Tag: Bob Dylan
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Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 on Columbia
Dylan’s sixth studio album, following the infamous Dylan-goes-electric Newport Folk Festival and following Bringing It All Back Home. A masterpiece from start to finish, including “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Ballad of a Thin Man,” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” and “Desolation Row.” Dylan just turned 85 recently—his birthday is just 2 days (and many years)…
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Suzanne Vega, Flying With Angels, 2025 on Cooking Vinyl
Vega’s tenth studio album and her first of new material since 2014. Bob Dylan gets cowriting credit on “Chambermaid” as a kind of alternate version of “I Want You.” “Speaker’s Corner” is a great song as well: I have a newfound sympathy For the madman in the square Who rants and raves his rhetoric Into…
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Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead, Dylan & The Dead, 1989 on Columbia
Recorded live in July 1987 during the six-city tour of that summer. While the shows from that tour typically had a first set of Dead material followed by a set with Dylan, this recording highlights the Dylan songs with the Dead serving as a backup band. Got some harsh critical reviews a the time as…
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Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, 1975 on Columbia
One of the must-haves for any Dylan collector, Blood was Dylan’s return to Columbia after a couple albums on Asylum. “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Simple Twist of Fate,” and “Shelter From The Storm” are my favorites but there’s no shortage of great songs here. Dylan’s autobiography claims the songs are inspired by Checkov, but Jakob…
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Bob Dylan, Down in the Groove, 1988 on Columbia
Eighties Dylan – 25th studio LP featuring a mix or originals and covers, with guests including Randy Jackson (yes, from American Idol and Name That Tune, and Journey), Steve Jordan, Danny Kortchmar, Sly & Robbie, Mark Knopfler, Alan Clark, Kip Winger, Ron Wood, Clapton, Bob Weir, Brent Mydland, Jerry Garcia, and many more. Recorded over…
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Bob Dylan, Planet Waves, 1974 on Asylum
Dylan’s first album after leaving Columbia for Asylum Records, with The Band as the backing group, and his fourteenth overall. (The only other was Before the Flood – both were later reissued by Columbia). Includes not one but two version of “Forever Young” – fast and slow – along with “Going, Going, Gone” and “On…
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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan At Budokan, 1979 on Columbia
Third of three live Dylan albums from the 70s (Before the Flood and Hard Rain are the other two), and the second to be 2xLP in format, At Budokan was recorded at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in February and March of 1978. (The US release was in 1979). Many folks don’t care for the…
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Bob Dylan, Street-Legal, 1978 on Columbia
This was Dylan’s 18th studio LP, made with a band that included Jerry Scheff, Ian Wallace, Alan Pasqua, Billy Cross, Steven Soles, Steve Douglas, and David Mansfield – many of whom were in the Rolling Thunder Revue. (David Mansfield also went on to be part of The Range). Not as many absolutely central Dylan songs…
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Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy, 1989 on Columbia
Dylan’s 26th studio album, produced by Daniel Lanois and recorded in New Orleans. “Political World,” “Where Teardrops Fall,” and “Everything is Broken” make a great opening trio on side 1 – but really a great album overall. My copy—via Waterloo Records in Austin TX—is a Carrollton GA pressing with original inner sleeve from 1989.
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Bob Dylan, Empire Burlesque, 1985 on Columbia
I know some people don’t love mid-eighties Dylan, but I really do. He’s working here with Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Howie Epstein (from the Heartbreakers) as well as Mick Taylor, Sly Dunbar, and Robbie Shakespeare, plus a wonderful set of backing vocalists. The big single here was “Tight Connection To My Heart” which got a…
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Bill Frisell, Have a Little Faith, 1993 on Elektra Nonesuch
Frisell on guitar, joined by Don Byron (clarinet, bass clarinet), Guy Klucevskek (accordion), Kermit Driscoll (bass), and Joey Baron (drums). Covers a wide variety of sounds here including some Aaron Copeland from his ballet Billy the Kid, two excepts from Charles Ive’s orchestral Three Places in New England, plus Dylan, Muddy Waters, Sonny Rollins, and…
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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan, 1962 on Columbia
Dylan’s debut album – what a wonderful record. I’ve had multiple different copies, trying to find the best balance of pressing and condition. My current one is a repressing with the Columbia label with gold type around the outside, which was in use from the 70s into the 90s. The “PC 8579” means it was…
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Lucinda Williams, Bob’s Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs, 2021 on Highway 20 Records
Hard to imagine how you could go wrong with Lucinda Williams covering Dylan, and this collection delivers exactly as expected. Volume three of the Lu’s Jukebox In Studio Concert Series (I’ve got the first three volumes of the seven). Side D is a etching of Williams, from the photo that was used for Runnin’ Down…
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Various Artists, Newport Broadside: Topical Songs at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963; 1964 on Vanguard
The Newport Folk Festival for 2024 is coming up this week. This record collects performances from 61 years ago, by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Sam Hinton, Bob Davenport, The Freedom Singers, Jim Garland, Ed McCurdy, Phil Ochs, Peter La Farge, and Joan Baez. I love seeing the folks we now recognize as giants…
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Bob Dylan / The Band, Before the Flood, 1974 on Asylum
This was the first released live album by Dylan, though of course since then many earlier live recordings have been released. After this came out Dylan went back to Columbia records, having recorded only Planet Waves and this LP for Asylum – later reissues starting in the 80s are actually on Columbia or imprints of…
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Bob Dylan, Self Portrait, 1970 on Columbia
Another of the “difficult” Dylan albums, which he later himself said was something of a joke, designed to relieve some of the pressure he felt from the sixties and his enormous popularity – to do something his fans could not relate to. It is a sprawling double album, including live versions of “Like a Rolling…
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Dylan, Dylan, 1973 on Columbia
This was the album Columbia famously released without Dylan’s authorization after he signed with Asylum Records. (He would release Planet Waves and Before the Flood on Asylum before returning to Columbia, who later reissued both). In short these are outtakes from the Self Portrait and New Morning sessions widely considered part of Dylan’s inconsistent early…
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Nico, Chelsea Girl, 1967 on Verve
This album originally came out in ’67 as Nico’s solo debut, in the same year as the release of The Velvet Underground and Nico on which she sang three songs. I absolutely love these versions of Jackson Browne’s “These Days” and Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It With Mine” My copy is a 2017 reissue by…