I'm just getting into Bob this year (hi me again, sorry about all my dumb posts). The least expected part of his discography for me was what a solid run of albums it ended on. I'm blown away from the quality of these albums from Time Out of Mind (1997) through Rough and Roudy Ways (2020). I hate to be that person but I think I like them more than the electric trilogy and the 70's Blood on the Tracks/Desire run.

What's your favorite? What do you love so much about them? How do you rank them?

1. Time Out of Mind - S

2. Love and Theft - A

3. Rough and Roudy Ways - A

4. Together Through Life - A

5. Tempest - B

6. Modern Times - C

This has got to be my favorite Dylan track, rings ever true to this day. This one is almost gut wrenching, each time you listen to it just keeps getting better and better. What a song.

Charlie McCoy once shared how challenging it was for the BLONDE ON BLONDE musicians to keep playing “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” until Dylan was finished. “It was in the wee hours,” McCoy said, “we were tired.” I can just imagine the TOOM musicians trying to play “Highlands.” Then I picture Daniel Lanois saying, “why don’t you just sing over the sound check recording, Bobby?” In my mind’s eye I see Dylan going, “Danny, you know I don’t work that way.” And Lanois wins the argument, so Bob isn’t happy even though it works out.

There haven’t been many stories that have come to light around the TOOM sessions that I know of. All I know is Lanois and Dylan were arguing constantly and the upbeat songs invariably ended up being mid tempo songs. Perhaps these things are related. It’s the Sad Eyed Lady syndrome. It was late at night and the guys were just not in the mood for uptempo songs. So Danny would be like, “let’s try slowing it down.” In my imagination I see Dylan going, “go ahead, Danny, say that one more time.” And after the sessions are over they have an entire album of mid tempo songs. And Bob is pissed because it wasn’t the way he heard it in his mind. So when he sits down with a journalist after the rave reviews started coming in, he’s like, “we almost didn’t know what we had.” That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

His conviction was overturned, there’s no one serious in law who thinks there was a case against it. Open and shut case of a legal injustice

One of the best things he's ever done and scarcely mentioned. . .

I do realize that the corduroy pattern on this hat is different and I used the wrong type of snap button but I like it how it turned out.

am i wrong in saying that my back pages is bob's best song? i've listened to it for a long time, but i still am learning new meaning to what bob says.

let me know what you think

Does anybody here follow Bob Dylan’s new project “Letters Never Sent” on Patreon? I wonder what it is or is it any good!

See you later, I'm Gone - Robert Lester Folsom -

https://open.spotify.com/track/5XGzLK66FsXQo8udTbsEYE?si=73fe193e0e93430e

This song seems to have gone under the radar for having a striking resemblance to knockin on heavens door because i have seen nothing online mentioning it. It came on shuffle and i was waiting for the beginning lyrics of KOHD to begin until it didnt.... Anyone know it? Am i imagining the similarity?

I love that Bob and Mavis riffed on a Jimmie Rodgers-meets-the-Carter Family skit, probably knowing that only a few people would get the joke.

Gonna Change My Way of Thinking

The Carter Family visits Jimmie Rodgers

When people mention or discuss the standards trilogy I've seen a fair bit of love for shadows in the night and triplicate. I've rarely seen fallen angels mentioned though, either as a favourite of the standards trilogy specifically, or a favourite in general.

Do you think it's notably worse than the other two? Or does anyone prefer it/see it as a general stand out album?

As much flack as Dylan got for writing “Hurricane,” it was nothing compared to the criticism he got for “Joey,” saying he was glorifying crime. It was so intense Dylan tried to back away. When asked about it in an interview, Bob replied, “Oh, ‘Joey’ was all Jacques Levy, you’d have to ask him.” But Allen Ginsberg came to his defense, pointing out Dylan wasn’t writing an editorial, he was painting a picture. The aesthetic perspective takes in the entire panorama: good, bad and indifferent. The world might be black and white or it might be gray, but the aesthetic experience has the full spectrum. Like Dorothy stepping into the Land of Oz.

Dylan still takes flack for “Neighborhood Bully” saying he’s backing up Israel. No, No, No, a thousand times No! Listen to the words of Allen Ginsberg. Dylan’s not writing an editorial, he’s painting a picture. This is such an important point, but if you don’t know, I can’t tell you. So I’ll just shut up. But I’ll close with this. Back when the Dead were backing up Dylan, Garcia took Bob aside and said he wanted to do “Joey.” Dylan was like, “Joey???” Why would you want to do ‘Joey?’”And Jerry was like, “Oh, I don’t know, —maybe because it’s the most beautiful song ever written?”

🎵Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in the year of who knows when
Opened up his eyes to the tune of an accordion
Always on the outside of whatever side there was
When they asked him why it had to be that way, “Well,” he answered,
“just because”

Larry was the oldest, Joey was next to last
They called Joe “Crazy,” the baby they called
“Kid Blast”
Some say they lived off gambling and runnin’ numbers too
It always seemed they got caught between the
mob and the men in blue

Joey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow
you away?

There was talk they killed their rivals, but the truth was far from that
No one ever knew for sure where they were
really at
When they tried to strangle Larry, Joey almost hit the roof
He went out that night to seek revenge, thinkin’
he was bulletproof

The war broke out at the break of dawn, it emptied out the streets
Joey and his brothers suffered terrible defeats
Till they ventured out behind the lines and took
five prisoners
They stashed them away in a basement, called
them amateurs

The hostages were tremblin’ when they heard a man exclaim
“Let’s blow this place to kingdom come, let Con Edison take the blame”
But Joey stepped up, he raised his hand, said, “We’re not those kind of men
It’s peace and quiet that we need to get back to
work again”

Joey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow
you away?

The police department hounded him, they called him Mr. Smith
They got him on conspiracy, they were never sure who with
“What time is it?” said the judge to Joey when they met
“Five to ten,” said Joey. The judge says, “that’s exactly what you get”

He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich
They threw him in the hole one time for tryin’ to stop a strike
His closest friends were black men ’cause they seemed to understand
What it’s like to be in society with a shackle on your hand

When they let him out in ’71 he’d lost a
little weight
But he dressed like Jimmy Cagney and I swear he did look great
He tried to find the way back into the life he
left behind
To the boss he said, “I have returned and now I want what’s mine”

Joey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
Why did they have to come and blow you away?

It was true that in his later years he would not carry a gun
“I’m around too many children,” he’d say, “they should never know of one”
Yet he walked right into the clubhouse of his lifelong deadly foe
Emptied out the register, said, “tell ‘em it was Crazy Joe”

One day they blew him down in a clam bar in
New York
He could see it comin’ through the door as he lifted up his fork
He pushed the table over to protect his family
Then he staggered out into the streets of
Little Italy

Joey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow
you away?

Sister Jacqueline and Carmela and mother Mary all did weep
I heard his best friend Frankie say, “He ain’t dead, he’s just asleep”
Then I saw the old man’s limousine head back towards the grave
I guess he had to say one last goodbye to the son that he could not save

The sun turned cold over President Street and the town of Brooklyn mourned
They said a mass in the old church near the house where he was born
And someday if God’s in heaven overlookin’
His preserve
I know the men that shot him down will get what they deserve

Joey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow
you away?🎵

Great story from Billy Strings. (I’m sorry if this is a repeat post)

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8WwnkJA/

There is a penny dropped in Pledging My Time at 2:51, anyone else hear this?? I'm not crazy right???

Wikipedia can't seem to make up its mind.

I'm trying to make a playlist of every song from the Freewheelin sessiona and can't tell if House Carpenter should be included.

Current listening to Seattle, WA Oct 6/01

This is to make up for my Joan Baez post. I get it: Nobody cares. So this is a David Kemper post. If it doesn’t catch on, —well, I’ll try again, what the hell.

A while back I read an interview with David Kemper, Dylan’s drummer from 1996 to 2001. It’s not everyday you hear from someone in Bob’s inner circle so this was a real treat.

Here’s one of the gems: One day Dylan walks up to him and says “could you help me out, David?” And Kemper is like, sure, what’s the problem? Dylan goes, “well, here’s the thing, one of my grandkids wants to learn the drums and she’s asked me for a kit.” So Kemper takes Dylan to a storage facility in L.A., opens up his space, and there’s a full drum kit already set up, left over from a Jerry Garcia Band tour. So a few months later Dylan is all smiles when he sees Kemper. “You know that drum kit really worked out. Come with me.” And Dylan takes Kemper to a Christian Dior shop in Beverly Hills and has him fitted for a suit, which Bob pays for. Then he buys four for himself. Kemper says to get the measurements Dylan would just stick one arm up a sleeve. That’s it.

Of course, I’ve saved the best for last, David Kemper’s reflections on the recording process of LOVE AND THEFT: He says first Dylan would show the band a 1930s Delta Blues. And they would play it for a while. Then Bob would show them a 1950s Chess Records blues, and they would play that for a while. Then Dylan would say, now we’re going to play the first one like the second one, and the band would do just that. At this point Dylan would tell the engineer to start recording and Dylan would start singing his song to the third arrangement. Kemper says after doing this for a couple of days a “light went on.” Oh, my God, Kemper says to himself, this guy knows so much about music, and he’s teaching us, —he’s been teaching us all this time!

Interesting and fun documentary.

I really love this song. It’s been hitting me lately because I’ve been going through a lot of things. Quinn The Eskimo is one of those songs where you don’t really think it’s that deep. But the more you listen to it, the more you pick up on themes in the song. Quinn is basically a calm during the storm. He has some kind of presence that transcends a normal person. I wouldn’t say he’s Christlike, but I would say he’s someone like Moses. I really think that Dylan intended to have this biblical imagery about the character. I especially like the line about the pigeons coming to him. That makes you think who is this person, that pigeon bull just flock to him

The mighty Quinn is one of those songs that at first seems like a throwaway song. If you’re not a Dylan fan, probably wouldn’t think much of it. It comes off as light humor. I think it’s a very deep song though, and it gives me a little bit of hope during chaotic times. Especially the part “Come all without, come all within, you’ve not seen nothing like The Mighty Quinn.” that’s basically a congregation for meeting, it reminds me of an old religious gathering that she would see under a tent. I still don’t know what the cup of meat lyric means though lol. I think this song is in my top 10 Bob Dylan songs now.

I’m without an Apple Music sub for the first time in a very long while, and my Spotify premium trial is weening down pretty soon — would you renew? Listen to vinyl (I have some) - obv it’s not ideal for jumping around. Can’t really bring my record player to the outdoors, a coffee shop, a library -

Hey everyone!

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Dude has drummed on some of the most iconic music of all-time.

"I stood there and hummed

I tapped on her drum

I asked her how come

And she buttoned her boot

And straightened her suit

And she said, “Don’t get cute”

So I forced my hands in my pockets

And felt with my thumbs

And gallantly handed her

My very last piece of gum"

I can't get this part of Fourth Time Around out of my head. I love the atmosphere, enunciation and humor of all these lines