The Byrds —David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn — reunited at a 1990 tribute to Roy Orbison and were joined by Bob Dylan for this performance of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” a song that was a folk-rock hit for The Byrds.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” I’ve got a Goodreads. book giveaway going right now. Click here and enter.]
— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —
NYC PBS ten minute documentary on photographer Lynn Goldsmith, who has shot Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Patti Smith and of course Bob Dylan.
And here’s a CBS This Morning segment on Goldsmith that includes a shoot with Patti Smith.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.]
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Bring Your Own Doc host Ondi Timoner interviews D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus about “Don’t Look Back,” “Monterey Pop,” “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” and more.
Footage shot by Dylan during the making of “Don’t Look Back” will eventually be released, according to D. A. Pennebaker.
D.A. Pennebaker: We gave him [Dylan] the camera once. He went around shooting, We have a whole scene of him shooting the camera.
Chris Hegedus: It’s kind of interesting what Dylan shoots. We haven’t put it out yet. It will come out on one of the next releases, DVDs. It’s a party and everyone is sitting around smoking and drinking and talking and he walks around and tries to film everyone and films himself in the mirror and does odd things.
Pennebaker: When we did the second bit [the additional documentary made with footage shot of Dylan’s ’65 tour of the UK] with stuff off the floor, only thing I decided, we never had a complete song in “Don’t Look Back.” When we did the second one we put whole songs in, but what we got was a nicer Dylan, which surprised everyone. Dylan interested em. We met [for the first time] in a bar downtown. It was where all the painters went. The Cedar Tavern. He and Bobby Neuwirth were waiting. The way he talked was intereting to me. He didn’t use words the way you usualy learn them. He’d mix words around and I thought, this guy is a poet and he’s probably trying to figure out what a poet is. He was figuring out how to create himself in some way that he alone was interested in. I was interested to see that happen. I wanted to see what he did in normal conversations and what his songs were like compared to those.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.]
Recently I was interviewed at length by Triple R radio’s Brian Wise, who DJ’s a three-hour show every week called “Off the Record.”
Last Saturday the first of four or five segments from the interview aired on “Off the Record.” That segment focused on Bob Dylan and included some discussion of why Dylan is so important to the narrator of my novel, True Love Scars.
As part of his show, Wise also interviewed David Kinney, author of The Dylanologists, and music critic Bill Wyman talking about Dylan.
I was also recorded reading from my True Love Scars, and two sections about Dylan are part of the first segment.
You’ll find a transcript of the interview here at the Australian Addicted To Noise site, but if you listen you’ll hear me read two excerpts from the novel that are about how Bob Dylan has impacted the narrator’s life.
The Kinney and Wyman interviews follow the one with me.
Listen to “Off the Record” here.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.]
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Bob Dylan has long been one of Patti Smith idols. Today I thought I’d feature some of her covers of Bob Dylan songs, plus a duet she did with Dylan in 1995.
I’ve also included versions of the songs by Dylan>
Patti Smith, “Changing of the Guards,” 2007:
Bob Dylan, “Changing of the Guards,” live version 1978 (sound starts ten seconds in):
Bob Dylan, “Changing of the Guards,” off Street-Legal, 1978:
Patti Smith, “Boots of Spanish Leather,” 2011:
Bob Dylan, “Boots of Spanish Leather,” 1964:
Patti Smith, “Drifter’s Escape,” 2012:
Bob Dylan, “Drifter’s Escape,” 1967:
Patti Smith & Bob Dylan, “Dark Eyes,” Boston, Dec. 10, 1995:
Patti Smith & Bob Dylan, “Dark Eyes,” New York, Dec. 11, 1995:
Patti Smith & Bob Dylan, “Dark Eyes,” New York, Dec. 14, 1995:
Patti Smith & Bob Dylan, “Dark Eyes,” Philadelphia, Dec. 15, 1995
Patti Smith & Bob Dylan, “Dark Eyes,” Philadelphia, Dec. 17, 1995
Bob Dylan, “Dark Eyes,” Empire Burlesque, 1985:
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
I’ve gotten many wonderful reviews so far of my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.
This one by Fred Mills at Blurt blew me away.
Fred Mills writes:
Veteran rock journalist Michael Goldberg, of Addicted To Noise and Sonic Net fame, is clearly working through some personal demons in his debut novel, a kind of poetic-license memoir rendered in a vivid 1st person voice containing echoes of Holden Caulfield, Sal Paradise and Danny Sugerman (who of course was not a fictional person, being a member of the Doors inner circle, but certainly wrote with a definite ego swagger in his own memoir). And in a very real sense, True Love Scars contains echoes of my own voice, because in reading the book I felt some of my demons from that time being stirred up, including initial musical alliances with key albums/concerts, mixed feelings toward my relationship with my parents and friends and memories of my first few crushes (not to mention losing my virginity).
Indeed, Michael Stein’s recollections chart an emotional arc as striking as I’ve seen a novel’s lead character experience, from naïve and tender to streetwise and hip to cynical and wounded, with Dylan lyrics seeming, to him, laden with meaning and Rolling Stones tunes, likewise, churning with prophecy. When he meets, for example, the girl he calls Sweet Sarah and they embark upon a doomed courtship, Dylan’s there as their guide and their muse. Later, though, following a breakup and a dark descent into teenage debauchery, Stein’s haunted by mental echoes of the ominous slide guitar riff powering the Stones’ “Sister Morphine.” Similar musical reference points from the time abound, as befits novelist Goldberg, who cut his teeth as a rock writer and came of age in that same era; it’s tempting to play the is-it-or-ain’t-it-autobiographical game with the book, since Goldberg has a temporal, geographical and personal backstory that mirrors, to a degree, Stein’s. (Stein’s nickname in the book is “Writerman,” which should tell you something.)
Later in the review Mills writes:
Goldberg advises us that True Love Scars is the initial installment of his “Freak Scene Dream Trilogy,” full of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll plus the inevitable heartbreak and roadkill that comes with the whole package. “How the dream died and what there is left after,” he concludes. It’s worth noting that despite the timeframe outlined above, Stein/Writerman is actually narrating in retrospect from some as-yet-unspecified point in the near-present. So we know that despite the gradual sense of dread building up over the course of the book and present at its abrupt ending, he will manage to survive in some form and fashion despite whatever adventures—good, bad, ugly, tragic—will go down over the course of the next two volumes of the trilogy. I can’t wait to read ‘em.
Read the whole review here.
— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blot post —
Here is a 1977 recording by the Tom Robinson Band of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.”
The recording was the B-side of Robinson’s first single, which reached #5 on the British charts.
During one interview Robinson said of his own political songs:
I never wanted it to become a fossilised museum piece about ancient injustices, it was always intended more as journalism than poetry. But to be honest it seemed a natural thing to do anyway. Bob Dylan was a big role model for me, and he constantly updates and changes lyrics when performing live. Part of the fascination of being a Dylan fan is hearing the different versions of “Tangled Up In Blue.” It’s fascinating to constantly get new angles on that dense and intriguing story.
Live version:
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.
Of just buy the damn thing:
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
The New Zealand photographer Mark Hamilton has made a series of photographs inspired by lyrics from Bob Dylan songs.
The photos were exhibited backstage atClaudelands Arena in Hamilton, New Zealand when Dylan played the venue August 9 and 10.
The photographer was hoping Dylan would see the photos and like them.
“Imagine if he didn’t like it, if he retires after seeing those pictures!” Hamilton told the Waikato Times.
“At the end of the day they’re my interpretations and that’s art. It’s even like Bob Dylan himself, he reinterprets his music all the time. He’ll record it for an album but he’ll never play it the same again.”
Check out a bunch of the photos here.
Listen to Hamilton talk about his Dylan-inspired photos here.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.
Of just buy the damn thing:
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Bob Dylan will be performing 15 shows in Australia beginning August 13 in Perth, Australia. He’ll also be in Melbourne, and Sydney.
So today you can check out some past performances and interviews Dylan did in Australia.
Dylan said some interesting things during the following 1986 press conference.
Journalist: What does Bob Dylan think of Bob Dylan?
Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan doesn’t ever think about Bob Dylan
Journalist: Are you shy man?
Bob Dylan: Yeah, most of the time.
Journalist: Because of being shy, is it a burden being Bob Dylan?
Bob Dylan: Who’s Bob Dylan?
[laughter]
Bob Dylan: I’m only Bob Dylan when I have to be Bob Dylan. Most of the time I can just be myself.
And later in response to a question about the past, Dylan says this:
Dylan: We live here in the present time. You get up and have to deal with today. Yesterday’s gone, tomorrow’s not promised. So this is all we have, really.
Dylan press conference, 1986, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
This was shot at a Dylan press conference in 1986. There’s 18 minutes of the press conference.
“Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Cold Irons Bound,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Tangled Up In Blue,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Highway 61 Revisited” / “Ballad of a Thin Man,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Like A Rolling Stone,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
Bob Dylan radio interview, Adelaide, Australia 1966:
“Ballad Of A Thin Man,” Sydney, April 13, 1966:
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” Sydney, April 13, 1966:
“Positively Fourth Street,” Sydney, April 13, 1966:
“Visions Of Johanna,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
“She Belongs To Me,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
“Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.
Of just buy the damn thing:
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
I”ll be on Brian Wise’s “Off The Record” Triple R radio show today.
The show airs from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. (U.S., Pacific Time) and somewhere in those three hours will be a 15 minute segment in which Brian Wise talks to me about my novel, True Love Scars.
Wise will be airing additional 15 minute segments from an interview he did with me a bout a week ago every week for the next three weeks following today’s show.
Check it out!
You can stream the show here.
Note that David Kinney who wrote The Dylanologists will be on the show as will Bill Wyman who just wrote an article for New York magazine, “How Did Bob Dylan Get So Weird.”
Plus this story that ran about my novel and me in the Marin Independent Journal was reprinted in the Contra Costa Times (http://www.contracostatimes.com/…/former-rolling-stone…) and Inside Bay Area (http://www.insidebayarea.com/…/former-rolling-stone…) today.
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.
Of just buy the damn thing:
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-