Author Archives: TonyAttwood

By Larry Fyffe This article continues from the previous piece A lot of the whiskey made by European settlers after the Revolution in America is made from corn as it’s a native plant; apple seeds (originally brought over from Europe) … Continue reading →

by Larry Fyffe Emanuel Swedenborg mixes together orthodox Christian dogma with various Gnostic mystical beliefs to come up with a new religion based on Jesus appearing as the physical correspondence of the far-away spiritual Godhead.  Gnostics focus on the continued … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood If you know “Let It Be Me” the chances are you will know it as an Everly Brothers hit and as a song Dylan recorded a couple of times.  Here’s the most famous version. And if you … Continue reading →

  by Jochen Markhorst The song has since long been forgotten and covered in dust, when the teenager Ketch Secor first hears “Rock Me Mama (Like A Wagon Wheel)” in the 90s, the half-mumbled, unfinished patch of a non-existent song … Continue reading →

By Aaron Galbraith with a footnote from Tony They eventually released the YouTube video for the Dylan/Savoretti track Touchy Situation,   Here are my take on the lyrics (with help from my wife on a few places i couldn’t work … Continue reading →

By Mike Johnson (kiwipoet) Bob Dylan’s harmonica playing is as distinctive and controversial as everything else he does, and has come in for more than its fair share of savaging. In my first post on the subject, I argued that, … Continue reading →

by Larry Fyffe Ben Carruthers And The Deep perform a jacked-up version of a John Lee Hooker traditional blues tune, but with the following fragmented lyrics: Jack O’ Diamonds On the move Jack O’Diamonds One-eyed knave On the move Hit … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood My absolute thanks to Aaron Galbraith for finding this track.   It is a leftover from The New Basement Tapes collection with lyrics by Dylan of course, and this time music by Elvis Costello. Elvis is believed to … Continue reading →

by Jochen Markhorst He is quite the dreamer, our minstrel. Browsing through the collected lyrics, dreams and dream descriptions appear to be among the constants in the catalogue. After sad, cheerful and dark dreams such as in “Bob Dylan’s Dream”, … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe The self-proclaimed ‘garbologist’ AJ Weberman’s “A Listener’s Guide To Bob Dylan’s Tempest” might be hailed as Juvenalian satire at its best except the  savage invective is so over the top that it makes Jonathan Swift look slow. … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Bill Monroe is not one of those names that crops up all the time in Dylan’s commentaries about Dylan himself and his musical influences, but the references are there, including a reference in a 1987 Rolling Stone … Continue reading →

by Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet) Nothing really matters much It’s doom alone that counts (Shelter from the Storm) It seems that there is a convenient Bob Dylan quote for just about every occasion. My poor partner has had to put up … Continue reading →

Nettie Moore (2006) by Jochen Markhorst In 1986, John Fogerty goes on tour again for the first time since Creedence Clearwater Revival, to promote his recently released solo album Eye Of The Zombie. He recruits the same musicians who assisted … Continue reading →

You may also enjoy Part one of this series. (Bob Dylan and Edward Taylor) and Bob Dylan And Edward Taylor: If There’s An Original Thought Out There, I Could Use One Right Now (Part II of the series) . ——– … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood According to an article in the New Yorker, Bob Dylan has described Roscoe Holcomb’s work as exhibiting “a certain untamed sense of control, which makes him one of the best.” I am not sure when Bob said, … Continue reading →

by Jochen Markhorst The successful comedy Bruce Almighty from 2003, with Jim Carrey in a starring role, will never get the status of a real classic. Director Tom Shadyak allows just a little too many corny jokes, banalities and sugary … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe  Note: Part one – Stuck inside Rome with the Jerusalem Blues Again Part I appears here. Notwithstanding AJ Weberman’s vicious attack on singer/songwriter Bob Dylan that depicts his turning away from protest music as the abandonment of … Continue reading →

, By Tony Attwood I guess all songs is folk songs. I never heard no horse sing ’em. ~Big Bill Broonzy For the first 11 years of my life I lived in London, and even though it was a multi-cultural … Continue reading →

  by Jochen Markhorst   It is a beautiful melancholic title, the title of Richard Fariña’s only novel: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me (1966). He did not make it up himself, but borrowed it from … Continue reading →

Bob Dylan And Edward Taylor: If There’s An Original Thought Out There, I Could Use One Right Now (Part II) by Larry Fyffe You may also enjoy Part one of this series. Missed by academic examiners of Bob Dylan song … Continue reading →