If the people behind Bob Dylan’s new 1974 Live Recordings had a sense of humor, the set would come plastered with a sticker reading: “FOR SICKOS ONLY.” With 27 discs containing 431 performances (more than 24 hours!) drawn from Dylan and the Band’s hotly anticipated return to the stage in early ‘74, it’s a massive archival haul aimed at the ridiculously obsessed, the hopeless completist. If that’s not you, stick to the three-LP “highlights” release from Third Man. But if you’re like us and love this kind of deep immersion in a very specific Dylan era, you gotta get the whole thing. Admit it: you’re a sicko, too.
Category: Bob Dylan
The Same Man: Bob Dylan’s “Shot of Love”
Even in its semi-bastardized state, Shot of Love stands as a major achievement. The songs harmonize into something spectacular, a perfect finished plan. Hard rockers, little love ditties, kaleidoscopic four-dimensional ballads, “Lenny Bruce”: it’s all here, everything you could ever want, bursting out the grooves like a blast of blue-orange Ben-Day dots. It is the album Bob Dylan wanted to make at the time, made the way Bob Dylan wanted to make it. His furnace of desire had not stopped burning. It never would.
This Place Don’t Make Sense To Me No More: Bob Dylan’s “Street-Legal”
Street-Legal is loud and brash and ugly. There’s a little stink to it, no question. But it reveals the world from which it hails in ways unlike any other Bob Dylan record. It is the primal scream of a man and his nation confronting a future of diminished horizons. It is white diamond gloom and destruction in the ditches. It is a seminal document of bad vibes.
Bob Dylan’s 83rd Birthday :: Celebrating The Bootleg Series
Even if Fragments, the latest Bootleg Series release from 2023, is the end of the line, fans have been given hours upon hours of “pretty good stuff” that we’ll all be sifting through for decades to come. To celebrate this bounty — as well as Dylan’s 83rd birthday this week — dig into a very small selection of Bootleg Series highlights, stretching from The Times They Are A-Changin’ to Time Out Of Mind. There’s beauty in every grain of sand.
Late Cold War Style in Songwriting: 1978-1984
As the Cold War cooled into something like an uneasy truce, songwriters like Warren Zevon, David Bowie, John Cale, Bob Dylan, and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen addressed world events and the cultural malaise of the period, constituting Late Cold War style in their vivid songs.
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Highway 49 Revisited
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a recurring series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”
Now playing: Highway 49 Revisited (1976)
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Blown Out On The Trail
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a new series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”
Now playing: Blown Out On The Trail (1988)
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a new series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”
Now playing: Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Peco’s Blues (or: Lucky Luke)
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a new series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”
First up: Peco’s Blues (or: Lucky Luke)
Bob Dylan :: Pretty Good Stuff | Ep. 16–Live in Japan
Bob Dylan is headed to Japan for his first shows of the year, and Bobcats around the world will mark that gig as the real beginning of 2023. This new episode proves that every time Dylan visits Japan, he leaves behind plenty of Pretty Good Stuff.
Bob Dylan :: Christmas In The Heart
When Bob Dylan’s Christmas album appeared in 2009, it was both totally unexpected and 44 years overdue. In this instance, we’re glad he waited. Christmas in the Heart features Dylan singing songs you know by heart in a voice without restraint. There’s fun for the whole family, and all for a good cause. It’s enough to make a believer out of anyone.
Bob Dylan :: Too Many Mornings (Revisited)
Last year around Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday, we celebrated with a megamix of various renditions of “One Too Many Mornings.” Since there’s no such thing as too many “One Too Many Mornings,” here’s a sequel of sorts for Bob’s 81st — 24 different covers of the classic tune from a wide variety of artists, spanning the decades. Just as Bob never quite settled on a stock arrangement for this one, the interpretations here vary wildly, from gentle folk to raucous garage rock to soaring orchestral pop. Like the song says: “You’re right from your side and I’m right from mine …”
Bob Dylan :: Pretty Good Stuff | Ep. 15 – Live Time Out Of Mind
Dylan’s Time Out of Mind turns 25 this year. Produced by Daniel Lanois, the album won three Grammy Awards and provided a new batch of songs—meditations on love and loss—that Dylan almost immediately began to work into his Neverending Tour setlists. This episode of Pretty Good Stuff explores those live versions of the songs from Time Out of Mind, with performances stretching from a week after the album’s release to the edge of the pandemic, when Dylan temporarily paused his relentless touring schedule. Rediscover how Dylan turned the studio masterpiece into a killer batch of road-tested Pretty Good Stuff.
Bob Dylan :: Pretty Good Stuff | Ep. 14
Welcome back to Pretty Good Stuff: Dylan historian James Adams’ semi-regular hour-long program diving deep into the depths of all things Dwarf Music. Today’s episode is dedicated to Valentine’s Day performances.
Bob Dylan :: Pretty Good Stuff | Ep. 13
Lucky number 13. Welcome back to Pretty Good Stuff: Dylan historian James Adams’ semi-regular hour-long program diving deep into the depths of all things Dwarf Music. This episode is strictly comprised of performances from the last tour of songs from the latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways.