Bob Dylan - General Appreciation Thread

You have to hear the mono mix to be able to comprehend the wild mercury sound.But also you have to be very familiar with all the music(not just Dylan) that came before Dylan released B.O.B.&you need to familiarize yourself with a lot of music that came closely behind the record.A number of artists tried to replicate that sound in the studio.3 LPs that come to mind are Rolling Stones Between The Buttons,Rod Stewart EPTAS&Mott The Hoople Mott brilliant attempts but failures in the end.Hope this helps.

 

Just listened to "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" with most of Bringing it All Back Home today. That song will never get old.

 

That was his genius. To be able to write songs, even to this time, that are themselves timeless.

 

Discogs has all but ceased to be of use. To me, anyhow.

I was too young to hear Dylan in the sixties; although I lived literally right around the corner and two doors down from his historic concert at Forest Hill's '65 the night he played there. However, it's become my favorite period. One of the great pleasures in life is putting on the headphones at night and listening to Dylan in the sixties. At the moment Ginsberg's 12 December 1965 tape is where I'm at. I'm not exactly disillusioned with Dylan's recent discs, but after two or three plays I'm done with it. Ever since "Things Have Changed" I've not been receiving his new music the same way I receive the old.

 

Were you "around the corner and two doors down" from Forest Hills Tennis Park when The Beatles played there in August 1964? If so, we were close by, because I was at that concert. Missed Dylan in 65 there.

 

At the same address, yes. I had aunts who saw the Beatles.

 

"It doesn't knock me out to read books about myself."
- Bob Dylan 1992

 

I'd like to think I'm hip and and aware of all things regarding vintage Dylan, but I guess I'm a square after all. Just read that this insert/drawing of Bob was included in some early mono pressings of Highway 61 Revisited (?). I haven't checked the Dylan resources (Searching For A Gem, etc) for confirmation but I clearly never caught this detail before. I have seen the image online though, never thought much about it.

Rare inserts: Bob Dylan

 

A small replica of that was included in the mono CD box.

 

Wow, I should see a doctor as I don't recall seeing that at all. I owned the mono box for about 4 days before re-selling at ebay (due to my lower-tier financial bracket).

Just a cool curio for my day.

 

It was included in the case for HW61.

 

I still have sealed original pressings of several early Dylan albums. I'll have to look! Some still have the $1.88 Sam Goody sale price sticker. That was the typical special sale price at Goody's for mono LPs (when they would offer certain major labels or categories every week)

 

Look at the bottle closely. That is Dylan's artwork.

 

i always loved bob, but had kind of left him aside for a good while. when that first bootleg series came out, it blew me away and i often put that in my favourite albums ever list.
I don't like everything he ever did, but that's good, it shows he isn't a cookie cutter just regurgitating the same thing over and over.

 

He's the most influential songwriter of modern times. I love what he said about his songs.
"People have felt about my songs sometimes the same way as me. And they say to me, your songs are so opaque that, people tell me, they have feelings they’d like to express within the same framework. My response, always, is go ahead, do it, if you feel like it. But it never comes off. They’re not as good as my lyrics. There’s just something about my lyrics that just have a gallantry to them. And that might be all they have going for them. [Laughs] However, it’s no small thing."

Bob Dylan: The Song Talk Interview

Gallantry, a great word for it.

 

Gallantry. Where did he find that word.

Is that an actual drink or just a prop bottle made for the photo?

 

my guess, since the company is marketing this whisky, is that it is real. it is probably much easier to use real whiskey than to develop an artificial liquid that has the exact same color. However, I am not so certain about the hair color.

 

Cute.
If I hadn't found it with a google search I wouldn't have believed Dylan was marketing Heaven's Door whiskey. I thought it was a fake done in photoshop:

Whiskey

I stopped taking notice of the hair and the hair color two decades ago.

 

Oh, the hair is most likely real, just with added color. Many old guys still have hair. The curly hair just helps hide the thinning, which is natural.

Dylan is lucky that he was able to keep his "visual trademark".

 

The only thing more absurd than critics trying to tell you exactly what Bob Dylan's lyrics mean is critics trying to describe Bob Dylan's whiskey. I'd like to see the statistics on whether such critics can distinguish and identify these whiskies in a blind test just after they write their article, especially if a few others are tossed into the test.

From the NY Times

Straight Tennessee Bourbon

90 proof

On the nose, this is a classic, no-fuss bourbon, though with more oak-derived notes — think caramel, vanilla and wood char — than you’d expect from a seven-year-old. I also smelled sandalwood, leather and linseed oil. And there’s a creamy cola note that suggests a good bit of rye in the mash bill. (Mr. Dylan and his team say they use just 70 percent corn, leaving a lot of room for other grains to show their influence.) The palate opens with a soft cocoa and buttercream note, then sharpens toward black pepper and cigar tobacco. The finish is slightly bitter, with the sweet spiciness of an Atomic Fireball. My favorite of the bunch.

Double Barrel Whiskey

100 proof

More restrained than its stable mates, the Double Barrel — in which different whiskeys have been blended and further aged together in another cask — smells of cake batter, fresh berries and children’s cough syrup; as it develops in the glass, its nose turns darker and woodier, with a hint of sweet fortified wine lurking in the background. It tastes surprisingly astringent and medicinal, given the nose, with a thin mouthfeel and notes of tobacco, allspice and wood smoke, resolving in ground pepper. The wood influence on this one is strong, perhaps too much, but it would make a nice substitute for a rye in a manhattan.

Straight Rye Whiskey

92 proof

Most rye whiskey on the market these days is made at a distillery in southern Indiana called Midwest Grain Products, then sold to brands like George Dickel and Bulleit. Some brands then “finish” the whiskey by placing it in a used or new barrel to give it a twist — in this case, the rye goes into toasted Vosges oak barrels, which are often used to age pinot noir. Heaven’s Door doesn’t reveal where its rye comes from, but its nose is rich with MGP’s trademark dill and herbal notes. There’s also a sweet grassiness, cocoa powder, tobacco and a slap of leather. It opens deceptively smooth on the palate, but builds to a sweet spiciness before finishing with a burst of spicy, bittersweet chocolate.

 

Not at all.

 

I respect nearly no one as much as Bob, and yet... this is like Sammy Hagar Cabo Wabo stuff. "Money doesn't talk, it swears"

 

I dug up these old items about Dylan's first single (which didn't sell very many copies) from Cashbox Magazine. Then a link over at ExpectingRain led me to Mike Scott's twitter page, with a photo of Bob from his first "English tour."

(Didn't realize that Bob actually played Earl's Court back in 1963... )

The "BBC TV-er" mentioned in the article was the play Madhouse On Castle Street. No film or video copy of the program exists, but audio of Dylan's songs are in circulation. Details --- > Still On The Road 1963


I haven't been able to get a decent original pressing of the U.S. single [$$$], but I did recently buy a copy of the reissue, with picture sleeve (Holland c.1967) and it sounds really good, so I guess that will have to do for me until I win the lottery.

 

Thanks for posting that photo and the clippings. Wonderful stuff.
Just what I'm hoping for in the "coffee house days" box-set in the
Bootleg Series, if they every get around to it.

 

I never drink alcohol myself nor do I smoke but I DO brush my teeth every morning
so I am able to distinguish the subtleties of different flavors and tastes. My favorites
are ginger, licorice, cinnamon and nutmeg, and sometimes maple but not always.
I've been known to consume large quantities of Irish Ginger Beer which is a non-
alcoholic soft drink with lots of bubbly.

Tell you what. Send the whiskey bottles over here. I'll sample it blindfolded on
camera, state which one it is verbaly, and send it to you. Then we'll know.