Curiously there is a nice double disc set of Dylan today from HEAR ROCK CITY, you might be forgiven to think the City exclusively hard rock and heavy metal but they do post gems of other persuasions and whilst I had said I had stopped posting Dylan's so called Endless Tour from all the audience recordings from every night, as they are all available ad nauseam, but occasionally there is one such gem or I find it worth revisiting parts of his international tours are worth another listen.
This is one such . . . .
Bob Dylan- The Answer My Friend . . . Hear Rock City
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Mo' Bobby!
BOB DYLAN ON THE BLUES
Bob Dylan:
"The blues? An extremely simple and open form by which you can say anything; also, what's being said comes out the way you meant it. But the blues has become rare. I don't even know if people know what to do with it in this world which has become a rat race. The blues stems from the coutryside, from the cotton fields in the south. And they dragged it to the big cities and charged it with electricity. Today this has turned into electronics. One does not perceive that out there there is a person that breathes or that there is still a heart out there. And the more people get away from this, the less they are connected with what I call the blues. Like I said, the blues is simple and it comes from the countryside just like country music.
When I was young, America was connected above all by means of the radio. The radio was the most important. You had stations who could play whatever they wanted. And all of this was broadcast over thousands of miles. Take Jimmy Hendrix, he grew up in Seatlle. The radio connected us all. I don't know when they started to play all that pap, I only know that radio today is different. Someone like the singer Johnny Ray, who was kind of a leper back then, he wouldn't stand a chance today. Johnny Ray had a whole different kind of dynamic, he had heart and soul and he really wanted us to feel something when he sang."
DER SPIEGEL Interview - 1997
Note : ever the one to throw a curved ball into any conversation but Johnny Ray? Seriously Bob? Always interesting and you know what? He knows what he's talking about . . . . . I think what he is driving at is true authenticity, not being fake and the blues is the TRUTH!
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