Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan!
[Photo credit: F. Antolín Hernandez/Stoned69, licensed via Creative Commons]
Today, Bob Dylan (b. Robert Allen Zimmerman, 5/24/1941), the famed American singer-songwriter, turns 68! What am I doing in honor of Bobbie D's birthday? Well...I'm reading Behind the Shades Revisited, by Clinton Heylin: I bought this book sometime last year, though it has been sitting up on my shelf untouched until last night. It really is a madly comprehensive work, furnished with quotes from the cast of people who have known the man and oodles of detail; it is 800 pages after all!
I've also been checking out Bob Dylan's art. I have to admit that, despite listening to him for years, I really was unaware that Bob Dylan was an artist (erm, apart from the Self Portrait and Planet Waves covers) until browsing through Lyrics 1962-1985 recently, which includes his vast songwriting from that time period as well as an assortment of drawings. Here's a piece from his art site:
I'm also trekking through the rest of Bob Dylan's studio album discography that I still have left to hear (I'm about halfway there: 33 in all). I'm not entirely sure when I first heard Bob Dylan...it might have been from when my mom bought the 2-disc Essential Bob Dylan (still, probably the best introduction there is to this artist); she had the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) on vinyl previously, which is (oddly) her favourite Bob Dylan album, and apparently his music, "Mr. Tambourine Man" in particular, would help her fall asleep as a kid!
I didn't really get into his material until I heard "Hurricane" on Carl Barat's (The Libertines) Under the Influence compilation in 2005. I heard The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Bringing it All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Blonde on Blonde (1966), Blood on the Tracks (1975), Time Out of Mind (1997), and The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 - Live 1966 all thanks to my mad quest to listen to the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, though I think my favourites are Desire (1976) and Slow Train Coming (1979).
I find difficult to describe exactly WHY I am so fond of his music- I think it has to do a lot with Bob Dylan as a person. Though 'enigmatic' is a label used far too often, as apt as it seems, puzzling and poetic, his music is the kind you can get completely lost and immerse yourself in- one of the greats, A Future in Noise salutes you, Bob!
Oh yeah. It's International Talk Like Bob Dylan Day, too.
I didn't really get into his material until I heard "Hurricane" on Carl Barat's (The Libertines) Under the Influence compilation in 2005. I heard The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Bringing it All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Blonde on Blonde (1966), Blood on the Tracks (1975), Time Out of Mind (1997), and The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 - Live 1966 all thanks to my mad quest to listen to the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, though I think my favourites are Desire (1976) and Slow Train Coming (1979).
I find difficult to describe exactly WHY I am so fond of his music- I think it has to do a lot with Bob Dylan as a person. Though 'enigmatic' is a label used far too often, as apt as it seems, puzzling and poetic, his music is the kind you can get completely lost and immerse yourself in- one of the greats, A Future in Noise salutes you, Bob!
Oh yeah. It's International Talk Like Bob Dylan Day, too.
Bob Dylan Press Conference - San Francisco 1965:
5 COMMENTS / POST COMMENT:
No comments? I love Bob Dylan. His voice captures the emotions for me, as the rhyming puts a spell on the words like non other. I'm going through all his albums right now too, starting at the beginning, and besides Blood On The Tracks, i'm up to Blonde on Blonde.
Cheers for this, you got me going back to all the 60's albums, which are dear to me. That's ground zero really. That press conference is interesting, I don't much worship Dylan 'the man' these days... but then you hear the songs!
This footage really dashes your preconceptions; it's awful because it's no illusions or evasions or fawning journos, just a fucking awkward meeting of two artists that got to the top by being the biggest pricks in their respective scenes. Dylan tries to make an impression and sound edgy but you can tell inside he's blank and kicking himself... Still the transatlantic pillars of pop/art.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRzXLbKrxlc
@dz and @'molly moffit' thanks for the comments, guys! I'm up to Self Portrait now, with just some scattered releases I've heard after that- going to try to get everything listened to before month's end!
Are you thinking about going to that Dylan/Nelson/other guy concert? I think tickets went on sale today.
@Brad I just checked his tour listing- I had no idea he was coming to Fresno and Stockton later this year, I may have to catch that! :D
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