“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”
Continue reading May 29: Bob Dylan – All Along the Watchtower, Verona, Italy 1984 (video)
When did you leave heaven ?
How could they let you go ?
How’s every thing in heaven ?
I’d like to know.
Today it’s “Down In the Groove”s birthday. Here is a live version of one it’s songs.
When Did You Leave Heaven? was written by Walter Bullock & Richard Whiting.
What possessed Dylan to record something as banal as ‘When Did You Leave Heaven?’ is
one of life’s little mysteries. I am not sure if this is the same angel that was flying too close
to the ground in 1983, or if another one had gone AWOL from paradise. At any rate, I wish
she had not flown in Dylan’s direction. As with much of the material released on “Down
In The Groove” Dylan’s choice of ‘When Did You Leave Heaven?’ smacks of a man
desperate for a direction home.
~Derek Barker (The Songs He Didn’t Write: Bob Dylan Under the Influence)
Continue reading May 28: Bob Dylan When Did You Leave Heaven ? Stockholm, Sweden, 1989 (Video)
In circulation from this show are three acoustic songs and three electric songs, part of the widely bootlegged Gelston acetates. Before “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” someone shouts something at Dylan, and he threatens, “Come up here and say that”” The offer is not taken up. Before a nine-minute “Like a Rolling Stone,” which Dylan dedicates to the Taj Mahal, he introduces the Hawks for the first and only time on the tour.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
Musicians:
Continue reading May 26: Bob Dylan & The Hawks @ London 1966
When I heard Alicia Keys’s cover of Bob Dylan’s Pressing On I felt compelled to search out some of the other great versions of this overlooked gem.
Saved was the second album of Dylan’s “Christian trilogy”, following his conversion. It expanded on themes explored on its predecessor Slow Train Coming, with gospel arrangements and lyrics extolling the importance of a strong personal faith.
Let us start with a couple of Dylan’s own takes on the song, the album version and a great live interpretation from a classic concert in Toronto in 1980:
Bob Dylan – Pressing On, from the album, Saved:
The fantastic Toronto 1980 version of Pressing On:
And now the cover versions.
Continue reading Bob Dylan Pressing On: 2 great originals and 7 fine cover versions
This is the first post with Bob Dylan quotes from the 60’s. The post will be updated many times in the future. There will also, off course, follow posts with quotes from the 70’s, 80’s etc…
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UPDATE – other posts:
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These quotes are collected from song lyrics & interviews. It’s not only “great” quotes we’ve collected, but also important quotes & funny quotes.
Quotes collected from song lyrics are tried to be kept brief…. it would often be tempting to quote whole songs. Also we’ll try to limit ourselves to max 3 quotes from the same song.
Some songs are sorted under the year they were released (on record), other’s are sorted under the year they were obviously written/recorded.
Please comment/send us input, but we don’t like quotes without a source…
