Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

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Song of the Day #91: ‘Visions of Johanna’ – Bob Dylan

I don’t generally like live recordings, but the bootleg release of Dylan’s “Royal Albert Hall” concert is a major exception. It works as both a stunning work of musical art and as a snapshot of a moment in cultural history… a time when “going electric” was considered a mortal sin by an audience that had painted Dylan into a corner of which he wanted no part.

“Royal Albert Hall” is in quotes because though that’s how the concert was widely known, the show didn’t take place in that London venue after all but in Manchester’s Free Trade Hall.

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Song of the Day #90: ‘He Was a Friend of Mine’ – Bob Dylan

From the grandly poetic ‘Idiot Wind’ I now shift to one of the simplest songs in the Dylan canon.

‘He Was a Friend of Mine’ is another tune recorded when Dylan was in his early 20s that feels like it was written by a much older man.

Truth is, I don’t know if Dylan actually wrote this song. So many of his early songs (as well as many from the past decade or so) are re-imaginings of classic Civil War-era tunes. He picks up a melody line here, a phrase there and recombines them into something brand new.

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Song of the Day #89: ‘Idiot Wind (Demo)’ – Bob Dylan

On my short list of the best albums ever made (one that’s admittedly getting longer and longer as I dig up material for this blog), Bob Dylan has no fewer than six strong contenders for the uppermost slots. And tops among those six would have to be Blood on the Tracks, the greatest breakup album ever recorded.

Every song is a perfectly polished gem, and the opening quartet of ‘Tangled Up in Blue,’ ‘Simple Twist of Fate,’ ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’ and ‘Idiot Wind’ has to be the best opening of any album, ever. It’s hard to believe the record could be any better.

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Song of the Day #88: ‘Moonshiner’ – Bob Dylan

This week’s theme marks my first official repeat of an artist I’ve already covered in my Songs of the Day, and I’ve given that honor to the worthiest of performers. Today through Friday I will highlight tracks from Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series.

Dylan was the first widely bootlegged rock artist and 30 years after those first bootlegs showed up he decided to release many of the hidden gems officially. The Bootleg Series started with three extraordinary volumes in 1991 covering that entire 30-year span. The next three volumes chronicle live shows throughout the years, including the famous “Judas” concert in Manchester. Volume Seven is the companion soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s seminal Dylan documentary No Direction Home. And Volume Eight, released just two weeks ago, covers outtakes and unreleased material from the last 20 years. I’ll pull this week’s selections from the lot of them.

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Song of the Day #39: ‘House of the Risin’ Sun’ – Bob Dylan

How do you pick just one Bob Dylan song for a series like this? I have 352 of them in my iTunes library and could probably make an argument for most.

Do I go for a track off one of his trifecta of masterworks from 1965-66 (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde)? Imagine that… Bob Dylan put out those three albums in two years! Most artists would give their first born to put out three albums half as good over a lifetime.

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