Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Larry Fyffe Bob Dylan often uses Biblical stories as a template for his own narrative songs, with women characters patterned after the three Mary’s of the New Testament: “Hot chillie peppers in the blistering sun Dust on my face … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood It is said that the second Wilbury’s volume was originally mostly a Bob Dylan creation and that after he had slipped away for his touring duties those left in charge of the editing set about removing quite … Continue reading →

. The Line Forms From the  Right: Bobby’s Back In Town By Larry Fyffe A number of Bob Dylan’s story-telling  songs are wonderful reworkings of the Kurt Weill  and Bertolt Brecht’s  1928 burlesque musical, with its sexual puns abounding, called … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood Dylan had spent the whole of 1979 writing primarily Christian songs and continued this theme into 1980.   All of the early songs of the year were clearly Christian in message and Property of Jesus was perhaps the most … Continue reading →

Bob Dylan And Walt Whitman: Writing In The Captain’s Tower By Larry Fyffe Bob Dylan draws water from the poetic well of the American Romantic writer Walt Whitman, a transcendentalist inspired by the regenerative powers of Nature. “With music strong … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood This is one of the Wilbury Volume 3 songs that is very obviously a Dylan piece from beginning to end, a sort of reversal of “She to Belongs to Me.”   But I must admit that both … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe A reason for Bob Dylan’s winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, not recognized by most ‘pure poets’, is his masterful transforming of the literary technique, known as the ‘dramatic monologue’, popularized by the Victorian poet Robert Browning, … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Ever since I first heard this song I have had this strange image of Bob coming into the recording studio and talking to the band. “I’ve got a new song,” he says. “OK,” say the guys, “have … Continue reading →

Dylan On Dylan: The Songs Of Bob Dylan And The Poems Of Dylan Thomas By Larry Fyffe Bob Dylan works Christian teachings into his artistic endeavours as does William Blake: that is, its teachings before they are corrupted by social … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood As we have seen Bob Dylan had one of his occasional pauses in 1976 (his first since the prolonged drought of 1971/2) but in 1977 and 1978 he had returned with a new vigour and vitality.  Then … Continue reading →

The Bobby Horror Picture Show By Larry Fyffe Though sometimes romantic, changing times can be scary. Dylan reproduces the latter feeling through pictures Gothic, word-movies of gloom and doom where lightning flash highlights crooked trees, delapidated buildings, rusty gates, decaying … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood This is one of the songs on volume 3 (which is to say the second album) by the Travelling Wilbury’s (as far as I can work out, probably the first to be recorded) that clearly has a fair … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe Throughout the poetry of William Blake, good and bad spirits flitter; the pre-Romantic poet envisions that, in the past, there was a time when the material human body was not out of balance; not overly-governed by Reason to … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Doing some basic research in preparation to write this review, I stumbled on a Wikipedia link which says, “There is consensus that the majority of songs do not meet Wikipedia’s notability guidelines. Songs should only have an … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe Ain’t it just like the knight to play tricks on you when you’re trying to be so quiet. In some of his song lyrics, Bob Dylan is none other than the reincarnation of Don Quixote riding atop … Continue reading →

Bob Dylan Has His Blake, And Keats It Too By Larry Fyffe At a bar, Bob Dylan is sitting with Greg Lake (laughin’): “Let’s do a song together.” Lake: “I’ll do it, if the Guinness is free. “No, not a … Continue reading →

The Tale Of The Wicked Messenger And The Faithful Servant By Larry Fyffe The Nobel Prize in Literature’s not handed over to Bob Dyan because he gives unequivocal answers. In the song ‘John Wesley Harding’, Dylan disguises himself as a Methodist … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Bob co-wrote “Heartland” starting with the melody and maybe the first line (see below) in 1990, and recorded it with Willie Nelson in 1993, but didn’t use it in concerts until 2004 when it played it seven … Continue reading →

Owed To Bobby Allen: A Joan Baez Revelation By Larry Fyffe Yet another well-kept secret about Dylan uncovered! “Now you’re telling me You’re not nostalgic Then give me another word for it You who are so good with words And … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood After the extraordinary outpouring of compositions by Dylan in 1977 in terms of the Street Legal songs, Dylan went in a different direction.  The songs that he added in 1978 to the Street Legal collection (New Pony and Baby … Continue reading →