Photographer Paul Till Tells the Story Behind the 'Blood on the Tracks' Cover
Plus a tour through four more decades of Till's live Bob Dylan photos
Blood on the Tracks came out 50 years ago today (sic). For ages, I thought the cover image was a painting. Judging from chatter I’ve seen online, I’m not the only one. But it isn’t. It’s a photo, heavily manipulated, taken at the Toronto stop of Bob Dylan’s tour with The Band the year before (I noted it in the Toronto entry of my Tour ‘74 series last year).
The photographer, and photo-manipulator, was Paul Till. At the time he was a 20-year-old college dropout who mailed the Dylan office his concert photo on a whim. Months later, he got a letter back. It began, “Dear Paul, Your photograph of Bob Dylan has been chosen for use on Bob’s next album cover…” (see actual letter below).
Today, 50 years later, Till shares on an in-depth look at how that photograph and album cover came about, and tells me about some other photos he’s taken of Dylan in concert over the years, several of which were also licensed for official Dylan products (songbooks, Bootleg Series installments, etc). He also shares some Dylan photos that haven’t been seen before.
Paul Till
1 comment:
Beautiful post my friend!!!
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