JSngry Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Curious to hear how he handles the bridge on "I'm A Fool To Want You". That's no place to tread lightly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I like the idea of ol' Bob paying his tributes to some other great songwriters that were of an era he helped to bring to an end. Yes, there's an irony there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Bob talks a good game but this album is fucking insipid on every other level and his last few studio albums haven't been so hot either. Bob seems to have mistaken respect for tradition, 'roots' for embalming fluid because there's ZERO excuse for the lame, dead-ass music he seems happy to make. Ain't no more difficult to be lively, semi-inventive if one cares to... Shoehorning these songs into that format... why? Compare, contrast, Willie Lofton >>>>>>>>>>>>>> I'd have more interest, respect for this concept if Dylan covered Frank "A Man Alone," Rod McKuen RIP (Needless to say, one should memorize every Sinatra Capitol album before playing this Dylan turd twice.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 I'd have more interest, respect for this concept if Dylan covered Frank "A Man Alone," Rod McKuen RIP All apart from all that, that's not a bad idea. I think more singers should cover this song, it's got a potentially helluva lot more resonance than all the retro-stuffy-turkey "interpretations" of "standards" by people looking for questions to answers in songs that have already asked and answered themselves endlessly numbers of numbers of times over and then some more. But no, who wants to sing about reality any more? Hello, jazz people - LIFE IS NOT HAPPY ALL THE TIME, (in fact, if you break even over the long haul, hey, you win, more or less) THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT LIFE AND NOT PERPETUAL ORGASM. Ok? I mean, fuck "Frank Sinatra", just give me Frank Sinatra when he's being real. Bob Dylan, same deal, and Bob Dylan should be able to be real about on this song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Somehow Brian playing his usual angry dude on the internet about this release makes me like it just a little bit more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 (edited) I'd have more interest, respect for this concept if Dylan covered Frank "A Man Alone," Rod McKuen RIP All apart from all that, that's not a bad idea. I think more singers should cover this song, it's got a potentially helluva lot more resonance than all the retro-stuffy-turkey "interpretations" of "standards" by people looking for questions to answers in songs that have already asked and answered themselves endlessly numbers of numbers of times over and then some more. But no, who wants to sing about reality any more? Hello, jazz people - LIFE IS NOT HAPPY ALL THE TIME, (in fact, if you break even over the long haul, hey, you win, more or less) THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT LIFE AND NOT PERPETUAL ORGASM. Ok? ... I mean, fuck "Frank Sinatra", just give me Frank Sinatra when he's being real. Bob Dylan, same deal, and Bob Dylan should be able to be real about on this song. "A Man Alone" is an interesting album; maybe, probably 'better' than the more feted "Watertown," which tends to be overpraised for its 'classy' intentions but even at its short length, can't sustain the concept. Dylan's concept is not, a priori inane-- he can talk a good game, as noted-- but his touring band, following their leader, is jive dogshit and usually has been for decade plus. (They kicked it up several notches on "Love and Theft" and never again since, studio wise & I don't know even 21st century Dylan superfans with the fortitude for the live band, even on those rare occasions he actually lets Charlie Sexton play. (I believe Duke Robillard chafed at the reality and got fired as a result? Bandleader's world, won't argue, but telling if true.) Thus "Tempest" anything but &-- to say the least-- Pete Rugolo an infinitely more imaginative, inventive arranger-- As for arranged, conducted by Mort Garson, I bet Mort had many many stories to tell. Arthur Prysock no slouch but Morty... http://www.spaceagepop.com/garson.htm http://musicformaniacs.blogspot.com/2008/01/mort-garson-rip.html Edited February 5, 2015 by MomsMobley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 I'd have more interest, respect for this concept if Dylan covered Frank "A Man Alone," Rod McKuen RIP All apart from all that, that's not a bad idea. I think more singers should cover this song, it's got a potentially helluva lot more resonance than all the retro-stuffy-turkey "interpretations" of "standards" by people looking for questions to answers in songs that have already asked and answered themselves endlessly numbers of numbers of times over and then some more. But no, who wants to sing about reality any more? Hello, jazz people - LIFE IS NOT HAPPY ALL THE TIME, (in fact, if you break even over the long haul, hey, you win, more or less) THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT LIFE AND NOT PERPETUAL ORGASM. Ok? I mean, fuck "Frank Sinatra", just give me Frank Sinatra when he's being real. Bob Dylan, same deal, and Bob Dylan should be able to be real about on this song. Just asking -- but how many of the songs on "Only the Lonely" or "Where Are You?" are happy songs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 None, if any...but the point was that who can sing those songs today and hit the depths they richly deserve? All the "popular favorites of today", maybe not their fault, but those songs have reached the point of being "programmed" into us, we already have/know Sinatra (and others, hello Jimmy Scott, a truly sad song), we're supposed to, damn near can't help but, bring that to the table with us as listeners, and the singers have that to play on/with. The young kids of people today, it's a different thing. Sad now, or just a timeless presentation of sad? The exceptions prove the rule, but how many real exceptions are there (and I'll leve it to others to have fun on that hunt). But you hit this "I've Been To Town Thing", nobody's got THAT song ingrained into them, the lyrics are a little...disarming when you here them, it's like, is this guy wistfully ruminating or is he some permanently damaged goods, can I hug him or is he warning me that he'll strangle me once we get alone? Just what is he exactly, and to what degree? Still room for staking a claim on that one, as many claims as their could be singers. Those older songs, not so much. And I'm with Clemmoms about Watertown, at best a nice try, points for trying, but the concept is ultimately failed by the execution, at least that's my current opinion. I'm still open to reopinionating to it as time marches by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 (edited) A riposte to Robert "Bob Dylan" Zimmerman, American Asshole... never mind Tom T. Hall's long time wife & sometime musical partner Dixie died a few weeks ago... (Bob never admitted he had a black wife, did he, and if not why?) http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/feb/07/bob-dylan-shines-at-all-star-musicares-concert/ now for those who can follow vernacular music history & culture more than re-re-re-re-re-issues, 'blue ball spec' etc, also for those too young or northern to know the glories of country music c. 1928-1980-ish. By 1972 or so Tom T. Hall was pretty much spent, gave his everything for the previous 5-6-7 years as transformative songwriter, expanding, commenting upon, exploiting country tradition & tropes etc... We can even date The End fairly specifically, the two-- nothing else-- great songs on "We All Got Together," they being "Turn It, Turn It On, Turin It On" (murder ballad) & "She Gave Her Heart To Jethro" (love + women's sexual emancipation song). T's worst songs are sentimental, banal, unlistenable... true. HOWEVER, considering TTH wrote a two or three dozen brilliant songs in the years preceding... he gets a pass, permanently, including songs he didn't record but others did like "The Last Public Hanging In Old West Virginia," first recorded by Flatt & Scruggs, who botched it, later & much more powerfully by the great bluesy/bluegrass singer/banjo player Dave Evans-- (T. himself never released it though presumably it exists as demo somewhere?) Meanwhile Dylan spends his croaks out insipid crap about John Lennon (the real John Lennon would vomit if heard)... And he did co-write "Catfish"... Meanwhile Tom T. Hall wrote-- and Bobby Bare in 1971 pushed his audeience by covering-- "Mama Bake A Pie, Daddy Kill A Chicken" (some might legitimately prefer T's own version, which is excellent)-- People starin' at me as they wheel me down the ramp toward my plane The war is over for me I've forgotten everything except the pain Thank you sir and yes sir it was worth it for the old red-white-and-blue And since I won't be walking I suppose I'll save some money buying shoes The bottle hidden underneath the blanket over my two battered legs I can see see the stewardess make over me and ask were you afraid I say why no I'm Superman and couldn't find a phone booth quite in time A G.I. gets a lotta laughs if he remembers all the funny lines Mama bake a pie daddy kill a chicken your son is comin' home 11: 35 Wednesday night Mama will be crying daddy's gonna say son did they treat you good My uncle will be drunk and he'll say boy they do some real great things with wood The letter that she wrote me said goodbye she couldn't wait and lots of luck The bottle underneath the blanket feels just like an old friend to my touch I know she'll come and see me but I bet she never once looks at my legs She'll talk about the weather and the dress she wore the July 4th Parade Lord I love her and I don't believe this bottle's gonna get her off my mind I see here in the paper where they say the war is just a waste of time Mama bake a pie daddy kill a chicken your son is comin' home 11:35 Wednesday night Edited February 7, 2015 by MomsMobley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Apart from all that notwithstandngs, my copy of the AARP magazine just arrived and I did NOT get a free CD in it, so fuck you AARP, fuck you Bob Dylan, fuck you this whole wide world of incompetent incontinent incomvertpoops, you don't love me, I don't love you, so let's kill each other and call it a day, supper's waitin' at home, and I don't know, it just might be chicken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 I think Moms got your copy of the CD, Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 And I just found out the IRS is no longer proving 1040 Instruction books at the library. Kill me now, please. This world done gone TOO FAR wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) I guess you know Jethro went crazy; we've all been crazy sometimes They fixed up his lungs and his fever; but they could not fix up his mind He married a beautiful redhead; of women they say she's a pearl She gave her heart to Jethro, and her body to the whole damn world There were signs beside the road like "Jesus Saves" And "Relieve yourself the fast and gentle way" I was lookin' for an old man who lived way back in these hills Who just might have a story I could tell Pretty soon the blacktop disappeared I felt the car change to a lower gear I took a drink of liquor just to chase away the chill I was 27 miles from Olive Hill ... compare to this tripe; love the 'what do you mean 'we' white man' analogy of John Lennon to a 'slave,' I suspect Nat Turner, Harriett Tubman, Frederick Douglass might think otherwise. Sailing through the trade-winds Bound for the south Rags on your back just like any other slave They tied your hands and they clamped your mouth Wasn't no way out of that deep dark cave Shine your light, move it on, you burn so bright, roll on John *** "Slave" ----> Edited February 8, 2015 by MomsMobley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John L Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 Dylan's speech at the LA tribute to him a few days ago is getting a lot of media attention. I found it a bit surprising that Dylan would be so concerned at this point in his career about people who might not have liked, or still don't like, his music. The comment about Merle Haggard was especially weird. Since Haggard had never yet praised him in public, Dylan assumed that Haggard doesn't like his music and cut into him for that reason, indicating his preference for Buck Owens in Bakersfield who has covered some of his songs. Haggard's response was very magnanimous - He indicated that he has always been a big fan of Dylan since the 60s. Maybe Bob had a few too many drinks before that speech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted February 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 Bob Dylan's full MusiCares speech Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) Dixie Hall obituary, note lead photo-- http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/01/17/dixie-hall-prolific-bluegrass-songwriter-dies/21914181/ whether that's Dylan's hair or a badly died wig, that he's essentially human dogshit, even at this stage of life, is amazing. Despite these many decades of pretending he himself is some hardscrabble Appalachin or Dust Bowl or Permian Basin honky-tonk etc. Compare Tom T. Hall or Merle Haggard's biography to Bob's... middle-to-upper middle class bar mitzvah boy, college dropout who wanted for nothing except maybe a few days when Dave Van Ronk's kettle was empty... And Bob worked hard, earned it, fine, but if Wiggy is bitter and lacking empathy NOW... T. Hall was one of eight children and his father was a bricklayer and part-time minister. Hall described the family home as ‘a frame house of pale-grey boards and a porch from which to view the dusty road and the promise of elsewhere beyond the hills - the birthplace of a dreamer’... Hall’s mother died of cancer when he was 13 and, two years later, his father was injured in a shooting accident, which necessitated Hall leaving school to look after the family. While Tom T. Hall was writing "Mama Bake A Pie, Daddy Kill A Chicken," here's roughly what Dylan was doing, this after the crap "Nashville Skyline" (that makes Gram Parsons seem like Ernest Tubb) If dogs run free, then what must be Must be, and that is all True love can make a blade of grass Stand up straight and tall In harmony with the cosmic sea True love needs no company It can cure the soul, it can make it whole If dogs run free Compare with-- The man who preached the funeral Said it really was a simple way to die He laid down to rest one afternoon And never opened up his eyes They hired me and Fred and Joe To dig the grave and carry up some chairs It took us seven hours And I guess, we must have drunk a case of beer My names in the paper where I took the Boy Scouts to hike My hands are all dirty from working on my little boy's bike The preacher came by and I talked for a minute with him My wife's in the kitchen and Margie's at the Lincoln Park Inn And I know why she's there I've been there before But I made a promise that I wouldn't cheat anymore I try to ignore it but I know she's in there my friend My mind's on a number and Margie is at the Lincoln Park Inn Edited February 8, 2015 by MomsMobley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blind-blake Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 Chill dude. You're gonna bust a blood vessel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danasgoodstuff Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 And I just found out the IRS is no longer proving 1040 Instruction books at the library. Kill me now, please. This world done gone TOO FAR wrong. I work at a library (as I may have mentioned) and I sagree with this X infinity! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 now you wanna talk someone who coulda made a great small group standards album, buddy emmons goddamn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZP3y1ow9QU not shabby for an 83-year-old fronting a big band either-- old Texas stubborn voice preservation & why not, he'd done everything he could in honky-tonk Ray Price and Tom T. Hall long time friends, Ray even gave Tom chickens, a gift from the heart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) And finally, since Zimmy gets a lot of bullshit play for his 'historical conciousness' or whatever... The idea that Kristofferson represented a schism with Tom T. Hall is utterly false. Indeed, though their styles were different, it's arguable there would not have been a Kristofferson without Tom T. Hall coming first; not formally so much as professionally, pushing at Nashville from within, etc. And if, as admitted, TTH didn't write nearly as well after 1972 as he did before, Kristofferson's 'great' songs 1972-1982 are... where? Cocaine, Hollywood and Rita Coolidge took their toll and he would come back but let's stop bullshitting, the only real schism should between Bob and his fucking wigmaker. Bobby Bare This Is Bare Country (Mercury, 1971) A1 How I Got To Memphis – T. T. Hall A2 I'm Her Hoss If I Never Win A Race - D. Turner A3 Mrs. Jones, Your Daughter Cried All Night – T. T. Hall A4 The Fool, Written-By – N. Ford A5 It's Freezing In El Paso – Billy Joe Shaver B1 Come Sundown – K. Kristofferson B2 Woman, You Have Been A Friend To Me – T. T. Hall B3 Don't It Make You Want To Go Home – J. Smith B4 I Took A Memory To Lunch – T. T. Hall B5 Leaving On A Jet Plane - J. Denver B6 Mary Ann Regrets – Harlan Howard Bobby would record more TTH, Kris and Billy Joe Shaver, praise be. And his cover of "Leaving On A Jet Plane" is the best there ever was or will be. Edited February 9, 2015 by MomsMobley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Looks like Herb Alpert sat in for him on that cover photo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Dixie Hall obituary, note lead photo-- Compare Tom T. Hall or Merle Haggard's biography to Bob's... middle-to-upper middle class bar mitzvah boy, college dropout who wanted for nothing except maybe a few days when Dave Van Ronk's kettle was empty... And Bob worked hard, earned it, fine, but if Wiggy is bitter and lacking empathy NOW... And what does that reference have to do with anything? (my italics/bold) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 I'm really enjoying "Shadows in the Night." I'm also enjoying the T-Bone Burnett production "Lost on the River." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Dixie Hall obituary, note lead photo-- Compare Tom T. Hall or Merle Haggard's biography to Bob's... middle-to-upper middle class bar mitzvah boy, college dropout who wanted for nothing except maybe a few days when Dave Van Ronk's kettle was empty... And Bob worked hard, earned it, fine, but if Wiggy is bitter and lacking empathy NOW... And what does that reference have to do with anything? (my italics/bold) Please Lee, is that even a serious question? What do you think it has to do with, besides personal and community identity, at least a few strains of American historical narrative (Jewish diaspora, Upper Midwest of same) etc etc. I'm drastically understating: it means everything and to evade that is to be complicit with historical anti-Semitism... You know the story of Arnold Schoenberg's conversions and why, right? (The economics of it matter, greatly, also. Compare Dylan's background, his ideas on labor value with the biographies of Tom T. Hall and Merle Haggard.) The schtick "Dylan" playes with in other people's voices and now in his own absurdly dyed hair (or wighat) dotage is inane: like he's one of the oppressed... but not those oppressed, whose tales remain great, important stories! (Insert your favorite I.B. Singer & Cynthia Ozick & Philip Roth here.) Instead this bitter schmuck Dylan plays like Mr. Americana, the voice of our collective historical concious of verities etc... It's farcical. Indeed, it's so farcicaal at age 73 he still lashes out at Merle Haggard and especially the great Tom T. Hall and even Jerry Leiber, just to keep it jazzy-- That "Bob Dylan" forsook his heritage-- baruch attah adonai...-- but is still pissed off at Jerry Leiber essentially called him a fucking fraud-- which he was and is-- how does that work? Did Dylan's $$$ make him crazy or is it the hair dye? "He was playing a role - I never believed he was real. Had a lot of chicks? So did Mickey Rooney. The fact that he was hip, inscrutable, and quiet - this motherfucker is self-aggrandizing and full of shit." (That's from Josh Alan Friedman --> http://www.amazon.com/Tell-Truth-Until-They-Bleed , you likely know & already love his work with artist brother Drew) Sometimes Dylan may fraud of genius, he may be the fraud of "If Dogs Run Free" but to front on Merle Haggard or Tom T. Hall-- -- and yes, lest we forget, Tom T. Hall's wife of four decades died a few weeks ago, think Bob said Kaddish for Dixie, tho' she knew far far far more of what, who Dylan pretends to be, from Mother Maybelle and Faron Young on down? Yeah, me neither. (You know Lenny Bruce at Carnegie Hall where he extols this song right? Dylan's "Lenny Bruce" is trying to tell us something but dopily doesn't know how. Dylan had fifteen years longer to think about it and Phil Ochs' "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore" still blows it away.) So "Dylan" does have a "right" to be a touchy about Leiber and, classless wannabe salt-of-the-earther that he is-- though actually he's been a show biz functionary, however idiosyncratic, since he was what 19-years-old?-- he let Jerry have it. However, as noted in previous posts, you 'fact check' Dylan's nonsense re: Kristofferson & Tom T. Hall, none of it holds up: chronologically, 'politically,' aesthetically, etc. Shalom! Edited February 10, 2015 by MomsMobley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Mainly horseshit from the usual angry young / old man. The smartest guy in the room syndrome. At least no "douchebag" references yet. I'm done with this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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