Continue reading July 28: Listen to Bob Dylan @ Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, Texas 1988
Dylan sounds well-oiled with alcohol on the Houston tape, his voice very low and rich, his commentary between songs (and his
pacing, when he talks) bizarre and rather charming. That voice! If you love Dylan’s work, then you must somehow get hold of copies of “Simple Twist of Fate” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” from Houston, 11/12/81. And “Solid Rock.” The new, “slow version” of “Solid Rock” performed at the fall 1981 shows is one of the highlights of a year of astonishing creativity and expressiveness for Dylan… Of course what you really want is a copy of the entire Houston concert; there are high points aplenty, and a fascinating sense of momentum from song to song, as the strange mood he’s in ebbs and flows, clashing with a song occasionally, more often discovering and magnifying itself in the folds and twists of the song’s lyrics and chord changes and rhythms and most of all in the accumulating composite message that the song exists to express..
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
Throughout 1981, Dylan slowly began reintroducing some of his standards back into the gospel shows. By the end of the year, they outnumbered the religious songs. This soundboard recording features very little audience noise. The vocals are way out front. Dylan’s phrasing and articulation that had made the christian material so powerful is now spilling over into the secular classics.
~bobsboots.com
Continue reading Nov 12: Bob Dylan @ The Summit, Houston, Texas 1981
Continue reading July 28: Bob Dylan @ Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, Texas 1988 (audio)
‘Cause movin’s in my soul, i guess a gypsy boy got a hold
Of somebody in my family long ago
If some night while half asleep you hear the back door softly squeak
You’ll touch my empty pillow, then you’ll know
That restless wind, is calling me again
– Billy Joe Shaver (from “Restless Wind” (one of his best songs))–
“He may be the best songwriter alive today”
– Willie Nelson«He’s a real writer like Hemingway. He’s timeless»
– Kris Kristofferson«Billy Joe is unique. One of a kind. They threw away the mold. The best.»
– Robert DuvallI’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver And i’m reading James Joyce
-Bob Dylan (I Feel a Change Comin’ On)
Restless Wind:
Continue reading August 16: Happy 76th birthday Billy Joe Shaver
“I’m trying to define the relationship between man and the universe,….. often it’s between man and man, or man and woman, or man and the cosmos. Whatever song comes through the door I’m happy with.… I’m lucky just to play the guitar and sing.”
~TVZ (on the purpose behind his songwriting)“Figures like Townes Van Zandt remind us that the wandering bard, that American archetype, is still very much with us—and his music will live long after the voices that declare it in or out of fashion have been stilled or forgotten.”
~Robert Palmer (New York Times/Deep Blues/++)“I lived in Fort Worth till I was 8, Midland till 9, Billings, Montana, till 12, Boulder, Colorado till 14, Chicago till 15 … Houston till I was 21. And then I started traveling.”
~TVZ (to Contemporary Musicians (CM) in 1992)
If I Needed You:
Continue reading Mar 07: The late Townes Van Zandt was born in 1944