Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

A two-page poem written by “Bobby Zimmerman,” or Bob Dylan as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame calls him, has been unearthed and is now up for auction at Christie’s. Handwritten by a teenage Dylan in the mid-1950s, “Little Buddy” was penned for The Herzl Herald, the official newspaper of Northwestern Wisconsin’s Herzl Camp, where young Zimmerman was a camper.

(Check out our full report on Rock’s Rarest Artifacts for more odd memorabilia on the auction block.)

It’s startling that even as a young teenager, Dylan could write such effective prose, as Zimmerman’s blue pen tells a sad tale about a beloved family dog that gets beat to death for being too friendly with a drunken stranger. Dylan’s protagonist waits for the doctor arrive to save his ailing dog, but unfortunately he comes too late. It’s all very depressing, but it’s funny to note that even young Dylan wasn’t immune to the dreaded grammatical pitfall of “your” versus “you’re,” writing “Your too late sir my doggy’s dead.” (Maybe it was an artistic choice?) Evidently, it wasn’t Dylan’s choice at all: despite Christie’s claim that the poem is a Dylan original, the poem is indeed “Little Buddy” by Hank Snow, a song that appeared on a compilation of his work dating from 1936-1947. Christie’s has issued a statement (read it after the jump.) (more…)

Photo: Elmholt/AFP/Getty

A second video for Bob Dylan’s “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’,” the first single from his new album Together Through Life, is streaming now on IFC.com and will premiere today and tomorrow on the film channel. Unlike the original video for “Beyond Here” — which was a montage of photos by Bruce Davidson, who also took the photograph that became the Together Through Life album cover — the new clip is a dramatic short that could receive an R rating due to its graphic depiction of domestic abuse.

Directed by actor/stuntman/director Nash Edgerton and starring actors Joel Stoffer and Amanda Aardsma, the video captures a brutally violent relationship. The plot (spoiler alert!): Stoffer’s character returns home to find that his girlfriend, played by Aardsma, has escaped from being tied up to the bed. A fight ensues, and a beer bottle and frying pan are turned into weapons before Stoffer throws Aardsma into a television set and punches her out cold. Aardsma comes to before Stoffer can inject her with a needle and stabs him in the stomach with a knife. Somehow, this is a Bob Dylan video. (more…)

The Big News: As expected, Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life cracked the 100,000-sold mark easily, scanning nearly 125,000 copies during its first week in stores, and earning the 67-year-old songwriter his fifth chart-topping debut. While our current cover star failed to replicate the sales showing of 2006’s Modern Times (which sold 192,000 copies), he did manage to fend off stiff competition from Rick Ross and Miley Cyrus, who posed the biggest threat, as the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack held at Number Two (with sales reported at 86,000). Meanwhile, Lady Gaga’s The Fame climbs two spots to Number Five, selling another 40,000 units on the strength of the songstress’ latest hit single, “Poker Face.”

Debuts: After Dylan, the week’s biggest debut belongs to Heaven and Hell (or, for you metal purists, the Dio-era Black Sabbath). The band’s set The Devil You Know enters the chart at Number Eight, debuting with just over 30,000 units sold. Opening at Number 10 with 26,000 scans is the Starbucks-powered world music compilation Playing For Change. (more…)

After just two days on sale, Rolling Stone cover artist Bob Dylan’s latest album Together Through Life is already on pace to top next week’s sales charts, Billboard reports. Together Through Life will likely finish the week with sales upward of 100,000, but will be hard-pressed to match the 192,000 copies Modern Times sold in its debut week in 2006. The LP would mark the fifth time Dylan has landed a Number One album.

According to Billboard, Dylan’s first chart-topper in America was 1974’s collaboration with the Band, Planet Waves. Number Ones for 1975’s Blood on the Tracks and 1976’s Desire quickly followed, and 30 years later Dylan accomplished the feat again with Modern Times. Dylan’s last official non-album release, Tell Tale Signs, debuted at Number Six in October 2008. (more…)

Photograph by Sam Jones

It’s a land of Walt Whitman and Chuck Berry, of border towns and murder ballads — and America’s greatest songwriter may be the last man living there. For the new issue of Rolling Stone on newsstands today, historian and professor Douglas Brinkley followed Bob Dylan from Paris to Amsterdam as the Midwest’s most famous son held court on American icons like Elvis Presley, Walt Whitman, Chuck Berry and Carl Sandburg.

Dylan also opened up about his partnership with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who contributed to Dylan’s new Together Through Life and mused on playing with the guitarist Mike Bloomfield.

Rolling Stone also takes a look back at the magazine’s long history with Dylan in a gallery of his RS covers (he appeared on his first in 1968), and explores the singer’s non-musical work in a gallery of his paintings, which have been displayed in galleries worldwide. Plus, read David Fricke’s review of Together Through Life.

Also in this issue:

• Sasha Grey: The Dirtiest Girl in the World

• Mike Tyson Reveals the Only Thing That Truly Scares Him

• Meet the Chess Masters Behind Obama’s National Security

• Review: Green Day Go Bigger on 21st Century Breakdown

Photo: Micelotta/Getty

Bob Dylan’s latest, Together Through Life, arrives today, but while critics are hailing this fresh batch of hardened, urgent songs, much of the advance chatter surrounding the album centers on the involvement of Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

“Hunter is an old buddy,” Dylan explains in our next cover story, which hits newsstands this week. Dylan and Hunter collaborated on 10 songs, all but one of the album’s tracks. “We could probably write a hundred songs together if we thought it was important or the right reasons were there,” Dylan tells Rolling Stone. “He’s got a way with words and I do too. We both write a different type of song than what passes today for songwriting.”

(more…)

Photo: Miller/FilmMagic

As Rock Daily previously speculated, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson are teaming up for the 2009 Ballpark Tour. The jaunt kicks off July 2nd in Sauget, Illinois, with the trio playing minor league baseball stadiums across the country until August 15th. Tickets for the tour, which are all general admission and $67.50, begin to go on sale May 2nd. In addition to peanuts and Cracker Jacks, the tour will also allow free admission for children 14 and younger.

Dylan has long had an obsession with the National Pastime, dedicating a week of his Theme Time Radio Hour to the sport and touring baseball stadiums in 2004 with Nelson. News of the trek first spread when Joan Baez let the word slip after playing “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” during a concert in Bloomington, Indiana. With John Mellencamp in the crowd, Baez said “Mellencamp? Are you really going to go on tour with that guy [Dylan]? Seriously, come talk to me after the show.” Mellencamp’s Website later promised a tour of minor league baseball stadiums with two major artists in tow. Check below for the current run of 2009 Ballpark Tour dates. (more…)

One week before his new album Together Through Life hits stores, Bob Dylan premiered the video for the album’s opener “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ ” on Amazon.com. The site will exclusively house the video from today until April 22nd, when it moves to Bob Dylan’s official Website.

Spoiler alert: Dylan doesn’t actually appear in the video. Instead, like Together Through Life’s album cover, the clip makes use of the stark black-and-white photographs of Bruce Davidson’s 1959 “Brooklyn Gang” series, creating a photo montage with “Beyond Here” as the soundtrack. A press release explains the history of Davidson’s photographs, noting that he met a crew of Brooklyn teenagers who called themselves “the Jokers” in Spring 1959 and spent the summer shooting the gang “in their natural habitat,” everywhere from street corners to the borough’s Coney Island amusement park. Despite creating a narrative out of photos from a New York street gang, the video somehow works well to enhance the “seductive border-café feel” of the Together Through Life opener. (more…)

A spokesperson for Bob Dylan has confirmed online reports that nine of the 10 tracks from his forthcoming album Together Through Life were co-written by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. The liner notes will read “All music by Bob Dylan except ‘My Wife’s Home Town’ (music by Bob Dylan and Willie Dixon) - All lyrics by Bob Dylan with Robert Hunter except ‘This Dream Of You’ which is lyrics and music by Bob Dylan.” Check the new issue of Rolling Stone for David Fricke’s review of the album.

On 1988’s Down In The Groove, Hunter received co-writing credits on the songs “Silvio” and “The Ugliest Girl In The World.” On that record and 1986’s Knocked Out Loaded Dylan wrote with a number of collaborators, but the only other time he wrote the vast majority of an album with someone else was 1976’s Desire — where all but two of the songs were written with Jacques Levy. (more…)

Last week Bob Dylan gave fans a free download of “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ “ from his upcoming Together Through Life. Now “Feel A Change Comin’ On,” the second-to-last track off the disc, is streaming over at Newsweek.com. Like “Beyond Here,” “Feel A Change” has that border café feel, thanks in part to accordion from Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo. “I’ve been listening to Billy Joe Shaver and I’m reading James Joyce, some people, they tell me I’ve got the blood of the land in my voice,” Dylan sings in a gravely voice.

As Rolling Stone noted in our Spring Music Preview, “Feel A Change” features “Dylan’s black sense of humor and pessimistic worldview” and fits in among the album’s “Delta-blues riffs, hard-swinging shuffles and country ballads.” Together Through Life is due out April 28th. (more…)

With his new album Together Through Life due out in less than a month, Bob Dylan is giving fans a first listen with a free download of “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ ” on his official Website now. “Nothin’ ” is Together Through Life’s opener and sets the tone for an album full of tracks that Rolling Stone described in our album preview as having “a seductive border-café feel,” thanks to the contributions of Los Lobos’ accordion player, David Hidalgo. The album, which is available for pre-order now through Dylan’s Website, is out April 28th.

In an interview posted on his Website earlier in March, Dylan explained why “Nothin’ ” doesn’t have traditional guitar solos: “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.” (more…)

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: (more…)

Bob Dylan fans are busy dissecting every morsel of info released from his forthcoming album Together Through Life. Some think the title is drawn from a line in the Walt Whitman poem “When I Peruse The Conquer’d Fame.” New Mexico disc jockey Scott Warmuth makes a pretty convincing case that the line “I’m pretty sure she’ll make me kill someone” is appropriated from David Wright’s translation of The Canterbury Tales. Dylan’s 2006 album borrowed at least 16 lines from the first century Roman poet Ovid and many others from the Confederate poet Henry Timrod. Dylan’s process of threading together disparate sources into a unique song is, of course, as old as songwriting itself.

What’s drawing the most attention is the cover photo, which was taken by legendary photographer Bruce Davidson. The shot was also used in the 2005 Dylan documentary No Direction Home and, as Baltimore Magazine points out, it was on the cover of Larry Brown’s
book Big Bad Love. Dylan is apparently a big fan of Brown and has claimed to have “read every word the man’s ever written.” Check out more of Davidson’s photos here. The Dylan album cover is drawn from the Brooklyn Gang series.

A tip of the hat to Expecting Rain.

Related Stories:

• Bob Dylan’s New Album Together Through Life Due April 28th
• Bob Dylan Records Surprise Modern Times Follow-Up

Photo: Getty

Bob Dylan’s surprise new album officially has a name: Together Through Life. According to a press release, the LP will be released on April 28th. Produced by Jack Frost (Dylan’s studio alter ego), the album sprang from “Life Is Hard,” a track Dylan wrote for the forthcoming film My Own Love Song by French director Oliver Dahan. As Dylan explains in a four-page Q&A posted on his official Website, “The only thing he needed for sure was a ballad for the main character to sing towards the end of the movie. We started off with ‘Life Is Hard’ and then the record sort of took its own direction.” Dylan’s site also revealed the album cover, which depicts two lovers embracing in a back seat.

Rolling Stone recently previewed Dylan’s upcoming album, which focuses on struggling-love songs. As David Fricke reported, Dylan placed accordion on every track, and the songs have “the live-in-the-studio feel of Dylan’s last two studio records, 2001’s Love and Theft and 2006’s Modern Times, but with a seductive border-cafe feel.” A source in the Dylan camp told RS, “You would never expect the record after Modern Times to sound like this. Bob takes all of those disparate elements you hear and puts them into a track. But you can’t put your finger on it — ‘It sounds exactly like that.’ That’s why he’s so original.”

In the Q&A posted on his Website, Dylan explains he took a new sonic direction because “These songs don’t need to cover the same ground.” (more…)

A great radio personality is back on the air, as Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour recently made its return to XM. Dylan’s individual broadcasts each have a particular theme — this season’s shows include “money,” “sugar” and “furniture,” with theme-specific songs mixed in with Dylan’s patter. Click below for more on Dylan’s satellite show, including exclusive audio samples of the “money” and “war” shows.

• DJ Bob Dylan Returns to the Airwaves

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