KL: Do you see any bands of merit on the scene today? What about U2? They’re friends of yours, aren’t they?
Bob Dylan: Yeah, U2 will probably be around years from now. John Cougar Mellencamp, he’ll be around as long as anybody will be.….
-Bob Dylan to Kurt Loder (October 1987)
John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, painter, and actor. He is known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation.
….would be Like A Rolling Stone because I wrote that after I’d quit. I’d literally quit singing and playing, and I found myself writing this song, this story, this long piece of vomit about twenty pages long, and out of it I took Like A Rolling Stone and made it as a single. And I’d never written anything like that before and it suddenly came to me that that was what I should do, you know. I mean, nobody had ever done that before.
~Bob Dylan (to Martin Bronstein – Feb 1966)
.. The sound is so rich the song never plays the same way twice
~Greil Marcus
The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your mind
~Bruce Springsteen (Jan 1988)
One of the worst things people can say when writing a book like this is “You really had to be there”. Yet, for, “Like A Rolling Stone”, that night, “you really had to be there”. Dylan’s voice was a blurred burr and yet powerful and compelling as it competed with a deafening crowd throughout this epic song.
~Andrew Muir (One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour)
Barrowland Glasgow, Scotland 24 June 2004
Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
Stu Kimball (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Radio City Music Hall
New York City, New York 18 January 1992 Taping for Late Night (w/ David Letterman) 10th Anniversary show
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