November 14: Watch Bob Dylan’s concert in Worcester, Massachusetts 1999

1999 was a great year for Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour”.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]For all the splendours of earlier in the year [1999], this last leg was the most consistently triumphant. By the time Dylan brought the year’s touring to an end, with an extended set on November the 20th, he had played 121 shows – the most in a single year of his entire career. It had been a very good year, the best since 1995.
~Andrew Muir (One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

A lot of concerts from this tour is in circulation (both video & audio) and this concert is (…again) a great example from that last leg.

Centrum Arena
Worcester, Massachusetts
14 November 1999

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Lucinda Williams – Tryin’ to get to heaven – The Best Dylan Covers

When I was in Missouri
They would not let me be
I had to leave there in a hurry
I only saw what they let me see
You broke a heart that loved you
Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore
I’ve been walking that lonesome valley
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door
– Bob Dylan (Trying To Get To Heaven)

Lucinda Williams – Tryin’ to get to heaven – The Best Dylan Covers

One of the most praised songs of Time Out of Mind is “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven”, Dylan has a very strong and clear vocal on the song. It is also Dylan’s only harmonica performance on the entire album.

Time Out of Mind is the thirtieth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 30, 1997, by Columbia Records. It was his first double studio album (on vinyl) since Self Portrait in 1970. It was also released as a single CD.

For fans and critics, the album marked Dylan’s artistic comeback after he struggled with his musical identity throughout the 1980s; he hadn’t released any original material for seven years, since Under the Red Sky in 1990. Time Out of Mind is hailed as one of Dylan’s best albums, and it went on to win three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year in 1998. It was also ranked number 408 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003.

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Alicia Keys – Pressing On – The Best Dylan Covers

Alicia Keys – Pressing On – The Best Dylan Covers

Saved is the twentieth studio album by Bob Dylan, released on June 23, 1980. Among the songs are the hymn-like song, Pressing On.

“Two stand-out tracks, nonetheless: the turbulent ‘Pressing On’ (Dylan creating convincing hot gospel) and the intelligently submissive, courageous address (including a lovely, aptly devotional harmonica) that is ‘What Can I Do For You?””
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

The album was recorded at Muscle Shoals and was produced by Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexler. In 2013 Alicia Keys chose Pressing On as her song for the documentary about “The Muscle Shoals sound”.

 

Muscle Shoals is a 2013 documentary film about FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

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Bob Dylan’s best songs – Caribbean Wind (4 versions with lyrics)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]“I couldn’t quite grasp what [‘Caribbean Wind’] was about, after I finished it. Sometimes you write something to be very inspired, and you won’t quite finish it for one reason or another. Then you’ll go back and try and pick it up, and the inspiration is just gone. Either you get it all, and you can leave a few little pieces to fill in, or you’re trying always to finish it off. Then it’s a struggle. The inspiration’s gone and you can’t remember why you started it in the first place. Frustration sets in.”
– Bob Dylan (to Cameron Crowe)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]He spoke of one song he was particularly proud of, that he’d written “a while back”, that successfully functioned on the level of complexity of his mid-sixties material, taking the listener outside of time (I don’t know that he actually used these phrases; I’m just recalling my impression of what he told me). He said the song was called “Caribbean Wind,” and that he’d try to play it if I’d phone his assistant some afternoon before a show and remind him of my request.
– Paul Williams (BD Performing Artist 1973-86)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

We have 4 versions of this brilliant song, the best one is the live versions he played on November 12, 1980.

Pedal Steel version

Rundown Studios
Santa Monica, California
23 September 1980

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
  • Fred Tackett (guitar)
  • Tim Drummond (bass)
  • Jim Keltner (drums)
  • Ben Keith (pedal steel guitar)

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November 12: Neil Young is 75 today – Singing 6 Bob Dylan songs

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about ’72 and the big song at the time was “Heart of Gold.” I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to “Heart of Gold.” I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I’d say, “Shit, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me.
-Bob Dylan (to Scott Cohen, September 1985)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in the 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he formed Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and others. Young had released two solo albums and three as a member of Buffalo Springfield by the time he joined Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969. From his early solo albums and those with his backing band Crazy Horse, Young has recorded a steady stream of studio and live albums, sometimes warring with his recording company along the way.

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