READIN

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

🦋 Losing oneself

Listening to The Basement Tapes today, I was thinking about how the opposition between immersing oneself in the experience of listening and retaining one's identity through analysis, is a good framework for thinking about art and the creative process. I've been listening to this record pretty frequently over the last couple of weeks and thinking about writing a blog post concerned with how it is different from Dylan's other music that I like, and similar to The Band's other music that I like, or along those lines -- but then there are moments (especially during "Bessie Smith") where I'm suddenly singing along and identifying with the music instead of thinking about it. I love those moments.

posted afternoon of November 10th, 2007: Respond
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Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

🦋 Bob's Mix

I bought a record at Starbucks! I feel so dirty! But listen, it's a really good record: Bob Dylan, Music That Matters to Me -- a mix of tracks Bob has put together as representative of what he's listening to these days. (In the excellent liner notes, he says, "Some people have favorite songs, but I have songs of the minute -- songs that I'm listening to right now. And if you ask me about one of those songs a year from now, I might not even remember who did it, but at the moment it's everything to me.... I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.")

The track list is just great. I think I've only ever heard 5 or fewer of the 16 tracks previously -- and many of the performers I had never heard of before today -- there is blues, country, reggae, Hawai'ian, jazz and more. And what really makes the record -- what makes me happy to have it and want to listen to it as a record, rather than as a collection of songs, is Dylan's commentary. The liner notes are a small booklet, with one long paragraph for each song, and they are frankly much better writing than I have oherwise seen from Dylan's pen. The way they are written gives you a sense you're listening to him speak, and he's in a really good, congenial mood, grinning and saying "Now listen to this one, it's gonna blow your mind!"

Listening to the first song, "Do Unto Others", is funny because the opening riff is exactly the same as "Back in the USSR" -- Dylan says he thinks John Lennon probably heard the recording at a party sometime and forgot about it -- Ellen asked Sylvia if she knew what the lyric "they say, do unto others/ what you would have them do unto you" means; Sylvia nodded and said, in a bored-little-girl tone, "Yeah, what goes around comes around...."

Full track listing below the fold, mainly because I could not find it online anywhere.

1. Pee Wee Crayton, "Do Unto Others"
2. Clancy Eccles, "Don't Brag, Don't Boast"
3. Stanley Bros., "The Fields Have Turned Brown"
4. Gus Viseur, "Flambée Montalbanaise"
5. Red Prysock, "Hand Clappin'"
6. Sol Ho'opi'i, "I Like You"
7. Ray Price, "I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)"
8. Stuff Smith, "I'se A Muggin' (Part 2)"
9. Charley Jordan, "Keep It Clean"
10. Junior Welles, "Little By Little (I'm Losing You)"
11. Patty and the Emblems, "Mixed-Up, Shook-up Girl"
12. Gétatchèw Kassa, "Tezeta (Fast)"
13. Flaco Jiménez, "Victimas del Huracán Beulah"
14. Wanda Jackson, "I Gotta Know"
15. Billy Holiday, "I Hear Music"
16. Junior Parker, "Pretty Baby"

↻...done

posted evening of March 26th, 2008: Respond
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Sunday, November second, 2008

🦋 Changing Times

Slacktivist posted this video yesterday, with the note that there are only three more days -- well today there are only two more days; and this is the perfect version of the perfect song for this moment.

Mmm... that makes me want to hear Bob singing this song. Here he is in 1964:

(Dylan is 25 in this video; Chapman is 28 above.)

posted morning of November second, 2008: Respond
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Monday, November 17th, 2008

🦋 Modern Times

Janis lent me a copy of Dylan's recent disk, Modern Times. The first thing that hits me listening to it is what a huge range of variation there is in Dylan's work. I mean listening to this you recognize instantly who is the author -- his voice and his personality are unmistakable -- but it's a brand-new sound, not quite like anything he's done in the last 40+ years. (That I can think of anyway. I don't have an encyclopædic familiarity with his work, but I do know a lot of it. The closest thing to this that I can think of, is Basement Tapes; but that's not at all a perfect match.)

It's a groovy sound, too, different though it is from any of the Dylans I know and love. It's going to take a bunch more listening to really get to know the songs -- on first listen it seems like the real highlights of the record are "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "The Levee's Gonna Break"; the only song I really didn't like was "Workingman's Blues #2" -- it seemed plodding and lifeless. A couple of the other songs were not perfect lyrically -- the quality of inspiration that you feel in Dylan's best work was not always present -- but the instrumental power carried them. I'm looking forward to keeping this on my car stereo for the next while and listening to it every day until I really get to know the songs. Also interested in finding out more about the source tunes these are based on; the only one I really know is Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'."

posted evening of November 17th, 2008: Respond
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Thursday, November 20th, 2008

🦋 Notes toward a review of Modern Times

I've been listening to Dylan's Modern Times a lot over the last couple of days, and having some reactions that seem like I could put them together into an article or essay. For now I'll just list some of what I'm thinking about, off the top of my head.

• I like the record. It's nowhere near Dylan's best stuff; but it's a pleasure to listen to and to move with.
• One of the things I really love in Dylan's music is the way he creates a persona in his songs. I think here his focus wavers and sometimes the lyrics will not ring true, not go with the persona. One thing that occurred to me is that maybe here Dylan is not singing in a character, just being himself.
• The songs are long and do not always hold my attention. That's not necessarily bad -- when my attention wanders the song is happening in the background, then I come back and slip back into the song.
• The songs fall roughly into three groups, two that I like and one not: (A) "Spirit on the Water", "When the Deal Goes Down", "Ain't Talkin", and "Beyond the Horizon"; (B) "Thunder on the Mountain", "Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Someday Baby", "The Levee's Gonna Break"; (C) "Workingman's Blues #2" (which I'm maybe just putting in a group by itself so I can not like it.) "Nettie Moore" I'm reserving judgement on. Group (A) is more melodic, Group (B) is hard rocking, driving beat, often with a blues structure. (B) is generally more exciting; I really love "Beyond the Horizon" though, it might be the most moving song on the record.
• I really like hearing Dylan with a band behind him, and it's especially nice to hear the violin and cello. The band's sound might have been what prompted me to compare it to Basement Tapes, I think the comparison was mostly spurious.

posted evening of November 20th, 2008: Respond

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

🦋 Red Sails in the Sunset

So Wikipædia's page about Modern Times asserts that "Beyond the Horizon" is based on "Red Sails in the Sunset" by Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams. I don't know the song so I looked around and found several versions of it on YouTube -- Tab Hunter, The Platters, The Beatles, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino. And more! (No idea really, but I'm assuming the Cole version is the standard.) And... huh. It's a kind of pretty song, and I guess I can see where the idea comes from that "Beyond the Horizon" takes this as its source material -- similarities in structure and topic are not hard to see. But it's not moving me to anything like the degree to which I was moved by the Dylan song. Look at this! YouTube user teclo64 created a video for "Beyond the Horizon" using Chaplin footage from The Gold Rush and Modern Times:

posted evening of November 23rd, 2008: 3 responses

Monday, March 30th, 2009

🦋 Beyond Here Lies Nothin'

Bob Dylan's new record Together Through Life is coming out soon; at least for today you can download one of the tracks, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," for free from bobdylan.com. I'm listening to it right now and pretty happy with it on first impressions. The feg maniac who alerted me to its availability thought the production values were not great, and I can see that; but I'm kind of liking the rawness of the sound. It sounds like rock and roll -- I'm looking forward to hearing the record.

(Later:) ...I'm just looking at that picture of Bob and loving it. The composition is pretty masterful -- just the edges of his jacket in the negative space, and his sunburst guitar -- and he looks so joyful! So into the music he's playing.

posted evening of March 30th, 2009: Respond

Friday, July 10th, 2009

🦋 A good idea

Nigel Smith at Carnival Saloon notes that "after his classic 60s records I reckon Blood on the Tracks is the Bob Dylan album most commonly cited as a favourite." This seems true from conversations I've had; and I've never quite understood why so many people name this as their favorite, when to me it seems like pleasant music not remotely in the league of the classic 60's records. Anyways, Mr. Smith had the great idea of assembling a Blood on the Tracks disc on which every song is performed by a different artist -- Robyn Hitchcock, Joan Baez, Elvis Costello,... You can listen to it at his blog. Mr. Smith also links to a previous instance of the same idea, put together by JayEss of The Saddest Music in the World; the music files there are no longer online but the track list is nice.

Update: Also, here are some alternate cuts of these tunes by Dylan himself, courtesy of Recessed-Filter: Blood on the Tracks: New York Sessions.

Another Update: and more! Mary Lee's Corvette has recorded covers of these tunes on their 2002 live album Blood on the Tracks. I'm listening to their "Simple Twist of Fate" right now and digging it. (Though I am missing Dylan's harmonica...)

posted morning of July 10th, 2009: 4 responses
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Sunday, August 16th, 2009

🦋 Random 10 while reading

Another difference between Inherent Vice and my standard category of novel-reading experience is, I like the reading a lot better if there is music playing in the background. Normally I have a hard time reading when I'm listening to music, here they seem to enhance one another. From my iTunes shuffle today:

1. It ain't nobody's business, Mississippi John Hurt
2. La-Do-Dada, Dale Hawkins
3. What Goes On, Robyn Hitchcock and Grant Lee Phillips -- this was a very nice coincidence because it came on just as I was starting to read the lyrics to the Spotted Dicks' new single "Long Trip Out" (which is on the radio in Doc's car), and suddenly I am singing them to the tune of "What Goes On", and they are fitting pretty well. Here is a verse of it:

   Long trip out, from the Mekong Delta...
   It's a last lost chance, when you need a friend,
   And you're flyin on out of
   Cam Ranh Bay at midnight,
   And you won't know how, to
   Get back home again.

   Then I spent a little while distracted, trying to find out more about "What Goes On" -- turns out it is a Velvet Underground song.
4. The Birds Were Singing, Carter Family
5. There'll be Joy, Joy, Joy, Carter Family -- the Carter Family threatening to distract from the novel, they do not quite work together.
6. Floater, Bob Dylan -- now this is more like it --
7. Till the End of the World, Ernie Tubb
8. Salty Dog Blues, John Hurt
9. Knockin on Heaven's Door, Dylan and the Band -- I was not actually participating in the music-listening/reading activity here, "Salty Dog" had reminded me that Lola needed to go out --
10. I Something You, Robyn Hitchcock.

...and later on in the shuffle, Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra plays the "What-cha-call-'em Blues" which go very nicely with the lyrics I am reading at this moment, to Carmine and the Cal-Zones' "Just the Lasagna". Conclusion, when there's music playing it's much easier to imagine Pynchon's lyrics being sung.

posted afternoon of August 16th, 2009: Respond
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Saturday, November 7th, 2009

🦋 At random

I found my iPod today! Have not seen it for months, and wondered occasionally on its whereabouts... Today it was sitting in plain sight on my desk. To celebrate, I shuffle:

• Pit of Souls, Robyn Hitchcock. Fantastic -- I don't really associate this style of music with Robyn but it is very nice for a change. Shades of Interstellar Overdrive!
• Djangology, the Hot Five. From Pet's picks. I can spend too much time on Hot Five listening for Grappelli's work and may miss some of the guitar. The violin solo about a minute ½ in is amazing though.
• Blue Moments, the Fletcher Henderson band.
• I'm Only You, Robyn Hitchcock. For you... (I like his play with pronouns, it reminds me of FaceBook a bit.) Live 2003 at the Great American Music Hall.
• Soldier's Drill, Rev. Gary Davis.
• The Clothes Line Saga, Dylan/The Band. Hypnotic. Wish this song was longer, it could easily have another verse and hold the mood.
• Morning Dew, The Grateful Dead.

  posted evening of November 7th, 2009: Respond
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