BOB DYLAN: The 5th Album

Original released on LP Columbia CL 2328 (mono)

(US 1965, March 22)

With "Another Side of Bob Dylan", Dylan had begun pushing past folk, and with "Bringing It All Back Home", he exploded the boundaries, producing an album of boundless imagination and skill. And it's not just that he went electric, either, rocking hard on "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Maggie's Farm," and "Outlaw Blues"; it's that he's exploding with imagination throughout the record. After all, the music on its second side - the nominal folk songs - derive from the same vantage point as the rockers, leaving traditional folk concerns behind and delving deep into the personal. And this isn't just introspection, either, since the surreal paranoia on "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and the whimsical poetry of "Mr. Tambourine Man" are individual, yet not personal. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, really, as he writes uncommonly beautiful love songs ("She Belongs to Me," "Love Minus Zero/No Limit") that sit alongside uncommonly funny fantasias ("On the Road Again," "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"). This is the point where Dylan eclipses any conventional sense of folk and rewrites the rules of rock, making it safe for personal expression and poetry, not only making words mean as much as the music, but making the music an extension of the words. A truly remarkable album. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

The Freewheelin'

Original Released on LP Columbia 8786 (mono)

(US, 1963 May 27)

Not yet twenty-two at the time of this albums release, Dylan is growing at a swift, experience-hungry rate. In these performances, there is already a marked change from his first album ("Bob Dylan," Columbia CL 1779/CS 8579), and there will surely be many further dimensions of Dylan to come. What makes this collection particularly arresting that it consists in large part of Dylan's own compositions The resurgence of topical folk songs has become a pervasive part of the folk movement among city singers, but few of the young bards so far have demonstrated a knowledge of the difference between well-intentioned pamphleteering and the creation of a valid musical experience. Dylan has. As the highly critical editors of Little Sandy Review have noted, «...right now, he is certainly our finest contemporary folk song writer. Nobody else really even comes close.»

... The first of Dylan's songs in this set is "Blowin' in the Wind". In 1962, Dylan said of the song's background: «I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and they know it's wrong. I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many wars...You people over 21 should know better.» All that he prefers to add by way of commentary now is: «The first way to answer these questions in the song is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind.»

... This album, in sum, is the protean Bob Dylan as of the time of the recording. By the next recording, there will be more new songs and insights and experiences. Dylan can't stop searching and looking and reflecting upon what he sees and hears. «Anything I can sing,» he observes, «I call a song. Anything I can't sing, I call a poem. Anything I can't sing or anything that's too long to be a poem, I call a novel. But my novels don't have the usual story lines. They're about my feelings at a certain place at a certain time.»

... It is this continuing explosion of a total individual, a young man growing free rather than absurd, that makes Bob Dylan so powerful and so personal and so important a singer. As you can hear in these performances. (Nat Hentoff)

DYLAN... Revisited

BOB DYLAN (born 1941, May 24) turns 80 years!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. DYLAN!

AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SONGS YOU GAVE US!

BOB DYLAN: "The Times They Are A-Changin'"

Original released on LP Columbia CL 2105 (mono)

(US 1964, January 13)

If "The Times They Are a-Changin'" isn't a marked step forward from "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", even if it is his first collection of all originals, it's nevertheless a fine collection all the same. It isn't as rich as "Freewheelin'", and Dylan has tempered his sense of humor considerably, choosing to concentrate on social protests in the style of "Blowin' in the Wind." With the title track, he wrote an anthem that nearly equaled that song, and "With God on Our Side" and "Only a Pawn in Their Game" are nearly as good, while "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" are remarkably skilled re-castings of contemporary tales of injustice. His absurdity is missed, but he makes up for it with the wonderful "One Too Many Mornings" and "Boots of Spanish Leather," two lovely classics. If there are a couple of songs that don't achieve the level of the aforementioned songs, that speaks more to the quality of those songs than the weakness of the remainder of the record. And that's also true of the album itself - yes, it pales next to its predecessor, but it's terrific by any other standard. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

THIS FILM SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD!

"The Last Waltz" was a concert by the Canadian rock group, the Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. "The Last Waltz" was advertised as the end of the Band's illustrious touring career, and the concert saw the Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood and Neil Young. The event was filmed by director Martin Scorsese and made into a documentary of the same name, released in 1978. The film features concert performances, scenes shot on a studio soundstage and interviews by Scorsese with members of the Band.

Beginning with a title card saying "This film should be played loud!" the concert documentary is an essay on the Band's influences and their career. The group – Rick Danko (died 1999, December 10) on bass, violin and vocals, Levon Helm on drums, mandolin and vocals, Garth Hudson on keyboards and saxophone, Richard Manuel (died 1986, March 4) on keyboards, percussion and vocals, and guitarist-songwriter Robbie Robertson – started out in the late 1950s as a rock and roll band led by Ronnie Hawkins, and Hawkins himself appears as the first guest. The group backed Bob Dylan in the 1960s, and Dylan performs with the Band towards the end of the concert.

The idea for a farewell concert came about early in 1976 after Richard Manuel was seriously injured in a boating accident. Robbie Robertson then began giving thought to leaving the road, envisioning the Band becoming a studio-only band, similar to the Beatles' decision to stop playing live shows in 1966. Though the other band members did not agree with Robertson's decision, the concert was set at Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom, where the Band had made its debut as a group in 1969. Originally, the Band was to perform on its own, but then the notion of inviting Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan was hatched and the guest list grew to include other performers.

Promoted and organized by Bill Graham, who had a long association with the Band, the concert was an elaborate affair. Starting at 5:00 p.m., the audience of 5,000 was served turkey dinners. There was ballroom dancing with music by the Berkeley Promenade Orchestra. Poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure gave readings. The concert began with the Band performing its more popular songs an lasted more than 9 hours with all those special guests playing with the group. At around 2:15 a.m. the Band came to perform an encore, "Don't Do It". It was the last time the group performed with its classic lineup.

The original soundtrack album was a three-LP album released on April 16, 1978 (later as a two-disc CD). It has many songs not in the film, including "Down South in New Orleans" with Bobby Charles and Dr. John on guitar, "Tura Lura Lural (That's an Irish Lullaby)" by Van Morrison, "Life is a Carnival" by the Band, and "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" by Bob Dylan. In 2002, this four-CD box set was released, as was a DVD-Audio edition. Robbie Robertson produced the album, remastering all the songs. The set includes 16 previously unreleased songs from the concert, as well as takes from rehearsals.

THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH

Original released on Triple LP Apple STCX 3385

(US 1971, December 20)

Hands down, this epochal concert at New York's Madison Square Garden - first issued on three LPs in a handsome orange-colored box - was the crowning event of George Harrison's public life, a gesture of great goodwill that captured the moment in history and, not incidentally, produced some rousing music as a permanent legacy. Having been moved by his friend Ravi Shankar's appeal to help the homeless Bengali refugees of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, Harrison leaped into action, organizing on short notice what became a bellwether for the spectacular rock & roll benefits of the 1980s and beyond. The large, almost unwieldy band was loaded with rock luminaries - including Beatles alumnus Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Badfinger, and two who became stars as a result of their electric performances here, Leon Russell ("Jumpin' Jack Flash"/"Youngblood") and Billy Preston ("That's the Way God Planned It"). Yet Harrison is in confident command, running through highlights from his recent triumphant "All Things Must Pass" album in fine voice, secure enough to revisit his Beatles legacy from Abbey Road and the White Album. 

Though overlooked at the time by impatient rock fans eager to hear the hits, Shankar's opening raga, "Bangla Dhun," is a masterwork on its own terms; the sitar virtuoso is in dazzling form even by his standards and, in retrospect, Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and Alla Rakha amount to an Indian supergroup themselves. The high point of the concert is the surprise appearance of Bob Dylan - at this reclusive time in his life, every Dylan sighting made headlines - and he read the tea leaves perfectly by performing five of his most powerful, meaningful songs from the '60s. Controversy swirled when the record was released; then-manager Alan Klein imposed a no-discount policy on this expensive set and there were questions as to whether all of the intended receipts reached the refugees. Also, in a deal to allow Dylan's participation, the set was released by Capitol on LP while Dylan's label Columbia handled the tape versions. Yet, in hindsight, the avarice pales beside the concert's magnanimous intentions, at a time when rock musicians truly thought they could help save the world. (Richard Ginell in AllMusic)

BOB DYLAN Debut Album

Original released on LP Columbia CL 1779 (mono)

(US 1962, March 19)

After heaing the young Dylan playing harmonica at a recording session with Carolyn Hester, John Hammond signed the 20-year-old to Columbia, got him straight into the studio and captured a typical coffee-house set. It was recorded in two three-hour sessions at Columbia Studio A on 20 and 22 November 1961 at a cost of $402 using just two mikes - one on Dylan's guitar and the other recording his vocal and harmonica. Many hardcore fans will only listen to the record in mono: the stereo separation of this album is brutal, with vocal and guitar each occupying a virtual exclusion zone. This new CD remaster (from the box "The Original Mono Recordings") adds a whole extra sense of presence. The front cover is a reversed-image photograph by Don Hunstein of an extremely youthful and quizzical Dylan in sheepskin jacket and trademark cap, holding his acoustic guitar in both hands. The US album has a small black and white photograph of Dylan on the back cover that was omitted from the UK version. The back cover text is identical. Stacey Williams is a pseudonym for Robert Shelton.

BOB DYLAN: "Rough And Rowdy Ways"

Original released on Digipak CD Columbia 19439780982

(EU 2020, June 19)

Bob Dylan released the dark, unruly 2Time Out of Mind" in 1997 following two albums of folk and blues covers. It was his first original material in a decade and summed up his 20th century. "Rough and Rowdy Ways" is his first new material since 2012's "Tempest" and arrives during a global pandemic and the righteous struggle for racial and economic justice. These ten songs revel in forms that have been Dylan's métier since the '60s: blues, country, folk, rockabilly, gospel, etc. Its three pre-release singles - "Murder Most Foul," "I Contain Multitudes," and "False Prophet" - are showcases for a songwriter who speaks directly yet remains elusive. "I Contain Multitudes" is a meditation on a life yet unfolding; historic figures - Anne Frank, William Blake, the Rolling Stones, etc. - jostle against archetypes of gunslingers: «…What can I tell ya? I sleep with life and death in the same bed….» "False Prophet" is a jeremiad disguised as blues house rocker. The protagonist testifies; he's a witness who confronts evil in history and real time. "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" celebrates the bluesman in his own house-rocking style to equate religion, sin, and redemption with romantic obsession and sex. "Crossing the Rubicon" is a roadhouse blues with the afterlife riding shotgun: «Three miles north of purgatory / One step from the great beyond / I pray to the cross / I kiss the girls / and I cross the Rubicon….» Dylan's band are loose and joyful; their raucousness carries his swagger and joy. The suspenseful, loungey "My Own Version of You" features grave robbing as it employs the inspiration of the Bride of Frankenstein to seek truth in taboo. "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You," caressed by marimbas, and brushed snares, finds Dylan blurring distinctions between carnal and spiritual love. Conversely, "Black Rider" whistles past the graveyard, with a nasty caution: «…Don’t hug me, don’t turn on the charm / I'll take a sword and hack off your arm….» In the Celtic gospel of "Mother of Muses," he's a grateful supplicant, a servant who humbly requests transformation knowing full well he may not be entitled: «… wherever you are/I've already outlived my life by far….» The album's final half-hour contains only two songs. The nine-plus-minute "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)" is a rambling dirge guided by a soft accordion in a stripped-down journey of longing and weariness; an acknowledgment of mortality with the ghosts of the Beats, Buddy Holly, and Jimi Hendrix alongside him. It stands with his best work from the '70s. That gentle sojourn prepares listeners for "Murder Most Foul," a sprawling, 17-minute lyrical, labyrinthian closer that moves through history, metaphor, and culture with JFK's assassination as its hub. It will be decoded for generations. "Rough and Rowdy Ways" is akin to transformational albums such as "Love and Theft", and "Slow Train Coming". It's a portrait of the artist in winter who remains vital and enigmatic. At nearly 80, Dylan's pen and guitar case still hold plenty of magic. (Thom Jurek in AllMusic)

BOB DYLAN: "Slow Train Coming"

Original released on LP Columbia FC 36120

(US 1979, August 18)

Perhaps it was inevitable that Bob Dylan would change direction at the end of the '70s, since he had dabbled in everything from full-on repudiation of his legacy to a quiet embrace of it, to dipping his toe into pure showmanship. Nobody really could have expected that he would turn to Christianity on "Slow Train Coming", embracing a born-again philosophy with enthusiasm. He has no problem in believing in a vengeful god - you gotta serve somebody, after all -- and this is pure brimstone and fire throughout the record, even on such lovely testimonials as "I Believe in You." The unexpected side effect of his conversion is that it gave Dylan a focus he hadn't had since "Blood on the Tracks", and his concentration carries over to the music, which is lean and direct in a way that he hadn't been since, well, "Blood on the Tracks". Focus isn't necessarily the same thing as consistency, and this does suffer from being a bit too dogmatic, not just in its religion, but in its musical approach. Still, it's hard to deny Dylan's revitalized sound here, and the result is a modest success that at least works on its own terms. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)