Music Calendar

August 30: Bob Dylan released Highway 61 Revisited 55 years ago in 1965

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Bob_Dylan_-_Highway_61_Revisited

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]“I never wanted to write topical songs, have you heard my last two records, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61? It’s all there. That’s the real Dylan.”
~Bob Dylan (Frances Taylor Interview, Aug 1965)

[Highway 61] Oh yes, it goes from where I used to live… I used to live related to that highway. It ran right through my home town in Minnesota. I traveled it for a long period of time
actually. It goes down the middle of the country, sort of southwest…. lot of famous people came off that highway.
~Bob Dylan (John Cohen And Happy Traum Interview, June/July 1968)

Dylan’s sixth album and his first fully fledged eagle-flight into rock. Revolutionary and stunning, not just for its energy, freshness and panache but in its vision: fusing radical electric music—electric music as the embodiment of our whole out-of-control, nervouenergy-fuelled, chaotic civilization—with lyrics that were light-years ahead of anyone else’s, Dylan here unites the force of blues-based rock’n’roll with the power of poetry.
~Michael Gray (Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Like a Rolling Stone:

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Continue reading “August 30: Bob Dylan released Highway 61 Revisited 55 years ago in 1965” →

August 29: Warren Zevon released Sentimental Hygiene in 1987

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

warren_zevon-sentimental_hygiene(virgin)

“I read things I didn’t know I’d done,
It sounded like a lot of fun.”
– Warren Zevon

“I write each song individually and each one calls for individual musicians, You sit around and wonder who can we get to play a Neil Young solo, and then you realize there`s a good chance you can get Neil himself.”
– Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon fell off the wagon after the release of The Envoy, he waited five years before releasing an album, the pause seemed to have done him good, as Sentimental Hygiene (released 29. August 1987) was one of his strongest albums.

Sentimental Hygiene was my first Warren Zevon record, I have since gotten everything I could find by him and about him, official as well as “un-official” releases, vhs, dvds and books. Warren Zevon has been a favourite of mine since Sentimental Hygiene met my ears.

There are lots of guests on the album, Bob Dylan (harmonica on The Factory), David Lindley, Neil Young (lead guitar on the title track), Brian Setzer, Don Henley and George Clinton, but the main players here are Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry of R.E.M. (and Michael Stipe also guested on a song…I think). They provide Zevon with a very solid back-up band, he sounds fresh and invigorated through the whole record. Warren Zevon sounded more rock’n roll than in quite a while, and he was introduced to a new audience (me included).

Here Zevon describes how it was working with Bob Dylan (July 17, 1987 – Late Night with David Letterman and May 25, 2000 – BBC Radio 1):

As always he was funny as hell!

Sentimental Hygiene (official video):

Continue reading “August 29: Warren Zevon released Sentimental Hygiene in 1987” →

August 27: Bob Dylan: Merrillville, Indiana – 1990 (full concert audio)

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Then, after the semi-acoustic set, Dylan dedicates a heartfelt version of “Moon River” to Stevie Ray Vaughan, following it with a rather magnificent cover of a Robert Hunter
song, “Friend of the Devil.”
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Notes:

  • Only known version of Moon River
  • First Friend Of The Devil
  • Moon River was dedicated to Stevie Ray Vaughan who died in a helicopter crash the night before after having played at an Eric Clapton concert in Alpine Valley.

Star Theatre
Merrillville, Indiana
27 August 1990

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • G. E. Smith (guitar)
  • Steve Bruton (guitar)
  • Tony Garnier (bass)
  • Christopher Parker (drums)

Continue reading “August 27: Bob Dylan: Merrillville, Indiana – 1990 (full concert audio)” →

August 26: Elvis Presley Released “Suspicious Minds” in 1969

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

elvis-presley-suspicious-minds-1969-6

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]We’re caught in a trap
I can’t walk out
Because I love you too much baby

–
Recorded between four and seven in the morning, during the landmark Memphis session that helped return the King to his throne, “Suspicious Minds” — the final Number One single of his lifetime — is Presley’s masterpiece: He sings so intensely through the fade-out that his band returns for another minute of the tear-stained chorus.
~rollingstone.com[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Together with “Mystery Train” this is my favourite Elvis song.

Suspicious Minds:

Continue reading “August 26: Elvis Presley Released “Suspicious Minds” in 1969″ →

August 26: Warren Zevon Released His Last Album The Wind in 2003

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

warren-zevon-the-wind-front-945x945

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]

“Timor mortis conturbat me.
It’s from a medieval Scottish poem by William Dunbar,
It means, ‘The fear of death just fucks me up’”
– Warren Zevon (told to The Guardian, and roaring with laughter)

[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Warren Zevon died in 2003 aged 56, he was noted for his black humour and dry wit; he never had the big commercial success he deserved. He was highly regarded by critics and music lovers (and musicians), you could say he enjoyed a cult following. He should have been big.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]

“This was a nice deal: life.”
– Warren Zevon

[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Two weeks before he died of lung cancer, he released one of his best albums, The Wind.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]

“It’s hard to say if he’s being sincere or darkly witty with his cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” though he manages to make it work both ways.”
– Mark Deming (allmusic)

[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

When diagnosed with lung cancer, he said: “I feel the opposite of regret. I was the hardest-living rocker on my block for a while. I was a malfunctioning rummy for a while and running away for a while. Then for 18 years I was a sober dad of some amazing kids. Hey, I feel like I’ve lived a couple of lives.”

The diagnose did in his own words, lead him into one of the most intense and creative periods of his life. Many of his more famous friend came to lend a hand on the record, including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris, Don Henley, Ry Cooder, Billy Bob Thornthon, Jim Keltner, David Lindley, T-Bone Burnett, Joe Walsh and Dwight Yoakam. None of them taking the show from Warren Zevon, he is so clearly in control of his last creation. It is not a big bombastic farewell, it is a guy who enjoys making a record with a bunch of his friends. It feels better, more right!

Continue reading “August 26: Warren Zevon Released His Last Album The Wind in 2003” →

August 25: Bob Dylan released “Not Dark Yet” in 1997

Posted on by Egil Mosbron


[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]A lot of the songs (on Time Out Of Mind) were written after the sun went down . . This one phrase was going through my head: ‘Work while the day lasts, because the night of death cometh when no man can work … It wouldn’t let me go. I was like, what does that phrase mean? … It was at the forefront of my mind for a long period of time, and I think a lot of that is instilled into this record
~Bob Dylan to Jon Pareles, 1997

‘ Not Dark Yet ‘ is many folks’ favourite song on Dylan’s 1997 album, and for sure it pushes all the right buttons: a gorgeous vocal, a brooding melody, the darkling worldview and that seemingly effortless way he captured the dusk in his veins.
~Clinton Heylin (Still On The Road)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Continue reading “August 25: Bob Dylan released “Not Dark Yet” in 1997″ →