Category Archives: Uncategorized

    By Tony Attwood For many admirers of his work, Bob Dylan ended the 1980s on a high with a series of compositions written in 1989 and which continue to resonate deeply.   Songs such as Disease of Conceit … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I am always worried when I write a review which is based around the meaning of words and phrases, simply because a word or phrase that I, as a person born and brought up in England, understand … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood At Verona in 1984 Bob was working on three new songs during the rehearsals and sound checks, undoubtedly trying to find his way into a new arena for his muse. The whole journey of composition through that … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood There is a narrative that runs along the lines that Bob Dylan doesn’t like to speak about his work or explore the meaning of his songs.  I don’t think that is true.   Bob has given a … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Links to examples changed, April 2017 Almost Done is one of the most tantalising of Dylan half-written songs, first because it has two titles (one of which seems irrelevant) and second because the normally 1000 per cent … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood If you have been reading any of the other reviews of the 1984 songs of Dylan you will know that I am presenting them as part of an attempt by Dylan to find himself a new muse, … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood One of the many, many enjoyable things I find in writing this blog is the places the research takes me, finding links and information I never knew before, while reminding me of pieces of music I once … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I’ve commented in the review of Drifting too far from shore that in 1984 Bob Dylan was by his own admission struggling for inspiration, and so was turning to lines from films and song titles already used by others … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood That Bob Dylan was struggling artistically in the mid-1980s is not a matter of much dispute, although there are some who consider Knocked Out Loaded to be a seriously misunderstood album. In one sense I am in … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Solid Rock is a song that hardly needs an explaining – but nevertheless Bob has explained it at some length (see the links below).  Which always strikes me as interesting.  If not downright odd. What I mean … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood On 13 October 2016 it was announced that Bob Dylan had won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. Sara Danils, permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, … Continue reading →

Article revised 3 June 2020. By Tony Attwood At the start of 1984 Dylan had already written much of Empire Burlesque, but was clearly (as this song shows) trying to find other avenues for his work. The highly varied Man … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood According to Heylin, this is one of the songs on Volume 3 of the Wilbury’s two albums, that Dylan had very little to do with, despite the claim that he makes that the rest of the gang … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “Born in Time” was written in 1989 and released in September 1990 on Under the Red Sky, but as Heylin points out at great length, and ultimately in mind-blowingly numbing detail, there are at least six recorded … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I don’t really have a definition for “lesser known songs” but I guess I start with songs that are not on any of the mainstream albums. In putting together my little list I have restricted myself to … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood One of the great things about Dylan the songwriter is his ability to take a subject and explore it from all sorts of directions.  I guess the most obvious early example of this is that he took … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Putting Pressing On as the opening of side two of Saved shows how important the song was for Dylan at the time, but on the 1979/80 tour it lasted only seven months and 65 plays and then … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood In 1975 Dylan wrote Romance in Durango, a truly remarkable song, and in my opinion the highpoint of his work with Jacques Levy.  It was one of a series of innovative songs relating fictional events in exotic locations – … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood The collaboration with Gerry Goffin in 1995 which resulted in two songs (at least one of which uses a track recorded in 1985 – see below), is, to my mind incredibly important in tracking the history of … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood This is the song that Dylan really liked and held on to from the Christian period – not a song about what happens to those of us who have not converted after the Second Coming, but a … Continue reading →