Boy Dylan for Missi.

hmm, good stuff. I listened to pet sounds for the first time yesterday. Brimming with colour!

Thanks George. Off I go to the shop then.

I've got loads of his stuff on mp3 if you want Ralph.

Send it over Flash, and thanks.

Er...where do i send it?

An interesting little known fact outside Dylan fandom is that he is the only artist that has never had an album deleted, everything from 1962 to the present day is still available. Even Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley had stuff deleted eventually, (though the Presley stuff has been re-released in different combinations).

Black Diamond Bay: If I didn't consider it as verging on blasphemy, I'd love to write it as a short story. I've thought about it loads recently. Could never do it justice though. It's perfect as it is. Ben

Bob Dylan, a life long Christian, denied reports that he was to receive a knighthood from the Queen Of England for almost fourty years of protest songs. He admitted that the Queen was a much respected friend who had inspired some of his best lyrics but pointed out it was difficult for her because he was not recognised as a British subject. Unofficialy it has been rumoured that the English Prime Minister (Anthony Blair) had stated privately that Dylan would never receive any official accolade in the UK after he (Dylan) had made it clear that anyone who supported the invasion of Iraq could never have understood his music. ;O) [%sig%]

Dylan never wrote a protest song after about 1965.

I think it means singing them George.

Where did you google that rubbish from , mykle. Dylan has never met the queen, so how can she be his friend? If he had it would be common knowledge among aficianados.

:o)

Nick Drake cannot have any of his work deleted either. It was written into his contract.

That's right, Ralph, though his output was only 3 proper albums, but there were periods that they were unavailable simply because the pressing runs ran out. As you say though, they were never deleted from the catalogue.

Such a shame The Bee Gees have out talented, out written and produced, and out awarded every other artist in the history of modern musicial genius then..... ain't it, Sludge? And for over 40 years they've not once failed to either self or produce, nor rarely refused to assist another artist, to achieve a top selling track or album in any of these given years! So why don't you tell them about Bob Dylan selling out all his fans worldwide with that 'Slow Train Coming' album? You know, the one were he kissed the Churches arse for holistic communal acceptance of his nasal drivel and artsitic genius waffle! Just like David Bowie did when Record companies and Radio stations threatened to pull his voice 'off the airwaves' because his drug addiction was publically exposed and ridiculed! Poor Babies....sold their souls out for a dollar they did.... hence thier talent dried up along with the popular cure of a clean image for idolisation...oh my! Elivs, Buddy Holly, Jim Morrison, R. Valens, Marc Bolan, Bon Scott, John Lennon..ect ect ect, make more money in death than ever did while living....how artistically and historically typical...and lightning always strikes the same spot many more times than just once at once, in once! But then I admire real living creative genius.....you know, those who can think straight on their feet and not be ruled by external market forces looking to make a profit from thier life long passions? "There is far more death in the reality of life, than there is to be given life force from any stay of death: But then I have neither time nor space for stupid Sentimental Journeys, as they breed only Contempt, Corruption, and Complacency? [Jasper (now)] There no such a thing as WAS: there's just IS or ISN'T!

Yawn..zzzzzzzzzz

The Bee Gees ... "modern musical genius" according to Jasper. Says it all, doesn't it?

dont forget he admires savage garden too... heh.

Has that fucking cat shit behind the sofa AGAIN?

Yawn...zzzzzzzz

Oooopppsss Yawn...purrrrrrrr-purrrrrr-purrrrrrrr

I don't think there is any chance that anyone actually took my earlier post seriously. I thought that "He admitted that the Queen was a much respected friend who had inspired some of his best lyrics..." etc. made it obvious that it was a joke to wind George up (hence the final wink). Still, just for the record - I know virtually nothing about Mr Zimmerframe and any similarity to actual facts were purely coincidental :) [%sig%]

I don't think anyone takes ANYTHING you say seriously, mykle, why DO you bother?

It keeps me smiling, georgie :)

I don't believe that any of Zappa's stuff is deleted either. quite agree with your Dylan choice thugh george - it just about covers my entire Dylan collection!o

I wouldn't skip the last two studio albums he did, either ("Time Out of Mind" and "Love and Theft"). I'll take those ones any day of the week over anything he did since "Desire."

While we're on the subject of dinosaur rockers, Mrs Shirt ain't half gone and been a toff. This afternjoon she bought me a ticket to see Jack, Eric and Ginger walk back onstage at the Albert Hall tonight for the first time since they did their farewell gig there 37 years ago. Very deep glee. Having missed the reform of the original Velvets when they came through London in the early nineties I would not have forgiven myself for missing this one. I couldn't afford it, but the Fine Mrs S. stumped up an early birthday pressie. Now, where are those flares?

*green with envy*

It were bare nang. I have seen Eric once before and a million times on film, so tonight I couldn't take my eyes of one of the best rock rhythm sections in the world. Jack is a consumate leader and Ginger thumps the tubs better than most. The trio are all 60 now (in better shape than most of the audience) and despite having kicked the gong around a tad, looked so clear and focused. They will remember this series of gigs, unlike the Farewell shows in the same hall when they were all so junked up they probably lost their way home. They exuded positive enjoyment. It is wonderful watching very capable musicians play together. And, they did "Pressed Rat And Warthog".

The essentials would be; The first album, 'Bob Dylan', mainly because it IS the first album and shows where HE started from. Contains 'Blowing In The Wind', the anthem for a whole generation and theme song for the civil rights movement in the days of Kennedy. In fact the first four albums are indispensable. 2 - 4 are 'Freewheeling' ( A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall), 'The Times They Are A Changing' (title track + 'With God On Our Side' & 'Boots Of Spanish Leather'),'Bringing It All Back Home', obviously 'Mr Tambourine Man' but also 'Love Minus Zero/No Limit', 'Gates Of Eden', 'It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding' and the lovely 'She Belongs To Me'., . One of my favourites, 'Another Side Of Bob Dylan', an album of highly personal songs (his first), 'Ballad In Plain D' is a masterpiece of soul-baring and 'To Ramona' is a stunning piece of observational agony. 'Highway 61 Revisited', the peak of his work with Mike Bloomfield, a highly talented blues guitarist who sadly 'drugged out' far too young. That album is absolutely essential if for nothing else other than 'Like A Rolling Stone' voted the best song ever written by several magazines, and the life beyond death, 'Desolation Row', the first time any popular singer/songwriter ever wrote an 11 minute song and got away with it. . 'Blonde On Blonde', for 'Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands' an ode to his wife Sara Lowndes. 'John Wesley Harding', for 'I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine' and 'All Along The Watchtower', famously covered by Jimi Hendrix. 'Planet Waves', another anthem 'Forever Young' 'Blood On The Tracks', for everything on it, and arguably his best complete album, often offered up as the best rock album ever made by anybody. 'Desire' contains the intimate and tender ode to his by now ex-wife, 'Sara'. 'Street Legal' has at least two brilliant songs on it, 'Changing Of The Guard' & 'Senor'. During this period Dylan had the brilliant saxophone player, Steve Douglas (now sadly dead) in his band. 'Slow Train Coming' is the first of his 'born again Christian trilogy, and far and away the best, though I'm not a fan of this stuff in general, 'I Believe In You' has the most tortured voice I've heard from any singer. EVER! It makes the hair stand up on my neck. (or it would if I had one!) 'Infidels' is most probably his best album of the 80's, a latter day equivalent of 'Blood On The Tracks'. 'Knocked out Loaded' though not a brilliant album, HAS to be included for just one song. The masterpiece of narrative song writing, the 13 minute 'Brownsville Girl', performed in an amazingly half singing half narrating fashion, (something that no one but Dylan could get away with). This song just HAS to be listened to repetitively. Every hearing reveals a new nuance of delivery, pronounciation and tiny things you'd overlooked before. I believe he inspired others to write lengthy ballads with this song. eg. 'Telegraph Road' 'Good As I Been To You', the album that Dylan fans waited almost 30 yrs to hear. It's quite simply brilliant, a Dylan equivalent of Springsteens 'Nebraska' in many ways. It is Dylan going back to his folk roots and singing acoustic stuff with no other musicians, self-recorded in his home. The album caused several rows on it's release, one of which was between myself and the editor of 'Folk Routes', Ian Anderson, who called Dylan a 'talent-fucked played out bastard' in his magazine, ( I told him that Dylan craps more talent on a daily basis than Anderson ever managed in his entire life. To his credit he published the whole row in his magazine). He was complaining about the fact that Dylan recorded several songs he got from well known English folk singers, by way of a cassette given to his son by Billy Bragg, and gave no credits on the sleeve. One particular song, and indeed the one that was the genesis of Anderson's bile, was a version of 'Canadeeio' which he learned from the singing of my dear friend, Nic Jones. He went on at length about how he could have given Nic credit and some cash, (Nic had not worked in 7 yrs after a terrible car crash, and in fact has NEVER worked since). Nic was not bitter about this, but actually said Dylan's version was brilliant in it's own right and he owed him nothing. There have been a few goodies in the last 14 years, but if you've made it this far you'll be searching out that stuff yourself. There are several other items that shouldn't be ignored, most notably the boxed sets, 'Biograph' & 'The Bootleg Series 1 -3'. These contain some of his best work, originally unreleased. Dylan was the first person to be bootlegged commercially and there are now some thousands of the things around, though hard to find these days unless you belong to one of the several Dylan fan clubs. The early stuff is amazing. These were demos and private tapes made around New York mostly when Dylan was 18-20 years old. The best ones to listen to are, The Witmark Tapes, The Leeds Demos, The Town Hall Tape, The Carnegie Chapter Hall tape, The Halloween tape and The Minnesota Party tape. A great little book that will help is Patrick Humphries 'The Complete guide To Bob Dylan', published by Omnibus Press @ £4.99. It's quite an old book now, (or at least my copy is) and doesn't go beyond 1995, so you would need more recent publications to cover the newer stuff. His autobiography, 'Chronicles' is brilliant. I hope I haven't put you off already.

YAWN.....zzzzzzzzzz