I bought this, this week...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...signscover.jpg

Great alternate takes, etc. A worthy successor to the original box set.

However, it became unmistakeable to me whilst listening, that one of the most hyped tracks `Red River Shore` has a melody almost entirely ripped off another BD song, `When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky` (available on Bootleg #3) - which is a song that kicks serious emotional ass.:bowdown:
I know a lot of Bobs songs borrow melodies from all over the shop, but i`ve heard so much about the Red River song, was surprised no one had mentioned it.

Anyway, i`ve only had time to listen to disc 1 so far (several times). My early fave is the first track, Mississippi, a terrific slow burning version rivalling Blind Willie McTell.

My father took me to my first Dylan concert at the tender age of five at Kiel Opera House, St. Louis Missouri in March 1966. It was his first tour in America since his controversial appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. He had members of the future Band backing him, except for Levon Helm who sat out the tour because he didn't like Dylan's music at the time.

I have nearly every one of Dylan's studio releases, all of the Dylan bootleg series plus bootleg tapes of his first Carnagie Hall concert in 1963 and an limited edition cd of Bob Dylan playing the Gaslight Cafe in 1962. It's the earliest known recording of Dylan. I have quite a few of his albums uploaded at Last FM and you can listen to them by hitting the Towering Inferno link in my sig.

This thread urged me to listen to some Dylan. A friend of mine gave me copies of the bulk of his material including the bootlegs. The overall opinion of his '80s material seems pretty bad. I think I'll get around to it once I familiarize myself with what I have. I really love Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, and Time Out of Mind.

When it comes to storytelling, there is no better than Bob Dylan...

except for maybe Johnny Cash or Slick Rick.

how could you not include 'the man in me' in your fav songs from the New Mourning LP. It's only like the greatest Dylan song ever, well that and 'tonight I'll be staying here with you'.

Love the Man in Me! It's in The Big Lebowski soundtrack :D

Ethan, I'm a little surprised you managed to discuss Infidels without mentioning Jokerman. Not cool, bro.

Anyway, I can't blame you for stopping since Down in the Groove is next. Though, mercifully, it's only like 32 or 33 minutes.

Bad News For Bing Crosby.

This just in... Dylan is planning on recording an album of Christmas songs including "Here Comes Santa Claus" and the carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem," two songs popularized by Crosby.

Rumors of the album first emerged on Isis magazine website, which is devoted to Dylan. It later reported the songs had been recorded in Jackson Browne's studio in Santa Monica, California, in May.

David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, who played accordion on Dylan's chart-topping latest album "Together Through Life," is one of the musicians who took part in the sessions, it said.

"It is a personal project of Dylan himself rather than an idea put forward by his record company," Isis said.

Other songs included "Must Be Santa" and "I'll be Home for Christmas," it said.

"

I've seen Dylan say elsewhere that the X-mas disc was his label's idea ... so who knows? however I do enjoy the results. I abused a thanksgiving gathering with the record and then annoyed my mother with it on Xmas eve, all the while honestly diggin on the sounds and interpretations. And the video for "Must Be Santa" is zany and amusing

I'm a newbie here, but wanted to say I enjoyed this thread. I find I want to revisit Bob Dylan's albums. Thanks.

If Bob Dylan can make an Xmas album, anything can happen in this world.

Ah, I wasn't that surprised. If G.G. Allin made a Christmas album, then I'd say "anything can happen".

Haha
G.G. Allen-Rudolph, Santa, My Own **** And Blood(essential christmas songs from beyond the grave)

Aww, I like Down In The Groove just fine, only one I REALLY can't take is Under The Red Sky

some of his albums have been far better than others, i would love to talk to him to find out what he thinks about that and if he can be impartial/objective to that idea and comment on what he thinks attributed to better or worse songs, whether it was the time period of his life and things surrounding him or if it just ended up like that.. i write songs and i distinctly know what is better and which is worse

I always figured "Red Sky" he heard the sounds and felt the feel the producer Was getting, knew the record wasn't going to turn out how he wanted, and just got himself through it

I just never was a big fan of Dylan, I guess its fact that his band was out at a critical stage/& time in the developement of rock history, or something to that affect, but I never cared about his songwriting ability also, the only song I ever liked he wrote was, When the night comes falling, performed by The Jeff Healy Band. I liked his son, Jacob Dylan with the WallFlowers, I felt Jacob Dylan had alot better voice & control than his dad did.

Afraid your wrong there pal, the earliest RELEASED recording of Dylan dates back to 1959, 'I've Got Troubles', released with the No Direction Home Soundtrack.

Aside from actual released pieces there's unreleased recordings of him from 1957.

sleepy jack - you've made an admirable and useful effort by reviewing the Dylan albums, it's always going to be hard with the breadth of his work and everybody having differing opinions on his songs. It would be fair to say there is no stereotypical Dylan 'fan', which is a testimony to the quality and variation of his music throughout his career. Although you do seem to gloss over certain landmark songs in his repertoire, then again that is subjective so what might seem a benchmark composition to one person is just another song to another.

Kristian Mattson, a young folk singer from Sweden has caused quite a stir in Europe and the inevitable comparisons to Dylan have been made. I recently did a story on him in my Aural Fixation blog in the member diary section. Kristian performs under the name of the Tallest Man on Earth and he's just released his second album.

I'm posting his song The King of Spain and wondering what other Dylan fans think of his music.

To me, he sounds eeirely like Bob especially during the Freewheelin'/Another Side of Bob Dylan albums. Kristian's lyrics are fantastic but he seems a bit limited to playing a certain kind of music. But that's what everyone said about Dylan before 1965.

Gavin B - thanks so much for that!!!

that one tune has singlehandedly put my faith back in modern country/folk music. kristian mattson is now my new favourite artist haha

although a bit hard pushed to see that much dylan in him

you heard/like josh ritter? he's another one who really caught my eye who you could also compare to dylan

Dylan
 

"Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you."

Dylan and old times.

Good lyrics, but honestly...

I've never gotten the hype. I think there are much better songwriters than him.

The word legend is used far too much these days, but Dylan is a legend. One of if the the best lyricist ever and certainly one of the best songwriters of all time.

It makes me laugh when people say negative things about Dylans work, usually its metalheads who dont have the taste or class to understand him anyway. Definately one of the most important artists to ever exist.

Enjoyed this thread, interesting read.

Say whaaaaaa? Maybe I'm just an elitist prick, but this seems border-line blasphemous.

Dylan is pretty much the best as far as lyrics are concerned. Course, he had his duff moments, but you can't argue with something like "The Gates of Eden."

Ah man, I'm really conflicted about Tallest Man on Earth. Listening to him I know his music is good and that I should be digging it, it's just through every song there's a little voice in the back of my head saying "he's trying to imitate Bob Dylan and no one can imitate Bob Dylan". His voice also seems like a Swede's interpretation of an American accent, and it just comes off as being cheap to me. I guess I view my problem with TME as a personal conflict, so no one take my criticism too personally haha

Also, I don't really like his lyrics either. I guess it's just because I'm always sizing him up with Dylan. That's another problem I have with this new indie-folk trend thats become popular. It's folk music with a lot of good musicians, but the lyrics just don't mean anything to me. It's folk music with pop lyrics, and folk and pop just don't really go together well.

Oh and nice work with the Dylan reviews. I'm always torn between deciding whether Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the Tracks is my favorite Dylan album. What does it for me on Blood on the Tracks is the storytelling. I mean, "Lily, Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts" tells a story that someone could write an entire novel about, same goes for "Tangled up in Blue". What does it for me on Blonde on Blonde is the poetry, e.g. "Visions of Johanna".

There's some pretty good Dylan covers around, but trying to make new dylan songs is tough, really tough.
Here, getting close:
YouTube - Mouse - "A Public Execution"
This song from 1965 actually sounds like dylan from a couple of years later.
Very nice.

Eitherway, I love Dylan. But there's some other good songwriters getting really, really close.
What about Nick Drake? And has anyone ever listened closely tot Al Stewart's album "Orange"? It's magical.

Down in the Groove (1988)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...DownGroove.jpg

Rolling Stone called this Bob Dylan's worst album. These are the same dudes who have praised Nickelback and Fall Out Boy. That says everything you really need to know about this album.

The album is predictable, the arrangements borderline awful, and it suffers from typical Dylan circa 80s production issues. He didn't write most of the songs himself either. Death is Not the End is an okay song, easily the stand out on the album. The good news is, it gets better after this album.

This was a really sad way to revamp this thread to be honest, because now I really don't feel like listening to Dylan. This album is useless, I mean it's not offensive it's just so mediocre and even Dylan sounds like he doesn't give a fuck.

Okay Song: Death is Not the End

Just think amigo, the folk covers records are coming up if you can get past under the red sky.

the onyl **** album left is under the red sky

you can do it amigo

Oh Bob Dylan there is no words for him he just is the best songwriter and his lyric's are like poetry.

my fave Dylan album at the moment is Shot of Love - rest are overplayed - haven't gotten to the rest of the "sh*t" albums yet

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...nter/EGG04.png

Blonde On Blonde is certainly one of the best albums of all time and without a doubt the best Dylan album, in my opinion anyway. Although he has released some pretty **** stuff too. Overall, a legend.

^ Is basically how I feel about the album. Not that I've listened to it more than a couple of times (as I really don't feel the need to!), but it's just such a tired, plodding and by-the-numbers album. Barely worth the effort really. I don't hate it as much as Knocked Out Loaded or Shot Of Love, but it's still pretty damn awful.

I'll be keeping an eye out for your updates. I'm a big Oh Mercy fan, and Time Out Of Mind is my favourite Dylan album, so it'll be interesting to see your take on the both of them.

I saw Dylan live earlier this year, when he was being announced the announcer said something like this: "The poet laureate whose career dissipated in the eighties due to substance abuse."

It was quite funny.

i heard Empire Burlesque and actually quite liked it, tbh

(mebbe i was on substance abuse as well when i heard it)

This is my first ever post and I had to start by commenting on Dylan.
I adore him and like too many of his albums.
I have always preferred his electric albums, which seemed to me more non-conformist than the supposedly political folk ones. Maggie's Farm is a good example of a very political song.
But lately I am really enjoying the album Another Side of Bob Dylan.

found this interesting

Bob Dylan was a terrible singer, but he was one of the best poets of his century.

No man, he wasn't terrible at all. It's an acquired taste probably, like good wine and Scotch.
Just play "Blowin' in the Wind" or "Just like a Woman' and you can still hear the brilliance.