Let us have music for Christmas…
Sound the trumpet of joy and rebirth;
Let each of us try, with a song in our hearts,
To bring peace to men on earth.
–> Mildred L. Jarrell
“So this is Christmas…” Here are collection of Videos that hopefully will set you in nice Christmas mood.
Dylan joins Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (who have just concluded their own set) on stage. Together they launch straight into “Clean-Cut Kid” followed by a blues song called “Shake,” seemingly a Dylan lyric set to the rune of Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right.” Then comes the live debuts of two Empire Burlesque songs, “I’ll Remember You” and “Trust Yourself,” both of which have Dylan dueting with Madelyn Quebec, who is clearly struggling to keep up with his idiosyncratic phrasing. A searing version of “That Lucky 0l’ Sun” follows, before Willie Nelson joins them on guitar for a romp through the highly appropriate “Maggie’s Farm.” Although the American TV broadcast, courtesy of the Nashville Network, manages to omit the first and fifth songs and cut the second, the excitement of the performance comes across, reaffirming Dylan’s power in concert after the very public disaster at “Live Aid ” The buzz from the concert is enough for him to suggest a more longterm collaboration with the Heartbreakers.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995
When things get really bad, you just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig, and that’s all you can do
– Leonard Cohen
“He (Bob Dylan) said, ‘I like this song you wrote called Hallelujah.’ In fact, he started doing it in concert. He said, ‘How long did that take you to write?’ And I said, ‘Oh, the best part of two years.’ He said, ‘Two years?’ Kinda shocked. And then we started talking about a song of his called I And I from Infidels. I said, ‘How long did you take to write that.’ He said, ‘Ohh, 15 minutes.’ I almost fell off my chair. Bob just laughed.”
~Leonard Cohen (quoted in Telegraph 41, p. 30)
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet, and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and romantic relationships. Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour.
“My American dream fell apart at the seam,” sing Nelson and Bob Dylan in this elegy to America’s family farmers. A track from Nelson’s 1993 Across the Borderline, the song details in plain language the war between forlorn farmers and unsympathetic bankers, with the latter undeniably the victor. Willie wrote the song with Dylan, who famously inspired Nelson’s annual Farm Aid benefit concerts with his off-hand remark at 1985’s Live Aid that something should be done to help U.S. farmers. The lyrics are unapologetic, brimming with as much indignation as Mellencamp’s “Rain on the Scarecrow,” but it’s the pairing of two of music’s most unconventional voices that makes it a must-hear.
–rollingstone.com
My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down – but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let’s all have another round.
~Willie NelsonWe create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.
~Willie NelsonHe [Willie Nelson] takes whatever thing he’s singing and makes it his. There’s not many people who can do that. Even something like an Elvis tune. You know, once Elvis done a tune, it’s pretty much done. But Willie is the only one in my recollection that has even taken something associated with Elvis and made it his. He just puts his sorta trip on it…
~Bob Dylan (28 April 1993)
Willie Nelson Induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1993):
Tomorrow is Willie Nelson´s 85th birthday (born April 29, 1933).
He [Willie Nelson] takes whatever thing he’s singing and makes it his. There’s not many people who can do that. Even something like an Elvis tune. You know, once Elvis done a tune, it’s pretty much done. But Willie is the only one in my recollection that has even taken something associated with Elvis and made it his. He just puts his sorta trip on it…
~Bob Dylan (28 April 1993)
Here are 10 wonderful songs performed & most of them written by Mr. Nelson.
An American country music song by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, recorded first by Gwen McCrae (as “You Were Always On My Mind”) and Brenda Lee in 1972.
Willie Nelson recorded and released the song in early 1982. It raced to number one on Billboard magazine’s Hot Country Singles chart that May, spending two weeks on top and total of 21 weeks on the chart.
Maybe I didn’t treat you
Quite as good as I should have
Maybe I didn’t love you
Quite as often as I could have
Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the timeYou were always on my mind
You were always on my mind
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