Desire is the seventeenth studio album by Bob Dylan, released on January 5, 1976 by Columbia Records.
It is one of Dylan’s most collaborative efforts, featuring the same caravan of musicians as the acclaimed Rolling Thunder Revue tours the previous year (later documented on The Bootleg Series Vol. 5); many of the songs also featured backing vocals by Emmylou Harris and Ronee Blakley.
John Lynch is a blues singer/shouter from Cork City. John makes impromptu guest appearances on any given Monday at Charlies Bar, Union Quay, Cork. He also performs as lead vocalist of The Medication Blues Band. John hasn’t made any formal recordings (as yet), but some videos of his live performances exist on Youtube. Check out his rendition of “Hoochie Coochie Man”, also from this show. Cork band Princes Street named one of their albums in his honour “The Night John Lynch Lost His Glasses”.
On 24th May, 2012, Cork city musicians celebrated Bob Dylan’s 71st birthday at the Pavilion. John Lynch sang up a storm with his rendition of ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ from Dylan’s 1976 ‘Desire’ album.
“Sometimes I do a Dylan song and it seems to fit me so right that I figure maybe I wrote it. Dylan didn’t always do it for me as a singer, not in the early days, but then I started listening to the lyrics. That sold me.” – Jimi Hendrix, Beat International 1969
Though they were not close friends, Jimi Hendrix was a huge fan of Bob Dylan and covered five of his songs (to my knowledge), both live and in the studio. These tracks are “Like a Rolling Stone,” “All Along the Watchtower,” “Drifter’s Escape” , “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” and “Tears of Rage” (by Dylan and Richard Manuel)
“I like his Blonde On Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited. His country stuff is nice too, at certain times. It’s quieter, you know.”
– Jimi Hendrix (1970, Hendrix on Hendrix)
“One day that fall [Howe] was walking down Eighth Street in New York City with Jimi when they spied a figure on the other side of the road. “Hey, that’s Dylan,” Jimi said excitedly. “I’ve never met him before; let’s go talk to him.” Jimi darted into traffic, yelling “Hey, Bob” as he approached. Deering followed, though he felt uneasy about Jimi’s zeal. “I think Dylan was a little concerned at first, hearing someone shouting his name and racing across the street toward him,” Deering recalled. Once Dylan recognized Jimi, he relaxed. Hendrix’s introduction was modest enough to be comic. “Bob, uh, I’m a singer, you know, called, uh, Jimi Hendrix and…” Dylan said he knew who Jimi was and loved his covers of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Like a Rolling Stone.” “I don’t know if anyone has done my songs better,” Dylan said. Dylan hurried off, but left Jimi beaming. “Jimi was on cloud nine,” Deering said, “if only because Bob Dylan knew who he was. It seemed very clear to me that the two had never met before.””
– Charles Cross (Room Full of Mirrors)
Here is a 1993 clip of Jeff Buckley at a poetry event, reading an apology letter he wrote to his idol Bob Dylan. The reading is included on a CD accompanying the book The Spoken Word Revolution Redux.
“Dear Bob,
And I don’t know what purpose this will serve at all.
I don’t know how to start. Last Saturday, my man, Steve Burkowitz, broke it to me that you were told of something I said from the stage and that you’d felt insulted. I need for you to listen to me. I have no way of knowing how my words are translated to you, if they’re whole meaning and context are intact, but the truth is that I was off on a tangent, on a stage, my mind going where it goes, trying to be funny, it wasn’t funny at all and I fucked up, I really fucked up.
And the worst of it isn’t that your boys were at the gig to hear it. It doesn’t really bother me. It just kills me to know that whatever they told you was what you think I think of you-
not that I love you, not that I’ve always listened to you and carried the music with me wherever I go, not that I believe in you and also that your show was great. It was only the separate club crowd that I was cynical about and that’s what I was trying to get at when I said what I said.And I’m sorry that I’ll never get to make another first impression. You were really gracious to me, to even allow me backstage to meet you. I’ll never forget you, what you told me for as long as I live. He said “Make a good record man” and I’m very honored to have met you at all. He said some other shit too,
I’m only sad that I didn’t get a chance to tell you before all this intrigue, the intrigue is not the truth. Lots of eyes will read this letter before it gets to you, Bob, which I accept. Someday you will know exactly what I mean, man to man.
Always be well, Jeff Buckley
And you know who’s going to read this? The President of Sony Records, my A&R man, my manager, his two managers, his friend Ratzo, and this is my personal plea of love to Bob Dylan, and this is what happens when you’re not nobody anymore.”
Here are the songs that Jeff Buckley sang and Bob Dylan wrote.
Just Like A Woman – Jeff Buckley, Live at Palais Theatre, Melbourne on February 27 1996:
In West Palm Beach, Florida, September 2, 1999 at Coral Sky Amphitheatre Bob Dylan threw in a surprise performance of Dwight Yoakam’s song, The Heart You Own.
“The biggest surprise followed when Dylan pulled out Dwight Yoakam’s “The
Heart that You Own.” Larry played pedal steel and Bob had some good vocals.
The song was performed well and Bob seemed really into it. It was also
interesting that no one I spoke to around me knew what song it was, though
everyone definitely liked it.”
Bob Dylan has written many songs that are done by a lot of artists. One of the best Dylan interpreters is Neil Young, he has done wonderful versions of Bob Dylan songs.
Today we will post two great Bob Dylan takes on Mr. Young’s classic, Old Man.
Neil Young wrote Old Man when he was 27! Young was probably 24 years old when he wrote the song! (see the comments)
