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- It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry12: You don’t whistle in church
- Bob Dylan – Complete Concert – The Beacon Theatre NYC, 21 November 2o21
- If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music 8: from Denise to Mama
- It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry part 11: “Dylan opted for the slower version”
- Bob Dylan: The Concert Series No 15. Largo, Maryland; 15 January 1974
- If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music 7: Bending the form to its very limits
- It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry part 10: No one had any idea what to do
- Bob Dylan: The Concert Series. 15 January 1980, Seattle
- If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music: Chimes of Freedom and Tambourine Man
- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – A History in Performance, Part 2: 1975. The vagabond who’s rapping at your door
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- A classification of Dylan’s songs
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- “I don’t know what it means, either. But it sounds good.”
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Recent articles
- It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry12: You don’t whistle in church
- Bob Dylan – Complete Concert – The Beacon Theatre NYC, 21 November 2o21
- If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music 8: from Denise to Mama
- It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry part 11: “Dylan opted for the slower version”
- Bob Dylan: The Concert Series No 15. Largo, Maryland; 15 January 1974
- If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music 7: Bending the form to its very limits
- It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry part 10: No one had any idea what to do
- Bob Dylan: The Concert Series. 15 January 1980, Seattle
- If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music: Chimes of Freedom and Tambourine Man
Category Archives: Essential Bob Dylan
Just like a woman. The meaning of the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan’s song
By Tony Attwood Three new videos added July 2018. From as early as 1963 Dylan was highly engaged in writing “lost love” songs with an extra edge. “Lost Love” was defined by the English academic Professor Keith Swanwick of London … Continue reading
Posted in Essential Bob Dylan, Uncategorized
15 Comments
Lay Lady Lay: Three Bob Dylan transformations of his song & a look at the meanings.
By Tony Attwood In returning to this song I didn’t really feel I wanted to change any of the original commentary, but I did want to add a couple of live recordings as they show the power of Dylan’s reinvention. … Continue reading
Bob Dylan’s Maggie’s Farm. 3 very different versions; but why play it so often?
By Tony Attwood (revised March 2013 and again June 2018) Between 1965 and 2009 Bob Dylan performed Maggie’s Farm 1051 times on stage – often as an opening song; an interesting outcome for a song that was a last minute … Continue reading
Subterranean Homesick Blues: the meaning of the music and the lyrics
By Tony Attwood Revised 13 October 2017 This was Dylan’s first successful attempt to integrate the emotions of the Beat Generation which he had understood from Alan Ginsberg and others combining the thoughts of the moment with three minutes of … Continue reading
Love minus Zero / No Limit. Bob Dylan takes a Zen approach to the perfect relationship
By Tony Attwood This review revised May 2017 The second of the two love songs from the first side of “Bringing it all back home” is infinitely more complex than “She Belongs To Me”. While musically it seems to be … Continue reading
Bob Dylan’s “Dignity”. A work of genius, or neat but unfinished idea?
By Tony Attwood And what are we to make of Dignity? Raved over by many Dylan fans, it didn’t turn up on the mainstream albums, but appeared on the Essential album, and twice on the 2008 outtakes album. https://youtu.be/2Dlh-X1fpoQ The … Continue reading
Posted in Essential Bob Dylan
6 Comments
Changing of the Guards: The meanings behind Bob Dylan’s song
By Tony Attwood The original review was written in 2008, and then updated in 2013. Coming back to it in 2018, I found myself very unhappy with what I had written, and thus decided to start again. Changing of the … Continue reading
Posted in Essential Bob Dylan, Street Legal, The Songs
52 Comments
Things have changed: the meanings behind Bob Dylan’s song
By Tony Attwood Dylan’s commentary on being dislocated from the world, while being within it – here but not here – spreads across a multiplicity of his songs. It wasn’t there at the start – Times they are a-changing dripped … Continue reading
Posted in Essential Bob Dylan, The Songs
20 Comments
Blind Willie McTell: the meaning behind Bob Dylan’s song
Blind Willie McTell This review updated 8 October 2016 including the addition of the link to the Dylan recording of the electric version of this song – see the end of the review, and some further thoughts on the lack … Continue reading
Not Dark Yet: Bob Dylan as 20th century Keats, and the memories that still linger
by Tony Attwood. Revised April 2018, with links to recordings by Dylan and other artists. “I try to live within that line between despondency and hope.” Bob Dylan 1997. Not Dark Yet is one of the triumphs of … Continue reading
Posted in Essential Bob Dylan, The Songs, Time out of mind
21 Comments
All along the watch tower: Bob Dylan’s eternal masterpiece.
By Tony Attwood According to some the imagery in this song comes from the 21st chapter of the prophet Isaiah when a watchman on the watchtower sees two riders approaching. Here is the text in the King James Version. 6 For … Continue reading
Posted in Essential Bob Dylan, The Songs
15 Comments
Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” – from “Go way from my window” to “Yeah yeah yeah”
By Tony Attwood This review revised on 10 February 2018 Listening again (in 2018) the Dylan performing It Ain’t Me Babe in 1965 I’m struck by how clear and powerful the performance, and how carefully thought through are the variations … Continue reading
Posted in Another Side, Essential Bob Dylan, The Songs
4 Comments
Positively 4th Street: the meaning and the music with an interesting variant
Updated September 2020 with studio outtake By Tony Attwood. This review revised September 2014 and April 2018 with two videos added. Two lines of music – just eight bars long – repeated over and over and over. And yet it is … Continue reading
Posted in Essential Bob Dylan, The Songs
15 Comments