Looking back on 2023, focusing on what a great year it was for Bob Dylan.
Another year gone by, and Bob Dylan is still out there, singing for us. About Bob Dylan in 2023. via
@johnnyborgan
Happy Birthday to one of the greatest album ever made, released this day in 1965. A remarkable explosion of poetry, music & vocal performances, Dylan once and for all expanding the scale of what rock could be.
Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan - Album
Saturday Morning Coming Down. Listening to the flawless «Original Master Recording» of my favorite album, «Blood On the Tracks», sounding fresh as the Morning Dew.
Nina Simone. I used to cross paths with her in New York City in the Village Gate nightclub….. She was an overwhelming artist, piano player and singer. Very strong woman, very outspoken. That she was recording my songs validated everything that I was about.
(Bob Dylan)
RIP Robbie, an important artist in so many ways. A great guitarist & a great Songwriter - a great team player in the Band & with Dylan at the right time.
Happy Birthday, Modern Times! In 2006 Dylan at 65 was the oldest person who had entered Billboard at
#1
. He also won a Grammy for best contemporary folk/Americana album.
Bob Dylan, Modern Times
Dylan on Nina Simone:
«She was an overwhelming artist, piano player and singer. Very strong woman, very outspoken and dynamite to see perform. That she was recording my songs validated everything that I was about. Nina was the kind of artist that I loved and admired.»
Blood on the Tracks was always my favorite Dylan album. More Blood, More Tracks only made it more so.
The Making of a Holy Grail – «More Blood, More Tracks – Bootleg Series, Volume 14» | Johnny B.
Happy Birthday to the fabulous Bob Dylan Album "Oh Mercy", released 34 years ago today, with its dark mystique & New Orleans vibes mixed with another new strong voice of Bob Dylan, beautifully produced by Daniel Lanois.
Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy (1989)
Happy Birthday to the classic Not Dark Yet, released first as a single this day in 1997. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.
Bob Dylan - Not Dark Yet
Do yourself a great service, listen to this beautiful concert, recorded this day in 1964. It has everything the young acoustic Dylan could offer - the deep poetry and the light humour, the performing artist flowering.
Bob Dylan Live, Halloween, 1964
Happy Birthday, Shot of Love - in my opinion a highly underrated album, released this day 42 years ago. Just the classic Every Grain of Sand will make it live forever, the inclusion of Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar perfect.
Bob Dylan - Shot Of Love
That’s the best kind of musical experience – pure blind mysticism. I don’t know how that worked, but it worked. (Benmont Tench)
Inside The Making Of Bob Dylan’s Rough And Rowdy Ways: “It was pure blind mysticism.” | Articles | Mojo
LEONARD COHEN: "Bob Dylan is a figure that arises every three or four hundred years who represents & embodies all the finest aspirations of the human heart. He is unparalleled in the world of music & will remain a torch for all singers & all hearts for many generations to come."
The greatest singer/songwriter singing one of his greatest songs in one of his greatest performances.
He knew his song well before he started singin'.
He did tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it.
Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
When I’m asked about my favorites of Bootleg Series, Tell Tale Signs is always one of them, from the criteria of both quality & revealing lots of new treasures. Released this day in 2008. Dive!
Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Deluxe Edition)
It is now 28 years ago since Bob Dylan's beautiful performance for Frank Sinatra at his 80th Birthday. In my opinion this is one of Dylan's finest TV appearances.
"Restless Farewell," Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra's 80th Birthday), Nov 19, 1995
Dylan greeted Joe Strummer’s wife tonight: We love Joe Strummer!
Jimmy Page thought it was ‘a wonderful evening’. So did I.
Bob Dylan at London Palladium!
Happy Birthday to "Time Ouf of Mind", released this day in 1997. I'll never forget the feeling of diving into a new Dylan universe, mysterious and dark. A milestone among many, still the start of a new and flowering part of Dylan's work. Masterpiece!
If there ever was a classic live album, this is it. Widely bootlegged show from May ‘66 in Manchester (!), wrongly named, the «Judas» shout, historic thirty years before it was released, this day 25 years ago today.
Bob Dylan Live «Royal Albert Hall»
Happy Birthday to Bob Dylan’s great live punky, take-no-prisoners, everything-except-compromise album «Hard Rain» - the other side of Rolling Thunder - released this day in 1976, recorded in May. Fasten your seatbelts & listen.
Bob Dylan - Hard Rain
When Bob Dylan, this day in 1985, released the box set "Biograph", it was groundbreaking in more than one way - it showed us what a box set could be. The great booklet, outtakes, alternates, live tracks & hand-picked earlier released songs. Fabulous!
I’m always overwhelmed when I listen to this song. It takes me back to the first time I heard it when I was only sixteen. Like a time machine. It was released as a single this day in 1978.
Bob Dylan - Changing of the Guards (Official Audio)
"It’s the kind of vocal high-wire act that few would ever attempt, and at this late date, 60 years into his career, it’s astonishing to hear Dylan sing with such battered finesse. His voice remains a truly unique instrument in popular music."
Bob Dylan
Well my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast
I'm drownin' in the poison, got no future, got no past
But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free
I've got nothin' but affection for all those who've sailed with me
Stella Blue
When all the cards are down
There's nothing left to see
There's just the pavement left
And broken dreams
In the end there's still that song
Comes crying like the wind
Down every lonely street
That's ever been
Bob Dylan, Barcelona 2023
Bob Dylan played this one in Milan tonight.
"I've never been much at making believe
Don't have any tricks hidden up my sleeve
If life is a comedy, where's all the laughter?
'Cause here on the stage, I'm a bad actor"
Merle Haggard, Bad Actor
Bob Dylan made this tribute to George Harrison this day in 2002, Nov 13th, with what might be my all time favorite Beatles song. A very heartfelt performance.
"Something" for Harrison - 4K upgrade: Bob plays a tribute to his old friend
My last show this time. The 9th. I think the best of the lot. Bob maybe thought the same. He came back in twice, just to greet us - and to let us thank him. Such a night!
While I loved At Budokan from the start, I through the years came to learn that this year was so much more. Nashville became a favorite.
Bob Dylan-Changing Of The Guards- Upgrade-Nashville 1978
I started out on burgundy
But soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they’d stand behind me
When the game got rough
But the joke was on me
There was nobody even there to call my bluff
Bob Dylan - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Official Video)
«Bob Dylan is the greatest singer of our times. No one is better. … More than his ability with words, and more than his insight, his voice is God’s greatest gift to him.»
(From Jann Wenner’s review of Slow Train Coming)
“People can keep trying to turn music into a science, but in science, one and one will always be two. Music, like all art, tells us time and again that one plus one, in the best circumstances, equals three.” (Bob Dylan)
Happy Birthday. Another Self Portrait, 10 Years today. An important revisit to a phase that bewildered many, but still had many beautiful moments, even more on this one. And Isle of Wight!!
Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10)
Today I feel lucky to be one of them who actually love At Budokan. First time ever I heard a Dylan live recording, and it was like a revelation to hear old songs in new clothes. I still think this is my favorite rendition of this song.
Bob Dylan played this one last night!! Wow!!
But I'm (82) years old and I ain't got no place to go
When it's over
So I hide my age and make the stage and
Try to kick the footlights out again
Merle Haggard - Footlights
Desire released 46 Years ago. I’ll never forget the first time I listened to this one. It was like Heaven opened and I was captured.
Bob Dylan - Romance in Durango
Many artists got their lives changed by Bob Dylan, but few in a more direct way than Scarlet. To see her in all her glory last night I’ll never forget, adding gypsy soul & humble virtuosity to the show.
Not Dark Yet - Scarlet Rivera, Oslo, 2023
What? The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration was released 30 - thirty!! - years ago today. How did that happen? Time is a jetplane, it moves too fast…
Bob Dylan - Girl from the North Country (Live at Madison Square Garden, New York)
I'm the oldest son of a crazy man
I'm in a cowboy band
Got a pile of sins to pay for and I ain't got time to hide
I'd walk through a blazing fire, baby, if I knew you was on the other side
“He was my shining star and guiding light back when I was only a little boy. His was the original spirit that moved me to do everything I would do.”
(Bob Dylan about Little Richard)
58 years ago today, Bob Dylan made what might be a small step for himself, a giant step for Music history, introducing his electric guitar & band on Newport Folk Festival.
Extending the lines, connecting the polka dots.
Bob Dylan - Maggie's Farm (1965) -
My review of Bob Dylan's new album, Shadow Kingdom, released 2nd of June 2023. The Concert Film of the same name will be possible to download and stream from 6th of June 2023.
"What You See Is Not What You Get." via
@johnnyborgan
«I'm the oldest son of a crazy man
I'm in a cowboy band
Got a pile of sins to pay for and I ain't got time to hide
I'd walk through a blazing fire, baby, if I knew you was on the other side»
(Bob Dylan)
This is one of Bob Dylan’s greatest televised performances. The song, the Singer, the vocal, the band and the orchestra, the stage & The Great Eastern Temple. Magic!
…I’ll know my song well before I start singin’…
BOB DYLAN Nara Japan May 22, 1994
Just the way he sings these lines: Suddenly I turned around and she was standin' there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns
Such a night! Larry Campbell - What an artist, guitarist & Singer. I’m overwhelmed, also over Teresa Williams’ voice. A match made in Heaven. Encores with Scarlett Rivera & Jim Lauderdale. Wow! Cheers from star-strucked me.