*to* lesser efect
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, 28 March 2020 15:02 (four years ago) link
I've still only listened twice. I'd like to make a list, I'll call it the Gorgeous George List in honor of Memoirs, of the references ordered by how unlikely/bizarre they are. So Lady Macbeth is down near the bottom, Nightmare on Elm Street up near the top.
― clemenza, Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:02 (four years ago) link
people seem pretty convinced it's a Tempest outtake, I'm not so sure, could be from the Sinatra eraI'm more and and more convinced it's not from the Tempest sessions, that album was definitely the nadir of his voice, listen to the ballads in that and even in the gentlest moments he's pretty raspyalso something about this song's production doesn't sound like it's from those sessions
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:19 (four years ago) link
agreed it sounds like there's more space and separation than anything on Tempest
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:23 (four years ago) link
each next thing as sad and as gone as the next, incl. Alicia Keys and the Eagles or whateverBut those things live on, don’t they? He’s imploring you to “play” them, that’s how we get through life...
― morrisp, Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:37 (four years ago) link
“This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.”there's been rumors he's been doing new music.... Triplicate came out 3 years ago, he didn't say "outtake" necessarily
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:39 (four years ago) link
His voice does sound better here, I agree. It just sounds to me like it comes from the same creative place as Tempest, like it's a companion volume to Tempest even if it was recorded later.
― The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:42 (four years ago) link
“A while back” sounds older than the past 3 years, but who knows. Has Rolling Stone talked to Jeff Rosen or somebody about it yet?
― morrisp, Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:42 (four years ago) link
(xpost) Agree. And in that way, it feels very different than "Driftin' Back," where Neil cataloged various things he remembered with disdain. "Murder Most Foul"--the part of it where he's rambling on about all these songs and artists--feels like a sweeping embrace.
― clemenza, Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:43 (four years ago) link
xxxp morrisp yeah I totally think that's true, but what I also hear sewn into "play" is raise a glass, pour one out
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:43 (four years ago) link
being in time music is always disappearing as you listen to it :(
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:46 (four years ago) link
If you've been playing the official clip, like I have, there's another one up now with lyrics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkr6TVnGtAM
For the next few minutes, anyway--I think Dylan's organization is one of those with acute copyright radar.
― clemenza, Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:48 (four years ago) link
xpost, Triplicate was released March 2017, so probably recorded 2016, I guess I think that could qualify as a "while back"also could be that they cut original songs during the sessions for the covers records?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:49 (four years ago) link
xp they are hawks!
this channel always seems somehow to fly under the radar and re-up stuff http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaOZO0lQahdMsROidW4RIZA/videos
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, 28 March 2020 16:51 (four years ago) link
I think with Dylan, especially in recent years, there's a real tension between honoring these mythic figures and trying to resist becoming one himself; that's what I was trying to get at with the thing about John Lennon as legend vs. John Lennon as real person who Dylan knew. Like, every artist eventually ends up entombed in the mausoleum of their work, and I think Dylan can see the beauty in that while also being terrified at the sight of those walls rising around him.
But then the sprawl of artists he catalogues at the end of this song, the mix of genres, the high and low culture, suggests something different, a sharing of the burden. Like he's just one of many pallbearers.
― The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Saturday, 28 March 2020 17:05 (four years ago) link
You're really insightful when it comes to this song! I've been thinking about posting on Facebook about it--I might quote you, if that's okay.
― clemenza, Saturday, 28 March 2020 17:17 (four years ago) link
Thank you! Please do!
― The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Saturday, 28 March 2020 17:18 (four years ago) link
It's also weird writing about "John Lennon" as figure when he's been dead longer than he knew him; Lennon can't help but be a statue in the park.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 28 March 2020 17:19 (four years ago) link
Wasn't "Roll On, John" written in the '80s?
― timellison, Saturday, 28 March 2020 17:29 (four years ago) link
I remembered hearing that, too — but when I went looking for verification the other day, I found this discussion of an even earlier precedent: https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/4595
― morrisp, Saturday, 28 March 2020 17:37 (four years ago) link
this song reminds me that dylan once had a (really good!) radio show. dude knows how to tell a story through a playlist.
― fact checking cuz, Saturday, 28 March 2020 20:02 (four years ago) link
I put up a post on Facebook, including some of Lily Dale's comments (and repeating stuff I've said here--I do repeat myself).
http://www.facebook.com/phil.dellio/posts/10156574950051534
― clemenza, Saturday, 28 March 2020 22:04 (four years ago) link
I prefer concision:
https://youtu.be/o6YWpujfqIg
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, 29 March 2020 00:27 (four years ago) link
That's good, I like that. Didn't like Lou Reed's Kennedy song at all (haven't heard it since it came out).
― clemenza, Sunday, 29 March 2020 00:49 (four years ago) link
I love the Lou Reed song. How about this one?:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ggtyT1TwL8
― morrisp, Sunday, 29 March 2020 01:32 (four years ago) link
I love Negativland's "Richard Nixon Died Today." Which is a whole other thing.
― clemenza, Sunday, 29 March 2020 01:53 (four years ago) link
So many evocative posts---these t's like he's showing us that you can put your finger anywhere on the timeline and find a defining trauma, and all the art we make is a way for us to mourn.
this is well said and closer to what I was trying to get at upthread about "meaning"...that increasingly on later records the function of these references seems less denotative and more toward the end of flattening (?) everything—experiences, memories, histories—onto a single plane, in a single category, allowing him the necessary separation from it, the distance from which to eulogize
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII) just now (right after waking up) made me think of this----from bobdylan.com:
I Dreamed I Saw St. AugustineWRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN
I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive as you or me
Tearing through these quarters
In the utmost misery
With a blanket underneath his arm
And a coat of solid gold
Searching for the very souls
Whom already have been sold
“Arise, arise,” he cried so loud
In a voice without restraint
“Come out, ye gifted kings and queens
And hear my sad complaint
No martyr is among ye now
Whom you can call your own
So go on your way accordingly
But know you’re not alone”
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 criedCopyright © 1968 by Dwarf Music; renewed 1996 by Dwarf Music
― dow, Sunday, 29 March 2020 16:45 (four years ago) link
Believe it or not, the first Dylan song I fell in love with, in 1995, aged 25.
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Sunday, 29 March 2020 22:07 (four years ago) link
What a great song. Bob had sort of sat out the 2010s, with only one album of original material. But this beats anything on Tempest, in my opinion.
To me the key line is "if you want to remember better write down the names" which he then commences in doing. It's a goodbye to the 20th century, as it fades from view. It reminds me of the last 30 minutes of The Irishman, which touches on the same ideas.
What a strange development. In the midst of a global pandemic, Bob Dylan once again assumes his role at the center of the culture, if only for a day or two.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 29 March 2020 23:44 (four years ago) link
For what it's worth, Love & Theft was released on 9/11/01, as noted here by monitor Greg Tate:https://www.villagevoice.com/2001/09/25/intelligence-data/
― dow, Monday, 30 March 2020 01:43 (four years ago) link
this is masterful. feels like an entire album's worth of material somehow crammed into one long track. almost too much to take in at once. especially love the violin, which reminds me of astral weeks.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:17 (four years ago) link
also, i saw someone point out that
Slide down the banister, go get your coatFerry 'cross the Mersey and go for the throat
may contain buried references to guy banister and david ferrie, and now i can't unhear it
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:19 (four years ago) link
That's great, missed that.
― clemenza, Monday, 30 March 2020 02:26 (four years ago) link
That's how I appreciate it -- a half-hearted concordance of JFK.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:36 (four years ago) link
Well...like it or not, I don't hear anything half-hearted there.
― clemenza, Monday, 30 March 2020 02:42 (four years ago) link
Even better, no Kevin Costner.
The only thing half-hearted about it would be a lack of willpower to edit it into something more powerful.
― Why, I would make a fantastic Nero! (PBKR), Monday, 30 March 2020 13:59 (four years ago) link
I don't know--I think its length is where so much of its power resides. It's like that 13-hour Rivette film, Out 1. You could edit it down drastically (even he did) and it's not like you'd lose any story, but then it wouldn't be Out 1 anymore.
― clemenza, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:08 (four years ago) link
or editing Akerman
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:08 (four years ago) link
prevailing sense from nerd detectives at expectingrain.com is that while this might have been written around Tempest it is more likely a recent recording, even possibly in the last year
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Monday, 30 March 2020 18:06 (four years ago) link
That’s interesting...
― morrisp, Monday, 30 March 2020 18:12 (four years ago) link
exciting if true! maybe still an album of originals left in the tank
― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Monday, 30 March 2020 18:13 (four years ago) link
that feels like the best explanation. the more I've listened and also listened to Tempest, I'm myself convinced it wasn't recorded during those sessions
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 30 March 2020 19:05 (four years ago) link
i love this song
― treeship., Wednesday, 1 April 2020 13:48 (four years ago) link
the litany of references at the end that somehow doesn't seem monotonous. sounsd like nothing i can think of except desolation row.
― treeship., Wednesday, 1 April 2020 13:49 (four years ago) link
Also cf. All the friends I ever had are gone.
― Why, I would make a fantastic Nero! (PBKR), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 17:22 (four years ago) link
("Delia")
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Thursday, 2 April 2020 06:11 (four years ago) link
I wonder what dickie betts he has in mind , the Elizabeth Reed stuff or Jessica etc
― calstars, Friday, 3 April 2020 23:22 (four years ago) link
I think he says Blue Sky?https://youtu.be/lZg9MWLQ5_c
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 3 April 2020 23:28 (four years ago) link
throw the gun in the gutter/and walk on by