The Boarding House was a club in downtown San Francisco that held about 500 people. The sound was great. It was probably the best club I’ve been in to see live music.
Patti Smith and her band were there on February 15, 1976, less than two months after Horses was released.
It’s an amazing show, and lucky for you and me, it got recorded. Patti Smith is still amazing, but this show (and others from ’75 and ’76, are exceptional.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
You’ve never heard Bob Dylan songs sung like the versions on From Another World: A Tribute to Bob Dylan.
“I wanted people who were like Dylan. People with the same spirit, poets in their own culture,” Producer Alain Weber told American Songwriter> magazine. “Some of them knew his music, others didn’t. We translated the lyrics. It was vital that they could identify with the words, to feel the images and meanings.”
It’s hard to tell that these are Dylan’s songs. The melodies are absent and the lyrics sung in other languages. All the same, it’s really cool music and the fact that the interpretations are so radical is totally in keeping with Dylan’s own art.
From the website of Buda Music, the label releasing the album:
“These interpretations of Bob Dylan’s songs have-been compiled as a tribute to His single poetic achievement, both, traditional and avant-garde, both, humanist and prophetic. Artists coming from diverse tribal and traditional cultures in All which poetry and music still POSSESS has strong social or ritual significance, In Their Own-have captured the way so obvious universal themes in Dylan’s songs. ‘Soneros’ from Cuba, Gypsies from Rumania and Hungary, from Rajasthan poets, musicians of the Nile, Persian masters, all perform a song for icts Chosen thematic connection to Their Own culture. The lyrics of the songs-have-been translated into the native language of Each artist and Then tailored to the following verse and rhythmical patterns of Each vocal and musical style.”
Tracks:
1. All Along The Watchtower – Eliades Ochoa (Cuba)
2. Mr Tambourine Man – Purna Das Baul & Bapi Das Baul (Bengal, India)
3. Corrina Corrina – Taraf De Haïdouks (Rumania)
4. I Want You – Burma Orchestra Saing Waing (Myanmar)
5. Every Grain Of Sand – Salah Aghili (Iran)
6. Tangled Up In Blue – The Musicians of the Nile (Egypt)
7. Jokerman – Divana (Rajasthan, India)
8. Blowin’ In The Wind – Kek Lang (Hungary)
9. I Want You – Trio Mei Li De Dao (Taïwan)
10. With God On Our Side – Lhamo Dukpa (Bhutan)
11. Man Gave Names To All The Animals – Sayfi Mohamed Tahar (Algeria)
12. Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 – Kocani Orkestar (Macedonia)
13. Father Of Night – Aboriginal People Yolingu of Yalakun (Arnhem Land, Australia)
Check out some of the music.
“Mr. Tambourine Man,” Purna Das Baul & Bapi Das Baul, Bengal, India:
“Father of Night,” Aboriginal people Yolingu of Yalakun, Arhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia:
And if you understand French, here’s a video about the album:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Nearly all of Allen Ginsberg’s photographs have been donated to the University of Toronto by the Larry & Cookie Rossy Family Foundation, according to the Huffington Post.
The nearly 8000 photographs include images of Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, John Cage, William de Kooning, Paul McCartney, Patti Smith, William Burroughs and Iggy Pop.
The Huffington Post reports:
Comprising a nearly complete archive of Ginsberg’s surviving photographs, the collection, spanning the years 1944 to 1997, includes original snapshots and prints of various sizes. The silver gelatin prints are unique in that they are hand-captioned by Ginsberg. All of these images will be available to scholars, and some will be on display.
Although known primarily as a writer, Ginsberg was an avid photographer. The collection includes images of writers Amiri Baraka (formerly known as LeRoi Jones), Paul Bowles, Doris Lessing, Josef Skvorecky (who was a professor of English at U of T) and Evgeny Yevtushenko. Other Ginsberg subjects were photographer Robert Frank, psychologist R.D. Laing, author and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock and psychologist, and drug guru, Timothy Leary. Ginsberg’s friend and, fellow writer, Burroughs appears in more than 300 photographs. Another frequent subject is Ginsberg’s lifelong partner, Peter Orlovsky.
The Ginsberg prints provide visual insight into New York urban landscape from the 1950s to the 1990s. They also document Ginsberg’s international travels to Canada, France, India, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, the USSR and many other nations.
For the whole story head to the Huffington Post.
You can see many of Allen Ginsberg’s photographs here.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Since I first heard Bob Dylan in 1965 — “Like A ROlling Stone” was on the radio — I’ve loved his voice, his music and his lyrics.
But I think I keep coming back to his songs again and again because I still don’t understand everything he’s saying.
There are layers of meaning in some of the songs.
Here are ten lyrics that I still don’t completely understand. Do you?
If you can help explain what even one of these means, let me know.
1 “She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all” — from “Love Minus Zero, No Limit”
2 “You will search, babe
At any cost
But how long, babe
Can you search for what’s not lost?
Everybody will help you
Some people are very kind
But if I can save you any time
Come on, give it to me
I’ll keep it with mine ” from “I’ll Keep It With Mine”
3 “Now when Ill teach that lady I was born to love her
But she knows that the kingdom waits so high above her
And I run but I race but it’s not too fast or slow
But I dont perceive her, I’m not there, I’m gone
Well, it’s all about confusion and I cry for her
Well, I dont need anybody now beside me to tell
And its all affirmation I receive but its not
Shes adorned by the beauty but she don’t like the spot and she won’t” from “I’m Not There” (I’m not sure of those lyrics are accurate.)
4 “Too much of nothing
Can make a man abuse a king
He can walk the streets and boast like most
But he wouldn’t know a thing
Now, it’s all been done before
It’s all been written in the book
But when there’s too much of nothing
Nobody should look” — from “Too Much Of Nothing”
5 “Buy me a flute
And a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself
To the tree with roots
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!” — from “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”
6 “Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine
An’ I said, “Oh, I didn’t know that
But then again, there’s only one I’ve met
An’ he just smoked my eyelids
An’ punched my cigarette”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again” – from “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again”
7 “She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She’s a hypnotist collector
You are a walking antique” – “She Belongs To Me”
Also, why did Dylan change “Egyptian red ring” to Egyptian ring” and was a red ring significant?
8 “Louise, she’s all right, she’s just near
She’s delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna’s not here
The ghost of ’lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place” from “Visions of Johanna”
9 “Dear Landlord
Please don’t put a price on my soul
My burden is heavy
My dreams are beyond control
When that steamboat whistle blows
I’m gonna give you all I got to give
And I do hope you receive it well
Dependin’ on the way you feel that you live
Dear landlord
Please heed these words that I speak
I know you’ve suffered much
But in this you are not so unique
All of us, at times, we might work too hard
To have it too fast and too much
And anyone can fill his life up
With things he can see but he just cannot touch” – From “Dear Landlord”
10 “Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row” – from “Desolation Row”
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
This is a very cool version of “Desolation Row” from Dylan’s 1966 World Tour.
This recording really is from Dylan’s May 27, 1966 show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. At 13 and a half minutes in length, it’s slightly longer than the 11 and a half minute version played at Free Trade Hall in Manchester 10 days earlier, and the sound quality is good.
Plus a good one from the previous year:
Hollywood Bowl,L.A., Sept. 3, 1965 (excellent recording):
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
“I lost a great friend and a great hero last night,” Bruce Springsteen said yesterday night, onstage at the Bellville Velodrome in South Africa. “Pete back home was a very courageous freedom fighter. This is a song he adopted and helped popularize… Once you heard this song, you were prepared to march into hell’s fire.”
Then he sang “We Shall Overcome.”
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
January 27, 2014 marks the 48th anniversary of Bob Dylan recording “I’ll Keep It With Mine.”
This song is endlessly mysterious. It’s a favorite of mine, and like most of my favorite Dylan songs, I’ve thought about it for years and still don’t know all of what it’s about. It’s a song that keeps on giving, year after year.
The session when Dylan recorded this song took place in New York at Columbia’s Studio A. It was the last New York session done for Blonde On Blonde. The album was completed in Nashville.
You’ll find the lyrics here.
There are many versions of this song.
This version of “I’ll Keep It With Mine” was recorded on January 27, 1966, and, as we all know, wasn’t included on Blonde On Blonde. It was never recorded for a Dylan studio album.
The song ended up on the first “Bootleg Series” release, Bob Dylan The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 [rare & unreleased] 1961-1991.
This version was recorded a year earlier on January 14, 1965:
This version was recorded June 1964 and released on The Whitmark Demos 1962-1964:
Plus an instrumental version recorded in Nashville that was used in Wim Wender’s “Paris, Texas.”
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
I’ve previous posted many video clips from Neil Young’s “Honour The Treaties” benefit show at Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This is a terrific concert.
Now a very good audio recording has showed up on YouTube.
Check it out:
The setlist:
From Hank To Hendrix
On The Way Home
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Love In Mind
Mellow My Mind
Are You Ready For The Country
Someday
Changes (Phil Ochs cover)
Harvest
Old Man
A Man Needs A Maid
Ohio
Southern Man
Mr. Soul
Pocahontas
Helpless
Heart of Gold
Comes A Time
Long May You Run
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
What to say about this classic Bob Dylan song?
It has such a beautiful melody for starters. And there’s that carnival rock ‘n’roll sound that Dylan dreamed up with Robbie Robertson and a bunch of Nashville cats. The song is so seductive at first, and Bob sings it straight, no sarcasm, so we think it’s a gentle love song.
But what kind of love song?
By the second verse this is no typical love song. No way, ’cause Dylan is putting this woman down. She’s the same woman (or all the women) he sang about in “Like A Rolling Stone,” and in that second verse we learn that she’s gonna find out she’s nothing special.
Nobody has to guess
That Baby can’t be blessed
Till she sees finally that she’s like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamine and her pearlsThen in the bridge we get a flashback. The singer telling us of the day they met.
It was raining from the first
And I was dying there of thirst
So I came in hereWhat’s really amazing is the final verse the roles reverse and the narrator, who up until then mostly comes across in the power position telling us about his lover, suddenly steps up and directly addresses her as he reveals that he was a mess when they first met and that she was way up above him. Dylan could now be taking the role of Dick Diver in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Tender Is The Night” after Diver has lost his moneyed but psychologically unstable wife Nicole, has blown it with his movie star girlfriend Rosemary and become an alcoholic. In the last verse we see the narrator as totally vulnerable, asking her to keep their secret, and his too.
I just can’t fit
Yes, I believe it’s time for us to quit
When we meet again
Introduced as friends
Please don’t let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your worldDylan was writing on another plane back then. A novel condensed to a song.
Check out this cool live version of “Just Like A Woman” played May 16, 1966 at the Gaumont Theatre, Sheffield, England:
And this one from May 5, 1966 at the Adelphi Theatre, Dublin, Ireland:
Bob Dylan, “Just Like A Woman,” Live 1966:
Bob Dylan, “Justs Like A Woman,” Manchester Free Trade Hall, Manchester England, May 17, 1966:
Bob Dylan, “Just Like A Woman,” (from Blonde On Blonde):
And here’s a lo-fi version recorded by Dylan biographer Robert Shelton and played by Dylan with Robbie Robertson in a Denver hotel room March 13, 1966, five days after Dylan cut the version that would appear on Blonde On Blonde in Nashville:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Great clip of Professor Longhair and The Meters playing “Everyday I Have the Blues.”
And here’s a cool clip of “Bald Head”:
Thanks to Classic Blues Videos for hipping me to the “Everyday I Have the Blues” clip.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-