Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 →

My sincere apologies for the long delay since the last post. I am currently in Australia and had arranged to be able to post occasionally from here, as indeed I have done in each of the previous years when visiting … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “Mystery Train” was written by Junior Parker in 1953 as a Memphis blues, and it is this version that Bob Dylan has clearly been listening to whhe he recorded his own version with a view to having … Continue reading →

by Larry Fyffe Like many other writers, including the French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, Bob Dylan looks back to the works of previous artists for creative inspiration –  such as old folk songs and nursery rhymes… “Oranges and lemons” Say … Continue reading →

  by Jochen Markhorst Brian Wilson is traumatized and mentally unstable, plagued by fairly serious psychological disorders, is deaf to an ear and one of the greatest pop composers of the twentieth century. I Am Brian Wilson (2016), the autobiography, … Continue reading →

By Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet) Like everything he does, Dylan’s harmonica playing has been controversial, but not a lot of serious comment has been devoted to it. Plenty of put-downs. The first item to come up on a google search is … Continue reading →

  By Larry Fyffe Persian poet Omar Khayyam, with his “jug of wine and thou”, holds on to the physical side of the human animal while the Zarathustra-influenced Mawlana Rumi seeks to ignite the divine spark within the individual: When … Continue reading →

by Larry Fyffe At an early age Bob Dylan hears the voice of the God of Thunder commanding him to: Write the things which thou hast seen And the things which are And the things which shall be hereafter (Revelation … Continue reading →

This article is part of the Why does Dylan like… series. The other articles in the series can be found via the link. By Tony Attwood When introducting this song on one of his “Theme Time” programmes Bob called this “One … Continue reading →

by Jochen Markhorst On Monday, February 11, 1963, The Beatles record all the songs (plus another, “Hold Me Tight”) for their debut album Please Please Me in 585 minutes. Straightforward, as a live performance, as they also play the songs … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood This article is from the series “Why does Bob Dylan like?” – there is an index to all the songs in this series  “Lucille” was record by Little Richard in late 1956 or early 1957 and became … Continue reading →

Bob Dylan: Lady Lou, Jim McGroo, And The Ace Of Spades By Larry Fyffe Besides  the movie ‘Rose Marie’, another Canadian-situated source of Bob Dylan’s “Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts” is the narrative poem “The Shooting Of Dan … Continue reading →

  by Jochen Markhorst In March 2015, Dylan’s publisher Simon & Schuster publishes Shane Dawson’s I Hate Myselfie, a memoir in which the popular YouTube vlogger dwells on eighteen of his most embarrassing events. It is a bit of a … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe To assert that singer/song writer Bob Dylan is influenced by traditional lyrics or by the written works of other artists does not mean that he necessarily immerses himself in reading or listening to the lyrics of the … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood This article is part of the Influences on Bob Dylan series or articles. Train of Love is a classic lost love song that Bob Dylan performed as a tribute to Johnny Cash in 1999, and both from … Continue reading →