To see and hear how the band looked and sounded in February 1991, you just need to view television footage of the Grammy awards ceremony from New York on the 20th , when Dylan was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Dylan’s appearance caused a media stir par excellence on two counts. Talking point one was his performance; number two was his acceptance speech.
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Dylan performed his damning anti-war3 indictment, “Masters Of War” – a striking choice given that the Gulf War was still going on and hawkish jingoism was rife. However, since he chose to sing it without a pause for breath, and backed by this hapless/hamstrung band, no-one who did not already know the song would have got the message. In fact, many who were familiar with the song did not even recognise it. Not only did Dylan’s nasal passages sound blocked (he later revealed he’d had a cold) but it seemed he had swallowed a burst of helium before starting to sing. Some observers thought he was singing in Hebrew. The tuxedoed crowd looked on in utter bewilderment. The next day’s newspapers marvelled how only Dylan had performed a song with any meaning and purpose, but then, being Dylan, he had made it completely incomprehensible.
~Andrew Muir (One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour)
Bob Dylan receives his Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented by Jack Nicholson.
March 12 and 13: The Allman Brothers played Fillmore East in 1971
Recorded at the Fillmore East concert hall, the storied rock venue in New York City, on Friday and Saturday March 12, 1971–March 13, 1971, the album showcased the band’s mixture of blues, southern rock, and jazz.
~Wikipedia
it remains the pinnacle of the Allmans and Southern rock at its most elastic, bluesy, and jazzy.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
“The true brilliance of this live recording is in the shorter pieces. The longer pieces (“Whipping Post,” “You Don’t Love Me,” and “Mountain Jam”) have their moments, but those moments are diluted in the self indulgent noodling typical of many 1970’s live performances. If The Allman Brothers Band: The Fillmore Concerts contained only “Statesboro Blues,” “Stormy Monday” and “One Way Out,” it would still have a place as one of the finest live recordings ever released.
“Statesboro Blues” and “One Way Out” have Duane Allman’s dense and precise slide guitar pitted against Richard Betts’ round lead guitar, with “One Way Out” providing Betts with his finest recorded guitar solo. “Stormy Monday” juxtaposes Allman and Bett’s distinct lead styles in an orgy of perfect blues phrasing. Gregg Allman’s jazzy organ interlude is an added delight.”
~C. Michael Bailey (allaboutjazz.com)
“I never wanted to write topical songs,…. Have you heard my last two records, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61? It’s all there. That’s the real Dylan.”
~Bob Dylan (to Frances Taylor – Aug 1965)
“If you had to sum up Highway 61 Revisited in a single sentence, suffice it to say that it is the album that invented attitude and raised it to an art form. Just take a look at the cover. Nobody from Johnny Rotten to Eminem has done it better to this day.
~Nigel Williamson (The Rough Guide To Bob Dylan)
Studio A Columbia Recording Studios New York City, New York 29 July 1965 The 3rd Highway 61 Revisited session, produced by Bob Johnston
To create the material for Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan spent a month writing in his new home in the Byrdcliffe artists’ colony of Woodstock in upstate New York. When he returned to Studio A on July 29, he was backed by the same musicians as the previous session, but his producer had changed from Wilson to Johnston.
Their first session together was devoted to three songs. After recording several takes each of “Tombstone Blues”, “It Takes a Lot to Laugh” and “Positively 4th Street”, masters were successfully recorded. “Tombstone Blues” and “It Takes a Lot to Laugh” were included in the final album, but “Positively 4th Street” was issued as a single-only release. At the close of the July 29 session, Dylan attempted to record “Desolation Row”, accompanied by Al Kooper on electric guitar and Harvey Brooks on bass. There was no drummer, as the drummer had gone home. This electric version was eventually released in 2005, on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7. ~Wikipedia
Songs:
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
(recorded 10 am – 1 pm)
released 30 Aug 2005 – The Bootleg Series Vol 7. No Direction Home: The Soundtrack
Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues (recorded 10 am – 1 pm)
released 30 Aug 1965 – Highway 61 Revisited
– If Salvador Dali or Luis Bunuel had picked up a Fender Strat to head a blues band, they might have come up with something like “Tombstone Blues.”
~Bill Janovitz (allmusic.com)
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It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (recorded 2:30 – 5:30 pm)
released 30 Aug 1965 – Highway 61 Revisited
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Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street (recorded 2:30 – 5:30 pm)
released 7 Sept 1965 as a single
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Musicians:
Bob Dylan (guitar, piano, harmonica, vocal)
1-14 Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Paul Griffin (piano), Bobby Gregg (drums), Joseph Machao Jr. (bass), Al Kooper (organ)
15-28 Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Frank Owens (piano), Bobby Gregg (drums), Russ Savakus (bass), Al Kooper (organ)
Recorded at the Fillmore East concert hall, the storied rock venue in New York City, on Friday and Saturday March 12, 1971–March 13, 1971, the album showcased the band’s mixture of blues, southern rock, and jazz.
~Wikipedia
[it] remains the pinnacle of the Allmans and Southern rock at its most elastic, bluesy, and jazzy.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
March 12, 1971–March 13, 1971
Fillmore East, New York
Genre
Blues-rock, southern rock
Length
76:26
Label
Capricorn
Producer
Tom Dowd
At Fillmore East is a double live album by The Allman Brothers Band. The band’s breakthrough success, At Fillmore East was released in July 1971. It ranks Number 49 among Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and remains among the top-selling albums in the band’s catalogue. The original album was released in both conventional two-channel stereo and four-channel quadraphonic mixes. This album has been certified as platinum by the RIAA as of August 25, 1992.
Recorded at the Fillmore East concert hall, the storied rock venue in New York City, on Friday and Saturday March 12, 1971–March 13, 1971, the album showcased the band’s mixture of blues, southern rock, and jazz. The cover of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” which opens the set showcases Duane Allman’s slide guitar work in open E Tuning. “Whipping Post” became the standard for a long, epic jam that never lost interest (opening in 11/4 time, unusual territory for a rock band), while the ethereal-to-furious “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”, with its harmonized melody, Latin feel, and burning drive invited comparisons with John Coltrane (especially Duane’s solo-ending pull-offs, a direct nod to the jazz saxophonist).
Wikipedia
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed:
..these shows — recorded in New York on March 12th and 13th, 1971 — remain the finest live rock performance ever committed to vinyl. .. At Fillmore East captures America’s best blues-rock band at its peak.
~Mark Kemp (rollingstone.com)
Tracks
Side one
“Statesboro Blues” (Will McTell) – 4:17
“Done Somebody Wrong” (Clarence L. Lewis, Bobby Robinson, Elmore James) – 4:33
“Stormy Monday” (T. Bone Walker) – 8:44
Side two
“You Don’t Love Me” (Willie Cobbs) – 19:15 (“Joy to the World” medley in the ending portions)
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