Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Tony Attwood Ask anyone who has performed a song on stage which has multiple repeated lines: it is much harder to pull off than a song with ever changing words.  You have to do something to those endless repeats … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood (updated slightly on 10 April 2015) “Come on out the dark is beginning” (Can you please crawl out your window?) Oh how many many years is it since Dylan observed, “ain’t it just like the night to … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Knocked out Loaded was doomed from the start by its bad reviews, and if you think that, as far as Dylan’s music is concerned it is indeed a waste of space, then there’s not much I can … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood. (There is an index of all the songs reviewed on the home page of this site) There is  a fundamental question that we face with Long and Wasted Years and which it is helpful to answer is … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Ballad for a Friend was apparently originally called Reminiscence Blues; quite why Ballad for a friend is a better title I can’t say, and as to why this work of unadulterated brilliance was left and did not … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Dylan’s interest in and involvement with the Beat Generation is well documented, and his experimentation with different forms of writing comes in many parts from those early influences.  Dylan’s use of the blues, folk, pop, and rock … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood When I first discovered Dylan – when Freewheelin came out – it was this song that I homed in on.  I think that it was the first song I performed in public as a teenager, and most … Continue reading →

by Tony Attwood Corrina Corrina starts the journey that takes in a whole variety of songs including She Belongs to me, It takes a lot to laugh, and Alberta Each has an issue of control, an issue of love and … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Dylan is strong on the decline of communities and traditional economics – as can be readily seen from two totally different pieces of music. There’s Union Sundown the car I drive is a Chevrolet It was put … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Consider… We sit here stranded, though we’re all doing our best to deny it Yet ev’ry distance is not near There must be someway out of here Three phrases from very different sounding songs but with a … Continue reading →

By Dan Haggerty I was always sure that others must have drawn the same conclusion- “Shooting Star” is about Jimi Hendrix. But it doesn’t even seem to be an unpopular theory amongst Dylanologists. It seems to be just my own theory, … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I have agreed in the correspondence columns of this site to pull back from endlessly mentioning Heylin, but I fear I need him here.  Not to be critical of him, but really to say, I just don’t … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood I think I must have been about 15 when I first heard the “Times” album.  The next day I went out and bought my first guitar (cost £10.00 I think – maybe $13.00), plus a copy of … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Dylan seemed to be quite fascinated with the talking blues in the early years of his career – pretty much against the trend of the age.   “Talking world war III blues”, “I shall be free number … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Now I must admit that when the suggestion came in that I should review Wiggle Wiggle I wondered if this was a serious suggestion.  This song has the reputation of being Dylan’s worst recorded piece.  And also … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood In essence “If Dogs Run Free” is a 12-bar blues played in a moderately free jazz style, with the piano and guitar free to extemporise around the standard three chords of the 12 bar format.  This sort … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and the song that precedes it “Down along the cove” appear to have little to do with the rest of the John Wesley Harding LP, either musically or in terms of sentiment, … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Romance or religion, or the collision of the two?  Or a collision of two worlds, metaphorical or actual. Let me make it clear that my interpretation of this song is very different from what I have seen … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood “Most of the time” which precedes “What good am I?” on “Oh Mercy” is a song of self-deception where the self-deceiver knows at the end of each verse that he’s not kidding anybody – certainly not himself. … Continue reading →

By Tony Attwood Dylan’s audience is predominantly male, and one suspects, a fair number of these men who listen to Dylan will have been crossed in love, having lost a woman who has either just walked away or gone off … Continue reading →