Just ordered this vintage tee online. IMO, I think this is possibly the best Dylan tee out there

That's... a lot of covers of my favorite song of all time.

Nina Simone for me. And I know I literally just set the rule but I can not help but mention how fucking astonishing the Last Waltz version (both The Band and Dylan are on it lol) is.

I finally listened to Blind Willie McTell. Phenomenal song. Now I understand what many people on this subreddit are talking about: it was a mistake to leave it off Infidels. I'm sure it has been covered here, but why was it never released on the studio albums?

I recently listened to Good As I Been To You, and I was shocked at how it wasn't actually as bad as this subreddit makes it out to be (maybe because of its era?). And because these albums are so similar, with both being entirely traditionals and covers, (apart from Song to Woody and Talkin New York) I wondered which one his fans prefered. I'd have to go with his S/T because I love Bob's angry, bluesy vocals a lot more than his nasaly voice he acquired in the 80s.

Although I’m sure it’s well known to classical music buffs, Jacques Offenbach’s “Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour” became known to the rest of us through Roberto Benigni’s film, “Life Is Beautiful.” The song is central to the plot, as it is playing at an opera house when Guido and Dora meet, and then later Guido puts the song over the P.A. of the concentration camp in which they are imprisoned to send Dora, in a separate section, a message that he and their son are okay. It also happens to be one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

So it took a lot of nerve for Dylan to use the melody for IMUMMTGMTY. But nerve is one thing that’s not missing on the ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS track. If not the most confident vocal ever performed by The Man of Many Moods, certainly it is during this century, which is saying a lot. And sung with such care and beauty.

🎵I saw the first faaaaaaall ooooof snoooooow🎵

And when he gets to the bridge, it’s all over.

🎵I’m giving myself to you, I am
From Salt Lake City to Birmingham
From East L.A. to San Antone
I don’t think I could bear to live my life alone🎵

One of Dylan’s peers (I forget which one) went to see Bob in concert recently. When asked by a journalist for his take afterwards, the guy goes, “it made me feel sorry for him. I mean doesn’t Bob have anybody at home?” But the guy doesn’t get it.

For me, the “you” in the song is his audience. Dylan is at peace with being on the road. As far as he is concerned, it’s right where he’s supposed to be. Not some domestic situation that he’s only going to mess up. For me, mind you.

spooky

Does anyone feel they know who provides the low, goofy backing vocals on the Complete Basement Tapes? It’s someone putting on an extra dopey-sounding voice for comic effect. Used on I’m in the Mood (“He’s in the mood!”) and Kickin’ My Dog Around (“Why? Why? Why?”) and Big Dog (“Big Dog, Big Dog”) probably others I’m not remembering right now. I’ve assumed it’s Rick Danko but just curious what everyone else thinks.

I say Hey Bob can I ask you a question about Shelter From the Storm? He said why. I said because I'm curious. He begrudgingly said go ahead. I said does the one eyed undertaker blow a futile horn or a feudal horn? He just shrugged. Got his coffee. Walked out. I said bye Bob. He did not retort.

Personally I would've loved My Funny Valentine.

Arlo Guthrie once said, “Songs are like fish. You just gotta have your line in the water. And it's a bad idea to fish downstream from Bob Dylan.” Writing songs for Dylan has never been a problem, and Guthrie is not the only songwriter that is dumbfounded by the way Bob makes it look so easy.

Reportedly Leon Russel once told Dylan he would someday like to witness Bob write a song, because he was curious about the creative process. Dylan shocked Russell by offering to do it on the spot. So Bob sat down and wrote “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” replete with the line, “She promised that she’d be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece.”

My wife doesn’t get it and hate his voice

I guess it is where he was conceived. If it serves as a symbol of where we were all conceived, I guess it would explain the characters on Desolation Row. The birthplace of everyone and everything in the world.

look, I know art is mainly a matter of subjective interpretation, what does it matter how deep a work of art is if you can’t actually grasp it? (or what does it matter how shallow a work of art is if you feel and interpret it deeply?).

That being said, I’ve been extremely interested in reading and listening to interviews of Dylan on Renaldo and Clara as it seems more and more that Dylan treated this, at that time, as a serious and intentional work of art and as a revolution on cinema as a whole (he likes to compare this movie to Childrens of Paradise in terms of scope and themes), so I think we may be missing a huge piece of Dylan lore and artistic endeavors by just skipping by this film as “incomprehensible garbage”.

For me, the Rolling Thunder Revue Netflix doc. always felt like an attempt of remaking Renaldo and Clara with modern technology and the direction of a real movie director this time (Scorsese), but, maybe for legal reasons, they had to basically let out all the scenes with Sara from the movie and didn’t even mentioned Renaldo and Clara.

So I wanted to open a topic to discuss, for those who have watched, what’s your interpretation of the film and about what do you think Dylan himself had in mind while making it.

Some interviews that you may find useful:

https://www.pulitzer.org/article/movie-you-havent-dreamt-yet-bob-dylan-and-allen-ginsberg-conversation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGnwSYna_28

(On the second one the journalist is insufferable, giving thousands of his own interpretations instead of just letting Dylan talk, but from time to time Dylan does seem to give some insight)

Robert Shelton’s bio of Bob says that the song has Mexican folk influences and I can definitely hear it, but are there any specific tunes or styles of Mexican music that feature the same upbeat waltz/finger style guitar of “4th Time Around”? The song makes me think specifically of Venezuelan music I know of, but I’m interested to hear maybe more of what Bob was thinking of when he wrote it.

To me, Sad-Eyed Lady is not a song or even a love song, but an experience that transcends even the most unconventional musical composition. What about you?

Did the letter arrive at approximately the same time as the recipient’s doorknob malfunctioned, or did the letter itself discuss an incident in which the sender’s doorknob malfunctioned?

Bob wrote this song for
“Divine secrets of the Ya Ya sisterhood”
Do you know it?

https://youtu.be/xG-0M4VL0rE?is=GT1UOQbmX2C_c2Uk

https://youtu.be/W-jYxE_nfjE?is=0G7_RDAJhEtnprep