Speaking of Freddy Koella playing with Dylan, someone over at Expecting Rain recently posted this incredible 9-volume compilation of their time playing together. You can grab it here.
I’m downloading it now and will upload and post it here sometime in the near(ish) future so if you don’t have an Expecting Rain account (and I do highly recommend one) then you can grab it from me.
In 1992 Columbia Records put together a massive collection of artists to celebrate Bob Dylan’s recording career. As I say in my review, at the time it must have seemed like a capstone to a long career. One that seemed like it was dying (I rather like some of Dylan’s output in the 1980s, but from a record company standpoint it certainly wasn’t his strongest decade).
The concert is pretty great, even if I haven’t listened to it since writing this review in 2014. You can read all of my thoughts from back then here.
Dylan is obviously a fan of the Grateful Dead. He toured with them in 1987 and he’s played together with various members several times. Robert Hunter co-wrote a couple of songs with him, etc., etc.
The other night he covered “Truckin‘” in Tokyo and now he’s performed “Brokedown Palace at least a couple of times. Neither version sounds particularly well rehearsed and they drift off before the song ends. But there is something there that’s magic. I hope he does spend a little time rehearsing it (and learning all the words) so that they can perform it properly sometime soon. It would make a pretty little addition to his set.
The great Ray Padgett posted both clips on his Twitter page.
Bob Dylan’s setlists have remained pretty static for years now, especially so on his recent Rough and Rowdy Ways tours. Last night he changed things up and covered the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin'” for the first time ever.
I haven’t seen the bootlegs yet, but Ray Padget has a stream up of this song over on his wonderful Flaggin’ Down the Double Es Substack (I highly recommend subscribing to it, for it is full of wonderful Dylan thoughts.)
It is a nice recording and a pretty great version of the classic.
Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Stone” from Girl from the North Country: Youtube There is a musical that tells a story based on a bunch of Dylan songs. I have a copy of the soundtrack and it is pretty good. I like what they do with this song here.
Remember When: Bob Dylan Honored His Hero in a Poem “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie”: American Songwriter
The Core: Zero: Relix A cool little retrospective on the great San Francisco band Zero. Has some nice bits about their relationship with Rober Hunter.
Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Tilda Swinton & More Select Berlin Retrospective Movies; Classics & Other Lineups Revealed: Deadline
“Humpty Dance” – Digital Underground
from Sex Packets
My first thought when I listen to this 80s classic is about how dirty it is. It’s really quite filthy. I’m surprised my mother allowed me to listen to it. Of course, as a child, which I was when this was a hit, I didn’t grasp the blatant innuendo splattered throughout. I just thought it was a funny song with a silly character in a mask.
Reading the lyrics I’m kind of amazed this became a hit and didn’t hit all the censors. If memory serves this was right around the 2 Live Crew law suits – maybe that’s it, nobody bothered with a guy talking about tickling ladies’ rears with his nose when the Crew was being way more explicit. Or maybe the song is so funny nobody minded the crassness.
Now I can’t help but sing along and blush at the filthiness.
“Faithfully” – Journey
from Greatest Hits (You didn’t think I owned real Journey albums, did you?)
File this under embarrassingly sappy songs that I love. My friend Mullins, you see, graduated from Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Clown College. That’s right, there is a college for clowns, and it is amazingly difficult to get into. Mullins went, graduated, and even though never landed a job in the circus is a clown through and through.
There is a lyric in this song that goes something like this:
Circus life
Under the big top world
We all need the clowns
To make us smile
Whatever cheesy parts reside deep in my guts, they get all gooshy when I hear those lines. I can remember driving north of Birmingham, Alabama headed back to college in Montgomery, and tearing up over those lines, missing my pal who had recently taken off to Tennessee. Funny how the mushy parts make us all twirly inside, even though it’s nothing but cheese.
“I Used To Love Her” – Guns N Roses
from G N’ R Lies
A great rock n roller about murder. My friend Juliana (who happens to be married to the clown Mullins) says that all great country artists have to write a song about killing someone. Well, Guns N Roses area bout as far as you can get from country, but this is a great murdering song.
It is a great song to sing loud, and then get evil glares from those who don’t know the song. It’s also a great song to irritate my wife with, and she knows the darn song.
“Yellow” – Coldplay
from Parachutes
For the longest time, I thought this was a Pearl Jam song and it caused my renewed interest in the band. It has since become the only Coldplay song I enjoy. The rest of their songs are too whiney and too soft to be rockers. I always feel like they are playing soft as a tease and then they are gonna hit it with some awesome rock, only to be left with a lot of softness.
I really dig the relaxing summertime vibe of this song. It makes me want to roll out my blanket and lay out under the stars.
“Dieu a Nos Cotes” (With God On Our Side) Hart–Rouge
from A Nod To Bob
Reading reviews of this Bob Dylan tribute album I find that this song is almost universally despised. I rather adore it. It’s a lilting, beautiful thing. Though most reviewers don’t really say why they don’t like it, that it is in French seems to be the problem stewing behind the bad-mouthing. Perhaps this is due to those not understanding the language (and after all, it is the language of Dylan that most love).
The song itself is an anti-war rant that touches on all the major wars of the US up until the cold war. I suspect some detractors rather despise the fact that Dylan is speaking out so directly against war and that this new version may be using his words as a means to rail against the current war in Iraq (and in French no less, how dare those spineless bastards speak out against war, don’t they know we saved their asses in both World Wars?. Never mind that the band is French-Canadian.)
I speak a little French, but I can’t really understand what they’re saying. Looking at comparison lyrics it seems like the translation is pretty literal, but who knows they may have thrown in an “American is a hate-filled war-mongering country” and I might have not noticed. But the thing that is interesting is that none of the reviews mentioned any change in Dylan’s lyrics, but seem to hate it being translated into French. I would think fans would enjoy the fact that other languages are taking note.
Me? I love the song. I’m not a big fan of the English version, honestly, but it is such a soft lilting thing in the French.
I’ve never really got Elvis Costello. Most of his songs don’t really translate well into my brain waves. I don’t really have anything against him, I don’t dislike his songs, but I don’t find a whole lot in them to really like either. Which is weird to me, because I rather dig his nerdy schtick and I know folks who totally dig him, and those folks are folks I can generally groove with. I do, however, dig his wife, Diana Krall.
This is one of the few songs I really, truly dig. It’s got that romantic groove going and the close-out line “my aim is true” that cuts deep.
“What’d I Say” – Lyle Lovett
From Smile
Now Lyle Lovett is an artist I can fully and wholly dig. He’s a darn fine musician, a wonderful songwriter, and seemingly an all-around good guy – or at least a wry, funny one.
This is from an album full of songs he has performed for various movies. Lyle is quite a movie man, having performed songs for all kinds of films, and even acted in a number of Robert Altman flicks. None of the songs here are original, it is a bunch of covers, generally really slow covers – which means it’s an album I’m not all that fond of – with a few exceptions, notably this Ray Charles cover.
No doubt this is a great song, and Lyle gives it his best go, but it is a song I’ve long since grown tired of; which is no fault of its own. It’s just one of those songs I’ve heard so many times I can’t listen to it anymore.
The Lyle version is a fine rendition, but nobody beats Ray Charles, especially on the orgasmic moans toward the end. Lyle just can’t get into the sex of it.
“You Got the Silver” – The Rolling Stones
From Let It Bleed
My favorite incarnation of the Stones is the country honk version. I’m an old-school country man anyway, and the way the Stones can cut country music with a raunchy rock n roll edge slays me.
This is a slow-paced, fast song. It’s a simple love song sung plain by Keith Richards. The organ solo in the middle of this two-minute ditty nails everything a good song should. When it’s followed up by a jaunty, rollickin’ piano-based rave it’s pure joy.
“Brick” – Ben Folds Five
From Whatever and Amen
A song about abortion that never mentions it. It weighs like a ton of blocks named in the title. If you let it, it will make you see the misery and loneliness of life.
In but a few verses Ben Folds tells a story so completely, and with such heartbreak it’s hard to believe it is just a pop song. It is a song I both love and hate. I love it for its perfectness, for its ability to transcend pop and convey real, raw emotions. I hate it for the same reasons, it’s just not something easily listened to, for it is too real. How this became something of a hit is beyond me.
“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” – Bob Dylan
From Biograph
It’s hard to choose a favorite Dylan. There is the political spokesman, the prophet and preacher, there is the storyteller and poet, and then there is the lover, whose words penetrate the heart and soul – ok, yeah, I gotta go for the lover. His words are so heart-achingly beautiful, that it’s hard not to fall in love all over again.
This is a perfect love song. The melody is simple and sweet the lyrics are the whisper of a lover who promises nothing more than a wonderful tonight, but he doesn’t have to promise more. Tonight’s enough.
“I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself” – Elton John
from Honky Chateau
Remember the line in High Fidelity where Jack Black, speaking about Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” asks if it is unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter-day sins. A question that could easily be asked of Elton John, whose Lion King soundtracks and lyrical changes to dead princess’ are enough to put him on the bad artist list.
But it’s songs like this that make me resurrect the old man again and again. Suicide was never so fun, at least not until Heathers came along. The music is like a circus, with a choir-like chorus singing a hymn to the fallen egos of teenage life. Perhaps it is a bit morbid to smile so big while singing along to a song all about killing oneself, but John creates such a terrific melody that it’s hard not to jump up and dance around the room listening to this tune.
Revisiting his early 1970s albums make me remember what a really terrific artist Elton John really is, but like a lot of artists with a string of hits so overplayed on classic rock stations you have to dig into the albums themselves to understand.
“Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts” – Bob Dylan
from Blood on the Tracks
At nearly nine minutes this is one Dylan story song that I’d like to cut out a few verses from, but being the master storyteller, you’d have a hard time finding something weak enough to cut.
Supposedly this album was written at the time of Dylan getting divorced. But like much of Dylan’s life and music, there is plenty of information refuting this as well. Whatever the inspiration, this is one of the best albums by an artist full of great ones.
Like “I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself” this song has a bit of a carnival going on in the music. The organ rolling in the background bounces as Dylan acts as the barker telling his story for all who will listen.
“Walking in Memphis” – Marc Cohn
from Marc Cohn
There was a period of four years that I often made the nearly 800-mile drive from Montgomery, Alabama to Claremore Oklahoma, and back, visiting my family from college. On almost every trip this song played while I traveled through the city of Memphis, and I swear to you it was always raining. Perhaps it was just me, or maybe Memphis radio stations like the idea of playing a song about Memphis in the rain while it is raining in Memphis. Whatever the case, it always produced a big smile in the middle of a long drive home.
I was fifteen when this song first came out. I grew up attending a conservative Christian church, but the first part of my teenage years was spent rebelling against those ideas. My parents were always urging me to make the commitment and become a Christian. There were too many questions that went unanswered in my head to take that step, yet the thought of being a heathen and rotting in hell kept me up more than one night.
I loved this song, but the lyric where the lady asks the singer if he’s a Christian, and his reply “Ma’am I am tonight” always gave me pause. I liked to think for that moment in the song, I too was a Christian and then I was pained to realize that I was not, nor necessarily wanted to be one.
“License to Confuse” – Sebadoh
from Bakesale
Speaking of college, I met my first real girlfriend via a Dinosaur Jr. t-shirt during my freshman year. It was her that turned me on to Sebadoh, being fronted by Lou Barlow, Dinosaur’s original bassist.
Though not really my style anymore, songs like this remind me of my long haired-hard rockin’ punk days. This is low-fi, loud guitar post-punk music. It’s a somber song, bad relationship singer-songwriter stuff, recorded in a bedroom and amped up to justify the grunge rockers’ credibility.
“Leaving On a Jet Plane” – John Denver
from Rhymes and Reasons
I always duck my head when I admit I’m a John Denver fan. He’s just not hip, or cool anywhere in the world. But there is something about that nerdy folk singer that I dig to my core’s end.
Back several years ago when my wife was just my girl I finally made the jump from being in a long-distance relationship (she lived in Indiana, me in Tennessee) and moved to the same town as her to see if this could really work. She promptly moved to Montreal, Canada.
There were some major bumps in that road for the summer she was gone, and this song brought tears to my eyes more than once. She had left on a jet plane and though I knew she was coming back, I wasn’t so sure I’d be there to meet her. It all worked out well, and three years into a marriage this song can still bring back tearful memories.
“I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself” – Elton John
“Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts” – Bob Dylan
“Walking in Memphis” – Marc Cohn
“Leaving On a Jet Plane” – John Denver
themidnightcafe.org 