That was wonderful, and so affirming that my lonely obsession is not so very lonely after all. I remember seeing him in 2001 or 2, growling through an opener of "I am the Man, Thomas" and thinking "no metal singer is this terrifying." And the first time post-Sinatra that I heard Love Sick, and understood how he had strengthened his voice, his phrasing, and his ironic wit on those songs, and how Love Sick, always a favorite, now slayed me on the spot. Inexhaustible and unimitable. I often have the wish to MAKE people understand and the realization that no one will.
I didn’t know it at the time, but Charlie Sexton was something special.
Somehow I am disallowed from attachments or links but if you go to youtube and search Bob Dylan atlanta 2002 you’ll hear a gorgeous recording of the show he did a week after I saw him.
Great shit here man. I knew your ending line was coming before I got there because Dylan made me an artist at 16. I heard him and that was it, I knew I wanted to write.
I only hope that when American myth dies with Dylan, it is reborn. It will have to be or we won't make it as a nation.
I too love the past 30 years of Dylan as much as any period of his career and this was a wonderful essay. I have a different take on Time Out of Mind, I hear most of it as somewhat tongue in cheek homages to the blues and him leaning into the persona of the grizzled old bluesman with a bit of a wink.
I personally think Lanois overdid the digital swampiness a little bit on Time Out of Mind that dates the album more than his work on Oh Mercy. I suspect that Dylan came to feel the same way because the production on Love and Theft overcompensates in the other direction and not to the service of the songs, great as they are. Modern Times and his subsequent records nailed the right balance, but unfortunately the CD of Modern Times (which I bought at midnight the day it came out and also received a free promotional t-shirt) was badly brickwalled in the mix to goose sales among younger listeners given that Dylan was featured in an Apple commercial at the time. Call me neurotic, but listening to Modern Times on CD gives me a headache so now I only listen to the mix from the vinyl release.
The Lanois sound is otherworldly on the best songs but I agree I think it gets too samey on some of the more generic blues songs and sometimes wish he would turn down the optimus prime voice filter. It's funny I read the chapter in Lanois's memoir on TOOM and he talks about how he heard some demo of "Can't wait" and was convinced it was going to be a huge hit but could never figure it out in the studio. I have no idea what he could have heard in that song bc it's totally forgettable imo. Agree re L&T/Modern Times, he nailed it on Modern Times for sure.
That's interesting, and explains why there are a number of varied takes on Can't Wait in the bootleg series. Not an album highlight but I like it, the version on the album might be the least interesting one. My cubicle at Columbia Journalism School was right next to the office of David Hajdu, the New Yorker's music critic, I have fond memories of finding him MP3s of Tempest a week or two before its release and talking it over with him.
Beautiful article. My world burst open at 14 when I heard “Love & Theft” and read Chronicles. Then it kept happening and it keeps happening. What a lucky thing.
My wife and I are slightly older than you, I think (elder Millennials) and we first bonded because I played the songs she liked off of her own iPod when we first met on a service trip in college and she was driving. Some of the songs I played were late 90's and 00's-era Dylan, to the chagrin of some of the other people in the car, but it brought us together (for the next decade and a half and counting).
I went on a Midwestern road trip this weekend with her and our kids and I was thinking about this post. You started this essay with Dylan's survival. She and I like to listen to this alternative country playlist I've been updating over the last decade and so we were listening to Gram Parsons, the Band, Jason Molina, and David Berman. Not only the pure random chance of Dylan never dying on a motorcycle (at least twice) but the fact that he never succumbed to melancholy like Parsons, Richard Manuel, Molina, or Berman makes him truly unique.
Thanks for this exceptional piece of writing! It’s the best dissection of Dylan’s late oeuvre I’ve read. We are indeed fortunate to live in times when such a giant (still) walks amongst us, and I’m pleased to be in on the “secret” of his last four decades of output. During this stretch I’ve been fortunate to see Dylan live many, many times, and in my opinion he remains—after all these years— the most fascinating, enigmatic, mercurial, and singular musical artist of our time. I saw five RARW show in the Midwest in March of this year and you nailed it when you said he “carries the torch for this lost America, which has been systematically commercialized, paved over, and forgotten; the general stores turned into Wal-Marts, the juke joints and roadhouses replaced with their ersatz equivalents.”
Fantastic article, great writing, eloquent, heartfelt, pure! I enjoyed it very much and as has been pointed out already: one of the best articles on Bob I´ve read in a long time.
I had tickets to Dylan this week. The show had more in common with a religious ceremony than a concert. He was dressed like a prophet, the lighting was bad, and I never saw his face.
I can't tell if it takes more gumption to be spokesman for the counterculture or spokesman for the Old Testament -- but he has, improbably, been both.
Beautiful piece! As you point out, many critical, almost split-second moments in his career that forged a new path for him (ie. motorcycle crash, conversion, etc). But the decision to tour and to never stop touring might be responsible for his deeply rich and mesmerizing second act, and we’re all better for it. I think back to the interview with Ed Bradley in which he looks back on his early career, recites lyrics to ‘It’s Alright, Ma…’, and says he can’t do that anymore, which is hilarious considering that he had written ‘Mississippi’ not that long before the 60 Minutes piece. Anyway, thank you for this!
Thank you so much man, that means a lot to read. Honestly for such a great artist most of the writing on him is pretty bad imo, so the goal w/ this one was nothing less than the stratosphere.
Hey Henry. I watched Scorsese's Rolling Thunder Revue about the tour--and bicentennial--to prepare for hot dogs and cold beer. I also wrote an elegiac "review" of the last Rough and Rowdy Ways show--couldn't help thinking "It's dark yet," like us all. Your piece really spoke to us.
That was wonderful, and so affirming that my lonely obsession is not so very lonely after all. I remember seeing him in 2001 or 2, growling through an opener of "I am the Man, Thomas" and thinking "no metal singer is this terrifying." And the first time post-Sinatra that I heard Love Sick, and understood how he had strengthened his voice, his phrasing, and his ironic wit on those songs, and how Love Sick, always a favorite, now slayed me on the spot. Inexhaustible and unimitable. I often have the wish to MAKE people understand and the realization that no one will.
that late 90s-early 00s NET band is sooo good.
I didn’t know it at the time, but Charlie Sexton was something special.
Somehow I am disallowed from attachments or links but if you go to youtube and search Bob Dylan atlanta 2002 you’ll hear a gorgeous recording of the show he did a week after I saw him.
Great shit here man. I knew your ending line was coming before I got there because Dylan made me an artist at 16. I heard him and that was it, I knew I wanted to write.
I only hope that when American myth dies with Dylan, it is reborn. It will have to be or we won't make it as a nation.
I too love the past 30 years of Dylan as much as any period of his career and this was a wonderful essay. I have a different take on Time Out of Mind, I hear most of it as somewhat tongue in cheek homages to the blues and him leaning into the persona of the grizzled old bluesman with a bit of a wink.
I personally think Lanois overdid the digital swampiness a little bit on Time Out of Mind that dates the album more than his work on Oh Mercy. I suspect that Dylan came to feel the same way because the production on Love and Theft overcompensates in the other direction and not to the service of the songs, great as they are. Modern Times and his subsequent records nailed the right balance, but unfortunately the CD of Modern Times (which I bought at midnight the day it came out and also received a free promotional t-shirt) was badly brickwalled in the mix to goose sales among younger listeners given that Dylan was featured in an Apple commercial at the time. Call me neurotic, but listening to Modern Times on CD gives me a headache so now I only listen to the mix from the vinyl release.
The Lanois sound is otherworldly on the best songs but I agree I think it gets too samey on some of the more generic blues songs and sometimes wish he would turn down the optimus prime voice filter. It's funny I read the chapter in Lanois's memoir on TOOM and he talks about how he heard some demo of "Can't wait" and was convinced it was going to be a huge hit but could never figure it out in the studio. I have no idea what he could have heard in that song bc it's totally forgettable imo. Agree re L&T/Modern Times, he nailed it on Modern Times for sure.
That's interesting, and explains why there are a number of varied takes on Can't Wait in the bootleg series. Not an album highlight but I like it, the version on the album might be the least interesting one. My cubicle at Columbia Journalism School was right next to the office of David Hajdu, the New Yorker's music critic, I have fond memories of finding him MP3s of Tempest a week or two before its release and talking it over with him.
this is so so great man. was going back through blonde on blonde and some of those early 60s albums just earlier today.
Thanks, yeah it is so psycho to see him now and be like "that's the guy who sang 'visions of johanna'." How can one guy have done all that??
i think that’s what makes his work so special… 60 years of original work, all kinds of genre, medium, format… i think he’s the ultimate artist
Beautiful article. My world burst open at 14 when I heard “Love & Theft” and read Chronicles. Then it kept happening and it keeps happening. What a lucky thing.
My wife and I are slightly older than you, I think (elder Millennials) and we first bonded because I played the songs she liked off of her own iPod when we first met on a service trip in college and she was driving. Some of the songs I played were late 90's and 00's-era Dylan, to the chagrin of some of the other people in the car, but it brought us together (for the next decade and a half and counting).
I went on a Midwestern road trip this weekend with her and our kids and I was thinking about this post. You started this essay with Dylan's survival. She and I like to listen to this alternative country playlist I've been updating over the last decade and so we were listening to Gram Parsons, the Band, Jason Molina, and David Berman. Not only the pure random chance of Dylan never dying on a motorcycle (at least twice) but the fact that he never succumbed to melancholy like Parsons, Richard Manuel, Molina, or Berman makes him truly unique.
Thanks for this exceptional piece of writing! It’s the best dissection of Dylan’s late oeuvre I’ve read. We are indeed fortunate to live in times when such a giant (still) walks amongst us, and I’m pleased to be in on the “secret” of his last four decades of output. During this stretch I’ve been fortunate to see Dylan live many, many times, and in my opinion he remains—after all these years— the most fascinating, enigmatic, mercurial, and singular musical artist of our time. I saw five RARW show in the Midwest in March of this year and you nailed it when you said he “carries the torch for this lost America, which has been systematically commercialized, paved over, and forgotten; the general stores turned into Wal-Marts, the juke joints and roadhouses replaced with their ersatz equivalents.”
Great work Henry. I don’t know ‘ye but I want to.
Fantastic article, great writing, eloquent, heartfelt, pure! I enjoyed it very much and as has been pointed out already: one of the best articles on Bob I´ve read in a long time.
Thank you very much, Mr Begler!
I had tickets to Dylan this week. The show had more in common with a religious ceremony than a concert. He was dressed like a prophet, the lighting was bad, and I never saw his face.
I can't tell if it takes more gumption to be spokesman for the counterculture or spokesman for the Old Testament -- but he has, improbably, been both.
Thanks for a good read.
Beautiful piece! As you point out, many critical, almost split-second moments in his career that forged a new path for him (ie. motorcycle crash, conversion, etc). But the decision to tour and to never stop touring might be responsible for his deeply rich and mesmerizing second act, and we’re all better for it. I think back to the interview with Ed Bradley in which he looks back on his early career, recites lyrics to ‘It’s Alright, Ma…’, and says he can’t do that anymore, which is hilarious considering that he had written ‘Mississippi’ not that long before the 60 Minutes piece. Anyway, thank you for this!
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams are playing in my little town next month. Dylan adjacent and how lucky I am to witness great artists.
Best music writing I’ve seen since Carl Wilson’s Celine Dion book. Thank you.
Christ! Thank you.
this is incredible. truly one of the best things i've ever read about Dylan. just made my whole day to see this
Thank you so much man, that means a lot to read. Honestly for such a great artist most of the writing on him is pretty bad imo, so the goal w/ this one was nothing less than the stratosphere.
Thanks for writing it! Just sent it on to all the Dylan heads in my life.
My whole month. This article caused me to subscribe and dance with joy. What wonderful writing!
🙏
Incredible. But who knows, you might be wrong about this: “The world is too fractured for one person to change things the way he did”
Hey Henry. I watched Scorsese's Rolling Thunder Revue about the tour--and bicentennial--to prepare for hot dogs and cold beer. I also wrote an elegiac "review" of the last Rough and Rowdy Ways show--couldn't help thinking "It's dark yet," like us all. Your piece really spoke to us.
Outstanding.