Watching the 30 year anniversary concert and just noticed G.E Smith is wearing a cool Dylan T-shirt.

Anyone know where I could buy one ?

and replaced it with another film clip a little while ago 😭

did he plant an official looking post just to delete it as a bit or is he locked in a silent posting war with a social media manager? regardless im loving his active social media romp 🙏

I realized the songs (not limited to these only, but these were the ones that I realized I had been clearly mistaken on) Visions of Johanna, Girl From the North Country and Don’t Think Twice (though this one is more obvious) carried double meanings.

Obviously not all of his love-related songs have a double-meaning, at least in their attitude towards the person they were written for. I don’t think there’s anything extra going on in Sad-Eyed Lady for instance, he’s just crazy about his new girlfriend/wife. But I am pretty certain that Visions of Johanna is a trick song. It’s a trick on the public, but mainly it is a trick on Joan Baez, to make her think that he’s still “in love” with her, even though he pretty obviously is taken completely by Sara around this time (which ends the album both songs share). “I know the reason that you talk behind my back/I used to be among the crowd you’re in with” I believe is a line referring to Joan and the people she hung around with. I have no doubt Bob really left some deep and unpleasant marks on her, which would—if anyone here has ever been involved with a woman that they broke it up with knows—lead her to talk shit behind his back to put obstacles in his way and what have you. You might not agree with this part but just stick with me. Also if anyone has seen Don’t Look Back here you might’ve noticed that the way Joan is treated by Bob’s yes men isn’t exactly pleasant. So I believe VoJ is an apology, though done in a very Dylan sort of way.

I’ll start with the first verse which is interestingly not describing that desperate of a situation, “just Louise and her lover so entwined” sounds pretty comfy and lovely, except for the lines about him doing heroin of course, but that’s a given. It sounds like the last lines which tie it to Johanna are sarcastically forced there, to tell her “Hey, I’m actually doing pretty good, but here’s the chorus of the song—and I’m really fucking good at writing songs—where I profess my love to you again, you stupid scarecrow” (no offence to Joan). His delivery of those last lines are also incredibly sarcastic to my ears.

“Louise is delicate and seems like the mirror” he’s telling her this new girl is delicate, unlike the rather masculine Joan, and that she’s like himself in a way—this line really doesn’t make sense in the accepted context of the song, where Louise is supposed to be a bore and inspire nothing in him but yearning for this “Johanna”.

“Oh, how can I explain?/It’s so hard to get on” sounds like a cop-out line, almost like Dylan saying “hey, can you just buy this lie and leave me alone?” to Joan. It doesn’t even sound like he’s trying to convince her, he really can’t help himself putting her down subtly. “Past the dawn” also sounds so insanely drawn out and sarcastic, again.

“But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles/See the primitive wallflower freeze/When the jelly-faced women all sneeze/Hear the one with the mustache say, ‘Jeez, I can't find my knees’/Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule” Mona Lisa is Joan, he’s making fun of her that she really doesn’t know real sadness and implying that’s why her music doesn’t have the effect Dylan’s has. The primitive wallflower is also Joan when she’s out touring with Dylan and not being able to handle the weirdness him and his crew were drawing to their direction. It’s his way of telling her “you can’t keep up with me or my people or the craziness that surrounds us, you really don’t belong here”. I think the mule is also Joan, he’s the jewels hanging around her head and she watches him from far away now that they’re separated so she needs binoculars.

The lines about parasites are pretty obviously calling her (and himself) a parasite. He took advantage of her to get real big, then she rode his wave—though much less successfully.

I would encourage you all to re-listen to this one again and let me know if you come up with any more lines that confirm this theory.

The second song, Girl From the North Country, is for Suze Rotolo and sounds like a pretty straightforward “missing you” kind of folk song on the surface. This is his most subtle one, though I believe he felt bad about it afterwards and wrote the words for Boots of Spanish Leather on top of the melody because of it.

The song doesn’t contain a lot of verses, but gets through a lot just by delivery. “Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline” is a very interesting line, as he very obviously cracks the signature Dylan smile as he sings “line”. It’s almost as if he means something else. To me, it sounds very much like sexual innuendo, she “lives” where the “winds” “hit” “heavy” on the “borderline”. I know there are way too many quotations there, but that’s just Dylan. I know it’s not the most gentlemanly thing to call your ex a whore, but I believe that’s exactly what he’s doing here. The second verse also talks about the “winds”, the men waiting for the moment when a girl is most vulnerable (“the rivers freeze and ‘summer’ ends”).

“Down her breast” he just cracks up while singing this, I don’t know about you guys, but I find most other love songs I’ve heard don’t have the singer snickering throughout the song like this one. He’s just making it about sex and sex only, almost telling the girl “that’s all you were to me”, though this obviously isn’t true—he’s a sensitive romantic, this is all just a defence mechanism. He also sets up “long hair” as hair that rolls and flows down a girl’s chest, which, if you look at pictures of Suze, was not the case. He then says the way he remembers her best was when her hair was hanging “long”, so he really doesn’t remember her fondly at all.

He then wonders if she remembers him at all, which obviously she does—she’s on the cover of his album, after all. He’s just calling her loose, again, implying that he was just a number to her. He says he often “prayed”, though I’m pretty sure he means jerked off, though you can disagree with this one if you’d like—but I think the tone he set up so far in the song is pretty obvious. He also seems the type of guy to worship the women he was with, so in his mind that could be like praying, in a way.

The last “clue” is not in the lyrics at all, but what he does with his harmonica at the end. He just draws that one note out until it starts sounding like screeching instead of music. I believe this is his way of telling her “Fuck you for all you’ve put me through”.

Don’t Think Twice is actually pretty straightforward compared to the previous two. The first verse and a half is him calling her dumb: the light bulb is her brightness, which he never knowed—and it’s no use for her to mull over it because she’s too dumb to grasp anything anyway. The chorus is also incredibly sarcastic, it’s obviously not alright—but he’s moving on, so it is alright.

He wishes there was something she would “do” or say to change his mind, and this line—especially with the way he sings ‘do’—implies that the only thing she can use to hold them together is/was sex. “We never did too much talking anyway” if we are to believe Suze was as dumb as he makes her out to be, then they probably were fucking more than they were talking. He also starts the next verse with her calling out his name during sex but giving it more oomph this time around to get him more into it.

I think the rest of the song is pretty self-explanatory, but do let me know if there is anything there I might’ve missed.

I know this was a long one and it might seem obvious to long-time Dylan fans but I’m pretty young so realizing this blew my head and gave me new appreciation for the man.

This was posted on youtube yesterday. Incredible.

And not to harp on Tim-Bob, but this one concert demonstrates the depth of Dylan that's entirely missing from the recent biopic.

"On April 12, 1963 at Town Hall, Bob Dylan played his first major concert. Over a thousand people attended and Dylan played mostly original and unknown songs from his forthcoming album, songs like "Blowin in the Wind" and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright." The New York Times reviewed the concert, and Robert Shelton wrote "Mr. Dylan is 21 years old, hails from Hibbing, Minnesota, wears blue jeans, presumably has little to do with barbers, and resembles a Holden Caulfield who got lost in the Dust Bowl." He concluded by thanking legendary promoter Harold Leventhal "for straying from the sure box-office attractions to present a young giant." (Quote from https://www.facebook.com/TownHallNYC/posts...)

Set list:
1 audience
2 Ramblin' Down Thru The World
3 Bob Dylan's Dream
4 Talkin' New York
5 Ballad Of Hollis Brown
6 Walls Of Red Wing
7 All Over You
8 Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues
9 Boots Of Spanish Leather
10 Hero Blues
11 Blowin' In The Wind
12 John Brown
13 Tomorrow Is A Long Time
14 A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

1 Dusty Old Fairgrounds
2 Who Killed Davey Moore?
3 Seven Curses
4 Highway 51 (Curtis Jones)
5 Pretty Peggy-O (trad., arranged by Bob Dylan)
6 Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag
7 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
8 Hiding Too Long
9 With God On Our Side
10 Masters Of War
11 Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie

As usual, the Grammys are advertising a special guest star tonight.

I think there's a good chance BD is the one.

What do you think?

This is more of an observation rather than a definitive guide sort of thing...

Have all the albums on CD and hundreds of not thousands of "field recordings".

Recently purchased a turntable and getting back into vinyl.

Wet entirely digital around 2019 with a Marantz NA8005 Network Audio Player that strems music from a Synology NAS.

MP3's are rarely played. All CD's have been ripped to FLAC Have purchased some High Resolution Studio Grade FLAC. Have some DSD and DSF files. Now added vinyl.

What I've noticed over the years is the quality of the sound depending on the recording can differ depending on the format.

CD quality FLAC of Highway 61 Revisited (stereo) is listenable.

CD quality Flac of Highway 61 Revisited (Mono) seems a bit distant. This could be due to the master used for the mono box set as the original was lost.

Vinyl Highway 61 Revisited (Stereo) just seems better than the stereo and Mono Flac versions ripped from original CDs.

Blood On The Tracks CD Flac and High Res flac are very close to the vinyl version too.

Yesterday I got God As I Been to you on vinyl.

CD FLAC sounds closer, warmer and brighter than the 2018 reissue on vinyl.

Next up will be Bringing It All Back Home (Mono) and Blonde On Blonde (Mono) Italian reissue.

Maybe it's just the loudness wars!

It's one of my favourites, and I can't seem to find any other versions of it but I'm sure he must've played it live at some point. Thanks!

Hello, my brother has a milestone birthday coming up. He is a Dylan fan. I am trying to decide which box set to get for him: The Rolling Thunder Review, The 1966 Live Recordings, or the 1974 live recordings. For anyone who has them, any preference for which one is the best? Thanks.

Pleding My Time outtake lyrics "I'm gonna play wigwam, I'll tell you now, if you don't know how to play, you better find out how". Is wigwam a game or song, just gibberish or something else?

Hey r/bobdylan! Welcome to this week's song discussion!

In these threads we will discuss a new song every week, trading lyrical interpretations, rankings, opinions, favorite versions, and anything else you can think of about the song of the week.

This week we will be discussing Visions of Johanna.

Lyrics

Click here to vote for next week's song!

I've been trying to figure out for a while now and I have a couple guesses but does anyone know the exact key Bob uses in the recording of Percy's Song?

Hey I came to ask about the name of one specific song that Timothee played in the movie, it was at the recording studio when dylan was auditioning or recording, im not sure exactly, and the song he played started with this fast and very loud intro played on the 6-th (fattest) string of his guitar. I would really appreciate if someone could tell me the name, cheers

One answer song is "Oh Brother" by Baez, an answer to "Oh Sister".

One parody song is the Grammy-winning "A Might Wind", a parody of the central metaphor of "Blowin' in the Wind."

Does anyone know of other songs that fit in these categories?

Edit: There is some speculation that "Oh Sister" was an answer song to "Diamonds and Rust".

I'm going to be so honest: I've never really gotten why everyone goes so gaga over Bob Dylan. However, I have always been insanely, head over heels in love with Ballad of a Thin Man. Something about that song just really clicks for me in a way no other Dylan song has.

Personally, I go for the music over lyrics, which might be a key point in my inability to find more of his songs I enjoy. But, do people have any recommendations?

Looks like Bob is going to be busy this summer with the Outlaw Tour!

am i the only one that finds songs from "oh mercy" too formulaic?

what i mean by that is the fact that most songs revolve around the song title thats being repeated every verse like a hook. songs like "disease of conceit", "political world" , "everything is broken".

The frequence of this song structure on this album makes it a little too predictable and boring in my opinion.

Blood on the tracks has many songs with same structure, but for some reason it doesnt sound as formulaic. On that album, it just makes sense. Shelter from the storm, or tangled up in blue for example just work.

What do Dylan fans think of this cover? I know how I feel about it, and I can make assumptions about what bigger Dylan fans may think but I'd rather hear it directly.

Also, I don't know if this made any waves with Dylan fans when it first came out in 2005 but I'm curious if anyone can report what the consensus was then.

Girl from the North Country / Secret Machines

What’s the song that goes like “ooooh baby, ooooh weee” that’s the only part I remember and it’s stuck in my head

Who’s all read this?

Does anybody have a copy of Dylan’s version of I wish it would rain from springtime in new York and if so please upload it

Honestly bob’s character isn’t bad I know why people didn’t care for it (Bob doesn’t either) but honestly I thought it was decent but idk maybe I just don’t understand movies lmafo