Posted in dylan, interviews on March 23rd, 2009
I must say I like it when Dylan agrees with me. I once suggested to let the brown passports in ‘Desolation Row’ mean brown passports, and then see what happens. Now Dylan says:
Images don’t hang anybody [i.e. in the new audience] up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up.
In what way?
Well for instance, if there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that’s what they are in their essence. There’s no mystification. That’s one way I can explain it.
Like a locomotive, a pair of boots, a kiss or the rain?
Right. All those things are what they are. Or pieces of what they are. It’s the way you move them around that makes it work.
The image with the crooked astrologer is hilarious. The sad thing about it is that I can imagine that it is not just a hypothetical example exaggerated out of proportions. That at times, that’s what it’s been like to be Dylan. If it’s true that his project in the early nineties was to get that monkey off his shoulder, that’s quite understandable. I almost feel sorry for him, that poor Voice of a Generation.
The whole interview is a nice read. Highly recommended.
Posted in albums, dylan, guitar, music, tabs on March 19th, 2009
World Gone Wrong (1993) is a body. Not just a great body of work, but a body.
The greatness of this album of folk and blues classics is that there is one voice speaking on it and one person speaking with this voice, whether he speaks guitar, harmonica, or English.
I’ll try to make it a little clearer.
Posted in dylan, religion on February 23rd, 2009
Here’s to memories, to constancy, and to humour:
This is the story: Ten years ago, I was sitting on the lawn outside the library with a beer and my good friend and fine Dylan interpreter Lars. Somehow, the similarities between Bob and Jesus came up: Carpenter/Zimmerman Jews from the north going south to change the world; performing their most important work in the country’s main city at 33, etc.
Since I was extremely busy at the time, working 24/7 to finish my Ph.D. in time (i.e., while I was still 33), I immediately …
Posted in aesthetics, community, philosophy on February 22nd, 2009
These are the words of Thomas Blachman, the guy who has divided more water in Denmark than anyone since Moses (not that Moses was active in Denmark, but you know what I mean), the judge in Danish X Factor who according to some is a sadist who takes delight in sending aspiring stars home to their teenage rooms crying, according to others — yours truly included — a voice who actually has managed to say something important about culture in these Modern Times. In this case, it is from his book, The Colossal Human (p. 15).
Anyway,
“Say Only That Which You Have Figured Out Yourself”.
Hm.
Is he …
Posted in dylan, guitar, links, music on February 22nd, 2009
Scott Warmuth, who first discovered Dylan’s extensive borrowing from Henry Timrod for the lyrics to Modern Times and went on to dig deeper into the Ovidian connection, presents more findings in his blog. Well worth a visit!
The third season of Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour is well underway, and it’s as good as it used to be.
Get the shows, and read up on them. Highly recommended!
Acoustic Guitar Magazine has an online lesson with the basics of the guitar styles of Maybelle Carter, Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Harvey, and Riley Puckett, compete with music examples, a video, and thorough background material.
Posted in aesthetics, dylan, music, reviews on February 18th, 2009
Two things in particular make Tell Tale Signs a god-send for the Dylan analyst. One is that it shows how tightly interconnected Dylan’s last three albums are, not only musically but also lyrically: text fragments and themes float between them as if they were part of the same triple album. The other is that it gives an opportunity to study the process that so many musicians who have worked with him have mentioned: that songs can change radically from one session to the other or even between takes. The three versions of “Can’t Wait” are particularly revealing in this respect.
Posted in announcements, dylan, general on February 18th, 2009
I admit it: the chords part of dylanchords may be in a decent state (apart from the use of frames, which is sooo last century), but the articles are a mess. There’s the collected pdf volume, the selected links on the Self-ordained Professors page, the blog posts here, and the introductions to some of the albums.
I’ve now decided to do something about it. Here’s the state of affairs:
Things Twice — the book. This will always be the definitive version. If/when I do revisions to articles, this is where they are made. The layout is more pleasant than in any of the other formats. It’s a pdf file, currently c. 2 Mb.
Self-ordained …
Posted in general, mission on February 17th, 2009
I wish I could write as quickly as I think.
I wish I could think as quickly as you read.
I wish you would read as slowly as I write.
Posted in dylan on February 16th, 2009
Just to say: this is a tremendous piece of work!
And: I don’t mind Dylan leaving gems off the official albums, as long as he puts them out like this instead.
And: in a way, it’s even better like this. Hearing facets of the work of a creative mind over a limited period of time can be even more rewarding than a single shot (like an album) or a carreer-spanning tour de force (like the original Bootleg Series 1-3).
More on this later. Stay tuned.
Posted in Project identity, community, politics on February 12th, 2009
“While I was sitting there, drink in hand, separated from the plebs by a heavy curtain, and with servile maidens swirling around me at my slightest wink, every nerve in my body politic was screaming: ‘It wasn’t my fault! It’s a mistake! I’m not like this!’ But what could I do…?”
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