Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Tony Attwood Why does Bob have this thing against the space exploration programme?  Why does he believe that we are all doomed? While such a belief comes, I guess, out of both the Old and New Testament, when those … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Much has been made of the extract from what would be, in a full performance, a 7 minutes 30 seconds epic.  But there seems little certainty as to what was exactly going on here. Take for example … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Musically the fun in this song comes with the changing rhythms and line lengths, but for me that is really what it is – a bit of fun playing about with rhythms and line lengths.  The melody … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood Shot of Love has always seemed to me the album that opens the door to a return to secular compositions, after two very solidly Christian LPs.  But as I will try and show in this review, it is … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I have long known that for me, personally, there is something profoundly odd about the world-view of Clinton Heylin, but it was only when I started doing my background reading on Clean Cut Kid that I fully … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Dylan described this as “one of them Caribbean songs.  One year a bunch of songs just came to me hanging around down in the islands.”  He also said on another occasion in a comment to Leonard Cohen … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Under your spell, written for Knocked out Loaded, and indeed containing the phrase “Knocked out and loaded” is most certainly a very strange song and indeed is one which Dylan has never played in public. It was … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Updated 20 September 2017 with new link Towards the end of 1985 Dylan was doing a fair number of jam sessions with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, trying out different ideas and looking for what he could … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood The review of Never Be the Same Again in Heylin’s “Still on the Road” has gained a certain notoriety in one or two quarters (although I suspect 99.999% of fans just ignore Heylin and get on with … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Update: 23 August 2017.  The previously noted live version is no longer available so a new link has been added. Tony   This music is relaxed; it has nothing to prove. It is music of accumulated knowledge, … Continue reading →

This article has been updated with more information about the source of “Waiting to get beat” By Tony Attwood Somewhere in between writing one set of songs that went onto Empire Burlesque, such as Seeing the real you at last,  I’ll … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood As I have pointed out in other articles about this period in his writing history, Dylan had spent his time experimenting, before settling on a style and approach that would result in the songs that made up … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood When I first looked at the list of songs Dylan wrote in 1985 I was, I must admit, rather bemused. Maybe Someday (Knocked out loaded) Seeing the real you at last  (Empire Burlesque) I’ll remember you (Empire … Continue reading →

The music to Well, well, well was originally sketched and recorded by Bob Dylan in 1985 – which is why the song is listed in 1985 in the 1980s section of the Chronology.   But it wasn’t completed until 12 years … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “It’s like my whole life never happened.” By 1985 Dylan was really into a new world of writing, exploring types of music that were far, far away from the gospel / religious songs that had dominated his … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood If Property of Jesus represented in 1980 fair and square Bob Dylan’s view of “life, the universe and everything” to quote Douglas Adams, then “Trust Yourself” represents Dylan’s version of the same thing, five years on. Five years, and … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood It can be said that Bob Dylan spent 1984 trying to find his new muse experimenting all the way through the year up to Drifting too far from shore which, as I have said in the review of … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood The simple fact that “Are you ready?” opens with, and regularly repeats, the same three word question, over and over and over again, tells us most clearly that this is pure preaching in the gospel music style. … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Updated 29 Jan 2017 with a video added 20 Sep 2017 Three songs are nominated by various commentators as being Bob Dylan’s first masterpiece: Ballad for a Friend, Let me die in my footsteps, and Blowing in … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “What can I do for you?” is a Dylan song that to me always seems to me to derive from the parts of the Bible that emphasise obedience and subservience, on the subject of which Ephesians 6 … Continue reading →