Positively Bob Dylan

We wish you a Bob christmas & a Dylan new year!

Mike Hobo — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:23:48 +0000

Dear friends and visitors,

Another year is over, a new one about to begin. On behalf of positively-bobdylan.com I wish you all a very Bob christmas and a Dylan new year. What it will bring? Possibly a new album, obviously extensive touring, maybe even Chronicles Volume Two? Whatever is is that we will receive as a gift by Bob Dylan in 2012, it’s clear that things will stay…well…different (as usual).

Enjoy your holidays with this entertaining video of “Must Be Santa” from 2009, off the album “Christmas in the Heart”.

Mike Hobo

“Chimes of Freedom”: 50 years of Amnesty International

Mike Hobo — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:20:45 +0000

It’s going to be he most extensive Bob Dylan song compilation ever released: From January 24, 2012 Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary will be celebrated with the four-CD box set “Chimes of Freedom”, including incredible 76 newly recorded Bob Dylan cover versions performed by 80 artists.
The list of participants ranges from such diverse musicians as Pete Seeger, Ziggy Marley, Sting, and Pete Townshend to Adele, Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha, who performs “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” produced by Bob Ezrin.
Except for Dylan’s original 1964 recording of “Chimes of Freedom”, every track on the album is being released for the first time.

Other prominent contributions include Lenny Kravitz (“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35″), Elvis Costello (“License to Kill”), Jackson Browne (“Love Minus Zero/No Limit”), Joan Baez (“Seven Curses”), Bryan Ferry (“Bob Dylan’s Dream”), Mick Hucknall (“One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)”), Kris Kristofferson (“Quinn The Eskimo”), and Patti Smith (“Drifter’s Escape”), among many others. The full track listing can be found at http://music.amnestyusa.org.

In the meantime you can watch exclusive behind-the-scenes video footage of the recording sessions at http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/amnesty-international-unveils-bob-dylan-tribute-in-honor-of-its-50th-anniversary-20111210. A free 24-hour online streaming was offered from Dec 10 on AI’s Facebook page.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on Bob Dylan bootlegs

Mike Hobo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:08:15 +0000

In his new Steve Jobs biography Walter Isaacson describes how apart from building electronic devices, it was their passion for music that brought them together. It was around 1970, at an “incredible time for music”, as then 15 years-old Jobs recalled in an interview with Isaacson. “Woz” seems to have directed Jobs’ musical interest towards Dylan. He describes how they had tracked down one particular Dylan enthusiast who not only had put out a newsletter, but also owned an extensive archive of bootleg tapes of Dylan concerts.
Just to put this into perspective: The first ever Rock bootleg record, “The Great White Wonder” had just been released about a year prior to that. The two Steves, who later changed the world of personal computers and entertainment technology by founding Apple Computers, started off as Bob Dylan bootleg collectors! Jobs proudly remarked that he owned “more than 100 hours, including every concert of the ’65 and ’66 tour.”

While Jobs gained creative thoughts through Dylan’s song lyrics, Woz used his tape deck at low speed to record more concerts on one tape. They both stayed up late listening to and interpreting the magic words coming out of their self-assembled speakers.

Three decades later Jobs’ fascination with Dylan was still obvious: He quoted him on a shareholder meeting, used his visual for a promotional campaign, prominently promoted Dylan’s complete catalog for sale in the iTunes music store (becoming the first online record store to offer that), and got his all-time musical idol himself to appear in an iPod+iTunes commercial promoting his “Modern Times” album on the iTunes store, performing “Someday Baby”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rH1ziCo6oA

European Tour Finale 2011 with Mark Knopfler

Mike Hobo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:12:48 +0000

On November 21st Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler wrapped up their 2011 European tour in London, performing a rare duet of “Forever Young” at the Hammersmith Apollo. Even though Knopfler had constantly joined Dylan’s band on stage playing guitar, the fans had to wait until the last song of the last show of this tour to enjoy them singing a song together.
Mark Knopfler had collaborated with Dylan for the first time more than 30 years ago, playing guitar on the album “Slow Train Coming” (with the hit single and Grammy-awarded “Gotta Serve Somebody”), and producing his album “Infidels” in 1983 including the beautiful classic outtake “Blind Willie McTell”.

The YouTube-user “Knopflermania” created this nice split-screen video version based on two previously uploaded audience cam videos. Thanks, and enjoy!

Have you been there? Post your opinion on the performance!

Series of dreams: 20 years of Bootleg Series

Mike Hobo — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:37:26 +0000

Twenty years ago, in 1991 Columbia for the first time released an extensive compilation box set including solely previously unreleased recordings of Bob Dylan. The collection of 58 demos, rare studio session outtakes, live soundboard recordings, and alternate versions or takes spans everything from Dylan’s first demos (the “Minnesota Hotel Tape”, 1961) to his then latest single “Series of Dreams”, an “Oh Mercy” outtake from 1989, remixed exclusively for the release of the box set in 1991. Remember the great music video to the song? Watch it again below, and post your opinion.

The release of “The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991)” was probably not meant to become an ongoing series of official releases of rarities. Bob Dylan’s repertoire and performances range among the most bootlegged in music history, the legendary “Great White Wonder” has actually initiated rock music bootlegging. So Columbia took the risk of releasing recordings that serious collectors probably already owned, and on the other hand of compiling material that could very well not be sellable in large quantities to the average Dylan audience. But they succeeded: Both the release itself and the sales numbers were more than satisfactory: The box set entered the Billboard charts, and it has been certified with a gold record.

After its success, the “Bootleg Series” actually continued to grow into a real series of dreams for fans and collectors. Finally the record company started to care about the alternate musical legacy that until then had remained hidden deep in the archives.
For each of the new releases the songs and live performances have always been carefully picked from the wide variety of available material, there have been digitally restored and remastered from the original tapes. Additionally new liner notes have been written, and previously unreleased photographies have been added to complete one must-have release after the other.

Here are the volumes of the first and past twenty years:

1991 Vols. 1-3: Rare & Unreleased 1961-1991 (3 CD)
1998 Vol. 4: Live 1966 (The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert) (2 CD)
2002 Vol. 5: Live 1975 (The Rolling Thunder Revue) (2 CD)
2004 Vol. 6: Live 1964 (Concert at Philharmonic Hall) (2 CD)
2005 Vol. 7: No Direction Home – The Soundtrack (2 CD)
2008 Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 (2 CD)
2010 Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos 1962-1964 (2 CD)

So, what do you expect to become Vol. 10? Post your guess here. Suggestions from my side: The Genuine Basement Tapes, Blonde On Blonde sessions (a possible option according to Rolling Stone), maybe even Live at the Supper Club 1993, or Live at Woodstock ’94?

Dylan at Play

Mike Hobo — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:37:04 +0000

I’d like to take the opportunity to recommend a very special and unique new Bob Dylan book, that has just been published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. The collection of writings has been edited by Nick Smart and Nina Goss, and is centered around the question of how writers from various backgrounds have responded to Dylan’s art in their own specific professional context. I was lucky enough to have been asked to contribute an essay to this project, “May your hands always be busy”.
“We have no interest in competing with the almost numberless and ever-increasing quantity of critical and encyclopedic writing on Dylan. Our goal with this collection has been play and not categorizing or defining”, the editors say. In this respect I think the book provides an excellent and fresh new perspective on Dylan, written from an academic point of view, yet still appealing to a wider audience of Bob Dylan fans and people who grew and grow up listening to his music.

More on the book, including a free PDF sample, can be found on the CSP homepage.

Jeff Bridges performs “The Man in Me”

Mike Hobo — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 08:45:40 +0000

Actor Jeff Bridges performed a few songs at the Rolling Stone office to promote his new self-titled Country album. This is his rendition of Bob Dylan’s 1970 tune “The Man in Me”, which appeared on the movie soundtrack of “Crazy Heart”. Enjoy!

You can post your comment on the original song “The Man In Me” from the 1970 album “New Morning” here.

Bob and Jakob complete song drafts rescued from Hank Williams’ notebook

Mike Hobo — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:45:24 +0000

The upcoming compilation album “The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams” will feature newly recorded completed versions of song drafts rescued from notebooks by Country music legend Hank Williams who died in 1953 at the age of 29. As Rolling Stone magazine reports, the record was originally conceived as a Bob Dylan project, but evolved into a multi-artist tribute with 13 artists performing 12 previously unheard songs. Along with Dylan (“The Love That Faded”), the tribute also includes contributions by his son Jakob (“Oh, Mama, Come Home”) and Levon Helm (“You’ll Never Again Be Mine”), former member of The Band.

Michael McCall from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, who wrote the liner notes, observes, “These new recordings tap straight into the soul of man. This is songwriting at its most artful and most powerful.”

The album will be released on October 4, 2011. It’s only the second ever album to be released on Dylan’s Egyptian Records/Columbia, the first was “The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers – A Tribute” (1997).

”My grandfather was the Jay-Z of his time“

Mike Hobo — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:35:43 +0000

For Bob Dylan fans it can be considered the news of the week, when Rolling Stone magazine announced that Bob’s grandson had released his first rap record. 15-year-old Pablo Dylan, son of director Jesse Dylan – Bob Dylan’s oldest son – and actress Susan Traylor, enters the stage of music business. His first mixtape is called “10 minutes”, and take a look at the cover photo: Doesn’t it remind you of something too?

Of course you can’t enter the music world when you’re a part of the Dylan family without having to deal with comparisons and questions regarding the difficult legacy. Pablo carefully answered these questions though, and his statements read as if he had been born with the right feel for handling the media: “My grandfather, I consider him the Jay-Z of his time, and he definitely has a legacy that a lot of people look up to. He feels strongly about my music and I love him to death.”
Bob Dylan has been considered to be a “rap pioneer”, considering his early Talkin’ Blues tracks and songs such as “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (which Wikipedia calls a “forerunner of rap and hip-hop”). In 1986, he even added vocals to “Street Rock” by rapper Kurtis Blow.
Pablo Dylan follows the footsteps of his uncle Jakob Dylan, who has been a successful artist both solo and with his band The Wallflowers for the past 15 years. It’s only a matter of time until we hear more from Pablo, and wherever his musical journey will lead him to, all eyes will be on him too. PDB.com wishes him all the best!

Listen to “Top Of The World” by Pablo Dylan feat. K Major & Darnell Robinson on YouTube

Video: The Life and Career of Bob Dylan

Mike Hobo — Wed, 25 May 2011 07:40:09 +0000

The web video magazine WatchMojo.com has published a short Bob Dylan documentary that covers highlights of his entire career until today.

You can read more on Bob Dylan’s biography and his recordings right here.