Feb 15, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
1975 Live Version with Joan Baez: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOisA4Ng9U
2012 Live Version with Nora Jones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FySFa6H7w-M
Jeff Buckley Cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOJ8M6LHQls
What you should know about this song: In the 1960s, musicians and fans began circulating the s0-called “Basement Tapes,” which were….
It was through this channel that Dylan released this song, and it instantly became a Dylan standard. Since then, the song has been covered by numerous artists and was re-recorded for the 1971 release of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.
“He was writing shorter lines, with every line meaning something. Each line had to advance the story, bring the song forward… There was to be no wasted language, no wasted breath… And from that came some of the stuff that he did with The Band, like ‘I Shall Be Released.'” – Allen Ginsberg*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: David Gahr
Feb 14, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song:
Joan Baez Cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkx-elBdKi4
Phoenix Cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-bvmWmpBdM
What you should know about this song: When this song was released on Blonde on Blonde, it became the first single track in rock history to fill an entire side of an album. The band wrote it while the were waiting for a studio session to begin, and it wasn’t until they were done recording that any of them realized the song was more than 12 minutes long.
“It was a first take. Not knowing how long this thing was going to be, we were preparing ourselves for a basic two-to-three-minute record. After about ten minutes of this thing, we were cracking up at each other. I mean, we peaked five minutes ago! Where do we go from here?” – Kenny Buttrey, drummer on Blonde on Blonde
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Bob Dylan, mock Olympic tryouts, curling, Liverpool, England, 1966.
Feb 13, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
What you should know about this song: With the help of rock stars Al Kooper and Joe South and alongside the soon-to-become leader of The Band, Robbie Robertson, Dylan recorded this as the first rack on the second disc of the 1966 Blonde On Blonde album.* Throughout the 1974 US tour with The Band, the song gained significant visibility as Dylan frequently used it both to open and close his sets. Lyrically, these song is very forward and honest, and despite the seemingly sad message of the song the bluesy style and moderate tempo somehow make it feel empowering. The song exemplifies a feeling of change and movement that was so reflective of the 1960s, and its swinging beat aligns well with the album’s sound as a whole.
“I was the janitor in the studio during the Blonde On Blonde sessions. I wouldn’t have dared interrupt his creation, but I was captivated. To me, he was the measuring stick – the standard – by which everyone else was measured. Like Muhammad Ali!” – Kris Kristofferson*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Bob Dylan, reading Disc Magazine with Mick Jagger on the cover, Odeon Theatre, Birmingham, England.
Feb 12, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
What you should know about this song: After 20 takes and almost 18 hours in the studio, Dylan mastered this song for his 1966 Blonde on Blonde album. Apparently, Dylan wrestled with fitting the words to the tempo which led him to rearrange the song in more of a rock-oriented 4/4 time (source). Some sources say that this song epitomizes the “wild mercury sound” that Dylan saw as the trademark of this album. Since its recording, the song has been covered by bands including the Grateful Dead and featured in movies such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (source).
“[Blonde on Blonde is] unbelievable. It’s triumphant and defiant and thrilling from beginning to end. The drums, man. It’s Kenny Buttrey. I actually get choked up sometimes listening to those snare fills. I can’t believe how beautiful it is.” – Frank Black, The Pixies*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Bob Dylan in the train from Dublin to Belfast, 1966
Feb 11, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Just Like a Woman
What you should know about this song: The first time I heard this song, it was introduced during a radio hour of Bob Dylan music as the DJ’s favorite Dylan song, and I’m going to be honest… I didn’t get it. Since then, I’ve learned a lot more about the song and have found it to have a sweet yet perplexing drift that I respect. The reality is that relationships are hard and at times extremely turbulent, and this song captures this very well. Rolling Stone Magazine rated it as the 4th greatest Dylan song of all time, describing it as “a complex portrait of adoration and disappointment, written as vengeance but sung as regret.” The article went on to say that it’s about the hard lessons in romance – “the giving, the taking, and leaving” (Issue 1131). “Just Like a Woman” is complicated and quite confusing, but so are relationships – that’s what’s so brilliant about it.
“‘Just Like a Woman’ is a hard song to pin down. It’s one of those that you can sing a thousand times and still ask, ‘What is it about?’, but you know there’s a real feeling there.” – Bob Dylan, 1992*
“There’s a lifetime of listening in these details. I still marvel at what an absolutely stunning piece of writing it is.” – Jimmy Webb, songwriter (Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1131)
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Bob Dylan, fans looking in to limousine, London, England, 1966
Feb 10, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: I Want You
James Blunt Cover: I Want You
John Mayer Cover: I Want You
What you should know about this song: This Top 20 hit single from the 1966 Blonde On Blonde album has been featured on countless other albums, including Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits. Years later in 1987, Dylan revisited the song while on tour with the Grateful Dead and released an alternate version on the Dylan and the Dead album two years later. There is a lightness in the music resulting from the dynamism between the lyrics and the tune that just carriers you through the song. It’s beautiful, really. I also found it particularly interesting how Dylan briefly introduces so many different characters in the song but never brings them up again (guilty undertaker, lonesome organ grinder, weeping fathers, sleeping saviors, the Queen of Spades, and so on). If you have any insight into this, please feel free to share!
“He brought poetry into pop music and really started the whole phenomenon of the artist as composer. A lot of his songs are very beautiful, they seem to get deeper as you get older.” – Bryan Ferry*
“It’s not just pretty words to a tune or putting tunes to words… (It’s) the words and the music (together)—I can hear the sound of what I want to say.” – Bob Dylan (source)
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Bob Dylan, Paparazzi in Paris, France, 1966
