With an exciting new film coming out on Christmas Day, just three weeks away now, it may be helpful for some people to get a little overview of the main character, so here is something on that.

A Bob Dylan Primer

Bob Dylan is now 83 years old as of last May 24^th.  He has written a lot of Songs.  In this Wikipedia List there are 522 Songs that he has written, but that list omits a lot of traditional songs that he has arranged in new and unique ways.  An example of such a song would be the one called Delia which has never been sung quite like this before, nor will it ever be sung like that again!  Another example of a traditional song that Bob Dylan has rearranged that I particularly like is called Two Soldiers.

Bob Dylan has evolved from first being a strict folk singer, who originally sang mostly songs written by Woody Guthrie, to an extremely original and amazingly creative force.  This after he had traveled from his native Hibbing, in Northeastern Minnesota to Greenwich Village in New York City sixty-four years ago, back in 1961, spending a couple of nights in my hometown of Madison, WI singing along the way.  He quickly moved to singing a variety of folk songs as evidenced in his first album released in 1962 when he was just twenty years old.  This first Album didn’t sell very well initially.  But he moved on quickly to a second album the following year, and at twenty one years old he created some real classic original compositions like Blowing in the Wind and A Hard Rain Gonna Fall.  His legend had begun!  He continued producing Albums at the rate of approximately one per year through the next six decades so that he has now produced over 60 albums.  23 of these albums have peaked in the top 10 on the album charts, including 5 that reached number 1.  But he has said that he believes he is primarily a live performer.  Thus if you really want to see him doing his thing, in what he considers to be his most representative venue, you need to see him live and in person, which is still possible.

One thing that he does in live performances that others find odd is that he re-arranges his own songs in such dramatic ways that often times, an uninitiated audience can’t recognize his famous songs as he is playing them.  Sometimes these rearrangements fail to achieve the desired results, other times they are magical.  There are then experiments being conducted on stage and in this way it shares something in common with improvisational jazz, it is a little unclear how things are going to work out until the actual performance.  The fellow musicians will sometime be kept in the dark about the plan until the last minute, about say what key this song is going to be performed in.  Classically trained violinist Scarlet Rivera was walking down the street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan minding her own business carrying her violin case, when a guy in non-descript car stopped her and asks if she can play the instrument.  It turns out to be Bob Dylan and she recognizes him and agrees to audition for him.  She says in an interview that he doesn’t even tell the backing musicians what key they will be playing in, they have to “sink or swim.”  She was able to swim because she says she has perfect pitch.  They collaborated on an album called Desire together and she joined his Rolling Thunder Review, touring the country, and playing on National TV for a John Hammond tribute.  She says she was a bit nervous before playing before a national audience, and Dylan knew this, so at the last minute he changed the key to the songs they would be playing, she said it helped her nerves since she had to concentrate so hard on this new innovation that is distracted her mind from thoughts about performing in this large venue.

Bob Dylan was famously converted to Christianity in 1979 and debuted his Slow Train Coming Album on Saturday Night Live in October 20^th of that year.  Some have questioned whether or not he continues to follow the Christian faith.  One place that question was asked was on the Colbert Report when Princeton Historian and Bob Dylan fan and author Sean Wilentz was asked by the host if Christianity really “stuck” with Bob.  To that question Wilentz, who claims to be an atheist, says at the 5 minute mark in the linked video that “Bob Dylan is a Christian” and that is an important part of his music.  Sean Wilentz has been listed as the historian-in-residence on the Bob Dylan website, so if he was wrong about this important question, he probably should lose his license as a historian and be removed from his position as “historian in residence” for such an important error.

Bob Dylan has gone through many incarnations in his illustrious career.  A listing of his awards reveals that he has won more than his share of Grammy Awards, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame types of awards, Honorary Doctorates, Polar Prizes, Presidential Honors, and Nobel Prizes etc.  In one incarnation for a year or so he was a Frank Sinatra Crooner.  You can listen to an example of this incarnation in this song “All the Way” from his Album Fallen Angels.

When Dylan makes a dramatic change in styles, like when he moved from Folk to Electric at the Newport Festival in 1964, it often leaves many of his fans mystified and dissatisfied with the change.  But as he wrote in 1965 “he who is not busy being born is busy dying.”  Another striking example of this would be when he went to Nashville and recorded a country album along with Johnny Cash on a two day session that began in February of 1969.  This was at the height of his popularity with the counterculture and Country Music at that time was considered decidedly uncool.  He then appeared on the Johnny Cash show.  When he became a Christian, for a period of time he would only sing his new religiously themed gospel songs and this drove many of his fans away.  My wife and I went to see him soon after his conversion in October of 1981 in Madison, WI and about half of the seats were empty in the Dane Country Coliseum which would have previously sold out in just a few hours a year earlier.  Members of the “Jews for Jesus” group met each person coming to the concert and offered literature on how to be saved.  Now 35 years later many critics are coming back to embrace the heavy “gospel only period” of Dylan’s career and suggesting it was one of his most creative.  Just how well the Sinatra Crooner stage is going to wear, only time will tell.

One thing that makes a Bob Dylan concert interesting is that it can be very unpredictable.  It is possible for him to choose to sing any of his more than 500 original songs at any time.  There was however a new cover introduced in Toledo called “How deep is the Ocean” which is an Irving Berlin composition that Sinatra sang well. 

My friends Geoff, Brad and I saw Bob Dylan on September 7, 2012 at Mountain Park in Holyoke, MA and the thing that amazed me on that night was how at home Bob was at a new instrument, at least a new one for me seeing Bob play, and that was the Baby Grand Piano.  In that concert his new instrument was placed up high in the mix and seemed to really suit him at that later stage of his career.

One might ask, Why all these Sinatra Standards from a guy who has so many other of his own compositions to choose from?  My theory is that Dylan is working on a long term project to cement his legacy as a strong singer as well as a great composer and arranger.  I submit the following thoughts as evidence in my case as to why Dylan has turned to the Sinatra Standards in several albums.

I read Dylan's riveting speech at MusicCares and I was a bit surprised that he appeared to be so annoyed by some of his detractors.  About half way through the unprecedented 30 minute acceptance speech he says,

Some of the music critics say I can't sing. I croak. Sound like a frog. Why don't these same critics say similar things about Tom Waits?  They say my voice is shot.  That I have no voice.  Why don't they say those things about Leonard Cohen?  Why do I get special treatment?  Critics say I can't carry a tune and I talk my way through a song. Really?  I've never heard that said about Lou Reed.  Why does he get to go scot-free?  What have I done to deserve this special treatment?  Why me, Lord?

No vocal range?  When's the last time you've read that about Dr. John?  You've never read that about Dr John.  Why don't they say that about him?  Slur my words, got no diction.  You have to wonder if these critics have ever heard Charley Patton or Son House or Wolf.  Talk about slurred words and no diction.  Why don’t they say those same things about them?  "Why me, Lord?"

So in an effort to prove these critics wrong, Dylan is working to show he can do some of the same kind of things that Sinatra could do with a song using his voice, which is really his chief instrument.  He plays the guitar extremely well, and he is a virtuoso with the Harmonica, his songs translate well into many languages, check out this Bob Dylan cover en español or this cover Si tu dois partir (1969) with the incredible Sandy Denny, indicating that he is an outstanding composer and arranger, he is good on the organ and piano, but his most important instrument, he wants us to understand…. is his voice.

The Fallen Angel album debuted in the top 10 and was part of a banner financial year for Dylan who we have estimated will earn over $40 Million that year as indicated by this Forbes article.  But Bob will not continue performing because he needs the money, it is part of an artistic vision and calling that drives him to amazing productivity and creativity which is inspiring for us, who are just a little bit younger than he, and would like to tap into that wellspring of creativity and productivity that he has tapped so consistently and so amazingly for his 64 year career.

Doug