Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

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Song of the Day #221: ‘Masters of War’ – Eddie Vedder

vedderFrom Pearl Jam I make the rather simple leap to an Eddie Vedder solo performance. In October of 1992, a stellar lineup of artists gathered at Madison Square Garden to pay tribute to a living legend at The Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Celebration.

Of course, Dylan has gone on to record four studio albums since then, including three that number among his very finest work, so maybe this celebration was a bit premature. But I guess it’s never too early to tip your hat to genius. I wonder what they’ll cook up for the 50th anniversary celebration three years from now.

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Song of the Day #180: ‘Red River Shore’ – Bob Dylan

bobbydyalnTen Best Songs of 2008 – #2

It might not be exactly fair to list a Bob Dylan song that was written at least a dozen years ago among my best 2008 songs, but last year was ‘Red River Shore’s first release on an album ( Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8) so I think it qualifies.

Dylan’s latest bootleg collection has enough wonderful “new” material to fill a proper album, and the fact that his discards are this good is a pretty telling fact about America’s greatest songwriter. Love him or hate him (and I know plenty of people on both sides), you can’t deny that he’s a unique and prolific talent.

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Song of the Day #159: ‘Make You Feel My Love’ – Adele

adeleTo really showcase how much Alex means to me, today I am highlighting a Bob Dylan song that is not sung by Bob Dylan. As a die-hard Dylan fan, that’s a difficult thing for me to do. But nobody said love is easy.

This song has actually been covered by a laundry list of performers… everybody from Kelly Clarkson to Neil Diamond, Bryan Ferry to Joan Osborne. The best-known versions belong to Billy Joel and Garth Brooks, both of whom landed on the singles chart with the song.

My choice, Adele, has also had success with the track overseas and is releasing it in the U.S. as the next single from her well-received album 19.

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Bob Dylan – Tell Tale Signs: Bootleg Series Vol. 8

bootlegVolume 8 in Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series is one of the best yet, and that’s saying a lot. This collection focuses on the past 20 years of Dylan’s career and it’s amazing that, though his voice has become more and more limited, his songs are just getting better and better.

Though the two-disc set isn’t sequenced this way, it basically boils down to 1) a collection of live and alternate takes of songs on his last five studio albums, and 2) a dozen or so little-known gems that, if released as a proper album, would rank right up there with Dylan’s finest work.

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Song of the Day #92: ‘Blind Willie McTell’ – Bob Dylan

Dylan put out some great albums in the mid-70s but then hit a long dry spell that didn’t really end until Oh Mercy in 1989. One semi-bright spot was 1983’s Infidels, best known for its lead-off song ‘Jokerman.’ I don’t own Infidels, or anything from that 1975-89 period, because there are literally 20+ other Dylan albums I own that I find far superior.

However, Infidels could have been just as worthy an album had Dylan included two songs originally slated for the album but cut for reasons nobody has ever figured out.

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