Bob Dylan played 6 songs @ the Last Waltz concert.
This brilliant version of Hazel was not officially released until 2002 on: The Last Waltz (4CD Box set)
Winterland
San Francisco, California
25 November 1976
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Musicians:
Continue reading Bob Dylan & The Band: Hazel @ Winterland, San Francisco, 25 November 1976 (Video)
Blind Willie McTell was voted the best 80s song in our little poll, deservedly so.
“Blind Willie McTell” is a song by Bob Dylan, titled after the blues singer Blind Willie McTell. It was recorded in 1983 but left off Dylan’s album Infidels and officially released in 1991 on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. The melody has a resemblance to “St. James Infirmary Blues”. For the song, Dylan, seated at the piano and accompanied by Mark Knopfler on the twelve-string acoustic guitar, sings a series of plaintive verses depicting allegorical scenes which reflect on the history of American music and slavery. Each verse ends with the same refrain: “Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell”.
Following three albums with overt Christian themes, Infidels struck most major rock critics as dealing largely with secular concerns, and they hailed it as a comeback. The mysterious exclusion of “Blind Willie McTell” complicates the story. When bootleggers released the outtakes from Infidels, the song was recognized as a composition approaching the quality of such classics as “Tangled Up In Blue”, “Like a Rolling Stone” and “All Along the Watchtower”.
Bob Dylan – Blind Willie McTell (audio, Bootleg series 1-3):
This is the spookiest important record since Heartbreak Hotel, and is built upon the perfect interweaving of guitar, piano, voice and silence – an interweaving that has the space for the lovely clarity of single notes – a guitar string stroking the air here, a piano note pushing back the distance there. And if anything, the still-unreleased performance is even better, for its more original melody (less dependent upon the conventional St. James Infirmary structure) and its incandescent vocal, which soars to possess the heights of reverie and inspiration. No one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell, but no one can write or sing a blues like Blind Willie McTell like Bob Dylan.
– Michael Gray
Bob Dylan – Blind Willie McTell (audio, electric version):
“One of Bob Dylan’s absolute masterpieces, “Blind Willie McTell” is the jewel of The Bootleg Series and arguably one of the finest songs ever written. Recorded in 1983 for the album Infidels, it was deemed superfluous to requirements, and all that remains is one take of the song with a full band (yet to be officially released) and this haunting demo, with Dylan playing piano with accompaniment from Mark Knopfler.”
– Thomas Ward (allmusic)
The best!
Continue reading Bob Dylan’s Blind Willie McTell cover versions audio and video
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
Let’s start this party by reminding ourselves what a fantastic song this is. Here are the official released Bob Dylan version from The Bootleg Series Volume 1-3:
“One of Bob Dylan’s absolute masterpieces, “Blind Willie McTell” is the jewel of The Bootleg Series and arguably one of the finest songs ever written. Recorded in 1983 for the album Infidels, it was deemed superfluous to requirements, and all that remains is one take of the song with a full band (yet to be officially released) and this haunting demo, with Dylan playing piano with accompaniment from Mark Knopfler.”
– Thomas Ward (allmusic)
And the outtake, the electric version from the Infidels sessions (audio), my favorite:
Ok, so here are those wonderful cover versions.
The magnificent Mick Taylor did this great version in Germany in 2009 (Rockpalast):
This cover version by Dream Syndicate from a free single given away with Bucketfull of Brains. No dates of the recording are listed. Apologies as it cuts just before the end of the song (audio):
“I started playing it live because I heard the Band doing it. Most likely it was a demo, probably showing the musicians how it should go. It was never developed fully, I never got around to completing it. There wouldn’t have been any other reason for leaving it off the record. It’s like taking a painting by Monet or Picasso – goin’ to his house and lookin’ at a half-finished painting and grabbing it and selling it to people who are ‘Picasso fans.'”
– Bob Dylan
Levon Helm Band “Blind Willie” Live at Pompano Beach Amphitheater, Pompano Beach, FL 11-4-2010:
I want to include a very fine interpretation in Swedish by Mikael Wiehe (Spotify):
Finally a jazz/blues instrumental, wonderfully done by Jef Lee Johnson (Audio):
– Hallgeir
Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
– Miles Davis
Miles Davis is my definition of cool.
– Bob Dylan
I discovered Miles Davis through Prince. Prince talked about Miles and they played together, they played each others songs and I got curious. My first meet with Miles Davis was in the eighties, the years that some hard-core Miles fans consider the decline or the lost years. Not for me, I love 80s Miles Davis, and what I heard made me go back in time. What a world that opened up!
I got to see him in concert, once in 1988. To a young and recent fan it was mind-blowing!
Tutu, Stuttgart 1988:
From Allmusic:
Throughout a professional career lasting 50 years, Miles Davis played the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodic style, often employing a stemless Harmon mute to make his sound more personal and intimate. But if his approach to his instrument was constant, his approach to jazz was dazzlingly protean. To examine his career is to examine the history of jazz from the mid-’40s to the early ’90s, since he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period, and he often led the way in those changes, both with his own performances and recordings and by choosing sidemen and collaborators who forged new directions. It can even be argued that jazz stopped evolving when Davis wasn’t there to push it forward.
– William Ruhlmann
The best Jazz song in music history, So What:
I have choses On The Corner (1972) as today’s album, my favorite Miles record is Kind of Blue, but I thought it would be nice to focus on one of my other favorites. It is a an album that was loathed when it was released. Miles Davis was accused of selling out (just as he was in the 80s). When listening to the album today it is hard to understand what he was selling out to…
At the time, everyone loathed Miles Davis’s On the Corner – even the people who played on it. But now, some of the coolest names in music are proud to name it as a major influence. – Paul Tingen (The Guardian)
other 26 May:
Continue reading Today: The late Miles Davis was born in 1926 – 87 years ago
I play patterns. I’ll make up a pattern and just play it.
~Richard Manuel“Well, let’s see: I started [in music] at nine and quit. Then got back to it when I was twelve. Then I became a party star. In fact, I became a party!”
~Richard ManuelFor me he was the true light of the Band. The other guys were fantastic talents, of course, but there was something of the holy madman about Richard. He was raw. When he sang in that high falsetto the hair on my neck would stand on end. Not many people can do that.
~Eric Clapton
A nice tribute video – I’m just a country boy:
I Shall Be Released (The Band)
Gonna dedicate this song to Mr. Richard Manuel, who does it so well
~Bob Dylan (Introducing “I Shall Be Released” December 8, 1975)
Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band.
Here is the wonderful “Georgia On My Mind” from The Last Waltz concert:
The Band was a Canadian-American roots rock group that originally consisted of Rick Danko (bass guitar, double bass, fiddle, trombone, vocals), Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, vocals), Garth Hudson (keyboard instruments, saxophones, trumpet), Richard Manuel (piano, drums, baritone saxophone, vocals) and Robbie Robertson (guitar, vocals). The members of the Band first came together as they joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins’s backing group, The Hawks, one by one between 1958 and 1963.
You Dont Know Me – Tokyo 1983
Posthumous recognition
Wikipedia, http://theband.hiof.no, + |
Continue reading Today: The late Richard Manuel was born in 1943 – 70 years ago
