Are You Ready? Can You Take It? THE BOB DYLAN THREAD

Here's one for the Bobcats amongst us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=15fvsZYf84M

The second song is a killer. No Gothic required. Just down the road a mile or two. Watch his face when he sings "and they really make a mess out of you". Oh Boy!! And seeing him play those riffs in the interludes shows what Segovia heard when he said that Bob was "touched by the hand of God".

What a song that is. Your Mozart is amongst ye now who you can call your own, so go on your way accordingly and know you're not alone.

Eat the Document

Brilliant ed. I've seen shorter versions and in poorer quality.

Thanks!! I hope they don't take it down before tomorrow afternoon.

Brilliant ed. I've seen shorter versions and in poorer quality.

Thanks!! I hope they don't take it down before tomorrow afternoon.

The U Tube link is best for me because that one doesn't go to full screen on my kit.

photo taken this month

It was 19 years ago today. The Great Music Experience was a three day concert in Nara, Japan partly backed by UNESCO. The musicians included were Bob Dylan, Jon Bon Jovi, Joni Mitchell, Ry Cooder, Richie Sambora and INXS. Dylan played in front of the Tokyo New Philharmonic orchestra, the first time he had played with an orchestra. His Bobness performed A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, I Shall Be Released and Ring Them Bells. His performance was nothing short of stunning. Each concert ended with I Shall Be Released with all the participating artists on stage. The final night's concert on May 22 was broadcast to 50 countries. Dylan said as soon as he came off-stage that he had not sung so well for 15 years.

Thank ye kindly ed.

He's coming to Blackpool Winter Gardens. That's amazing. I wonder if he'll try Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside.

All tickets went in an hour. There are a few on E-bay at about $500.

By heck--I've had some fun in the Winter Gardens.

I meant to ask if you would be attending.

Joni Mitchell on Bob


Any idea what he's plagiarized?

Everything. It is what real artists do. He took notes.

He wore a mask when singing When I Paint My Masterpiece on the Rolling Thunder tour.

On one of his album liners, he wrote, "Yes, I am a thief of thoughts." I have the album, but don't intend to search it out. He borrows words and phrases from every source, sponge-like. I don't call it plagiarism. To me, it's arranging it all into new songs nobody else could have written, despite the ready availability of the material.

No, it is not what real artists do. Taking notes, yes. Out and out theft, no. If that is the full extent of talent then kindly vacate the stage and the theater.

Dylan repeatedly proved he had talent, but for whatever reason spent a lot of time grabbing other works and claiming them as his own. Usually with a slight rework of the original, but rarely acknowledging where the foundation for his latest work had been located. He would even keep the title from the original yet liner notes and album covers etc. etc. had no mention of the fact that the original dated back more than 100 years. That is where I become bothered.

Considering he has such great talent, it's sad that his self esteem for so many years was so lacking. Seemed to come past that in more recent years which is a pleasant encounter.

I just read the Snopes version of the story in which a high school student claimed he wrote Blowin in the Wind. The student confessed he read the words about a year before Dylan recorded it. I think Sing Out was the publication that printed Dylan's words.

From a year ago:
(CBS News) Bob Dylan is taking aim at critics who have accused the veteran singer-songwriter of plagiarizing some of his song lyrics.
In a new Rolling Stone interview, the 71-year-old Dylan fires back, calling his critics "wussies and pussies."

Read more: Bob Dylan: Stigma of slavery ruined America
Journalist Mikal Gilmore asked Dylan what he thinks of the "controversy" over quotations in his songs, stemming from the works of other writers, including Japanese author Junichi Saga and poet Henry Timrod.

And Dylan had a lot to say. The singer, who just released his 35th studio album, chimed in on drawing from the other writers' material.

"Oh, yeah, in folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition," he responded. "That certainly is true. It's true for everybody, but me. There are different rules for me. And as far as Henry Timrod is concerned, have you even heard of him? Who's been reading him lately? And who's pushed him to the forefront?... And if you think it's so easy to quote him and it can help your work, do it yourself and see how far you can get. Wussies and pussies complain about that stuff. It's an old thing - it's part of the tradition. It goes way back."

Reuters points out that in 2003, the Wall Street Journal noted that lyrics from Dylan's 2001 release, "Love and Theft," included phrases that were similar to those found in a 1995 biography of a Japanese mobster. The line from the book, "I'm not as cool or forgiving as I might have sounded," was pitted about against Dylan's lyric: "I'm not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound."

Later in the interview, Dylan told Gilmore, "I'm working within my art form. It's that simple. I work within the rules and limitations of it. There are authoritarian figures that can explain that kind of art form better to you than I can. It's called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm, and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it."

The topic of Dylan and plagiarism has come up many times through the years. In 2010, Joni Mitchell blasted her contemporary in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

"Bob [Dylan] is not authentic at all," she said. "He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I."

Meanwhile, Dylan, himself has been caught up in lawsuit involving use of his name. In 1994, he filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Apple, asking for a court order to keep the computer giant from using his name. There are also reports that Dylan reached an out-of-court settlement in 1995 with Hootie & the Blowfish over the band's hit song "Only Wanna Be With You." Dylan reportedly claimed frontman Darius Rucker borrowed some of his lyrics in the track.

The complete Dylan interview will appear in the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands Friday. See more of it here.

It's just Joni needing to get her name in the paper. She must be feeling a bit neglected.

Joni has written some good songs herself, but I have to listen to somebody else sing them.