Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Tony Attwood This article continues on from my previous reviews of the Wilburys first album, and wraps up the reviews of that first LP.  There is an index to all the relevant reviews from the album at the end … Continue reading →

Billy, Mistress Mary, And The Queen Of Hues: The Mystery Of W.H., Solved! By Larry Fyffe Critics wonder, “Who the heck is William Holme?”: “Scarlet Town in the month of May Sweet William Holme on his death bed lay Mistress … Continue reading →

Updated 6 October 2017 By Tony Attwood Tweeter and the Monkey Man comes from the Travelling Wilbury’s first album, and even if the song wasn’t officially published by Dylan’s Special Rider Music and even if he didn’t so obviously sing … Continue reading →

Blake, Keats, And Spots Of Ink: Spinning Reels Of Rhyme By LarryFyffe An analysis of Bob Dylan’s writing style that is available here, and positively nowhere else. When Bob Dylan pays tribute to a poem or a song by mentioning … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood You could create a whole treatise on the magical lines of Bob Dylan’s songwriting just by working through Street Legal.  In fact you could do just from “Where are you tonight?”  And then, if you had a … Continue reading →

Macavity Was There: The Untold Dylan Tapes By Larry Fyffe The source of Bob Dylan’s “l’m Not There” lyrics is revealed! That would be the taped “confession” of the mysterious street-wise, jive-talking cat burglar known as Macavity, as made by … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood This website is dedicated (as I am sure you know unless you just stumbled onto this page by chance) to the musical compositions of Bob Dylan.  Which, when it comes to the Wilburys, gives me a problem … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood These short articles which aim to summarise what Dylan was up to in terms of songwriting have a particular problem in that sometimes in terms of new compositions Bob did very little indeed.  1976 is a year … Continue reading →

TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Bob Dylan Fighting In The Captain’s Tower TS Eliot’s Wasteland turns Joseph Conrad on his head. While the novelist peers into the “Heart Of Darkness”, the poet finds himself even unable to peer into the … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood The key debating point about Bob Dylan and his compositions in 1975 relates to the issue of where and when Jacques Levy entered the scene.   We know he worked on Isis and apparently he worked on Money Blues as well, … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood Does mucking around in a studio generate good music?  Well sometimes it does.   And as George Harrsison is reported as saying, “If you know Bob and his songs, he’s such a joker really.”    So maybe taking … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe Dr Freud: Bob, go lie over there on the couch…..that is, unless you think you are a puppy….ha, ha, ha. And tell me all about your dreams. (Dylan doesn’t laugh, and lies down on the couch) Bob … Continue reading →

The Ghosts Of Electricity Howl In The Bones Of Her Face: Bob Dylan And Symbolism By LarryFyffe Bob Dylan mentions a number of relatively recent writers in his song lyrics who are classified under the broad heading of Symbolist poets; … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood As an atheist I make pronouncements on religious matters with enormous caution, normally just complaining that I live in one of only three countries where the religious authorities sit in Parliament and affect the laws of my … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe “Seen the arrow on the door post Saying ‘This land is condemned All the way from New Orleans to Jerusalem’” (Dylan: Blind William McTell) A Biblical Romantic vision by Bob Dylan  – a corrupted society, a New … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I have written several times about Bob Dylan looking around trying to find the next thing to explore.  He has been through so many forms – indeed he had invented quite a few of them himself – … Continue reading →

By Larry Fyffe Bob Dylan references the Romantic poets, especially those outstanding in their field; like them, he depicts women as being closer to Mother Nature than the male since the female body synchronizes with the cycles of the moon. … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood For me this is one of the few songs for which the definitive recording does not come from Bob himself.   If you know this song, you’ll know that I am referring to the Susan Tedeschi version. … Continue reading →

by Larry Fyffe Clowns get away with criticizing the harmful  effects of accepted social norms by using exaggerated humour, i.e., Charlie Chaplin’s movie, ‘Modern Times.’ Bob Dylan is more serious in his condemnation of ‘society’s pliars’, but likewise offers little … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Everyone knows about the motorcycle crash year, and I think that somehow a lot of people still think that at that point Dylan retreated and stopped writing songs.  This wasn’t the case.  Whatever the truth about the … Continue reading →