Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

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Song of the Day #587: ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ – Bob Dylan

Volumes have been written about the shock waves created when Bob Dylan “went electric.” My favorite depiction of the occasion comes in Todd Hayne’s extraordinary Dylan biopic I’m Not There, in which Dylan and his band take the stage at the Newport Folk Festival, open their guitar cases, pull out machine guns and begin firing on the crowd. Then a quick cut to them tearing into ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ with about the same effect on the audience.

As an aside, if you’re any sort of Dylan fan (or movie fan) you should make a point to watch I’m Not There. It’s an “art film,” no doubt — it does, after all, include portrayals of Dylan by both a young black boy and Cate Blanchett, among others — but it comes closer to capturing the spirit and wonder of Bob Dylan than anything else I’ve ever seen.

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Song of the Day #577: ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s third album of original material, Another Side of Bob Dylan, was very appropriately titled (even though Dylan himself later said he disliked the title for being so obvious). After making his name as a singer and writer of political protest songs, Dylan’s new record was a far more intimate affair.

Dylan caused outrage when he later “went electric” (and we’ll get to that on future weekends) but he received a whole lot of grief before that just for trading issue songs for introspective songs. Folkies bashed him for navel-gazing when he should have been saving the world. It’s fascinating exactly how rigid the confines of genres were back then, or at least the genre into which Dylan originally exploded.

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Song of the Day #576: ‘I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)’ – Bob Dylan

Yesterday’s Dar Williams post is a nice segue into another Bob Dylan weekend, because Dylan is certainly another example — perhaps the best example — of an artist whose lyrics are just as effective on paper as in song. Some people would argue that his voice actually detracts from the power of his words, though I strongly disagree.

I’m pretty certain Dylan writes the lyrics of his songs before the music. He also goes off text quite a bit when performing, as you’ll see over the course of these weekends. All of the lyrics I post here are from Dylan’s own Web site — they are the official lyrics of his songs. And yet if you follow along as he sings them, you’ll find he mixes and matched verses, changes phrasing, adds and drops words on the fly.

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Song of the Day #570: ‘The Times They Are A’Changin” – Bob Dylan

First, let me say Happy Valentine’s Day to those of you who celebrate the holiday (my wife and I don’t, because every day is Valentine’s Day in our house, baby!). And more important, happy birthday to my daughter Fiona, who turned four today.

I dedicated a song to her last year so I don’t feel guilty about sticking with the Dylan theme this go-around. And if there was a song about hilarious, adorable, sweet, maddening little girls on The Times They Are A’Changin’, you can bet I’d pick it.

But there isn’t. So I’m going instead with a song that reminds me of my own childhood. Or my own adolescence, anyway.

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Song of the Day #569: ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s third album, and his first to contain only original material, was 1964’s The Times They Are A-Changin’. It’s fascinating to consider that Dylan’s reputation as a protest singer and the artistic face of the civil rights era is based almost entirely on the songs he cut for this album.

Yes, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ appeared on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, but the rest of that album was a more good-humored and intimate affair. The Times They Are A-Changin’, by contrast, was folk singer medicine. Aside from the title track, which memorably warned of the coming revolution, declaring that “your sons and your daughters are beyond your command,” you have protest songs about specific injustices done to Medgar Evers, Hattie Carroll and others.

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