Category Archives: Uncategorized

Steel and Feathers. Dylan composition number 595.

By Tony Attwood A central part of this blog has been the notion of creating a place where every single Bob Dylan composition or co-composition is listed and reviewed.   When we started the project, those of us involved at the … Continue reading →

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Desolation Row (part one): The origins of the title

by Jochen Markhorst Justification Last December I finally found the courage to sit down and write an article on “Desolation Row”. Against my better judgment – I do know that you can’t do justice to such a monument in the … Continue reading →

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Bob Dylan And The Symbol Of The Flower (Part 1)

By Larry Fyffe Too happy in her unhappiness is the singer of the lyrics below: There is nothing that a flower can say That your lips can prove with a kiss Send me no flowers today Got a lot of … Continue reading →

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10 songs that Dylan let others finish and the number of Dylan compositions jumps to 595*!

By Aaron Galbraith *I have been so used to writing 594 Dylan songs that I put that in the title of this piece originally.  The point is with the extra song found for this article we are now at 595 … Continue reading →

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I Am A Lonesome Hobo. Dylan leaves the tap running.

by Jochen Markhorst “Many complain that the words of the wise are always merely parables and of no use in daily life, which is the only life we have.” Thus Kafka’s short, parable-like story Von den Gleichnissen (“On Parables”, 1922) … Continue reading →

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The meanings behind Bob Dylan’s 15 compositions of 1970

By Tony Attwood Although “New Morning” is seen as being, in terms of Bob Dylan, the work that started the new decade, there was, in fact, quite an overlap in terms of time between the writing/recording of some of the … Continue reading →

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Bob Dylan Puts On Saturn’s Rings

  by Larry Fyffe Early in his career, the singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan visits Greece where he converts to Paganism. Not wanting any of his fans shouting out and accusing him of cutting off Saturn’s balls, he keeps it a secret. … Continue reading →

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Never Say Goodbye: cliché or genius? The battle of the critics

By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader of Untold Dylan, you will probably have realised that we have two regular reviewers working on the site: Jochen Markhorst and myself.   We don’t compare notes, we’ve never met (what with … Continue reading →

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Never Say Goodbye; never go back

by Jochen Markhorst Sometime between 1733 and 1746 Bach writes his Piano concerto No. 5 in F minor (BWV 1056). Not for the piano, which has only recently been invented, but for harpsichord. However, the piece is usually – fortunately … Continue reading →

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The Never Ending Tour: 1987 – Farewell to all that

By Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet) ‘And I try to harmonize with song the lonesome sparrow sings’ (Gates of Eden) ‘I change during the course of a day. I wake and I’m one person, and when I go to sleep I know … Continue reading →

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The Titanic-Olympic War

  By Larry Fyffe By now it should be obvious to the readers of ‘Untold Dylan’ that our intrepid researchers have uncovered evidence that reveals the singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan is a Gnostic shape-shifting time-traveller; indeed, it is he who actually … Continue reading →

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Was Dylan ever really a protest singer – even in the 1960s?

by Tony Attwood Of late I have been working my way through the songs Dylan wrote in the 1950s and 1960s.  (There’s an index to the articles at the end of this piece). I make it 262 songs written and … Continue reading →

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Bourbon Street and the problem with cultural references

by Jochen Markhorst Louis Jordan (1908-1975) is, of course, the Grandmaster of Novelty Songs, the songs relying on a comic effect.  Their hit potential is indestructible and of all times. Songs like “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” (Jerry … Continue reading →

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Bob Dylan And The New Historicism

by Larry Fyffe In ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’, Thomas Hardy, with black humour abounding, romanticizes the values of Victorian country life by referencing the ancient mythology of the aristocratic Trojan War.  The heroine of Hardy’s story is sexually attracted … Continue reading →

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Dylan’s (possible) new album, “Days Of Yore” and the 2020 Summer European Tour?

by mr tambourine I have recently written a couple of articles (Bob Dylan: Potential 2020 Setlists. Part 1, the Japan Tour and Bob’s Japanese tour: Potential set lists part 2) about Bob’s potential setlists for the Japanese Tour from April 1 … Continue reading →

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Lay lady lay to Nashville Skyline The meanings of Dylan’s songs in 1968/9

by Tony Attwood This article is part of a series that attempts to describe the subject matter of each Dylan song in a few words, in order to trace how his songwriting evolved over time, looking both at his interests … Continue reading →

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Is Your Love In Vain? Is this the most beautiful Dylan cover ever?

by Jochen Markhorst “Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she’ll give … Continue reading →

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Bob Dylan And Cupid (Part III)

You might also enjoy… Bob Dylan And Cupid Part 1 Bob Dylan And Cupid (Part II) By Larry Fyffe From a Jungian point of view, the narrative song ‘Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts’ spins with ‘archetypes’ that pre-exist … Continue reading →

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The subject matter of the John Wesley Harding songs

  by Tony Attwood This article continues the series in which a very simple and short meaning is assigned to each Dylan song.  It is not suggested that this action of giving the briefest of descriptions to each song can … Continue reading →

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I And I (1983). I Am That I Am.

by Jochen Markhorst Anguilla is a small Caribbean island (about the size of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, about two thirds of Staten Island), separated from St. Maarten by a strait with the misleading name Anguilla Channel. In the summer of … Continue reading →

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