Category Archives: Uncategorized

In this review of Dylan’s music, song by song, I am finally going to tackle Dylan’s comments about the “mathematical thing”. Dylan has mentioned the mathematics of music as something he learned from Lonnie Johnson in 1965.  I may have … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood One of the problems with Marching to the City is that it is a song that was obviously discarded from the album it was considered for, and instead elements from the song were picked up and used … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “Million Dollar Bash” was recorded in 1967 as part of the Basement Tapes.  One could say it is the song of the biggest party in the world with a coming together of all the strange people that … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood This song, which pairs with Watching the River Flow, in terms of its consideration of artistic process, comes from 1971, and gives us a problem, in that it has changed quite a few times.  Rather like the … Continue reading →

“Watching the River Flow” is a classic rhythm and blues song from 1971.  A song of beautiful simplicity for which the lyrics work perfectly.  And yet it is a song that critics and analysts have laboured over, instead of taking … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood It is a strange connundrum: Dylan puts at least one 12 bar blues song onto every album, which suggests this is the key to his roots, this is the music he loves.  And yet it is the … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood Father of Night represents one of Dylan’s most adventurous pieces musically, in that it is written in two separate keys, flowing neatly from one to the other but without the conventional simple techniques of modulation being employed. … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I suspect it is quite easy to misunderstand One More Weekend as a throw away, and I’m particularly moved to say that, having added the phrase from Dylan’s interview with Rolling Stone on the home page of … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood One of the great problems with writing about Dylan, as opposed to, say, TS Eliot or Brahms, is that while I grew up with all three, Dylan was a choice – something that I opted to make … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood It is often suggested that the underlying meaning of New Morning is “Hello, here I am again”.  Possibly that is what it came to signify, but I suspect it started out as just a phrase, and the … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood WINTERLUDE is a Finnish Dylan Forum. .. Michael Gray, an expert on Bob Dylan and contributor to Telegraph Travel, is planning a series of “Winterlude Weekends” at his home in south-west France next February and March. The … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I bought New Morning upon its release, and thought of this song, “What an interesting piece; I wonder what it is about?”   And I suspect I’d never have really thought it was about Elvis had it … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “Ring Them Bells” is considered by many as the best song on Oh Mercy – which given that many people think Oh Mercy was the best album since Desire, means it ought to be good. It’s a … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood There are two issues that, for me, dominate any attempt to understand and evaluate this song. The first is the notion of the concept of “conceit” and the second is the fact that Dylan suggests that the downfall … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Go on the internet and it is hard to find any sort of commentary about Where Teardrops Fall.  Maybe because some of the other songs on Ph Mercy gained particular attention, or maybe because the song was … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood He is affection and future, the strength and love which we, erect in rage and boredom, see pass by in the sky of storms and the flags of ecstasy. He is love, perfect and reinvented measure, miraculous, … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I didn’t start out to write about the various times that Dylan’s interactions with the legal process in which judges play a central, and mostly appalling part.  But somehow that’s where we have got to. The mistrust … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Dylan has never lost his affection for the classic 12 bar blues – the first line repeated and then the answering line.   Verse, verse, verse, and no middle 8.  The basic chord sequence which can be … Continue reading →