Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts video

It was almost thirty years ago that I linked up two VHS recorders and created Blood and Rain, a montage of film clips and footage I'd shot of rain, to the soundtrack of Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall*. For better or worse, that video (along with the now-classic Red Lipstick) got me into film school.

Well, all these years later, I'm still editing film clips to the tune of Bob Dylan, now with help from YouTube and an Apple Mac. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts is a song from Dylan's classic Blood on the Tracks album. The song has spurned two screenplays, neither of which got made into films. It seems now that Luca Guadagnino, director of Call Me By Your Name, intends to make a film out of the entire album.

Dylan has apparently only sang the song once live and I don't recall hearing any cover versions, so it's great to hear folk singer Naomi Bedford's wonderful version, for which I have created the video for. The song contains vocals from Naomi as well as twenty other singers and musicians, including her partner and Dylan fan Paul Simmonds (of The Men They Couldn't Hang fame) on guitar, and her son Noah in charge of mixing. The poster image is by Chris Riddell, illustrator and political cartoonist for the Observer.

All proceeds from the recording will go to community causes chosen by We Shall Overcome. 

Bob Dylan's new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, his first LP of original songs since 2012's Tempest, has also just been released. It's been getting rave reviews, with The Guardian calling it "a testament to his eternal greatness". Three of the songs, including the 17-minute epic Murder Most Foul, were released during lockdown to critical acclaim.

Previously on Barnflakes
The Rebel Soldier
Seven Days of Nothing
Without Joy

Elsewhere on Barnflakes
YouTube Channel

*Unfortunately, the YouTube version prohibits using the actual song A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall so I uploaded a silent version. You'll need my DVD Homeless Movies to get the full version.

Infra ready

 

Infrared images top to bottom: Bob Dylan by Elliott Landy (1969); Richard Mosse's stunning Congo series, Infra (2011); Kate Ballis' surreal vision of Palm Springs, Infra Realism (2018); Foals album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost (2019), photo by Vicente Muñoz.

Dylan dedications

Once upon a time, a long time ago, Bob Dylan would actually tell stories in between songs in his concerts or banter with the crowd. In the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue – the subject earlier this year of the Netflix film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (a wasted opportunity IMO; Scorsese hasn't made a decent film since 1990 but seems to think adding his name to the title of a film adds some kind of prestige value) as well as the excellent 14-CD set The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings – Dylan would frequently dedicate songs to (mostly) famous people, from Sam Peckinpah (who Dylan of course worked with on Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) to Gertrude Stein.

Plymouth, Massachusetts
31 October 1975
We’re gonna dedicate this to Keith Richards (Isis)
We’ll do this one for David Crosby who’s out there somewhere (Never Let Me Go)
This is for Brigham Young (Oh, Sister)

Providence, Rhode Island
4 November 1975 – Afternoon show
Gonna do this one for Richard Manuel, he’s not here but he’d like to be here... maybe he is here (I Shall Be Released)

Providence, Rhode Island
4 November 1975 – Evening show
Gonna dedicate this to Sam Peckinpah (Romance In Durango)
We’re gonna do this one for Dennis Hopper (I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine)
I wanna do this song for all my sisters (Oh, Sister)

Springfield, Massachusetts
6 November 1975 – Afternoon show
This is Scarlet and we’re gonna dedicate a song to Sam Peckinpah. Hope he’s here today (Romance In Durango)
I'd like to dedicate this song to the whole Massachusetts. As long as Long Island? (I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine)

Springfield, Massachusetts
6 November 1975 – Evening show
We’re doing this one tonight for Sam Peckinpah. Glad you could make it Sam! (Romance In Durango)
We’re gonna dedicate this to Gertrude Stein (I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine)
We wanna dedicate this one to Richard Manuel, one of these days he’ll show up... and sing it for you (I Shall Be Released)

Burlington, Vermont
8 November 1975
Dedicated to all psychology students (A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall)
This song is a request, we’re gonna do it for Naomi (I Shall Be Released)
We want to do dedicate it to all our sisters out there (Oh, Sister)

Waterbury, Connecticut
11 November 1975
We’re gonna dedicate this one to Sam Peckinpah (Romance In Durango)
This is for Richard Manuel (I Shall Be Released)
We wanna do this for Larry, our favorite reporter, who’s out there somewhere, he tells it like it is (Sara)

New Haven, Connecticut
13 November 1975 – Afternoon show
This song is dedicated to Da Vinci (It Ain’t Me, Babe)
We’re gonna dedicate this to Sam Peckinpah. We wish he could have come today, but he couldn’t make it (Romance In Durango)
This is for Richard Manuel (I Shall Be Released)
Wanna dedicate this to Brigham Young (Oh, Sister)

New Haven, Connecticut
13 November 1975 – Evening show
We’re gonna dedicate this one to Sam Peckinpah (Romance In Durango).
We’re gonna do this for Gertrude Stein (I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine).
We’ll do this for Richard Manuel, he’s not here tonight, but he’d love to be (I Shall Be Released)

Niagara Falls, New York
15 November 1975 – Evening show
That was for Gertrude Stein and Modigliani (When I Paint My Masterpiece)

Rochester, New York
17 November 1975 – Evening show
We’re gonna dedicate this to my mother and Helena Rubinstein (Mama, You Been On My Mind)

Worcester, Massachusetts
19 November 1975
We do this one for Sam Peckinpah every night (Romance In Durango)
We’ll do this one for Richard Manuel, though he’s not here tonight (I Shall Be Released)

Cambridge, Massachusetts
20 November 1975
We’re gonna dedicate this to Henry VIII (Oh, Sister)
We’re gonna dedicate this one to all the people who used to work at the Club 47 (Just Like A Woman)

Boston, Massachusetts
21 November 1975 – Evening show
This is called Romance In Durango, we do this one a lot, dedicate this to Sam Peckinpah, if he’s out there tonight, Sam, Good Luck! (Romance In Durango)
Hartford, Connecticut
24 November 1975
I wanna dedicate this to Wallace Stevens from Hartford, a great renowned poet, wherever you are now, we wish you the best of luck (The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll)
Dedicate this to all the people in the house tonight from Texas (Romance In Durango)
Dedicate this to Keith Richards (Isis)
Gonna dedicate this to Richard Manuel, he’s also in The Band (I Shall Be Released)
I wanna dedicate this to all the people who don’t have any answers (Just Like A Woman)

Augusta, Maine
26 November 1975
Here’s a true story, could happen to anybody. It’s called Isis. I wanna dedicate this to Keith Richards (Isis)

Bangor, Maine
27 November 1975
This is called Romance In Durango. We’re gonna dedicate this to D.H. Lawrence, if he’s here tonight (Romance In Durango)

Quebec City, Canada
29 November 1975
I don’t speak much French myself, wanna dedicate this song to the great French poet Arthur Rimbaud (The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll)
Dedicate this to the great writer Mr. Jack Kerouac (Simple Twist Of Fate)

Toronto, Canada
1 December 1975
Wanna dedicate this next song to Harry Dean Stanton, who’s out there somewhere (Romance In Durango)
Wanna do this for Richard Manuel, he’s not here tonight, he sends his regards (I Shall Be Released)

Toronto, Canada
2 December 1975
Gonna dedicate this to Pancho Villa and of course Sam Peckinpah (Romance In Durango)
Wanna dedicate this to Keith Richards, called Isis. Listen! (Isis)
We wanna do the next one for Ian and Sylvia (before Wild Mountain Thyme)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada
4 December 1975
Here’s a song about marriage, this is called Isis, this is for Leonard, if he’s still here (Isis)

New York City, New York
8 December 1975
We’re gonna do this song now for Mr. Albert Grossman. Hello Albert! Who won’t be the next president, don’t even want to be president! (It Takes A Lot To Laugh)
Here’s a song, want to dedicate this to Mr. Herman Melville (I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine)
Gonna dedicate this song to Mr. Richard Manuel, who does it so well (I Shall Be Released)
Gonna dedicate this to all our sisters out there tonight (Oh, Sister)

Despite looking like it's been designed in Microsoft Publisher using harsh RGB colours, Olof Björner’s website, bjorner.com, is an extraordinary Bob Dylan reference site (which Dylan writer Clinton Heylin bizarely regularly rubbishes in his recent Dylan books). Looking at the homepage, you might surmise the site was as much about British philosopher and writer John Cowper Powys as Bob Dylan – but there's just a few pages on Powys and presumably hundreds on Dylan. I actually must get around to reading Powy’s four Wessex novels, or at least Wolf Solent, where the main character, a teacher in London, has a breakdown during a history class, triggered by a look of “inert despair that he had seen on the face of a man on the steps of Waterloo station.” He is fired, and returns to his hometown in Dorset.

Seagull sandwich

As usual, at lunchtime I was rushing across that horrible large square in Truro – actually, apparently, called the Piazza; though I would actually say it's Lemon Quay, but anyway it's just a wide, windy, open bit of concrete ground; whatever, it's not that important – eating my sandwich when something landed on my head. It was a large seagull attempting to steal my lunch. I swore loudly, it jumped onto the floor, I stamped my foot to scare it off; it barely blinked. I was then aware I was in the centre of a city at lunchtime and people were probably looking at me. I strided ahead. Then I heard a man’s voice shouting – possibly at me, as I’d just steamed past a young couple. ‘Oi, who are you swearing at?’ I carried on walking. ‘Oi, don’t walk away from me. I’m talking to you.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about. I carried on walking, not looking back. ‘Oi you!’ I continued walking until his voice died away. I wasn’t entirely sure he was shouting at me, but his voice sounded like it was aimed in my direction. Maybe he’d thought I was swearing at him, not realising it was actually a seagull. Anyway, suddenly two Asian students with clipboards block my way and ask me if I’m having a good day. I ask them if they’re joking. Would you have time to fill in a survey for us? They ask me. I walk on ahead, fuming. I told this story back at work and they said my life was like that of Larry David. Welcome to my life. All I wanted was to do, aside from eat my sandwich in peace, was to buy Bob Dylan's new Bootleg Series – Vol. 15, Travellin' Thru, 1967-1969, from HMV, which I did, and of course love it.

Previously on Barnflakes
Notes on being me

Recent barngains

Western Stars, Bruce Springsteen's best album – and album cover – for years (his last four studio albums have been terrible).

As mentioned previously, barngains have been thin on the ground in these parts – with the recent exception of the new Bruce Springsteen album, Western Stars, an impulse buy in Tesco's. I was at the till with the CD, along with some other items, and when the guy serving me came to scan it, it came up as 1p. He tried it again, and again. Still 1p. He buzzed to call someone over. No one came. He let me have it for 1p.

But it was a recent trip to London where the barngains really started flowing. In my first charity shop visit, on the way out of the shop, after clumsily looking at some records in the window, my eye caught a drawing on the cover of a large book. I picked it up and it was the rather plush catalogue to the latest Bob Dylan exhibition, Mondo Scripto, which ran late in 2018 at the Halcyon Gallery in London.

I had not seen the exhibition, but agreed with most critics about it at the time, that while his songs are full of surrealism, mystery and beauty, this new series of drawings illustrating his songs were rather too prosaic and literal: a farm for Maggie's Farm, a bed for Lay Lady Lay, a hand knocking on a door for Knockin' on Heaven's Door – you get the idea.

However, the book – £45 from the gallery shop, £3 in the charity shop – is gorgeous. The drawings are amateurish but charming. Each one has a page of hand-written lyrics next to it (often re-imagined and different from the original songs, something Dylan has done all his career). The book is large and luxurious (with apparently many different drawings to the ones in the show). I was pretty happy.

I might also have got some CDs over the next few days. In fact, there was one charity shop where I bought a lot. They must have all come from the same donator as they jumped out at me amongst the usual Robbie Williams and Adelle albums:

Flower Dance: Japanese Folk Melodies (Nonesuch Recording)
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
Elton John – Honky Chateau (I loved the film Rocketman)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away
The Bonzo Dog Band – Cornology Vol.2 – The Outro
Bill Frisell - Have a Little Faith
Eminem – Kamikaze (for the cover)
The Cinematic Orchestra – Ma Fleur Live at the Barbican
Tom Waits – Alice
Classic Bluegrass (from Smithsonian Folkways) 
Jack DeJohnette – Made in Chicago (ECM Recording)
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (Deluxe Edition)
The Zombies – The Singles As & Bs
Mike Oldfield – Hergest Ridge (Deluxe Edition)
Roscoe Holcomb – The High Lonesome Sound 
Crosby, Stills & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash

All 50p-£1 each. There were lots of other good ones: Dylan, early Ry Cooder, Neil Young, Frank Zappa and King Crimson among them, but I either had them or didn’t want them. I got a bunch of other things too, in other charity shops, including a set of three Portmeirion storage jars for H in the relatively new Shooting Star Children's Hospices Charity Shop in Northcote Road, where the woman serving me, from Malibu, L.A., wrapped them up nicer and with more care than I wrap up birthday and Christmas presents.

Previously on Barnflakes:
Barngains
Two leaks (in a week)
London through its charity shops #8: 'round Clapham Junction

Elsewhere on Barnflakes:
BARNGAINS is a select list of rated barngains from 2007 to the present day.  

Two leaks (in a week)

 

Leaks are all the rage – in politics, technology, business, sport, film, music – if anyone is anyone, they're leaking (or being leaked) something, somewhere. The internet, like a church roof, is full of leaks. Being cloaked in secrecy, is it quite exciting when the something in question actually leaks. I've bought – legally – two musical leaks this week. It's hard to know anymore if leaks are genuine or simply PR ('Google leaks its own phone').

The first 'album' I bought was Radiohead's MiniDiscs (Hacked), over 16 hours worth of unheard Radiohead music recorded during the OK Computer sessions between 1995 and 1998. What happened was a hacker nicked Thom Yorke's MiniDisc archive and threatened to leak it online unless he was paid $150,000. Yorke thought fuck it, the material 'isn't v interesting' (his words), so released it all himself on Bandcamp for fans to buy for £18 (you know, to be exact, if it sounds like £18 for 18 hours, it's actually a bit less than 18 hours – 16 according to some articles online; and if it sounds like £18, it's actually £21.60 after VAT).

If you know me, you'll know I've probably never played a Radiohead album all the way through, so the only concept more depressing than having to download 1.8Gb of Radiohead material that didn't even make it onto a record was having to listen to it. So I didn't bother. But I did buy it. All proceeds are to go to Extinction Rebellion, so a pretty good cause (Thom Yorke feeling guilty for taking so many flights – he apparently had a build-up of liquid in his ears from doing so – quip a thousand cynical Guardian readers in the comments section of the article about the decision to release the material). We're still not quite getting this whole climate change thing when some depressing leaked music gets more press than the future of the planet. (Today, there are actually online reviews of the 16+ hours – yes, that would mean the poor sods had to listen to it all night.)

The second album I bought was Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) by British producer Jai Paul. It got 8.9 on Pitchfork recently so I thought I'd give it a try. The story is, the collection of demos was leaked in 2013 and sold illegally through Bandcamp. Jai Paul was so upset about this that for the next six years he underwent therapy and couldn't produce or even finish his unfinished demos. Only now is he able to officially release his unfinished demos. The Fader say: 'one of the great records of the decade'. Pitchfork say: 'the sound of borders breaking'. Anyway, I bought it through Paul's website, where you can pay what you want for the album. So I paid 1p. Well, I felt burnt after Radiohead.

What can I say? I've been watching the barnstorming and incendiary performances of Bob Dylan in the new Netflix documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, as well as listening to the 14-CD set The 1975 Recordings. They make Jai Paul and Radiohead sound like dull, miserable kids playing on their laptops in their bedrooms.

Notes on being me

Several years ago I went to an interview of photographer William Eggleston. After the interview I thought he would sign books. I’d bought along his classic 1976 William Eggleston’s Guide and made my way down to the stage, along with several others. At the last second he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t sign any. However, he had done a signing a day or two before, and my friend R had got four of his books signed. I was mildly frustrated and, naturally, it stayed with me.

R contacted me early last week to let me know Eggleston was doing another book signing at the end of the week in London. Here I was, in Cornwall, with all my books in London at my parents, including two by William Eggleston. There was only one option – ask the parents. My dad kindly agreed to go and get a book signed for me. Except he didn't know where my Eggleston books were – and neither did I. He looked and found The Democratic Forest. Great, but not the one I wanted signed. I wanted William Eggleston's Guide signed. Dad couldn't find it. Mum couldn't find it. They sent me photos of my piles of books. I couldn't see it either. I let it go. Dad got The Democratic Forest signed. I was happy.

That was William Eggleston. Next was Bob Dylan.

Saturday was Record Store Day. Getting mugs to queue up all night outside record shops to buy already-released records you'd normally only spend a pound or two on in a charity shop – A-ha, Queen, Elton John, Abba etc – but producing them in limited numbers on – say – pink or yellow or red vinyl and then charging £30 for said records, well, it's genius from a marketing perspective and record companies surely can't believe they're raking in money from what was a dead market – not just vinyl but all removable media (just wait for CD Store Day and VHS Store Day – there's already a Cassette Store Day) – until a few years ago. (I'm being slightly ungracious – RSD often features exclusive live albums or alternate versions of classic albums and has helped spearhead the vinyl revival, but a lot of RSD is re-releasing crappy old albums with the dubious distinction of being "the first vinyl release since the last one". And picture discs.)

Well, guess what? I'm one of the mugs. Not content with owning Bob Dylan's classic Blood on the Tracks album on vinyl and CD, as well as the recent More Blood, More Tracks, the 6 CD Deluxe Edition of the Bootleg Series, Record Store Day was releasing the Original Test Pressing for the very first time (naturally I already own it on a bootleg mp3 – oh, and on cassette) which I was rather keen on (Variety called it the 'holy grail' of RSD releases). To be fair, I've never bought a single record from Record Store Day before (unless it's almost a year after the previous RSD and a record shop is selling their unsold stock half price – which happened with Heart of the Congos, the Lee 'Scratch' Perry mix from the 2017 RSD, which I got for £10 some time in 2018, despite it going for circa. £150 on eBay).

I thought I had it sorted. I'd asked my ex to get it from her local, excellent (despite, in the past, staff not being exactly knowledgeable about music) record shop in a small town in Wiltshire – all she'd have to do was walk down the road to buy the record for me. Turned out she was off to Paris that weekend. I asked her to change her flight (no lie); she wouldn't budge.

Why couldn't I go and buy a copy myself, I hear you cry. Well, I could but it would take me an hour to get to any record shop in Cornwall. I went to Falmouth on Friday to a participating cafe/record shop, Jam, and asked if I could buy a copy a day before as I wouldn't be able to make it there in time on the Saturday. The owner looked at me as if I'd blasphemed in church. It goes against everything RSD stands for, she told me, in no uncertain terms. I asked her how many copies of the record she had. Four, and they'd go immediately, she said. Cost? £25.

She did mention that Drift in Totnes would probably have a lot more copies. Then a lightbulb went off in my dim brain: my brother lives there. Which I told the woman. Ah well then, sorted, she said, you don't even have to get out of bed early, but your brother does. Getting him to do that might be difficult, I quipped: he has a new girlfriend. Ah, said the woman.

Anyway, it was a possibility. I texted him. He was on holiday too, but on his way back Saturday afternoon. I told him I was off to the Truro record shop first thing in the morning to get it, and I'd let him know. By 9am Saturday morning I am standing at the end of a queue thirty deep in Truro's Pannier Market, which is where Music Nostalgia is. The man in front of me is after the alternate mix of A-ha's debut album, Hunting High and Low. Which he gets. I do not get the Dylan. Sold out instantly, the owner tells me.

I tell my brother. He's almost in Exeter. He asks me if there's a record shop there. Of course! Rooster Records, been there a few times. He 'rushes' (after having a coffee first) to Rooster Records – they've sold out too. He phones Drift – they have copies left – and asks if he can reserve one. He's told no. I phone Drift and ask if I can reserve a copy for my brother to pick up. I'm told no, in no uncertain terms: you have to be there in person to buy the record. They have a 'pinch' of the records left. I tell brother to leg it there. After Exeter charity shops, lunch and more coffee and a late train he is in Totnes by late afternoon.

Whilst brother was running around South West England record shops, what was I doing? Having a leisurely stroll around Tregothnan House, which has the largest historic garden in Cornwall, and now contains Britain's first tea plantation, producing tea to buy in the shop which reportedly contains only 15% Cornish tea and works out costing about 50p a tea bag. Tregothnan House and gardens has been owned by the Boscawen family since the 1300s. They also own – and holiday-let to rich Londoners – property all over Cornwall. Aside from a brief ransack during the English Civil War (1642–1651), the estate has remained untouched. It beggars belief why this country hasn't had a proper revolution. Anyway, lovely garden and it was only £10 on the charity open weekend (otherwise it's £65 for a private garden visit). Then we went to Merther to see its abandoned church. It has no roof and a forest growing inside it. The squirrels and ravens were surprised to see me.

Meanwhile brother is speeding up his pace in Totnes. Then, with the shop in sight, he thinks about running and imagines having to wrestle the last copy from the hands of the punk who'd just bought it, drag him outside and 'do a De Niro on him' (his words).

Luckily time was on his side and after all the pseudo rush the shop still had half a dozen copies left after my bro bought one for me. I don't know when I'm going to see it or play it, but I've got it. The Eggleston and the Dylan – couldn't have done them without a lot of family help. Much love and appreciation.

• William Eggleston, 2¼ exhibition at David Zwirner
• Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks Test Pressing, Record Store Day Edition, Reviewed

Previously on Barnflakes:
Top ten records I would have bought in Totnes if I had any money
South London record shops
Weekend Barngains 
Top ten photographers

Random Film Review: Captain Fantastic

Dir: Matt Ross | 2016 | USA

Mark Kermode, reviewing Captain Fantastic in the Guardian, makes the link between the film and the Elton John album of the same name, released in 1975. Though there were references throughout to high culture, from Glenn Gould to Noam Chomsky, I must admit I felt the spirit of Bob Dylan permeate the film and was surprised at no mention of the man – until the final credits, when a lovely cover version of I Shall be Released (sung by Kirk Ross) is played over the letterpress-style end credits.

The film, in its rejection of consumer culture and retreating into the wilderness, reminded me of Bob Dylan circa. 1967-1970, the period after his infamous motorcycle crash when he vanishes from public view and retreats to his house in bucolic Woodstock, NY. Here he produces albums tinged with the pastoral, the spiritual and nature: The Basement Tapes, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline and New Morning.

Other music in the film includes a snippet from Glenn Gould's famous Goldberg Variations. Linking to this and perhaps more relevant, Gould's Solitude Trilogy is a fascinating series of hour-long radio shows he produced for the Canadian Broadcasting Service between 1967-77. Reflecting the theme of 'withdrawal from the world', the first show looks at the Idea of North, specifically the North Canadian wilderness. Experimental in style, with over-lapping voices (nurse, sociologist, anthropologist, prospector) sometimes speaking at once, as well as music and the rumbling of trains, it creates a unique collage of sound. Quotes from it, such as 'it's easier to be against something than for something' and the battle 'not against mother nature but human nature' could almost come from the film.

The second part, The Latecomers, looks at Newfoundland. Recorded in 1969, with the sound of crashing waves roars continually over the soundtrack and a male voice declaring presciently ‘we’re all victims of technology’ and in the future we will pay people to be idle. An alternative to work will have to be found, and we need to find a fulfilling life without having to punch a clock every morning. It was hoped that the next generation would be able to combine material and spiritual life.

The third episode, Quiet in the Land, deals with the Mennonite community of Red River, Manitoba. Janis Joplin's anti-consumerism song Mercedes Benz (recorded three days before she died) plays over the voices. It questions the American Dream, and looks at alternatives to consumerism. The Mennonite community at the time were moving to the cities and becoming more materialistic. Solitude and isolation are the main themes of the trilogy; Gould himself was a bit of a hermit.

Viggo Mortensen's character (Ben Cash) in Captain Fantastic reminded me of my brother – everything from the beard to his way of life (though not the six kids). But by the end of the film, Ben has let go his rather extreme existence, and reached a happily compromise – something I mentioned in my recent Peru post, where I'd been looking fruitlessly for a happy medium between travelling (fun) and working (boring) for twenty years.

The film has had mixed reviews, but for me (and my girlfriend) it was pure joy and inspiration.

5/5

Complete album collections

From The Byrds and Cheap Trick to Harry Nilsson and Leonard Cohen, many older artists and bands are releasing their entire album output in one go in CD box sets. This is an easy and relatively cheap way to acquire all an artist's music in one fell swoop. But to me there's only one word for it: cheating.

In the case of the Bob Dylan complete album collection, you get all 42 studio and live albums (as well a deluxe 268-page book). I own all of them, of course, but it took me about twenty years to amass them. Some were taped off friends to start with, then bought second hand in car boot sales or record shops. I didn't get into Dylan until the early 90s, so I didn't start buying new Dylan albums on their release until Good As I Been to you (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993), two albums of cover versions, at which stage I assumed his career was stagnant and songwriting days were over.

Anyway. It's like with the internet. Everything is at your fingertips. Everything is too easy. I used to travel miles to some obscure repertory cinema to see some obscure Armenian film. Now it'll be a click away. I like that I had to make the effort, I like that it took me twenty years to buy forty albums. It's a learning thing, a slow thing, making an effort, hunting things down. Hunting it down on Google just ain't the same.

Tangled up in Blues

Before iTunes was around I had an idea to compile a CD of different versions of Bob Dylan's Tangled up in Blue, arguably my favourite song ever. It would start with the original album version from Blood on the Tracks then include alternate versions from other Dylan albums, ie outtake and live versions (the Bootleg Series and Real Live), then unreleased bootleg versions, all containing lyrical and musical variations. Tangled up in Blues would be the first in a series of albums taking one song and including all its different versions. Of course (and I think I'm like this with everything – if I want something for long enough, by the time I get around to actually getting it, I don't actually want it any more), iTunes was invented, I could easily burn the album but figured, well, it's easy to do now, I can do it anytime, so of course I never did it and never will. If I do ever do it, I would have to include lyric changes from last year's live performances, the most significant variations in the song since 1984.

Well, she lit a burner on the stove
And brushed away the dust
Well, she looked at me, and she said to me
“You look like somebody I can trust."
Then she opened up a book of poems
And she said, "Just so you'll know,
Memorise every one of these lines
And you can use it when you're walkin' to and fro."
And every one of them words rang true
Glowed like burnin’ coal
And pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you
Tangled up in blue.

Now I’m goin’ back again
I've got to get to them somehow
All the people that we used to know
They’re an illusion to me now
Well, some went up the mountain
And some of 'em went down to the ground
Some of the names are written in flames
And some of them they just left town
But me, I’m still on the road
And I'm tryin' to stay out of the joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point, point of view
Tangled up in blue

(New lyrics in bold)

If I wanted to take it a step further, I could go the John Oswald way. In the 1980s Oswald coined the term Plunderphonics. As its name suggests, Oswald took pre-existing sounds to make his own music, in the style of William Burroughs' cut-up technique. His Grayfolded album uses over a hundred different performances by the Grateful Dead of their song Dark Star between 1968 and 1993.

I could do a similar trick with Tangled up in Blue, each line – or even word, a different performance from a different show, with forty years of live versions to sift through. After all, the song was always meant to be told from different points of view.

I had a similar notion with film, too. I was going to take one actor – I chose Robert de Niro – and try to make a narrative film using clips from all his films. I forgot this idea for years but watching The Clock (2010) by Christian Marclay got me inspired again. 24 hours long, this 'staggering artistic montage' consists of thousands of clips from films and TV illustrating the concept of time. So it could be a shot of a clock (usually Big Ben), someone looking at their watch, someone saying the time, or the sun going down, sundials, Peter Fonda throwing his watch away in Easy Rider... But the amazing thing about the film is it all takes place in real time, so the time of the clip in the film is the actual time in real life.

Again, the technology finally caught up with me (when I first thought of it I would have had to use two VCRs plugged together), but now I don't have the time or inclination.

Top 10 most valuable CDs

(Warning: rare doesn't always mean good)

We mainly think of CDs as being worthless and ugly things, a harsh and impersonal product of the digital age. In this era of downloads and streaming music they seem as clunky and obsolete as VHS. Vinyl records, however, have made a resurgence, and are a better, and many would argue, more aesthetically pleasing investment than the compact disc (the album cover art as well as the so-called 'warmer' sound). Vinyl records are usually worth more than their CD counterpart, but not always.

Many CDs are actually out of print and hard to find, and in some cases worth more than their vinyl equivalent. Examples of this include, say, Bob Dylan's 1973 album simply titled Dylan, which was released in CD only in Europe and in limited numbers; expect to pay about £40 for it on CD (and £4 for the vinyl). 1960s San Francisco band Moby Grape's CDs are similarly out of print; expect to pay up to £25 each (and a lot less for the vinyl).

Original West German pressed CDs from the 1980s are becoming increasingly valuable, mainly because older CDs aren't as loud and compressed, and many audiophiles believe they sound better than later pressings (compare the original 1986 CD pressing of Paul Simon's Graceland to the 2011 reissue, which has been over compressed, distorting the sound and far louder than the original pressing, taking out subtleties and distorting the sound).

Japan must be the geekiest country in the world when it comes to rare, limited edition, promotional, deleted and hard to find CDs. Whether they come in paper sleeves, obi's (disposable folded strips of paper that wrap around the spine of the CD, record or book) or only available in Japan, it's more likely that the most valuable CDs would have come from there.

1. Prince – My Name was Prince (1993)
Japan-only compilation. Worth $4500-$5000

2. Rolling Stones – Steel Wheels Japan Tour (Feb 1990)
Japan-only compilation. Worth $4400 - $4600.

3. Rolling Stones/Paul McCartney/Queen – The Greatest (1995)
Japan 3-CD box set. Worth £2,500.

4. Bob Dylan – 50th Anniversary Collection (2013)
4-CD set of outtakes, recorded 1962-63, released by Columbia Records in limited edition of 100. Sold in January 2013 for $2,625.

5. Bruce Springsteen – The Future of Rock and Roll (1988)
Japanese promo-only release. Double CD. Worth $1800-$2200.

6. Nirvana – Penny Royal Tea (1994) 
UK. One track – alternative version of song from In Utero. Worth $1500-$2000.

7. Michael Jackson – Smile (1997)
Withdrawn Austrian single. Worth $1500.

8. Coldplay – The Safety EP (1998)
UK issue 3-track. 500 made to give to fans. Worth $1000-$1500.

9. Paris Hilton – Paris (2006)
Remixed by Dangermouse with artwork by Banksy. The street artist doctored the artwork of several hundred Paris Hilton CDs and put them in HMVs around the country. Worth up to £500; anything by Banksy is a worthwhile investment. 

10. Now That's What I Call Music 4 (1984)
The first Now That's What I Call Music available on CD, very rare and sought after, regularly goes on eBay for anything from £200-£400. This is the only one on the list you may well come across in a charity shop.

RIP Martin Sharp, 1942-2013

Martin Sharp, Australian artist most famous for his album covers for Cream and art director for Oz magazine in the 1960s, died yesterday aged 71. Note the cover words of Oz magazine (top), which should read 'Mr Tambourine Man' actually looks more like 'Mist Urine'. My favourite poster of his, which I've been meaning to buy for ages, is SEX!

Bob Dylan Dream

'I was puzzled by a dream
It stayed with me all day in 1995'
Belle and Sebastian, The State I Am In

Bob Dylan's Dream is a 1963 song from Dylan's album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. I hardly ever remember dreams but my dream last night was vivid and started with meeting Bob Dylan and ended with filing claims against Eric B. Go figure.

It started with Dylan visiting my home, which wasn't my home but a Gothic, ramshackle, gloomy kind of place with low lighting. I was nervous meeting Dylan, not sure what to say to him. He was very short. He was just hanging out, my family offering him tea and biscuits, which he declined. I wanted desperately to take a photo of him but I couldn't work out how to use my iPhone camera. I wanted a pen and paper to get his autograph but couldn't find any. Dylan was getting impatient. I was nervous. He made some attempts at conversation, but his voice was so mumbled I couldn't understand him so I just laughed nervously and nodded. Eventually, he said he had to go, picked up his guitar and left.

Next I was in a seedy kind of harbour, sort of King's Cross by the sea. Everything was dark, rainy, red and ramshackle. Things felt unsteady, in transition. I was there to meet an ex-girlfriend, it had been ages since we'd met. I didn't know she'd turn up, but there she was, by the sea, wearing a red coat. It was windy. When she turned around she looked different. In fact, she was literally a completely different person. It wasn't her, but it was. She assured me it was her. She said she looked different as she'd been to see three different psychologists that day. She was looking more like an ex-work colleague actually.

(My dreams are always like films and this scene was appropriated from two films I'd seen this week, and a song. In the final scene of Submarine, a 2010 British film, the lead character runs towards his ex-girlfriend on a beach to try and make amends for treating her badly. Previously in the film, he'd dreamt the same scene but when the girl turned around it wasn't her. In the final scene, it is her, and they go paddling together and make up. The film was okay, quirky in a self-conscious way, but great to see Noah Taylor again (the best thing in the film, playing a depressed marine biologist), not seen him since Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and just adored him in his debut film, The Year My Voice Broke (1987) and its follow up, Flirting (1997). I'm not sure of the connections between Nick Cave and Noah Taylor, aside from both being Aussies and having similar hair, but they've both ended up living in Brighton.

The other film was the awful but enjoyable R.I.P.D. (2013), where dead cops come back to life to work in the Rest In Peace Department to fight monsters. The film focuses around recently killed cop Nick Walker (played by Ryan Reynolds) and Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges in Wild West mode). Though they return to earth as humans, they look nothing like their former selves, so Walker returns as an old Chinese man, and Bridges as a beautiful blonde. Derivative to say the least, it was nevertheless an entertaining Men in Black meets Ghostbusters meets Monsters Inc.

The dialogue in my dream scene was reminiscent of the final stanza of Dylan's 1976 song, Isis:

She said “Where ya been?” I said “No place special.”
She said “You look different” I said “Well I guess.”
She said “You been gone” I said “That's only natural.”
She said “You gonna stay?” I said “If you want me to, Yes!”

Talking of appropriation and derivativeness, I don't really have a problem with either. When Dylan's autobiography Chronicles came out, there was cries of plagiarism that he'd nicked passages from Proust. I've written previously how ideas float in the air, ready to be plucked. I think the same of pre-existing art and literature. I don't think Dylan self-consciously pinched the passages from Proust, rather he'd read them years ago, and they'd stayed in his subconscious.

Appropriation isn't new. Joyce and Dostoevsky did it. William Morris did it. Peter Saville did it. Dylan does it. I'm in good company I reckon. I mentioned Dylan's new Bootleg Series 10 a while ago, Another Self Portrait. Okay, I moaned about it. But I love it. It's been playing non-stop on my CD player and iPod since it came out. Dylan's voice sounds so rich and warm, I just lose myself in it.)

Anyway in the dream, me and the ex walked around town. It was a gusty but muggy and intense evening. It felt like we were in Havana. She told me she knew Eric B, the rapper from Eric B and Rakim. Recently he'd been sending her sexually suggestive messages, and she was upset. So we went into a rickety building, climbing up cranky flights of stairs, to file a complaint in an office. The dream sort of ended there, or I can't remember the rest.

My dreams are like my life, I have no control over either. I guess this makes them both exciting and mysterious. I read Francois Truffaut's book of interviews with Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcock/Truffaut years ago, and always remember Truffaut asking Hitchcock, “Do you ever use material from your dreams in your films?” And Hitchcock said, “No. Never.” And Truffaut said, “Why not?” And Hitchcock said he used to keep a pen and paper behind his bed so that if he had a dream and woke up, he could write down the idea and go back to sleep. It happened one night: he had this incredible dream, he woke up, he wrote it down, and he went back to sleep. And when he woke up the next morning, he looked at the piece of paper, and it just said, “Boy meets girl.” He said that was the last time he ever considered using an idea from his dream in a film. I love the 'Boy meets girl' concept, and always thought it was the basis of all cinema and literature.

I've never had dreams like falling or drowning or anything like that (and never sexual for that matter). They've always had a strong narrative, and I often view them as a film. The lighting is always impressive. Performances, so-so.

Previous dreams here

'What is this shit?'

…were critic Greil Marcus's infamous opening words to his 1970 review of Bob Dylan's Self Portrait album in Rolling Stone magazine. Well, time heals many wounds, and now Marcus is writing a more sympathetic essay in his introduction to the tenth volume of the Dylan Bootleg Series, called Another Self Portrait (released next month).  The cover features another painting by Dylan, which looks even less like him than the painting on the original Self Portrait. The new portrait may be Jack Kerouac or Tom Clancy or Richard Prince. I love the Bootleg Series. I also almost love the fact they never release what we really want. This has been Dylan's way for the past fifty years, of course, not giving the audience what they want. It may take us some time, but we always come round in the end.

But (I have a but), releasing this ragbag of demos and alternative versions of the much-maligned Self Portrait and New Morning albums from 1969-1971 (after the fairly recent Bootleg Series Vol. 8, which was a ragbag of demos and alternatives from 1989-2006... but still great, of course) seems especially perverse. Or maybe just flippant or trivial.

Especially when Dylan and his camp know that what we really want is:

A Tree with Roots (the complete Basement Tapes with over 100 songs on four CDs)
Blood on the Tracks (alternate New York sessions)
The Supper Club (CD and DVD, 1993)
Johnny Cash sessions (1969)
Rock Solid (a 1980 official live recording never released of born again Dylan, a period in his career more controversial than 1969-71)
Stadiums of the Damned (Live in New Orleans 1983)
The Never Ending Tour (1988-forever; still no complete concert has been released)
... to name just a few.

Yes, of course we have all these on bootleg CD or MP3 but we want the official release, remastered, with booklets, rare photos and essays by Greil Marcus eating his words.

Due to copyright ceasing, lots of semi-official bootlegs have been released recently from Dylan's early years: Freewheelin' Outtakes, Finjan Club, The Minneapolis Party Tape, Carnegie Chapter Hall 1961, Gaslight Cafe, Studs Terkel's Wax Museum, Folksinger's Choice... I started buying them but the quality is variable and they just don't have the excitement of an official release. God, I'm a sucker for a bit of official Dylan hype.

Previous Bob Dylan posts here.

Mishearing Dylan

I, like many people, have always misheard lyrics in certain songs. I went through an adolescent phase when my mishearing of songs towards a homosexual bent almost made me question my sexuality: Hendrix's 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky' from Purple Haze still sounds like 'kiss this guy' to me; likewise, Joy Division's 'I need a guy to take me by the hand'  from their song Disorder is actually 'I need a guide to take me by the hand', to name just two.

But Bob Dylan, with his mumbling whine and cryptic lyrics, is ripe for mishearing. Often, my mishearings sound better than the actual lyrics, such as in Visions of Johanna what I always thought was, 'She's delicate and seems like Vermeer' (ie the 17th century Dutch artist), is actually 'She's delicate and seems like the mirror'. Likewise, Mr Tambourine Man's 'I promise to go under it' is better misheard as 'I promise to go wandering'. On All the Tired Horses From Self Portrait, Dylan sings 'All the tired horses in the sun / How am I supposed to get any riding done?' For years I thought it was 'How am I supposed to get any writing done?' – which seemed more appropriate on an album consisting mainly of bizarre cover versions.

But it's Dylan's 1974 album Blood on the Tracks that has inspired the most mishearing. In Tangled up in Blue, they split up on a 'dark, sad night' (aren't nights always dark? Aren't break ups always sad?); I always thought splitting up on 'the docks that night' was more atmospheric.

In Shelter from the Storm, 'In a world of steel-eyed death and men who are fighting to be warm', I thought was more apt as 'In a world of steel-eyed death and men who are fighting to be born'. Later in the song, the one-eyed undertaker who I thought blew a feudal horn, actually blows a futile horn.

In Idiot Wind, 'She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me'. I thought she inherited a million books (far more useful!). Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts contains the line, 'The cabaret was quiet except for the drilling in the wall'. I always thought it was 'except for the Dylan in the wall'. Just made more sense for some reason.

RIP Stefan 'Nagra' Kudelski, 1929-2013

Bit of a late one this, but I've just found out Stefan Kudelski, the man who invented the Nagra series of audio recorders, died last Saturday aged 83. The Polish Kudelski invented the portable reel-to-reel recording machine whilst studying engineering at a Swiss university in 1951. Nagra is Polish for "will record". It was the Nagra III (above), created in 1958, which revolutionised audio film recording at the same time film cameras were becoming cheaper and more lightweight with the development of 16mm film. This combination was seized upon by French New Wave auteurs such as Godard and Truffaut and documentary filmmakers including DA Pennebaker, who used the Nagra in his classic Dylan documentary Dont Look Back.

The Nagra became obsolete in the 1990s with the introduction of DAT tapes followed by digital recording. I used a Nagra at film school in the first year but by the second year we'd got a few DAT recorders, which were admittedly a lot easier to use. Needless to say, Nagras are now highly collectible, a quick look on eBay reveals several selling for hundreds of pounds. Even if they do look a bit like a tank, they are beautiful machines.

Searching for a Gem: Bob Dylan obscurities

'In this age of fibreglass,
I'm searching for a gem'
– Bob Dylan, Dirge

So you've got all Dylan's studio albums (even Christmas in the Heart), all his live albums (even Dylan and the Dead), all the Bootleg Series boxed sets (including the 3CD version of Tell Tale Signs)… and you still want more. Well, aside from the hundreds of bootlegs available, which are pretty easy to find on the web, there are lots of other official releases which contain a Dylan gem or two, many of which are worth tracking down.

Soundtrack albums
Bob recorded Band of the Hand (1986) with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the film of the same name. One I wouldn't bother with, but which appears I have on vinyl, is the soundtrack to the dreadful 1987 film Hearts of Fire, starring 'Fiona' and Dylan. It contains three Dylan tracks, one of which is a cover version. A shimmering You Belong To Me appears on the soundtrack to Natural Born Killers (1994). The Tom Cruise film Jerry McGuire (1996) contains an alternative version of Shelter from the Storm (though I believe it's turned up on a Greatest Hits package now). The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack (2000), about the life of the great folk singer Jack Elliot, contains a very early Dylan performance with Elliot called Acne. Waiting for You is from the soundtrack to Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002). There's an alternative version of Tell Ol' Bill on the OST to North Country (2005). The soundtrack to the TV crime series NCSI (Vol.2) contains an early version of Outlaw Blues.

Masked and Anonymous (2004), starring Bob as an iconic rock legend, has a great soundtrack featuring four new Dylan performances, a previously unreleased song performed by the Dixie Hummingbirds, and some foreign language versions of Dylan songs. Truly bizarre. I'm Not There (2008), though it is about the man himself, contains only one previously unreleased track, but a definite gem, the sublime and mysterious I'm Not There, an outtake from The Basement Tapes.

Tribute/Benefit albums
Perhaps unsurprisingly seeing as Guthrie was one of Dylan's early heroes, he's contributed to two Woody Guthrie tribute albums. The first was a tribute concert performed soon after Guthrie's death in 1967. Dylan performs (his first live show since his motorbike accident the year before) three incendiary versions of songs of Woody's with The Band (then known as The Crackers): I Ain't Got No Home, Dear Mrs. Roosevelt and The Grand Coulee Dam. After being long-deleted on LP, it's now available on CD as Tribute to Woody Guthrie.

Twenty years later, Dylan's to be found singing a great version of Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd on A Vision Shared: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, alongside Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson and U2.

George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 contains Dylan's first live performance since The Isle of Wight festival in 1969. He still has some of that country twang in his voice from Nashville Skyline. I get tingles down my spine when George introduces him with 'I'd like to bring on a friend of us all… Mr Bob Dylan'. The 2005 reissue contains a previously unreleased Dylan performance, Love Minus Zero/No Limit.

The Band's farewell concert, The Last Waltz, released as a film by Martin Scorsese, contains a few Dylan songs on the 2CD set, and an extra one (Hazel) on the 4CD box set.

On Timeless, a tribute album to Hank Williams released in 2001, Dylan does a fine version of Hank's Can't Get You Off My Mind. On Enjoy Every Sandwich: the Songs of Warren Zevon is a live version of Dylan performing Zevon's Mutineer.

Last but not least, is Dylan's own tribute album, his 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, released in 1997. A great line up, from Stevie Wonder and Lou Reed to Neil Young and Johnny Cash, it's a very mixed bag with Dylan performing a few, rather poor, solo numbers at the end.

On other people's albums
Dylan crops up on lots of albums by other artists – either he's written a song, singing in the background or blowing on his harp (possibly all three).

After the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, Dylan wouldn't play live again until 1974, with the exception of a few (presumably, seeing as he forgets the words) drunken numbers performed with The Band on New Year's Eve 1971. The remastered Rock of Ages CD by The Band contains these songs (When I Paint My Masterpiece, Don't Ya Tell Henry and Like a Rolling Stone) on the bonus disc.

On Leonard Cohen's Phil Spector-produced Death of a Ladies Man, Dylan can be heard whining on backing vocals for the hilarious Don't Go Home With Your Hard On. Sign Language is a nice, if throwaway, song written by Dylan and sung with Eric Clapton on his No Reason To Cry album. On her Songs For The New Depression album, Bette Midler duets with Dylan on his Buckets of Rain (though they sing it as Nuggets of Rain). Dylan wrote a song on U2's Rattle and Hum double LP.

With the 1980s 'supergroup' The Traveling Wilburys, along with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, Dylan recorded two albums, Vol. 1 and Vol, 3 (there is no Vol. 2). Much of it is great; certainly a lot better than most of Dylan's solo 1980s output. The Rhino reissued version contains a few bonus tracks.

Singles/EPs/Freebies
Live at Carnegie Hall 1963 contains six songs from the famous concert. Released as an EP in 2005, I got a free copy from Virgin Records in Oxford Street. HMV likewise gave away Live & Rare EPs 1 and 2, containing three or four live performances from the late 90s-2000.

Mark Ronson's pointless 2007 remix of Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) came out as several Maxi-Singles with the original Dylan version, Ronson's version and a seemingly random live Dylan track from the 2000s, such as Down Along the Cove from June 2004.

Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits and Best Ofs are annoying, for the Dylan fan may be forced to buy them if they contain a rarity or two, which they usually do. But possibly the only one worth owning is More Greatest Hits/Greatest Hits Vol. II, a double LP (the original 1971 American version of which contained the great Milton Glaser Dylan poster inside) and CD containing six rarities: Watching the River Flow, When I Paint My Masterpiece, a live Tomorrow is a Long Time, I Shall Be Released, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere and Down in the Flood (all the Basement Tapes songs are different versions, recorded with Happy Traum in 1971). There's a great transition between the clapping at the end of Tomorrow is a Long Time and the start of of When I Paint My Masterpiece.

Foreign releases
The Australian and Japanese Masterpieces, another Greatest Hits compilation, contains enough rarities to warrant a purchase. Quite rare and expensive nowadays (I got mine cheap when I lived in Sydney), the 3CD set contains a live version of Just Like Tom Thumb Blues (originally the B side of I Want You) from Liverpool in 1966, arguably his most powerful performance ever. The other rarities are Mixed Up Confusion (different mix to the Biograph version), George Jackson, Rita May and Spanish is the Loving Tongue.

Japan's catchily-titled Bob Dylan Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years Of Great Concert Performances (couldn't they have waited another year to call it an even forty?) has a bunch of live rarities, including three from Portsmouth, England, 2000 (what a concert!), Dead Man, Dead Man from New Orleans 1981, another great concert which needs a Bootleg Series release and Grand Coulee Dam from the Woody Guthrie Tribute.

We English generally wouldn't call something from the States as foreign, but it is, so it gets included here: the Starbucks' Live at the Gaslight 1962 release. Though apparently incomplete, it's great.

Semi-official Bootlegs
There's been lots of these released recently (due to the same lack of applicable copyright as with the recent Springsteen 1975 concert CD), some of dubious quality and value. Transmissions, Re-Transmissions and Classic Airwaves are cheap-looking and priced (got mine at Poundland) containing Dylan TV performance recordings. They get pretty bad reviews on Amazon but I think they're okay. In particular, Classic Airwaves contains three performances from the John Hammond Show, September 1975 (previously available on bootlegs Songs for Patty Valentine and Passed Over and Rolling Thunder). I believe this was the first time Dylan had performed Hurricane and Oh Sister; there's also a great version of Simple Twist of Fate ('She should have caught me in prime / She would have stayed with me') which gets me every time I hear it.

Two recent radio show releases are of great historical value. Folksinger's Choice captures Dylan aged twenty, a complete unknown, chatting away, already mythologising his own past, with Cynthia Gooding and singing eleven songs, mainly covers, in 1962. A perfection companion to this, Studs Terkel's Wax Museum, is just a year later, but now all the songs Dylan sings are originals. He'd just completed his final Freewheelin' session. This, and the rest, as they say, is history.

DVDs
Eat the Document and Renaldo & Clara are yet to be officially released but Pennebaker's Dont Look Back, Peckinpah's Pat Garratt & Billy the Kid, Scorsese's The Last Waltz and No Direction Home, Todd Haynes' I'm Not There and Murray Lerner's The Other Side of the Mirror are all excellent. I have a soft spot for Masked and Anonymous too.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The website searchingforagem.com contains over 300 web pages, cataloging every Dylan release in the world. I believe it's the work of just one man, Alan Fraser.

Happy 70th birthday, Bob!

'May you stay forever young.'

Expect expectingrain.com to have a meltdown any minute now.

Image adapted from the famous poster by Milton Glaser (left) and a Dylan advert in Playboy magazine, September 1976.

Lookalikes #6: Ted Croner album covers

Top right: Bob Dylan's Modern Times (2006); all other images from Luna's Penthouse CD (1995). Luna formed after the break up of Galaxie 500. If you like Galaxie 500, you'll like Luna. All images by Ted Croner, a key member of the New York School of photography in the 1940s and 50s. Yes, they're meant to be out of focus.

Songs for Bobby

I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked the Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn't help me either
The Who, The Seeker (1971)

According to dylancoveralbums.com there are now over 31,000 individual covers of Bob Dylan songs. But how many songs are there actually about Dylan? Quite a few actually, though most seem to be parodies, along with a couple of open love songs about him (maybe it's easier to mock than to love).

Joan Baez (in perhaps her best original song; she's long said it's not about Dylan but we all know it is) on Diamonds and Rust (1975) refers to Dylan as 'the unwashed phenomenon / The original vagabond'. Joan, usually when covering his songs in the 1970s, would do a pretty good impression of Dylan's voice.

Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, has never hidden the fact she adores Dylan. She's even on record as saying she wants to have his baby. In Song for Bobby (2007), the best song by far on her Jukebox album, she pleads, 'Can I finally tell you to be my man?'

Dylan was a key early influence on David Bowie, and on Song for Bob Dylan (1971), Bowie sings that Dylan has a voice 'like sand and glue'. Andy Warhol was apparently upset that Bowie put his song about Warhol next to Song for Bob Dylan on his album Hunky Dory. The relationship between Dylan and Warhol was somewhat tempestuous. Perhaps they were two sides of the same coin. Paranoid Warhol famously gave Dylan one of his Elvis prints in the 1960s and wondered what happened to it; according to rumour, Dylan either: used it as a dartboard; gave it away, or swapped it for a sofa. There's an amusing comic strip about the pair called Bob Hates Andy.

Last Man Standing (2005) by Bon Jovi was inspired by the death of another legend: 'When Johnny Cash died, I picked up my guitar and got the idea that Bob Dylan was the last man standing, the last of the real gods,' Jon Bon Jovi says. 'It was for Dylan, Cash, Lennon, Elvis – that's what I was thinking.'

'See those real live calloused fingers / Wrapped around those guitar strings / Kiss the lips where hurt has lingered / It breaks the heart to hear him sing'

Dylan is mentioned in two songs by T-Rex. On Telegraph Sam, 'Bobby's all right / Bobby's all right / He's a natural born poet / He's just outta sight'. And on Ballrooms of Mars, 'Bob Dylan knows / And I bet Alan Freed did: / There are things in night that are better not be behold.'

I'm So Restless, from Roger McGuinn's first solo album (1973) is partly about Dylan, who plays harmonica on the song:

'Hey, Mr. D do you want me to be / A farmer a cowhand an old country boy / To get up in the a.m. and tend to the chores / And leave all my troubles behind a locked door / Layin' with my lady and strumming' on my toy / Oh, I know what you mean and it sounds good to me / But oh, Mr. D. I'm so restless'

McGuinn co-wrote many of the songs from his first album with Jacques Levy, who would collaborate with Dylan a few years later on his album Desire. Of course, with The Byrds McGuinn recorded many Dylan songs, popularising such classics as Mr Tambourine Man and All I Really Want To Do. McGuinn co-wrote with Dylan the theme tune to the film Easy Rider, Ballad of Easy Rider, and in 1975/76 he played with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.

Dylan is mentioned (often in passing and/or for a convenient rhyme) in lots of songs. The Beastie Boys are 'just chillin' like Bob Dylan' on 3 Minute Rule; 'Til Tueday 'sat in the car and listened to a Dylan tape' on Coming up Close; The Beatles sing on Yer Blues 'I feel so suicidal / Just like Dylan's Mr. Jones'; Wyclef Jean's Gone Till November has 'So I'm Knockin' on Heaven's Door like Bob Dylan' and a cameo from Dylan in the video; on Garden Party by Rick Nelson, 'Mr Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise'; John Lennon in his song God, 'I don't believe in Zimmerman' and The Plastic Ono Band's Give Peace a Chance: ' Everybody's talkin' 'bout / John and Yoko... Bobby Dylan'; Kris Kristofferson's If You Don't Like Hank Williams starts off with 'I dig Bobby Dylan and I dig Johnny Cash...'; Don't Look Back by Belle and Sebastian, 'If they follow you / Don't look back / Like Dylan in the movies', obviously referring to Dylan's Dont Look Back documentary; Hootie and the Blowfish's I Only Wanna Be With You has 'Put on a little Dylan... Ain't Bobby so cool...'; 'And things got weird / And I started growing / Bob Dylan's beard' from Bob Dylan's 49th Beard by Wilco; there's The Lonesome Ballad of Robert Zimmerman by Hogan's Fountain; Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Steve Goodman, David Blue & Me by John Wesley Harding, a dream where 'Bob plays harmonica but he plays it all wrong' and Kevin Kinney's MacDougal Blues 'Thought I'd see a million Dylans, maybe a Joni Mitchell or two...'

Dylan himself is no stranger to name-checking (usually dead) others in his songs, from Arthur Rimbaud to Napoleon. More recently though he's been 'Thinking about Alicia Keys' (Thunder on the Mountain) and 'listening to Neil Young' (on Highlands). Neil Young, perhaps returning the complement, sings 'You're invisible / you've got too many secrets / Bob Dylan said that or something like that' on his song Bandit some years later.

With Dylan's distinctive nasal whining, he seems an easy target to mock. There's a Bob Dylan Blues by Syd Barrett; Bob by Weird Al Yankovic; Blues in Bob Minor, a Subterranean Homesick Blues parody by Robert Wyatt; Paul Simon's A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission); John Lennon's Serve Yourself; Richard Belzer's The Ballad of Bob Dylan ('He was a skinny Jew, one of the few from Minnesota, they had a quota'); Protest Song by Neil Innes; Suburban Drone by The Capital Steps... and not forgetting Minutemen's Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs (though I'm not sure what category it falls into).

Best of all, a few years back, Kevin Ryan put online Dylan Hears A Who (now unfortunately taken down by Dr. Seuss Enterprises), a mash-up album of mid-sixties sounding Dylan singing Dr. Seuss poems. Ryan's nasal twang sounds exactly like Dylan circa. 1965 and apparently Ryan even played all the instruments too. It came complete with 60-style cover artwork. It's very funny and you should be able to find it somewhere on the web quite easily.

On an album of mainly cover versions (Acoustic), Everything but the Girl's Me & Bobby D comes across as a bit mean, though interesting, coming from one who presumably doesn't hero worship the man:

'Me and Bobby D don't get along that easily / You told the world, "Be free, love life" / Tell me, is it true you beat your wife? / You see, me and Bobby D don't get along that easily / You told the world, "Skip rules have fun" / Knocked her from here to kingdom come? / How many girls have you had today? / And how many bottles have you downed today? / And while you're on the skids, who's minding the kids? / Go to sleep Bobby D, here's a kiss / Don't worry your pretty head about this.'