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Well, I did a quick search but could only find a few reference so I'll ask outright......

Are there any Bob Dylan fans amongst us, here? I am a huge Dylan nut (I even named my son Dylan!) and am very excited to have a ticket for his Bobness' appearance at this year's Hop Farm Festival.

Just thought I'd check - it'd be quite nice to be able to chat with likeminded fans whose critiques stretch beyond the old favourites, such as

"He can't sing."

or

"Why don't his songs sound the same in concert as on the record"

And so on.. and so on...

(by the way, during my brief search I did see the post that Dale made about 'Christmas In The Heart'. And, to reply to the response - no, it wasn't an internet joke at all!! It wasn't half bad to be honest but I'm still not sure why he did it. But that's half the fun of being a Dylan fan - Bob never explains what himself!)

Im a big Dylan fan. Love to learn his stuff on the guitar.

I've had people say he can't sing and just don't understand that at all. There's no artist like him that can make you feel so good and so crappy with the same song. He puts a lot of emotion into his music.

Klangster1971 wrote:(I even named my son Dylan!)(by the way,

Same here, even though I'm not a Dylan fan!

Used to play at Dylan nights in a pub in Birmingham. Usually seven or eight acts each doing two or three songs. Quite often the versions people played were very close to the originals (or, at least, were intended to be so far as I could tell) but my partner in Dylan crimes and I used to have a lot of fun doing songs in the style of someone else - so we'd have Highway 61 Revisited in the style of Carl Perkins or Maggie's Farm in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan. It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry in the style of Mississippi John Hurt. We even did something in the style of Tom Waits, but I can't recall the song. The thing that struck me most was the number of great songs that aren't really that well known - we took material from The Basement Tapes (Don't Ya Tell Henry) and from the early albums (Hollis Brown) and even the recent albums (at the time) such as Summer Days (it might have been Summer Nights... it was a long time ago!).

Great fun!
Codge

Old_Codger wrote:Used to play at Dylan nights in a pub in Birmingham. Usually seven or eight acts each doing two or three songs. Quite often the versions people played were very close to the originals (or, at least, were intended to be so far as I could tell) but my partner in Dylan crimes and I used to have a lot of fun doing songs in the style of someone else - so we'd have Highway 61 Revisited in the style of Carl Perkins or Maggie's Farm in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan. It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry in the style of Mississippi John Hurt. We even did something in the style of Tom Waits, but I can't recall the song. The thing that struck me most was the number of great songs that aren't really that well known - we took material from The Basement Tapes (Don't Ya Tell Henry) and from the early albums (Hollis Brown) and even the recent albums (at the time) such as Summer Days (it might have been Summer Nights... it was a long time ago!).

Great fun!
Codge

Sounds very similar to way Bob approaches his own back catalogue during his shows!!

I've seen him dozens of times - never the same set twice and he never plays the song the same way twice, either! Sometimes I've had to wait until halfway through a song before I've recognised it being played live!

I just find his attitude so refreshing - OK, sometimes it doesn't pay off but sometimes he unearths a gem. I saw him in 2002 and he performed an absolutely blistering version of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' filled with false stops, double stops that completely transformed an alreay well-known song.... and then saw him again last year and he performed the same song in a pretty pedestrian, almost boring manner. Although that year, he played an awesome, almost Motown-flavoured version of "Blowing In The Wind"...

Remember that thread about 'Genius' a few weeks ago... Bob Dylan definitley deserves the term!!

How about the greatest Dylan cover versions?!

Hendrix did wonders on All Along The Watchtower and Like A Rolling Stone. Johnny Winter's Highway Sixty One Revisited is a masterpiece of slide guitar. Van Morrison does a good "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and I can recall a great version of Wanted Man by someone, too.

Codge

I think it might have been Johnny Cash that covered Wanted Man... I would take Winter's Highway 61 over Hendrix's Watchtower anyday

Me and Bob go way back.

Me and Bob (1)

Years ago, mid 80s, I had convinced myself I was standing right behind Bob in a queue in Crouch End post office. I told my friends this and they just laughed.

It was many years later I discovered he had been living here while recording an album at Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox's recording Studio. There was (apparently) some speculation among the Crouch End glitterati, that he was going to buy house here.

Me and Bob (2)

Even more years later, while flicking through the tatty and well thumbed guest book at my local Indian restaurant, I noticed it had been signed by one Robert Zimmerman, with a message that the food was very good and tasty. I pointed out the fact that Robert Z, and Bob D were one and the same person to the staff, who didn't seem to know who I was talking about in either case.

Although, when I went back a month later and asked if I could show a friend the living legends' and spokesman for my generations' tag , the book had mysteriously been replaced by a new one???

gillows wrote:Me and Bob go way back.

Me and Bob (1)

Years ago, mid 80s, I had convinced myself I was standing right behind Bob in a queue in Crouch End post office. I told my friends this and they just laughed.

It was many years later I discovered he had been living here while recording an album at Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox's recording Studio. There was (apparently) some speculation among the Crouch End glitterati, that he was going to buy house here.

Me and Bob (2)

Even more years later, while flicking through the tatty and well thumbed guest book at my local Indian restaurant, I noticed it had been signed by one Robert Zimmerman, with a message that the food was very good and tasty. I pointed out the fact that Robert Z, and Bob D were one and the same person to the staff, who didn't seem to know who I was talking about in either case.

Although, when I went back a month later and asked if I could show a friend the living legends' and spokesman for my generations' tag , the book had mysteriously been replaced by a new one???

There's a famous story (possibly apochryphal) related to the Crouch End episode...... in the early-mid 1980s Dylan was on tour in the UK and decided to visit Dave Stewart, who had offered to produce his next album. The story goes that Bob made his way to Crouch End, where Dave Stewart lived but went to the wrong house... belonging to a man also called Dave!

He knocked on the door and a rather well-to-do housewife opened the door, to be greeted by the Bobster in all his glory.

"Is Dave there?" Croaked Bob.

Not knowing quite what to do, she let him in told him that her husband was out at the moment but due back very soon.

Fast forward a short while and the husband comes back home, he spies a curly-haired chap sat at the table but his wife intercepts him in the hall and guides him into the living room. Thereupon she utters the immortal words

"There's a man in the kitchen waiting for you... I think it's Bob Dylan"

Priceless.... In fact Bob and Dave go back a looong way (even further than you, Gillows!) If anyone's interested there's a whole blog on the relationship here:

http://33third.blogspot.com/2006/04/bob ... pedia.html

See I told you I was a bit of a Dylan nutter.......!

^ Yes I've heard that one. Not sure about it.

I can also remember Andy Kershaw (the radio dj) used to loiter outside the studio day and night, trying to get a glimpse of the great man. He finally got an audience and gave Bob a present of a pot of hedgerow jam from a local health food shop called the Haelan Centre (known by one and all as the Alien Centre ). Apparently Bob just grabbed the jam and had him ejected from the building because he thought he was a bit of a weirdo and potential stalker.

Or the story that during last years UK tour, he took time out to visit the Beatles Story exhibition in Liverpool, queued up with all the other punters and didn't attract a single glance

I'd like to think that he even travelled to the exhibition on the local bus too.....

...but he can't sing!

I'm a big Dylan fan as well, his voice makes my wife a little nuts, 'too nazely' He can't sing like Stephan King can't write. Its really hard to argue with sucess. I was reading his biography not long ago, it appears that just after the death of Woody Guthrie he tried to get the rights to the Woody Guthrie songs but just missed the boat. Would have been some very interesting renditions.

Does he still do his Radio Show? I used to often hear that when I was driving late at night. These days I dont have a car and consequently rarely listen to the wireless.

It was an excellent show - he played some great music and the bits in between the songs were worth listening to. Something that is generally not the case.

Codge

I think his singing somehow fits in with the content of his songs. Bob and Joan will always be the voices of activism and protest.

Also found this which is probably more like the truth behind the wrong Dave story: Clicky

The piece also mentions the Indian restaurant (It was actually called the Shamrat of India, a name I always found a bit risky for a curry house ) I talked about. Though it has since gone, Faruque still runs a takeaway just a few doors up from where it used to be.

I wish Bob had bought a house here. We have half the cast of Eastenders, and just about every other "D" lister going, living here now. Crouch End is nothing but poncy cafes and coffee shops packed full with "resting" actors these days.