Bob’s rasp. Saw concert this year. No singing. Rasp. Growl. Toned down howl. No guitar after first song or two. Needed piano to prop self up-like one of those wheely things elderly folks have-Zimmer frames they’re called in some countries. Haha rrasp gasp. Is he trying to work self to death? Or in power of evil consortium (of name your own gang of nasties) who are working him to death? Seemed to me he should have been home in bed with some nice woman bringing him soup de goats head. Not sure that I want to pay lots money again to see revered artist maybe die on stage.

Anyone who loves Dylan for his soul-baring honesty and thought-provoking lyrics should give Bill Mallonee a listen. Check him out on myspace or itunes, it’s pretty compelling stuff. Some good songs to start with are: “Nothing like a train”, “Solar System” and “Pour Kid”. Bob Dylan was my favorite songwriter of all time until I discovered Bill Mallonee.

I tried to post some comments a couple weeks ago, but I either typed too fast or too slow…I’ll try again. I loved the movie; Cate Blanchett was the best at portraying Dylan…Life without Bob? No way. I have seen B.D. live on three separate occasions—all great performances!!Though Van Morrison did blow everyone away at the San Jose? Santa Clara? Arena back in the day…Still Bob at sunset at the Gorge in George, WA in a turquoise shirt and guitar…these moments; these dreams of you. My son has named his children Jack and Lily and they often hum the songs. May you stay forever young!!!!!

i think there are two different dylans, theres the acoustic blues dylan we first heard in the early 60’s and the later electric dylan. the first dylan i belive is dead.

First off, since when did Dylan Ever give a damn enough to respond to a message board about himself?
Roling Stone would give him 5 stars for taking a dump, however. That doesn’t mean hes not the most influencial singer/songerwriter ever or a genius. And whoever said that only baby boomers care about Dylan completely underestimate people in general. Just because our generation seems to be more simple-minded than those before us doesn’t make us all stupid. Let’s not forget- Bush is a baby boomer

I just watched “I’m Not There Last Night.” I think Cate Blanchett did an incredible job of portraying Dylan! Compare the movie scene in the car where Dylan (Cate) meets Ginsberg as they both drive along a roadside to the video of the real event (on youtube). Cate gets Dylan’s reaction to Ginsberg exactly right. Once you see that, you can see Cate as Dylan. It’s creative and innovative to cast a woman as Dylan for that time period.

The unusual movie is a work of visual and aural art that gives you the chance to dip into the realm of the left brain where poetry, truth, and imagination can entertain and energize your creative side. For me the movie would have been less impressive if I didn’t already know some of the history behind the story.

One last comment on Dylan. I’m about 6 years younger than Dylan. I saw several recent photographs of Bob, and his face seems permanently frozen in anger and misery. His current music says so while he cries for love and redemption. A life of addictions and self-indulgence is a life of suffering and pain and loss. Anyone who’s been there knows that. Dylan strikes me as a tragedy. The classic hero with the tragic flaw. We still love that character for his or her briliance, but we are always pulled into sorrow because of our involvement–our eternal attraction to the tragic hero. The tragic hero is afterall a tragedy…Yet it might all be worth it… Many personal lessons and insights to be learned, always, from the positive impact of their amazing lives and the negative impact brought about as a consequence of their deeply flawed characters. Bob Dylan is the tragic hero of our generation!
Peace,
Rosemary

Goodday everyone, how are you?

Just to join in the argument regarding Dylan’s voice: when you listen to some of his older recordings, his voice was fine, he sang melodically and was pleasant to listen to. Listen to Tambourine Man on the B-side of Bringing it All back home: beautiful deep timbre, resonating sound, fine singing (1965 I think). Spanish Is the Loving Tongue, early 70’s I think: same deal, very good singing,nice voice, enjoyable to listen to. After his accident in 1966 he quit smoking, and his voiced changed dramatically, and improved with it: on the albums John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline (1968-1969), regardless of the perceived quality of the songwriting, his voice sounds much lighter and livelier than it had previously, and has no gravelly twang or rasp in it at all.

However I think that the many decades of smoking and drinking heavily have taken their toll on his voice, from the late seventies onwards. The other thing is that since somewhere in the mid-eighties I think, correct me if I’m wrong, he has been on the Neverending tour, playing several hundred live shows a year, year in, year out. I think that much touring and performing live has taken its toll on his voice, so that he has abused it so much that now there is not much left of it at all.
Regarding the quality of his songwriting: he has put out some pretty good stuff, and he must have been inspired and on the ball when he did. But I think he reached a point where making records (and performing)was his way of making a living, and a very good one at that, and where he kept on putting stuff out even though he had nothing to say and no music to go with it, and put out some atrocious shit, to meet his contractual obligations or just to squeeze a few bucks out of the gullible fanbase. Dylan is not averse to making money, as his association with ads makes clear (in the early 1970’s he was reputed to have been the only performer who demanded he get paid for his appearance at the Bangladesh Concert). I am not a baby boomer either; some of his music has been really important to me, some of it has left me stone cold; I saw him live in 1984 and it was touch and go then as far as quality music is concerned; whoever is off-beat, out of tune, off-key, incoherent, pissed and unable to remember their lyrics is taking the piss out of their high-fee-paying audiences.

Regarding the list of greatest songwriters of all time: John Lennon needs to be included, as well as Paul Weller and especially Shane McGowan, and finally one of Australia’s greats, Paul Kelly, possibly unknown to people in America.

Good luck and see you later.

Steve Hansen, Australia.

Seen better days

More fool you

Head over heels

springsteen and elliott

elliott smith and bruce springsteen

I missed out on last year’s blogs re: Bob Dylan, but he’s one of my all time favorites, so here goes:

I think you either hate Dylan (”that nasal, incoherant twang”) or you love him, warts and all, because he really IS a maverick and a Genius. Early on I realized that he was the first singer/songwriter to become a spokesman for his generation; with a fierce, wild, vulnerability and personal honesty never before heard on the music scene. I recall seeing him at Berkeley 40 years ago, and thinking: Who is this skinney, intense young kid that writes/sings such incredible lyrics? ( i.e.: “Motorcycle black madonna two -wheeled gypsy queen… “) Jesus! He was mesmerising, and to quote himself from Tangled up in Blue: “…and every one of them words rang true, and glowed like burning coal / pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul…” — We were blindsided by his passion and talent.

Like the rest of his fans, I know great streaches of his songs by heart, and have my personal favorites: Mr. Tamborine Man, Don’t Think Twice, Hard Rain; the list is endless; some for playing & singing, some for listening to 40 times plus.
Dylan is in a class by himself, and always will be. Self-contained, oblique and contraversal, constantly changing, but always telling it like it is - at least in his Universe! Long may his talent grace this world.

psyo nrqjaf tplv ybipm zeqxdc gwnpdezcu qesz

I love Masked and Anonymous. It’s visually brilliantly crafted, like Jarmusch’s Mystery Train; it’s hilarious in its deadpan Dylanlike way; and it’s got really fine music which just doesn’t go on long enough. And what’s this garbage about baby boomers feeling they HAVE to like him? As an early b.b.er, I love Dylan as both singer and songwriter.

Scary. Looks more like Cate doing Justin Guarini drag. No justice to Dylan. Even at Bob’s skinniest ugly, he looked like a man, total male. Why does Hollywood try to make men look feminine?!!!

Brokeback Mountain>Walk the Line

Ledger’s Del Mar>Phoenix’s Cash

Bob Dylan> JohnnyCash

Dylan, what’s to say, it’s all just to feel. Go thoughtless into emotion, think your own thing. That’s Dylan.

Bob, go get a dude with a dudes ass to sing leopard skin pill box hat on your head, no broad, no matter how tough - got the ass to pull it off.

The more I think about the title of this movie, the more it resonance it has, given the elusiveness over the years.

However great or awful the film turns out to be, the title could not be better.

Come on now, I don’t crash you over the internet. What does one man have to do to gain total vocal respect? Now Johnnie Ray is a good singer. Don’t follow leaders HOHOHO.

just put the head phones on and listen to the 3 disc Bootleg Dylan and enjoy 2 hours of genius.

wow, Royal Mountain Band are acting in for the Band? That’s a great oppotunity, although I think they lean much more toward CCR.

jonny7

lame

jonny8

Hi,
I was playing Richard Manual in that Biopic and had the chance to meet Cate Blanchett and Heat Ledger and talk a good bit with Todd Haynes. They’re both really great people. Todd told me that Bob never actually watched No Direction Home in it’s entirety. Only on spanish TV while on tour or something. He called his agent all confused saying he saw himself speaking spanish on TV!
So I doubt that he would write a post here clarifying that his singing is not a twang… under the name Anonymous.
I love every Dylan albums from the 60’s and a good part of the 70’s….the 80’s no too much but that’s mostly because of the horrible productors and studios of that time trying to over produce and polish everything with compression and shit…..About his nowaday’s voice, you guys should read his bio: Chronicles Vol. 1 - there’s a part in it where he speaks about touring with Tom Petty and finding a new way of singing - there’s a whole awesome story about it and it’s really sad and honest - That book is in my top ten of all time, every music fan should read it. And then maybe start talking about Mr Dylan on message boards not really knowing anything about the man.

Also about that list of best singers of all time:

Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Bruce Springstein
Paul Westerberg
Kurt Cobain
Elliot Smith

I agree with most of it but
Kurt Cobain give me a fucking break……what about Lou Reed (Velvet era) or The Saint’s Chris Bailey…..Or even John Lennon, ever heard Instant Karma?

Oh Mon Dieu! Aidez-Nous
Frederic

bob is the most intellectual musician of our time.

Well i wanna see it. My buddies band, The Royal Mountain Band, is playing the part of The Band in this movie. Should be interesting from what I’ve heard.

Man you guys need to do some research before you speak up. For one Brokeback is a much better movie than Walk the Line and im a huge Cash Fan. Two Dylan Has never once put out an album where you can’t understand what he is saying. His hole background and phrasing comes from the beat poets witch focuses primarily on articulation. Next this man can sing better than most. Or as Woody Guthrie said “ He doesn’t write too well but that boy sure can sing”. If you don’t believe me listen to “One More Cup of Coffee” and try to do what he is doing… Lastly his latest stuff is just as great if not more timeless than his work in the 60’s and 70’s. Dylan is a blues man through and through and what he is trying to get across to you people is that he is not a prophet or a messiah but a performer just like Elvis, Muddy, Louis Jordan and the many great musicians before him. What he is trying to get across now a days is that you should work with what’s been laid out for you. He never did anything revolutionary except sing what he thought needed to be sung at the time.

Silvio,

The verse that you’ve quoted is in the original New York version of ‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack Of Hearts’. It has never been officially released but is floating around the web.

Hope that helped.

J

Silvio, I’ll check out the original new york version of ‘Lily…’ tonight and check if that verse is in it…

J

dylan is a great song writer and guitar player i bought 3 tics to his show his music speeks to me and im only 14years old so all the dylan haters can suck my left one tyler

does anyone else think Cate Blanchette is more attractive as Bob Dylan?

Hey Silvio,

I don’t know if he’s done a live recorded version of Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hears but there are many Dylan songs that were recorded live where he sings different lyrics or has added/subtracted verses. For example, I’ve got live versions of Masters of War, Idiot Wind and Tangled up in Blue to name a few that have different lyrics to the album recordings. Maybe this could be some help?

joan baez sings this verse on her cover version, which appears on her live 1976 album ‘from every stage.’ it’s wonderful.

Hey, in the song lyrics for Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts there is a verse that says

Lily’s arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch,
She forgot all about the man she couldn’t stand who hounded her so much.
“I’ve missed you so,” she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,
But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.
Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.

This is my favorite song of all time but I can not find a version with these lyrics anywhere. Does anyone know what album that version is on or where I can find it.

jonny

I know I’m probably going to be rediculed as Ms Gullible for thinking that whomever put the post up under the name “Anonymous” could possibly be Mr Dylan, but I don’t care. I’m a very curious person. That’s probably why I love cats. I also don’t like assumptions, as in if someone posts on a specific site (eg, one about Dylan) and uses the name “Anonymous”, who’s to say who they are or who they are not? Maybe I’ve emmersed myself in Dylans’ lyrics too much and so am trying to find meaning in something that possibly has none. But is there a way of finding out if I’m wrong?

This may be a little late in coming but I also wanted to respond to the whole Walk the Line vs Brokeback Mountain thing from previous posts. If someone is choosing Brokeback over Walk the Line then there is nothing wrong with that. In every aspect Brokeback was a superior film and Walk the Line was more an average biopic just like Ray was. The imitation/performance that Joaquin Phoenix did was hailed as a brilliant performance but it is much harder to bring a charcter to life that has never been alive, a character that’s an invention of someone else’s imagination. There was so much for actors in Walk the Line to go on regarding their characters since they actually existed. There weren’t any gay ranch hands that were popular in the time that Brokeback was set that one could study now were there? Just thought I would post this before I completely forgot what I wanted to say.

Thanks for the nice response, Mike. I appreciate that people have all kinds of opinions about Mr. Dylan and I guess some just expess theirs better than others. I feel you, man. I’m having a really hard time listening to Public Enemy these days.

DonkeyTron

his voice really wasn’t that bad when he was at his prime. like someone else said, listen to Girl from North Country, or Spanish Harlem Incident. And yes, i agree with you on his shilling of ipod’s and victoria secret bras or whatever, but still…everytime i think of the Dylan now i cringe, but i can’t ignore him, because I just throw on anything from 1962-1969, 1974-76, and just drift away. id rather be someone once and be irrelevant now, then nobody forever.

I’m sorry if you feel I’m baiting Dylan fans, but I enjoy playing Devil’s Advocate when people like yourself take these things way too seriously and go off the rails. If you can’t engage in a simple debate on the merits of a particular artist without resorting to name calling and character assasination I suggest you don’t indulge in any more message boards, here or elsewhere. As for that crack about me not understanding what it’s like to be an artist, you’re dead wrong. I am, in fact, a stand-up comic and the best part of my job is provocation and stimulating dialog in a humorous manner and any true artist should be capable of discussing their’s and other artist’s shortcomings constructively, intelligently and humorously and without malice.

I am a big Dylan fan and have just recently seen him live. His “singing” has declined, for lack of a better term, over the years but that doesn’t diminish the beauty and literary genius of his early work and the good post-70s albums. Also, I thought this was an article about the flim not whether or not Dylan is a “genius” or not. He has admitted himself that he wrote some of his bigger hits on drugs and if you couldn’t figure that out yourself then that might be the problem here. I think that nothing will ever remove him from being the greatest rock and roll performer/singer-songwriter.

Are you an artist DookeyTongue? No way, becuz if you were, you would know what I am talking about from experience.

The “God spoke” reference was my poetic way of saying that he accessed the morphic field, the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, and has the talent to translate it into the popular domain in a more powerful way than anyone else, more times than anyone else. He ain’t the only one to do it, just cuts it closer to the bone more often is all.

Artists that work like this, instead of just being excellent craftsmen, often surprise themselves with the result. Since Bob works so loose and rough, the spirit comes thru stronger, unhindered by too much structured form.

Of course, the W “God spoke” reference doesn’t even apply in this vein of cogitation.

I’m fairly sure you know all this already tho… After all, you’re smart enough to be a spell-checker. Yeah, you’re only coming back here to carry on your little baiting war, so that Dylan fans will post even more praise for the man. You’re probably his biggest fan! Are you Andy Kaufman? Come clean…

I guess I’m an idiot “becasue” I’m “cabable” of spelling. As for all of Dylan’s musical shortcomings being non-issues because “he was there when God spoke”; I guess we can forgive George W. for all of his shortcomings as president because, according to him, he was too.

If any of the critics, particularly DookeyTongue, think it’s going to make an iota of difference to nit-pick Dylan, then they’ve gotta another think a-comin’. But I don’t believe they’re really cabable of thinking.

I could relate what his music has meant to me down thru the years, or how I was shocked when I first heard his voice (”Is this a joke?”), on Greatest Hits Vol. 2, the second LP I ever bought (American Pie was the first one…). But NONE OF IT MATTERS!

He was there when God Spoke and he told us what was said. It is that fricken simple. We fans have always known this. Even Dylan mentions it in the “No Direction Home” interview (uses a line from “It’s Alright Ma” when talking about it). He was a channel, and is be-ing one again, for the last 3 albums, for live shows galore.

I’d call you an idiot becasue you labeled Dyalna hippie. He never was one.

Why is it that because I have a different opinion about “St. Bob” I’m labeled a moronic, idiotic “Brokeback Mountain” fan? Where’s all that hippie love Dylan’s all about people? And actually, I wouldn’t rent either movie, I would stay home and listen to “Live from Folsom Prison”. I like my Cash dirty. And that comment about, “he doesn’t have to sing, he’s Bob Dylan”, just proves my point. He’s been coasting on past credibility for 30 plus years. Except for the Traveling Wilburys, that shit rocked.

I can’t believe all these idiots talking crap about Bob Dylan. Probobly the same morons who’d pick Brokeback Mountain over Walk the Line at the video store. Bob Dylan is a genuis, and he can sing. Ever heard Lay Lady Lay, Girl from the North Country or how about, Knockin’ on Heavens Door. He can sing awesome, he just doesn’t always have to, because he’s Bob friggin’ Dylan!

I can’t decide what’s trendier. Hating on Dylan or loving Dylan. Personally, I think the man’s a genius. I’ve been a Dylan fan for about half my life and I’ll admit he’s produced some monstorously bad stuff. But when he’s on, there ain’t no one like the Bob.

In response to DonkeyTron, I’m not a baby boomer and I love Dylan. I’ve loved Dylan since I was about 5 when I first heard “Hurricane”. I loved the rhythm of the lyrics. Then as I got older his songs spoke to me in a timeless sense. When I listen to Dylan, I don’t feel I need to have been there when the songs were written or released. I feel like his music allows room for interpretation so listeners can get what they wish from them. He’s the song and dance man! I can’t wait to see this film.

This talk of nasally twang singing is ridiculous. If you don’t dig Bob Dylan don’t ridicule his voice. Seriously.

Bob Dylan is one of the embarrassments of my youth. When my daughter got a copy of the “Blonde on Blonde” CD and as I listened to it again, I marvelled at the depth of my youthful gullibility. Dylan wrote enough genuinely good songs for about a third as many disks as he has released. As for the rest of his songs, what the hell, they rhyme.

Because I’m sure Bob Dylan reads and responds to Rolling Stone message boards anonymously, I’ll respond in kind. “You” did sing in a nasally, incoherant twang in the past and since this movie delves into “your” past, circa 1965 according to the article, that is the twang I was refering to. Not your current, incoherant rasp. Okay, “Bob”?

david cross is obviously a dead ringer for allen ginsberg. i’m sure that will be interesting.

I think Sandra Bullock should play Michael Jackson in a movie.

I don’t sing in a twang anymore it’s a rasp do your research

Antiform.. Like Jibmo said.. Van Morrison belongs in the top 5

Good list, antiForm, but I would include Van Morrison, pretty darn near the top too.

Reading the comments about Dylan got me to thinking that what is rarely mentioned is the great sense of humour he has. Aside from his writing , which is often very very funny, his interviews would have some terrific throw away lines, such as in Don’t Look Back when he is asked how he thinks of himself, folk singer, rock singer etc. and he answers that he thinks of himself as a ’song and dance man’. The Beatles, Dylan, these were funny guys. Where in the hell are the witty ones today? They are just boring and bombastic.

Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Bruce Springstein
Paul Westerberg
Kurt Cobain
Elliot Smith

That’s the list in order of the greatest Singer Songwriters of the last 40 years in order,,, Thats fact not opinion…

I was recruited by Bob from the orphanage and now we just kick people’s asses for him. He pays well.

dylans rad

I really don’t believe anyone who isn’t a baby boomer who says they like Dylan. They just say it to sound like they know what they’re talking about. He’s completely irrelevant now. Unless doing Victoria’s Secret ads an shilling for iTunes out of one side of your mouth and bashing digital recordings out of the other is revolutionary. Rolling Stone would give this guy 5 stars for taking a dump.

he’s a poet, man!

I was an extra on set and she was lip singing “Maggies Farm”

To DonkeyTron

“Will they all be singing in that god-awful, nasally, incoherant twang that he has too?”

Only Cate.

The rest will be miming.

Who else thinks Ashton Kutcher’s gonna show up at the premire and tell us we’ve all been punked?

I hope so!!!

I hope she doesn’t get stuck in character. Cause that would kind of suck for whoever.

http://slantingthrou ghdarkness.blogspot.com

Dylan is the greatest singer song writers of the last 40 years.
If you don’t get that, you are missing the boat.

Oh, NOTHING is better than Masked and Anonymous…

Oh my God! Now I’m 100% sure that Cate can play anyone! Wow!

bob dylan haters lie

Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine is pretty much the best rock movie ever.

Will they all be singing in that god-awful, nasally, incoherant twang that he has too?