No place, not even a wild place, is a place until it has had that human attention that at its highest reach we call poetry. –Wallace Stegner, The Sense of Place (1989) Highway 61, the main thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I began. I always felt like I’d started on it, always had been on...
Category: Articles
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TIME IS AN OCEAN: LOVE SONGS FROM BOB DYLAN’S DESIRE
————————- Hi there folks! Comments box at the bottom of the page. Comments welcome!!! ————————- …Fine, clear, dazzling morning, the sun an hour high, the air just tart enough. What a stamp in advance my whole day receives from the song of that meadow lark perch’d on a fence-stake twenty rods distant! Two or...
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BOB DYLAN AND WOODY GUTHRIE: IN THE GRAND CANYON AT SUNDOWN
Chris Gregory looks at the influence of WOODY GUTHRIE on BOB DYLAN, discusses Dylan's Guthrie covers, his SONG FOR WOODY and his poem LAST THOUGHTS ON WOODY GUTHRIE
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BOB DYLAN’S THE BALLAD OF FRANKIE LEE AND JUDAS PRIEST: NOTHING IS REVEALED…
What is revealed? The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, from 1967’s John Wesley Harding, is perhaps Bob Dylan’s most enigmatic song. It is certainly one of his funniest. Over eleven verses and within a virtually unchanging musical template, it tells a convoluted ‘shaggy dog’ story about the consequences of falling into too much...
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Bob Dylan’s GATES OF EDEN: A CRASHING BUT MEANINGLESS BLOW
…Mutual forgiveness of each vice, Such are the gates of paradise… William Blake, The Gates of Paradise Once, if I remember rightly, my life was a feast where all hearts opened, and all wines flowed. One evening I sat Beauty on my knees – And I found her bitter – And I reviled...
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Bob Dylan’s JOKERMAN: DANCE TO THE NIGHTINGALE’S TUNE
Chris Gregory examines Bob Dylan's amazing 1983 song JOKERMAN
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Bob Dylan’s PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID: That Long Black Cloud…
Chris Gregory riffs on Bob Dylan's role in thevmovie PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID. He examines his soundtrack for the film, which includes KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR
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Bob Dylan’s IT’S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE: TAKE WHAT YOU HAVE GATHERED…
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou knowst thy estimate. The Charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; My bonds in thee are all determinate. For how do I hold thee but by thy granting, And for that riches where is my deserving? The cause of this fair...
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Bob Dylan’s LILY, ROSEMARY AND THE JACK OF HEARTS: THE ONLY MISSING PERSON ON THE SCENE
Chris looks at Bob Dylan's wonderful tongue in cheek 'Western', Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
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Bob Dylan’s DIRGE: SEARCHING FOR A GEM
The shocking immediacy and passionate cynicism of 1974’s Dirge was correctly interpreted by many fans and commentators as a strong indication that the era of Bob Dylan the ‘family man’ was coming to an end. This was particularly striking as it was released on Planet Waves, most of which consisted of much lighter...