I have said before I started collecting together photos of Bobby smiling as someone once said he didn’t and was rarely seen so . . . . . . I set out to prove them wrong ( curmudgeonly ole get that I am!) so despite the heat here (30 already!) here is Bobby enjoying his best life
This is a rare photograph, thought to be of Abe Zimmerman in 1938 [University of Tulsa Archives BD1938.04.01.344c] taking a ride on his last motorcycle before giving it up. He told friends that he sold it to save money. His wife of four years, Beatty, was wanting him to forget his bachelor-style days. They were planning to start a family, war was coming to Europe, and times were hard. It was with reluctance that Abe gave up his biker lifestyle.
We can see on the bike the initials F.C. carved on the battery box. This stood for ‘Flying Cuyunas’ - a Motorcycle Club originally started by Duluth-based former miners from the (now inactive) Cuyuna Range, just Southwest of the Mesabi Range.
The pennant on the handlebar says ‘Bay M.C.’ with a small beaver tail logo beneath. It is thought to be the colours from the ‘Beaver Bay Motorcycle Club’, as the Flying Cuyunas would often take weekend rides down the highway through Beaver Bay and on to places such as Two Harbors.
Well blow me down with a feather, it sure as heck looks like Bobby so guess it was his dad ?!
THINGS HAVE CHANGED
"Twenty-six years ago, the soundtrack for the film "Wonder Boys“ was released, featuring Bob Dylan’s song “Things Have Changed.” The song earned Dylan both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, and he clearly seemed fond of it - having played it live more than 1,000 times to date.Dylan performed the song live on television twice: once at the Academy Awards, and - seen here - at the "AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Michael Douglas“ in June 2009"
Bob Dylan - It Ain't Me, Babe (Rolling Thunder Revue)
Bob Dylan:
Mostly by accident, by chance. If I go looking for something I usually don’t find it. In fact, I never find it. I walk into things intuitively when I’m most likely not looking for anything. Tiny Hill, Teddy Edwards, people like that. Obscure artists, obscure songs. There’s a song by Jimmy Webb that Frank Sinatra recorded called, “Whatever Happened to Christmas,” [It was the 19th December!] I think he recorded it in the 60s, but I just discovered it. Ella Fitzgerald’s “A-Tiskit, A-Tasket.” Janis Martin, the female Elvis. Have you heard her? Joe Turner is always surprising me with little nuances and things. I listen to Brenda Lee a lot. No matter how many times I hear her, it’s like I just discovered her. She’s such an old soul. Lately, I discovered a fantastic guitar player, Teddy Bunn. I heard him on a Meade Lux Lewis – Sid Catlett record.Performers and songwriters recommend things to me. Others I just wake up and they’re there. Some I’ve seen live. The Oasis Brothers, I like them both, Julian Casablancas, the Klaxons, Grace Potter. I’ve seen Metallica twice. I’ve made special efforts to see Jack White and Alex Turner. Zac Deputy, I’ve discovered him lately. He’s a one man show like Ed Sheeran, but he sits down when he plays. I’m a fan of Royal Blood, Celeste, Rag and Bone Man, Wu-Tang, Eminem, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, anybody with a feeling for words and language, anybody whose vision parallels mine.Waterloo Sunset is on my playlist and that was recorded in the 60s. “Stealer,” The Free song, that’s been there a while too, along with Leadbelly and the Carter Family. There’s a Duff McKagan song called “Chip Away,” that has profound meaning for me. It’s a graphic song. Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside. He didn’t build him from the ground up, he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king. It’s like my own songwriting, I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing. Shooter Jennings produced that record. It’s a great song. Dvorak, “Moravian Duets.” I just discovered that, but it’s over 100 years old.
Listening to today’s subscriber-requested show in Denver, October 21 2001 (thanks Charles!), inspired me to finish a project I started months ago before getting sidetracked.
Bob Dylan goes through periods where he plays a lot of harmonica, and periods where he plays little to none. For most of the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour, he was in the latter mode; as I chronicled in my tour-harp report, most nights the best you could hope for was, maybe, a solo in “Every Grain of Sand.” But now the pendulum has swung back. As I’m writing this intro on October 11, last night he played harmonica on eight different songs. A Rough and Rowdy record, I think.
He was in that same harp-happy mode in Fall 2001, on a US tour with what some consider his greatest Never Ending Tour band: Larry Campbell, Charlie Sexton, David Kemper, and, of course, Tony Garnier. Over the course of those two months, he played harmonica on 23 different songs. I don’t mean he played it just 23 times; I mean he picked 23 different songs to play harp on. Some just once, some night after night.
Many tours, the designated “harp songs” are fairly well defined, like those Rough and Rowdy “Every Grain”s. But during this Fall-‘01 era, he was just whipping it out (the harmonica, that is) whenever inspiration struck, whatever song they happened to be playing at the time. They played “Visions of Johanna” nine times, but he only added a harp solo once. That’s nothing compared to “Like a Rolling Stone,” a song he played 34 times harp-less, but then, the 35th time: bam, harmonica.
So today I wanted to celebrate one of Dylan’s wildest harmonica tours by showcasing every different song he played it on over those two months in Fall 2001. He played it on fast songs, slow songs, new songs, old songs, acoustic songs, electric songs. No song was safe from an impromptu harmonica solo. (One thing they have in common though: In every case, he used the solo to conclude the song.)
Below find a brief overview of each song, with an embed of a sample solo. I’ve posted a download of the full songs at the end, if you want to hear the full performances rather than what sounds like a Dylan bootleg accidentally set to Whoops: All Harmonica mode. (Though, if you do want that energy, just wait ’til the medley…)
Just then Tom Paine, himself
Came running from across the field
Shouting at this lovely girl
And commanding her to yield
And as she was letting go her grip
Up Tom Paine did run,
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said to me
“I’m sorry for what she’s done”
I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death
Oh, I awoke in anger
So alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried
I guess like many folks John Wesley Harding blew me away as soon as I heard it. My brother brought it round and said (much like he had when introducing me to Bob for the very first time via The Times They Are A’Changin’ album) but this was different! The cover was well, downright WEIRD! Was that Dylan? Who was he with? Who WERE those guys! Check the back cover. Was it the band he had picked up? Who WERE they?
There were stories about hidden images (this was the time of back masking nonsense and Beatle reference mania still) What did it all mean? The voice alone was well, different! Mellow, rounded full fruity and gentle. Full throated somehow and crooner like. Love songs like Down Along The Cover’, 'I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ what 'n the heck frecken was going on! Re-emerging after his ‘motorbike accident’? Had it affected his voice so it was plummy and round and warmer somehow. Was it really him?! Who was John Wesley Harding? Who was Tom Paine? Heck who was St Augustine?
Never mind that but the band was sparse too, who was Kenny Buttrey, Pete Drake?, hadn’t we heard of Charles McCoy? But that was it . . . was there a hidden image if you turned it upside down of the Beatles in the trees?
WE LOVED IT!
STILL DO!
“Look, you get older, passion is a young man’s game. Young people can be passionate. Older people gotta be more wise. I mean, you’re around awhile, you leave certain things to the young. Don’t try to act like you’re young. You could really hurt yourself.”- #bobdylan
Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun
Dust on my face and my cape
Me and Magdalena on the run
I think this time we shall escape
Sold my guitar to the baker’s son
For a few crumbs and a place to hide
But I can get another one
And I’ll play for Magdalena as we ride
No llores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people
Hoofbeats like castanets on stone
At night I dream of bells in the village steeple
Then I see the bloody face of Ramon
Was it me that shot him down in the cantina
Was it my hand that held the gun?
Come, let us fly, my Magdalena
The dogs are barking and what’s done is done
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
At the corrida we’ll sit in the shade
And watch the young torero stand alone
We’ll drink tequila where our grandfathers stayed
When they rode with Villa into Torreón
Then the padre will recite the prayers of old
In the little church this side of town
I will wear new boots and an earring of gold
You’ll shine with diamonds in your wedding gown
The way is long but the end is near
Already the fiesta has begun
The face of God will appear
With His serpent eyes of obsidian
No Ilores, mi querida
Dio nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
Was that the thunder that I heard?
My head is vibrating, I feel a sharp pain
Come sit by me, don’t say a word
Oh, can it be that I am slain?
Quick, Magdalena, take my gun
Look up in the hills, that flash of light
Aim well my little one
We may not make it through the night
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN AND JACQUES LEVY
Copyright © 1975 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2003 by Ram’s Horn Music
So I will bid you a very Good-Night’ with this . . . . . . . from The Last Waltz!
Forever Young
I’m stark naked, but I don’t care
I’m going off into the woods, I’m huntin’ bare
You don’t understand it—my feelings for you
Well, you’d be honest with me if only you knew
I’m stark naked but I don’t care. I’m going off to the woods . . . . .
thanks for the reminder as ever to ‘Alice'
and to continue a theme of the pictures of Bob more than smiling there’s this
