Author Archives: TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood Let me confess, with this article I am really stepping out into a strange world – or perhaps better said I am offering up access to the strange world that I sometimes inhabit.  A world of lines … Continue reading →

  By Tony Attwood Updated to clarify the issue of the two versions of Santa Fe on the bootleg series. The first time we knew that there was more to Santa Fe than the version that appeared on the very … Continue reading →

  by Larry Fyffe Bob Dylan likes to mix up the medicine, to really, really mix up the music medicine. There’s the Symbolist poem: In short, is a Flower, Rosemary Or Lily, dead or alive, worth The excrement of one … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood 1971 was a very curious year for Bob Dylan in that it contained, as far as I can make out, just four newly written pieces.  Two were absolute masterpieces in my view, but the others… Vomit Express (post … Continue reading →

  by Larry Fyffe Likely unknown to many of our readers, a number of songs written by Bob Dylan have a connection to Canadian geography and history. Here’s a spiritual that goes back to the time of the formal ending … Continue reading →

F. Scott Fitzgerald And Bob Dylan, The Great Gatsby by Larry Fyffe Often thought by music critics to be the disconnected ramblings of a Post Modern madman, Dylan’s song lyrics, as in those presented below, take listeners on a magical … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood In my experience a lot of people who earn their living out of words have the ability to create streams of narrative at the drop of a hat.  Many actors can improvise dialogue that their character might … Continue reading →

by Larry Fyffe In his song lyrics and music, Bob Dylan grapples with the big philosophical question: what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’, – on the more personal level, what is the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ thing to do in any … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood A year or so ago I wrote a little article about Dylan’s forgotten masterpieces that have been reviewed here.  This morning, I thought I’d do another list without looking up the old list, just to see if … Continue reading →

Bob Dylan And Lucien Ducasse: The Maldoror by Larry Fyffe The writings of Lucien Ducasse have a strong influence on the Romantic- Symbolist poets, and on the less Romantic-inclined poets of Surrealism. Ducasse borrows from the gloomy images of the … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood For me, “Walls of Red Wing” is a plodding protest song about the fact that whether you end up rich and famous or locked up in a prison, or indeed a reform centre for naughty school boys, … Continue reading →

Bob Dylan And The Heart Of Darkness by Larry Fyffe The French Symbolists poets are the offspring of earlier Romantic poets who envision the material world as a manifestation of a mysterious vilalistic force that drives the Universe. As inhabitants … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood Please Mrs Henry was recorded (and thus probably written) within this sequence of songs Please Mrs Henry Lo and behold Crash on the Levee Dress it up, better have it all I’m not there You ain’t going nowhere … Continue reading →

  by Larry Fyffe Bob Dylan mixes medicine in a Romantic cauldron that brings on dreams of the past, and of the future. He mixes in a dose of Post-Modernist cyanide-cynicism to produce dark visions of chaos and confusion. The … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Was this really the final set of new compositions from Bob Dylan the songwriter?   If so, after such a lifetime’s outpouring of work, it seems an awesome thought. But at the time of writing this little … Continue reading →

  by Larry Fyffe In Greek mythology, the Sun-God, who is the son of Zeus, the God of Thunder, is Paean (Apollo), known for his music. The following free verse of Gregory Corso’s poetry pitches black-humour. It’s an assonantal and … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Tempest is the final song written by Bob Dylan and recorded in a mainstream album, to be reviewed on this site.  I didn’t deliberately leave it until last, but it seems a fitting place to finish – … Continue reading →

  by Larry Fyffe Dogmatic true believers notwithstanding, Bob Dyan keeps to his individualistic visions of the trials and tribulations of human existence in a very mysterious Universe. He finds the inspiration to try to be good in the teachings … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood The world can look ok, because we see it like this every day, but peel back the curtains and you find something completely different.  Something awful lurks outside, but we see it every day and so pretend … Continue reading →

  By Larry Fyffe The ancient Greeks for one consider the physical world of nature to be composed of four basic elements: earth, air, water, and fire. From this primitive ‘science’ develops the Elizabethan ‘psychology’ of the four ‘humours’. In … Continue reading →