Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

Music Calendar, Rolling Stones

Today: Bill Wyman is 76

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I didn’t want to stay in the Stones, and be stuck in a position having to play a music I didn’t like anymore and that restricted me from doing all the others things I’m interested in because of time.

I wanted a variety in my life but after a couple of years I thought that music is what I do so maybe I should start doing it again.

From Wikipedia:

Birth name William George Perks
Also known as Lee Wyman
Born 24 October 1936 (age 76)
Lewisham, London EnglandUnited Kingdom
Genres Rock, rock and roll, swing,rhythm and blues, jazz, blues,skiffle
Occupations Musician, composer, author,record producer, film producer,bandleader, photographer,inventor
Instruments Vocals, bass guitar, guitar,keyboards, percussion,autoharp
Years active 1962–present
Labels Velvel, Koch International,Rolling Stones, BMG
Associated acts The Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, Wilie & the Poor Boys, The Cliftons
Website www.billwyman.com

Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings – Anyway the wind blows:

Bill Wyman (born William George Perks; 24 October 1936) is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1993. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. He has worked producing both records and film, and has scored music for film in movies and television.

Wyman has kept a journal since he was a child after World War II. It has been useful to him as an author who has written seven books, selling two million copies. Wyman’s love of art has additionally led to his proficiency in photography and his photographs have hung in galleries around the world. Wyman’s lack of funds in his early years led him to create and build his own fretless bass guitar. He became an amateur archaeologist and enjoys relic hunting; The Times published a letter about his hobby (Friday 2 March 2007). He designed and markets a patented Bill Wyman signature metal detector, which he has used to find relics in the English countryside dating back to the era of the Roman Empire.

As a businessman, he owns several establishments including the famous Sticky Fingers Café, a rock & roll-themed bistro serving American cuisine first opened in 1989 in the Kensington area of London and later, two additional locations in Cambridge and Manchester, England.

Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings – Stuff:

From allmusic – Jason Ankeny:
As a member of the Rolling Stones for three decades, Bill Wyman established himself among the greatest bassists in rock & roll history; in tandem with drummer Charlie Watts, he belonged to one of the most stalwart rhythm sections in popular music, perfectly complementing the theatrics of Mick Jagger and the gritty guitar leads of Keith Richards.  …. read more @ allmusic.com

 

Album of the day – James Brown – Live at The Apollo (1963):

 

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Country, Music Calendar

Today: Dwight Yoakam is 56

The primary purpose in [performing] is to receive that pure inspiration that I derived from it when I was a kid the first time I saw one of those guitar slingers on television cock his leg and throw that guitar down and start doing a song and became completely infatuated with that and the moment that I was able to transport myself to another place, another plane of existence, by doing it alone in a room, you know, and realizing the enormous satisfaction from doing that … I don’t ever want to risk losing that as the primary catalyst for what I do musically.~
~Dwight Yoakam

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Dwight David Yoakam
Born October 23, 1956 (age 56)
Pikeville, Kentucky,United States
Origin Columbus, Ohio, United States
Genres Country Rock
Occupations Singer-songwriter, actor, director
Instruments Guitar, vocals
Years active 1984–present
Labels Reprise
Audium
New West
Warner Bros. Nashville
Associated acts Buck Owens
Website http://www.dwightyoakam.com/

Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music. Popular since the early 1980s, he has recorded more than twenty-one albums and compilations, charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and sold more than 25 million records.

Guitars, Cadillacs:

From allmusic.com – Stephen Thomas Erlewine:

With his stripped-down approach to traditional honky tonk and Bakersfield country, Dwight Yoakamhelped return country music to its roots in the late ’80s. Like his idols Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, andHank Williams, Yoakam never played by Nashville’s rules; consequently, he never dominated the charts like his contemporary Randy Travis. Then again, Travis never played around with the sound and style of country music like Yoakam. On each of his records, he twists around the form enough to make it seem like he doesn’t respect all of country’s traditions. Appropriately, his core audience was composed mainly of roots rock and rock & roll fans, not the mainstream country audience. Nevertheless, he was frequently able to chart in the country Top Ten, and he remained one of the most respected and adventurous recording country artists well into the ’90s.
…read more over @ allmusic.com 

a medley performed @ The Grand Ole Opry:

 

Album of the day – Guitars, Cadillacs, etc etc (1986):

From allmusic.com – Thom Jurek:
Dwight Yoakam’s Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. began as an EP issued on the California Oak label. When Reprise signed him, they added four more tracks to the mix to round it out as an album. Yoakam, a Kentuckian, brought country music back into its own medium by reviving the classic Bakersfield sound with the help of his producer and lead guitarist, former Detroiter Pete Anderson. As a result, the “new traditionalist” movement was born, but Yoakam was always a cut or three above the rest, as this album displays in spades. Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. kicks off with a smoking cover of Johnny Horton’s “Honky Tonk Man,” a song now so closely associated with Yoakam, the original has all but been forgotten. But this is only the beginning. Yoakam’s own songs such as “Bury Me,” a duet with Maria McKee, and “South of Cincinnati” reference both the pastoral and dark sides of his native state. “South of Cincinnati” is a paean to those who left Kentucky for Ohio in search of jobs, and “Bury Me” celebrates the land itself. In addition, the title track, with Anderson’s Don Rich-influenced guitar style, walks the Buck Owens line until the line extends to Yoakam. With fiddles and backing vocals, Yoakam’s street poetry is both poignant and profound, built into a barroom anthem. In addition to this there is the gorgeous “Miner’s Prayer,” an acoustic number powered by dobro (courtesy of David Mansfield), flat-picked guitar, and Yoakam’s singing of his grandfather and generations like him who lived and died in the mines of Kentucky. Here Bill Monroe meets Ralph Stanley meets Bob Dylan.  .. read more @ allmusic.com

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

Bob Dylan – The 4th recording session for “The Times They Are A-Changin’” – 23 October 1963 – update

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“The message isn’t in the words, …. I don’t do anything with a sort of message.
I’m just transferring my thoughts into music. Nobody can give you a message like that.”
~Bob Dylan (to Ray Coleman, May 1965)

To me, that song [When The Ship Comes In] says a whole lot. Patti LaBelle should do that. You know? You know, there again, that comes from hanging out at a lot of poetry gatherings. Those kind of images are very romantic. They’re very gothic and romantic at the same time. And they have a sweetness to it, also. So It’s a combination of a lot of different elements at the time. That’s not a contrived line. That’s not sitting down and writing a song. Those kind of songs, they just come out. They’re in you so they’ve got to come out.
~Bob Dylan (to Paul Zollo, April 1991)

49 years ago Dylan did his 4th recording session for “The Time They are A-Changin'” 

Some background info from Wikipedia:

The Times They Are a-Changin’ is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in January 1964 by Columbia Records.

Produced by Tom Wilson, it is the singer-songwriter’s first collection to feature only original compositions. The album consists mostly of stark, sparsely-arranged story songs concerning issues such as racism, poverty, and social change. The title track is one of Dylan’s most famous; many felt that it captured the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s.

Sessions did not resume for more than two months. During the interim, Dylan toured briefly with Joan Baez, performing a number of key concerts that raised his profile in the media. When Dylan returned to Studio A on October 23, he had six more original compositions ready for recording. Master takes for “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” and “When the Ship Comes In” were both culled from the October 23 session. A master take for “Percy’s Song” was also recorded, but it was ultimately set aside and was not officially released until Biograph in 1985.

Albums involved:

ALBUM Release date CODE
The Times They Are A-Changin’ 1964-01-13 TTTAA
Biograph 1985-11-07 BIO
Love @ Theft bonus disc 2001-09-11 LTB

Studio A
Columbia Recording Studio
New York City, New York
October 23, 1963, 10-1 pm

Produced by Tom Wilson.
Engineers: Knuerr and Dauria.

Songs:

  1. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
  2. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
  3. When The Ship Comes In
  4. When The Ship Comes In
  5. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  6. Percy’s Song – BIO
    “….the exquisitely performed ‘protest’ number ‘Percy’s Song’…”
    ~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)
    –
    “Percy’s song” makes one think Dylan could have had a career as a courtroom lawyer….. “Percy’s song” is long – too long, I think, for the simple story it tells; the appeal here is the melody and Dylan’s evident affection for this tune and for the repeating lines, “turn. turn, turn again… turn, turn to the rain and the wind.” He weaves a spell with these lines, passing along the spell they wove on him….
    ~Paul Williams (Performing artist 60-73)

    –
  7. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
  8. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll – TTTAA
    “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” is an extremely moving song that has stood the test of time better than any of Dylan’s other early topical songs of this sort… Dylan sings it from the heart; he really cares about the woman who died – her dignity and the value of her life come through in the song, it is a memorial to her and a tribute to people like her as much as an attack on her killer and people like him and the system that coddles them.
    ~Paul Williams (Performin Artist 60-73)
    –
    “Although a song such as his magnificent ‘Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ makes an ordinary worker into a kind of heroine, Dylan makes this happen as a device, not an end in itself: a device for strengthening an essentially political and social polemic.
    ~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)


    –
  9. When The Ship Comes In
  10. When The Ship Comes In – TTTAA
    “Even as words on the page, though, the song has a charm very much its own—like a glimpse into a world both real and unreal: morally mature (if severe) yet child-like in conception. The internal rhyming is so effective, driving the vision along in the rhythm of the oncoming ship as it meets, again and again, relentlessly, the swell of the sea: ‘And the song, will, lift, as the main, sail, shifts / And the boat, drifts . . .’ and this internal rhyming collaborates perfectly with the alliterative effects (as well, of course, as with the tune): ‘Then the sands will roll out a carpet of gold / For your weary toes to be a-touchin’. . .’ The child-like allegory comes over as a quite unexceptionable moral cleanliness—a convincing wisdom. …” ~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)


    –
  11. The Times They Are A-Changin’ – L&TB
    (note: either this take or take 16 was released on L&TB)

    –
  12. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  13. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  14. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  15. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  16. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  17. East Laredo Blues
  18. Key To The Highway (Charles Segar/Willie Broonzy)
  19. That’s All Right Mama (Arthur Crudup)

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Related articles @ JV:

References:

-Egil

Chuck Berry, Music Calendar, Rock'n Roll

Today: Chuck Berry is 86

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 “Roll over, Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news.”

Keith Richards Inducts Chuck Berry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986):

“Chuck was my man. He was the one who made me say ‘I want to play guitar, Jesus Christ!’…Suddenly I knew what I wanted to do.”
~Keith Richards (1992)

“..if you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”
~John Lennon

“Well, now, Chuck Berry was a rock & roll songwriter. So I never tried to write rock &
roll songs, ‘cause I figured he had just done it.”
~Bob Dylan (to Kurt Loder October 1987)

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Charles Edward Anderson Berry
Born October 18, 1926 (age 86)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Genres Rock and roll, blues,rhythm and blues
Occupations Musician, songwriter
Instruments Guitar, vocals
Years active 1955–present
Labels Chess, Mercury, Atco
Website www.chuckberry.com

Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as “Maybellene” (1955), “Roll Over Beethoven” (1956), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957) and “Johnny B. Goode” (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.

From allmusic – Cub Koda:

Of all the early breakthrough rock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. Quite simply, without him there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad others. There would be no standard “Chuck Berry guitar intro,” the instrument’s clarion call to get the joint rockin’ in any setting. The clippety-clop rhythms of rockabilly would not have been mainstreamed into the now standard 4/4 rock & roll beat. There would be no obsessive wordplay by modern-day tunesmiths; in fact, the whole history (and artistic level) of rock & roll songwriting would have been much poorer without him.

  “he wrote all of the great songs and came up with all the rock & roll beats.”
~Brian Wilson

Those who do not claim him as a seminal influence or profess a liking for his music and showmanship show their ignorance of rock’s development as well as his place as the music’s first great creator. Elvis may have fueled rock & roll’s imagery, but Chuck Berry was its heartbeat and original mindset.
….read more over @ allmusic.com 

Johnny B Goode:

While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry comes the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together. It was his particular genius to graft country & western guitar licks onto a rhythm & blues chassis in his very first single, “Maybellene.”
-Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

 

Legacy:

  • Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984
  • Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986, with the comment that he “laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance.”
  • The Kennedy Center Honors in 2000
  • being named seventh on Time magazine’s 2009 list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all-time
  • On May 14, 2002, Chuck Berry was honored as one of the first BMI Icons at the 50th annual BMI Pop Awards. He was presented the award along with BMI affiliates Bo Diddley and Little Richard.
  • Berry is included in several Rolling Stone “Greatest of All Time” lists. In September 2003, the magazine named him number 6 in their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.
  • This was followed in November of the same year by his compilation album The Great Twenty-Eight being ranked 21st in the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
  • The following year, in March 2004, Berry was ranked fifth out of “The Immortals – The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.
  • In December 2004, six of his songs were included in the “Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, namely “Johnny B. Goode” (#7), “Maybellene” (#18), “Roll Over Beethoven” (#97), “Rock and Roll Music” (#128), “Sweet Little Sixteen” (#272) and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” (#374).
  • In June 2008, his song “Johnny B. Goode” ranked first place in the “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time”.
  • Berry’s recording of “Johnny B. Goode” was included on the Voyager Golden Record, attached to the Voyager spacecraft as representing rock and roll, one of four American songs included among many cultural achievements of humanity.
  • Berry was honored alongside Leonard Cohen as the recipients of the first annual Pen Awards for songwriting excellence at the JFK Presidential Library, Boston, Mass. on February 26, 2012
  • Today, at the age of 86, Berry continues to play live.

Album of the day – The Ultimate Chuck Berry (2007)

 

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan albums, Featured Articles, Great albums

Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert

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Well, but you see, Columbia’s never offered to do that. They have done that with The Basement Tapes and the Budokan album. But they’ve never offered to put that out as a historical album or whatever. And believe me, if they wanted to do it, they could.
~Bob Dylan to Kurt Loder in 1984

 “I still can’t believe they’ve finally put it out. I just keep staring at my copy.”
~Andy Kershaw (BBC Radio 1 DJ)

14 years ago today… they finally put it out, this surely calls for a celebration!

Baby, Let Me Follow You Down:

From Wikipedia:

Released October 13, 1998
Recorded May 17, 1966
Genre Rock, folk rock, blues rock
Length 95:18
Label Columbia
Producer Jeff Rosen

Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert is a two-disc live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1998. Recorded at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall. It is from Dylan’s famous world tour in 1966, having been extensively bootlegged for decades, and is an important document in the development of popular music during the 1960s.

The setlist consisted of two parts, with the first half of the concert being Dylan alone on stage performing an entirely acoustic set of songs, while the second half of the concert has Dylan playing an “electric” set of songs alongside his band The Hawks. The first half of the concert was greeted warmly by the audience, while the second half was highly criticized, with heckling going on before and after each song.

Here are two (of many..) “real” bootleg covers of this concert:

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