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Bob Dylan Breaks Out “Billy” in Sweden, Talks New Album in Website Interview

3/23/09, 10:56 am EST

Bob Dylan has certainly pulled out many forgotten gems from his back catalog onstage over the years, but last night at a club in Stockholm he took it to the next level by playing “Billy” from the Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid soundtrack. He hadn’t played it since the original recording in 1973. A remarkably clear bootleg has already surfaced on YouTube, which you can watch above. The moment is up there with other shocking Never Ending Tour one-offs, such as 2003’s “Yeah, Heavy and a Bottle of Bread,” “Romance In Durango” from the same year and 2000’s “We Better Talk This Over.”

In other Dylan news, his Website posted part two of his recent interview with Bill Flannigan. In addition to the new album, Dylan discusses the James Dean movie Giant, the historical accuracy of 1976’s “Joey,” whether or not 19th century Texas governor Sam Houston has gotten a bad historical rap and a new art exhibit he’s creating with iron and lead. Dylan confirms Mike Campbell plays on the record, and another interesting exchange involves Aerosmith’s Joe Perry:

The instrumental sections on your albums have a different quality than the usual rock instrumental sections. For instance, on an Aerosmith record, at least part of it is about Joe Perry’s solo. While there’s wonderful playing on “Beyond Here Lies Nothing,” we don’t hear the usual guitar soloing technique. Is there a special way you approach the instrumental sections on a record?
What can I say, if I had Joe Perry with me everything would obviously be different. As it is though, he wasn’t there. Soloing is not a big part of my records anyway. Nobody buys them to hear solos. What I try to do is to make sure that the instrumental sections are dynamic and are extensions of the overall feeling of the song.

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Comments

Matthew | 3/23/2009, 3:17 pm EST

I don’t know about Joe Perry on a Dylan album, but I’d LOVE to hear Steven Tyler do “Idiot Wind” on an AEROSMITH album!

And I wouldn’t sneeze at Bob taking a stab at “Uncle Salty.”

Marc | 3/24/2009, 8:43 am EST

Yes, Uncle Salty would be sick. Or Lord of The Thighs. How about Aerosmith tackling High Water Everywhere

Billy | 3/24/2009, 4:56 pm EST

yeah heavy has been played twice…………..

Jose | 3/24/2009, 7:26 pm EST

Billy 1, different a little from Billy 4 (which is the Stockholm version) recently got some attention with a great cover by Los Lobos on the I’m Not There soundtrack.

Jose | 3/24/2009, 7:28 pm EST

Billy 1, different a little from Billy 4 (which is the Stockholm version, both of which are on the same original soundtrack – confused already?) recently got some attention with a great cover by Los Lobos on the I’m Not There soundtrack.

memphis jake | 3/24/2009, 7:31 pm EST

a true dylan gem. great bootleg. thanks.

Warren (NZ) | 3/25/2009, 4:07 am EST

Great to hear Bob singing strong and clear here. Live he so often sounds like the proverbial death rattle, but it’s obvious he can still snarl, whine and gruff his way through a lyric when he wants to.

CR1ZZ | 3/26/2009, 2:40 am EST

His voice really terrified me a bit but it’s still dylan.
Hay Warren are you going to simon and garfunkel’s reunion in NZ?

poet | 3/30/2009, 10:17 pm EST

Did you notice that people take so much time to realize what he’s playing? Dylan is negligent and does not really care about his talent. He’s sold his music short, both in performance and in recording. He’s a genius-hack.

JerJams | 3/31/2009, 9:17 am EST

Poet says: Did you notice that people take so much time to realize what he’s playing? Dylan is negligent and does not really care about his talent. He’s sold his music short, both in performance and in recording. He’s a genius-hack.
—————————- ——-
You must be one of those buffoons who complains that he doesn’t play his songs note-for-note in concert to the way he recorded them. Its not that Bob doesn’t care about his talent, its that he doesn’t care about appeasing people like you. Don’t buy the albums and don’t by a concert ticket, Poet. You just don’t GET it.

Sorry about Billy | 4/1/2009, 5:54 pm EST

Well friends, to be exact, it’s not the first live performance of Billy. But it was a while ago, yes. This is from Olof Björner’s fbulous chronicles:

Billy (acoustic w band)
1973 (4)
1972 (1)
Billy 4 (acoustic w band)
1973 (1)

Dave | 4/28/2009, 11:52 pm EST

Great cover of this by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

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