorded the song for his 1962 debut album Bob Dylan. He recorded it again with the Band, which is included on The Basement Tapes (complete) as One Kind Favor.
It is also available on the “semi official” releases:
“Minnesota Hotel Tape,” Dec 22, 1961,
Second Gaslight Tape, late 1962
and Second McKenzies’ Tape, Apr 1963 Continue reading The songs he didn’t write: Bob Dylan See that my grave is kept clean (Blind Lemmon Jefferson)
Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including “Up, Up and Away”, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”, “Galveston”, “The Worst That Could Happen”, “All I Know”, and “MacArthur Park”. He has had successful collaborations with Glen Campbell, Michael Feinstein, The 5th Dimension, Art Garfunkel, and Richard Harris.
In addition, his compositions have been performed by many popular contemporary artists, including America, Johnny Cash, Rosemary Clooney, Joe Cocker, Judy Collins, John Denver, Amy Grant, Isaac Hayes, Thelma Houston, Billy Joel, Tom Jones, Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge, Rod McKuen, Linda Ronstadt, R.E.M., Carly Simon, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, The Supremes, James Taylor, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick,Larry Coryell (The Real Great Escape) and Bob Dylan.
Webb was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990. He received the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, the Songwriters Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award in 2003, the ASCAP “Voice of Music” Award in 2006, and the Ivor Novello Special International Award in 2012.
Jimmy Webb‘s song Let’s begin was first released on Leah Kunkel’s album, I run with trouble from 1980.
Bob Dylan performed it 18 times live in 1981. I found two very fine performances.
Continue reading The songs he didn’t write: Bob Dylan Let’s Begin (Jimmy Webb)