Alexander

She's not Russian! That's Mammy Yokum from Dogpatch!

The thing that bugs me about Clem's attitude here is twofold: 1) Clem seems to think that in matters of taste his word is absolute law. Don't agree with him? Well, that's because you're WRONG. This Dylan album is substandard. Don't think it is? Well, you're WRONG. Clem says it's substandard, and that's what it is. Oh, you think differently, do you? Well, that's because you're a pathetic FANBOY who will forgive anything as long as it comes from one of your favorites. My favorite bit was when Clem claimed that "Modern Times" "sounds better than it is." That's like saying, "this stake tastes better than it really is. Actually, it's a lousy cut and it's been massively overcooked, but because it tastes so good you don't notice how bad it really is." In other words, "You're stupid for liking something you like. Now stop liking it right away." 2) Clem seems to be of the opinion that knowledge is virtue. He knows about something that I don't, therefore he's a better judge of music than I am. I've been listening to music my whole life (going on 36 years now) and I've been listening seriously for more than half of that time. I've amassed a huge collection of music of all kinds (jazz, blues, classical, country, rock, pop, folk, funk, soul, etc). Have I heard everything there is to hear? God, no! Do I know absolutely everything there is to know about music? No way. I'm a student of music (not in the formal sense) and I relish every opportunity to learn. I'm also constantly on the lookout for recommendations of good music I may not have heard or have undervalued. However, I am a knowledgable listener and the path I've taken has given me tremendous insight. Is it the same path Clem has taken? No. And Clem seems to think that because I've taken a different path from him, that my insights cannot be as valid as his own. As hard as this may be for Clem to accept, I reserve the right to like anything that sounds good to my ears, even if they don't sound good to his. Even if the things I like are (shudder) POPULAR. Yes, in addition to Dylan I also like Eminem. In addition to Donald Fagen I also like Gnarls Barkley. In addition to Sarah Vaughn I also like Christina Aguilera. I listen to the Georgia Pot Lickers AND OutKast. My tastes are my tastes and I absolutely refuse to apologize for them.

Been listening to what could be considered Dylan's country, blues, folk, and r&b roots for many a year. I recognize what Dylan cribs and often know where he cribbed it from. And yet I still like "Modern Times." My ignorance is boundless apparently... And while I don't have the Willie Atlantic set, I do have quite a bit of Willie Nelson...

My God...you're right! I have been tricked! That'll teach me to trust my own ears and taste rather than Clem's judgment! Imagine if I hadn't been warned...I might have gone the rest of my life thinking I liked something I really didn't like!

My God...you're right! I have been tricked! That'll teach me to trust my own ears and taste rather than Clem's judgment! Imagine if I hadn't been warned...I might have gone the rest of my life thinking I liked something I really didn't like!

She is possibly the most beautiful creature on Earth... Classic beauty...I'm smitten. I don't know what it is about her, but she is really amazing. She really fits the period of the video. She's a little old for it now, but she would have made the PERFECT Delores Haze...I can see Humbert getting all bent out of shape over her.

I saw Bob many times (at least four or five) in the late 80s and thought that the shows were really horrible. Dylan was openly hostile, he ran through the lyrics to his songs twice as fast as the musicians could play them. Each song was a round of "name that Dylan tune" where audience members whispered among themselves trying to figure out if this was a new song they hadn't heard before, or an old song that they simply could not recongnize. The last time I saw him was in May of 1991. It was by far the best show I had ever seen. Not only was he understandable, he seemed happy to be there. He even pulled out "The Man in Me" (this was waaaay before "The Big Lebowski"), one of my favorite tunes from "New Morning." At that point, I decided that it was best to quit while I was ahead, and I haven't seen him live since. I'd consider it, however, given the high quality of his recorded output in recent years. And to Clem, who unfavorably compared "Modern Times" to "Under The Red Sky"...I happen to LOVE "Under the Red Sky" and think that it's one of Dylan's most underrated albums. So there.

Popeye's spending a LOT of time in the bathroom lately...

Personally, I think that *some* people are going to be negative in their reaction to this record no matter how good it is. Why? Well, for starters people seem to uncritically accept whatever Dylan does as a work of pure genius, so we automatically have to adjust our opinion accordingly. Secondly, this album is very, very popular and there are a lot of people who immediately dislike anything that achieves that kind of popular acclaim. I know a lot of OutKast fans who didn't just stop liking them when "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" came out, or even "Stankonia." No! They "sold out" with "Aquemini," or even "ATLiens." For a lot of fans, OutKast is "Two Dope Boyz in a Cadillac" and everything else is just Dre's ego trippin'. So it is for some Dylan fans. Sure, "Blood on the Tracks" is OKAY...you know, if you like "great music" and all that. But every REAL Dylan fan knows that he really started sucking the day he stepped into the studio to record his first album. The shit he recorded at the Gaslight? *That's* the real thing...

Here's a beautiful music video for "When The Deal Goes Down" off the new album. It stars Scarlett Johansen. Two great tastes... Scarlett/Dylan video

I already had 'em all, so I passed for now. I might upgrade the Jackie at some point in the near future, though...

I have two. A direct drive which I love dearly (everything I play on it sounds great) and a belt driven table that I keep in the basement. It probably works, but I don't think it works very well...

I love watching the record go round on the turntable too. It's one of those sights you never get tired of...

I love Slow Train, Infidels, Planet Waves, Oh Mercy, Love and Theft and Street Legal. Don't really care for Empire Burlesque...

"Every time I go to town The boys keep kicking my dog around..."

How do we know he's listening to jazz? Maybe he's listening to this...

I don't think that Dylan is "always right" and must be defended at all costs. I just think that this particular issue is one in which Dylan is not wrong. Check my posts in the past. You'll see that I've always maintained that copyright laws are out of date and incapable of dealing with the realities of the creative process. The idea that every new composition is wholly original is laughable. Mankind hasn't had a wholly original idea in a millenia (if not longer). Everything is derived from something else. I'm not saying that Dylan has the right to plagerize, but rather that Dylan isn't doing anything that's different from what anyone else has done.

Yeah, I found that. I've been listening to the shows (I'm up to episode seven, I think) and they're AMAZING. Great stuff. And Dylan's patter is wonderful.

Agreed. Moreover, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, and Lightnin' Hopkins all "borrowed" lyrics and melodies from other musicians. There are whole books written on the sources of Robert Johnson's songs. I don't recall Johnson ever crediting anyone other than himself. Same goes for Muddy and Willie. This is not to say that they weren't artists of the highest order (they were) but that our standards of "originality" are unreasonable. Everybody has ears and other songs are going to find their way into original composition. That's why George Harrison was quite honestly able to claim that he didn't realize that he was "sampling" "He's So Fine" when he wrote "My Sweet Lord." Remember, in the Mississippi Delta there was no such thing as ownership of a song. All songs were in the air. It was only when (white) businessmen came along that questions of copyright and intellectual property became an issue. Did Muddy steal "Mannish Boy" from Bo Diddly? Did Jimmy Page steal "Whole Lotta Love" from Muddy Waters? Does it really matter?

Dylan has been "sampling" folk/blues melodies and lyrics since the beginning of his career. That's part of his genius: He takes preexisting materials and reworks them into something new. Truth be told, this is what *all* artists do to a greater or lesser extent. This is why I've never had a problem with the practice of hip-hop DJs sampling other songs in their material. The question isn't: "Where did you steal that from?" but rather "How artfully did you use what you stole?" Listen to "The Anthology of American Folk Music." It's the source of many Dylan lyrics and melodies. "Man On The Street" takes it's melody from "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (both songs begin with the lyric "I'll tell you a song, it ain't very long..."). "I Wish I Were A Mole In The Ground" contains the lyric, "I don't like a railroad man...He'll kill you when he can...Drink up your blood like wine..." This lyric comes up in Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again" when Dylan says that "Railroad men drink up your blood like wine." Another example is Richard Brown's "James Alley Blues" in which Brown says that "I'll give you sugar for sugar, and give you salt for salt." Dylan uses "sugar for sugar and salt for salt" in "Crash on the Levee (Down In The Flood)." Then there's "Girl From The North Country" which has the same source as Simon and Garfunkle's "Scarborough Fair." These are just a few examples. There are many others. How does what Dylan does on "Modern Times" differ from these earlier examples (other than the fact that they are all folk tunes that are long out of copyright, if they were ever copyrighted at all).

As T.S. Eliot once noted, "Immature poets borrow. Mature poets steal."

Yeesh! Just think of the great story this will make when you're all better! Nothing like medical horror stories to liven up a party... Get well soon, Paul!

speaking of Elvis, the video for Veronica is good too. It's great how he briefly discusses the subject matter before and after the song. I'm sure that helped a lot of people "get" what the song was about "Veronica" is one of two videos Costello made ("I Wanna Be Loved" is the other) where he did *not* lip-synch the song, but rather sang along with it (you can hear him doing it in the video). At some points, he just sit there staring at the camera while the vocal track plays behind him. I always thought this was a great "protest" against the practice of lip-synching. I know this is hardly an issue today, but I remember being in school in the early 80s and debating the question of lip-synching with my classmates. Some of them were convinced that the singer was really singing in the video and not miming a pre-recorded track. Those were the days when some of my classmates had to be told that professional wrestling was fake. Just for the record, yes I have always been surrounded by idiots.

Another great one from Elvis. This time Daryl Hall drops by to add (as Costello once noted) "some effortless high harmony parts." The "Dream Date" concept is funny too... The Only Flame In Town Costello once described the making of this video. He talked about how "the camera loved" Daryl Hall. Costello, by contrast, had to endure the director screaming at the make-up artist to "make [him] look handsome." I don't think Costello looks so bad, but obviously Pete got the best date (I love when he twirls his drumstick).

Costello was never a maker of great videos (I always had the feeling that he considered it an unpleasant chore), but I've always loved the video for "Everyday I Write the Book." This video was my introduction to Costello, in fact. I saw it at a great aunt's house (she had a son who always had the TV on and tuned to MTV) and never forgot it. Not only is it a great song, but the Chuck and Di lookalikes are a scream! Everyday I Write the Book