Positively Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash painting

Mike Hobo — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:47:42 +0000

New York artist Jason Gluskin, recently produced a tribute to Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, dubbed Girl From North Country, acrylic 18” x 24”. Inspired by the 1969-70 era when the two collaborated, the painting showcases Cash and Dylan playing music together in the American countryside.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of Johnny Cash and wanted create a peaceful, country-filled landscape… something Americana in style.” said Gluskin. “Then (Dylan’s album) Nashville Skyline came back into my music rotation. Even though it was probably only a brief time the two worked together it must have been a magical moment. The harmony of their voices is simply riveting.”
Jason’s painting reflects his impressions of Rock, Jazz, Blues, Pop, Country, Punk and more. Some compositions are representations of real musicians, including one titled, When I Paint My Masterpiece featuring The Band with Bob Dylan. It was profiled in The Bands’ bass player Rick Danko’s website.
“Music fills my world. Certain songs or albums will strike a chord or emotion that I need to project visually.” Gluskin paints from video footage of his favorite musicians to capture their full persona.
You can visit the artist’s website at www.jasongluskin.com.

If you are interested in Dylan’s recording session with Johnny Cash, you might want to check out the Bootleg “The Dylan/Cash Sessions”. The only officially released song from these sessions was “Girl from the North Country”, you can find it on 1969′s “Nashville Skyline”.

Another side of Positively Bob Dylan

Mike Hobo — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:07:23 +0000

It’s been 13 years now, since I launched my very first Bob Dylan website. Since yesterday another new design is online and I hope you like it.
Let me take you back to the previous stages of what is now known as Positively-BobDylan.com: It was in the mid-1990s at a time when there was no Google yet – can you imagine? – and the only link between yourself and the great mysterious web out there was the index of Yahoo! and AltaVista. The most popular browser was Netscape Navigator and web pages were all static. Many people didn’t know what web design was and there were hardly any books or online documentations available of how to use the Internet. It was the time after Bob Dylan’s acoustic album “World Gone Wrong”.
Today you can easily create a new website or blog, everything’s pretty much automated and very well documented both online and offline. But more than a decade earlier it was a challenge really, you had to find out every little detail on your own. I wanted to create content that I would enjoy myself when surfing the web, so I ended up doing the very first generation of my site which was called “The 100% Pure Cult Website”, hosted on the free Geocities webspace which is now part of Yahoo!. It took me a few years to find out the potential of my project. At some point I realized that even without any Marketing involved, more and more people got interested in what I was doing. I didn’t have web statistics in the beginning, so didn’t know really what was going on, but the user feedback impressed me. So I kept on developing new features and creating more genuine content for my site, and I decided to call it “Mike Hobo’s Legendary Bob Dylan Website”, which was actually supposed to be a joke but somehow came out to be more than that. At one point the site was so packed with features that it got harder for me to handle it all by myself. Web 2.0 was a major relief for me and I invited the visitors to post their own song comments, album ratings, and so on. And it went quite well. After three years I’m now running three Bob Dylan websites, positively-bobdylan.com, my main site, tweedlr.com dedicated to Bob Dylan song and album ratings and comments, and the Bob Dylan fans community milliondylanfans.com.
People keep asking me why I’m putting so much time and effort into all these projects, and honestly I don’t really know. I just love it and I’ve somehow always felt that I had to do it. And so I keep on keepin’ on, for myself and all the other Bob Dylan enthusiasts out there.

Bob Dylan Soundtrack for “My Own Love Song”

Mike Hobo — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:49:14 +0000

When movie director Olivier Dahan (“La Vie en Rose”) asked Bob Dylan to contribute a song (“Life Is Hard”) to his new film “My Own Love Song” starring Renée Zellweger and Forest Whitaker, Bob wrote many more songs than he had been asked to. At the end it was enough new material to fill a whole new album (“Together Through Life”) and provide an additional score for the movie.
There are 16 previously unreleased Dylan songs on the soundtrack, some of which are instrumental. “Life Is Hard” is used in two different versions, one sung by Dylan and another one sung by Zellweger.

Bob Dylan songs used in the movie:

Forgetful Heart #
Life Is Hard #
Sweeping The Floor
Bumble Bee
Jane’s Lament
Joey’s Theme
I Feel a Change Comin’ On #
Driving South
What Good Am I *
Back Alley
Snow Falling
Billie #30
Precious Angel *
Road Weary
Click Clack
Life Is Hard (Instrumental)
Robbie Robert’s Lament
New Orleans Drums
Jane’s Step
I Believe In You *
Swingin’
Blues Club (Playback)
It’s All Good #
East Texas
Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ #

* cover version, not performed by Bob Dylan
# from “Together Through Life”

Here’s the trailer to the movie including “Precious Angel” from the album “Slow Train Coming” (1979) and “Life Is Hard”, sung by Renée Zellweger:

If you were lucky enough to see the movie, please tell us how you liked it and what you think about Dylan’s soundtrack songs.

10 Bob Dylan CDs/DVDs Sony should release!

Mike Hobo — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:03:49 +0000

The archives in Columbia/Sony Music’s basement are full of unreleased Bob Dylan gems. What are they waiting for? It’s time to continue “The Bootleg Series” with some more volumes. Here’s my suggestion, I’d be happy to read your suggestions too:

The Complete Remastered Basement Tapes
The Rolling Thunder Revue
Original Infidels Session with Mark Knopfler
Live at The Supper Club 1993
MTV Unplugged Extended Edition
Original 1984/85 Studio Session (“Empire” Outtakes & Alternate Mixes)
The Dylan/Cash Session 1969
1965/66 Studio Session Outtakes
A Neverending Tour Compilation
Live at Woodstock ’94

Please feel free to “know better” and post your wishlist

Rare ’67 test pressing surfaced

Mike Hobo — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:16:46 +0000

In 1967 Bob Dylan & The Band recorded dozens of songs in the basement of the house “Big Pink” near Woodstock. Among the many great tracks the sessions brought us all-time classics such as “The Wheel’s On Fire”, “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” or “Tears Of Rage”. Since most of the sessions’ outcome never had been officially released – only a selection of songs ended up on “The Basement Tapes” in 1974, the first legendary Rock Bootleg recording was born. It was called “Great White Wonder” because of the white sleeve and it was released in 1969. If you are interested in the story, you should read the book “The Great White Wonders: The Story of Rock Bootlegs” by Dylan-biographer Clinton Heylin.

Positively-BobDylan.com visitor Chris was lucky enough to purchase a rare copy of an original test pressing from a former Baltimore record store owner, who got it from somebody who once brought in a box of LPs to sell in 1988. According to Chris the set includes three extra tracks of earlier solo outtakes. The labels have instructions such as: “Property of John Hammond” and some explanations of origin, etc. It even says that the recording were “too raw” and that the singer “shows promise”(!). It has a signature on one label. 2LP 33rpm Mono and Stereo.
The pictures to this posting are original photographies made by the current owner especially for this purpose. I guess what Chris has got here is a very rare collector’s item, if not a one-of-a-kind internal copy for Columbia records. And feedback regarding the item or similar other copies that you know of is very much appreciated. Please post your comments below. Thanks!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Mike Hobo — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:08:11 +0000

Punkified version of “When the Ship Comes In”. Find out more about the original song here.

In my flashforward I had breakfast with Bob Dylan

Mike Hobo — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:41:37 +0000

An Internet video of Bob Dylan’s 1976 “Hard Rain” live version of “Shelter from the Storm” is featured in episode 9 (“Believe”) of the first season of the ABC TV-series “FlashForward”. The woman Bryce saw in his flashforward – Japanese office employee Keiko Arahida – watches the video on her PC in the office, trying to learn how to play the guitar like Dylan.

The full song is also used as a background song at the end of episode 9.
Learn more about the live version and the album “Hard Rain”, as well as the original song and the original album “Blood on the Tracks”. You can also rate the song and post your comments.

Unreleased song featured on NCIS Soundtrack album

Mike Hobo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:01:09 +0000

On November 3rd a previously unreleased and even on Bootlegs uncirculated studio outtake from the “Bringing It All Back Home” sessions (1965) will be featured in an episode of NCIS. The 44 years old track “California (Goin’ Down South)” will also be the opener for the official TV soundtrack album “NCIS Vol. 2″, which will be released on the same day. It actually is an early piano-version of “Outlaw Blues”, a song that later appeared on “Bringing It All Back Home” where one verse of the original version remained the same. For the 2009 TV soundtrack album the old track has been newly mixed and mastered, but fortunately you can still feel the spirit of the legendary recording sessions and Dylan at his best.

Here’s the original rare demo, enjoy!

Christmas Charity album released

Mike Hobo — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:58:18 +0000

Today Sony Music released Bob Dylan’s 47th studio album “Christmas In the Heart”. It’s both his first Christmas album and his first charity album. All royalties will be donated to the World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger worldwide and Crisis UK. Bob Dylan commented, “We must each do what we can to help feed those who are suffering and support efforts to find long-term solutions.” (Source: bobdylan.com).
You can now rate the songs and post your comments on tweedlr.com – the web’s first Bob Dylan song rating & discussion website!

Drawn Blank Series 2009

Mike Hobo — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:16:32 +0000

Bob Dylan’s Drawn Blank Series of drawings 2009 is now exhibited at Breeze Gallery in Scotland. These pieces of art will not be released in the USA and are highly collectable. The eight new limited edition standard format graphics are hand-signed by Bob Dylan! They are being sold on paper only for £1250 or framed for £1495. The complete set of eight, presented in a special edition box is available for £9250.
If you are interested in owning one of those rare pieces of art you should hurry up, for sure they will be sold out quickly.- Visit this page to view, reserve or buy the artworks.