Seventeen years ago.
Bob Dylan and his band at the Madison Square Garden Theater, January 20 1998.
Set List:
Absolutely Sweet Marie
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You
Cold Irons Bound
Born In Time
Silvio
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Girl From The North Country
Tangled Up In Blue
Million Miles
Positively 4th Street
‘Til I Fell In Love With You
Highway 61 Revisited
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Love Sick
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
– A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post –
On July 4, 1986 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers backed Bob Dylan at Farm Aid.”
First Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform “Refugee,” and then they back Dylan for “Rainy Day Women 12# & 35,” “Seeing the Real You,” “Across the Borderline.”
Plus here’s Dylan back by Petty and company at Farm Aid 1985.
“I’ll Remember You,” “Trust Yourself” and “Maggie’s Farm.”
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Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello duet on “I Shall Be Released” at the Brixton Academy, London, March 30, 1995.
And again on July 26th, 1999 at Tramps in New York:
And this one also from the Brixton Academy, London, March 30, 1995; Dylan with Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde.
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”:
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-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –
Forty years ago, on January 10, 1971, Bob Dylan appeared in the NBC documentary, “Earl Scruggs: His Family & Friends.”
Dylan opens the documentary singing and playing “East Virginia Blues,” accompanied by Scruggs and others. They also perform the instrumental “Nashville Skyline Rag.”
In 1968, Flatt and Scruggs had released an album, Nashville Airplane, that included four Dylan songs: “Like A Rolling Stone,” “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and “The Times They Area A-Changin’.” That album was produced by Dylan’s producer, Bob Johnston, and utilized many of the session musicians Dylan used on Blonde On Blonde and his other Nashville sessions. Other Flatt and Scruggs Dylan covers appeared on 1970’s Final Fling.
Also from the Scruggs documentary, this cool performance of Scruggs and The Byrds performing, in the second half of the video, Dylan’s “Basement Tapes” song, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”:
Here’s Clarence Ashley singing “East Virginia Blues.” Dylan likely knew this version:
And here’s a version by Roscoe Holcomb:
Flatt and Scruggs, “Like A Rolling Stone”:
Flatt and Scruggs, “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Today being the beginning of this new year, 2014, I was thinking about songs that really get me going in the morning, songs that when I hear them, I feel an energy and I want to get things rolling. Or songs that make me laugh, or smile, or dance around the room.
Bob Dylan has quite a few of those kinda songs, and today I feature a selection of them. Enjoy.
“New Morning” always makes me smile. It’s one of Dylan’s most upbeat songs, a great way to start any day and certainly a great way to kick off the new year:
“Black Crow Blues” off Another Side of Bob Dylan starts off a bit down and out but it’s filled with Dylan’s humor. I dig his honky tonk piano the most, and there’s a drive to it that energizes me:
“Girl From the North Country” off Nashville Skyline always blows my mind because the song itself is a classic and both Dylan and Johnny Cash deliver terrific vocals. Their voices go together so well here. I always smile at the end when they trade off and repeat the line “true love of mine”:
“Country Pie,” also from Nashville Skyline, is a throwaway, but what the hell, it’s upbeat and fun and if I get this one playing in the morning no way can things go any way but right:
“Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” from Bringing It All Back Home false starts with Dylan and his producer cracking up, before Dylan launches in to a shaggy dog story that presents a surreal view of pre-Columbus America. This one nails it on so many levels:
“Romance In Durango” off Desire is a beautiful Spanish-flavored song with a great ragged vocal; this one makes me want to dance around the room:
“Please, Mrs. Henry,” from the “Basement Tapes” is so much fun. How can the new year be anything but great when music this good exists:
“Open the Door, Homer,” another crazy track from the “Basement Tapes” that is more fun than two barrels of monkeys:
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” off Blonde On Blonde is the perfect way to end this mix of Dylan songs to start off the new year with an oomph. Dig it!
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-