Seven Days: Sept 23 – 29, 2024

Sept 23 - 29, 2024

The Week in Bob Dylan

This is Seven Days, a weekly summary of the best Bob Dylan news and links and everything new. You're seeing the free public edition.

Premium Members get an Extended Edition which includes 10-40 more links every week including lists of New Articles, Blog Posts, Reviews & Releases plus some extra videos.

All The Dylan News in Your Inbox Every Week

Tour Details

The Latest on Bob's Live Concerts

Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour — resumes Oct 4th in Prague
- Tour Schedule | Setlists | BobServe.com

Top News & Links

Our favorite Dylan-related stories and links

Songs by Bob Dylan Blocked by YouTube (Variety) [3]
- "Attempts to play many, but not all, songs by those artists on Saturday met with the following message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”
Did Dylan Officialize the Lighter Ritual at Concerts? (Rolling Stone) [5]
- "“Ravi Shankar had just finished up his performance, and the announcer said that if you lit candles, it would help to keep the rain away. By the time I finished my set, the whole hillside was a mass of little flickering lights.”"
Allen Ginsberg & Bob Dylan Ride the “Vomit Express” (Recliner Notes) [8]
- With studio time at the Record Plant booked, Dylan began rounding up players to accompany Ginsberg. Amram would need to be involved since he had also attended the NYU performance."
Bob Dylan’s Mystery Tweet (Rolling Stone) [3]
- "It’s a mere seven words: “Happy Birthday Mary Jo! See you in Frankfort.” There is no other context."
Music History on the Block — Including Bob Dylan’s First Recordings (New York Post) [5]
- "Tapes from the recording session were poised to be incinerated and were believed to have been erased. Seeing Dylan’s name on the tape box, the security guard asked if he could have them. A supervisor told him it would be fine."

Special Announcement

Kris Kristofferson passed away on Sat September 28th
- Kris was a janitor in Nashville when Dylan recorded Blonde on Blonde (1966)
- Kris co-starred with Dylan in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
- Dylan recorded Kristofferson's 'They Killed Him' on Knocked Out Loaded (1986)
- Obits:
  - NY Times | Rolling Stone | Variety (10 Best Kristofferson Songs)

"You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything." — Bob Dylan

“Dylan’s probably my biggest hero as an artist, songwriter and singer”
– Kris Kristofferson

New Articles

Stories from the press

Bob Dylan’s Mystery Tweet (Rolling Stone) [3]
- "It’s a mere seven words: “Happy Birthday Mary Jo! See you in Frankfort.” There is no other context."
Did Dylan Officialize the Lighter Ritual at Concerts? (Rolling Stone) [5]
- "“Ravi Shankar had just finished up his performance, and the announcer said that if you lit candles, it would help to keep the rain away. By the time I finished my set, the whole hillside was a mass of little flickering lights.”"
Music History on the Block — Including Bob Dylan’s First Recordings (New York Post) [5]
- "Tapes from the recording session were poised to be incinerated and were believed to have been erased. Seeing Dylan’s name on the tape box, the security guard asked if he could have them. A supervisor told him it would be fine."
Nonagenarian Channels Dylan in Sculpture (Allotsego) [3]
- "His exhibit is titled “Jack of Hearts: Sculpture and Paintings by Marcus Villagran.” I’m embarrassed that I’ve only been aware of him for about three years,” Villagran said."
Dylan Wondering if It’s Too Late to Do a Genre-Defining Ska Album (3]
- "I always thought I could bring peace to the generations through moshing and skanking."
Songs by Bob Dylan Blocked by YouTube (Variety) [3]
- "Attempts to play many, but not all, songs by those artists on Saturday met with the following message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

New Blog Posts

New from fans and other writers

Blind Willie McTell (A Song & Dance Man Excerpt) (TheFM.Club) [10]
- "Blind Willie McTell is no roaring primitive, and no Robert Johnsonesque devil-dealing womaniser. He didn’t lose his sight in a jook-joint brawl, or hopping a freight train."
Allen Ginsberg & Bob Dylan Ride the “Vomit Express” (Recliner Notes) [8]
- With studio time at the Record Plant booked, Dylan began rounding up players to accompany Ginsberg. Amram would need to be involved since he had also attended the NYU performance."
Slow Train Comin’: America As Another Accident Statistic (Jeff's Substack) [3]
- "Most of the songs on the album dealt directly with Dylan’s new-found faith in Jesus Christ, but “Slow Train” intensely critiqued the powerful who ignored God, deceitfully pursued riches, and gave little thought to the needs of others."
Now It Goes Like This: "Simple Twist of Fate" (Flagging Down) [8]
- "Prolific remaster-er Bennyboy collaborated with the user LostChords to compile one version of “Simple Twist of Fate” from every year it was performed."
False Prophet (2020) Pt.10 (Untold Dylan) [5]
- "More mystical, and thus a little closer to the charge Dylan seems to assign to it in “False Prophet”, are the artists who see something like “creating a crushing work of art” as the Holy Grail."
He’s an Artist, He Don’t Look Back (Everything is Broken) [5]
- "WE HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN THAT Dylan dabbled in artwork. Occasional drawings accompanied his hand-penned liner notes and full-fledged paintings appeared as cover art for the Band’s 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink..."
Terri Thal FOR THE RECORD (Folk City) [3]
- "Exactly 63 years to the day that our friend Bobby Dylan began a two-week stint (9/25/61) at Folk City, his FIRST BUSINESS MANAGER appeared on Bob Porco’s FIRST ‘podcast.’"
The Double Life of Bob Dylan Pt.17 (Untold Dylan) [5]
- "Well for Heylin there is always something, as with the assertion that “Like a Rolling Stone” was itself “actually based on a traditional Mexican folk song ‘La Bamba’.”
Dylan & Us: Beyond America (Untold Dylan) [5]
- "They will find nothing in it that proclaims the Glory of their Lord or His earthly representative. The only courtesy I am willing to extend to them is the inclusion of some odd capitalisations where necessary, as in the previous sentence."
Once or Twice: Seven Curses (Untold Dylan) [3]
- "But it seems that although several sites have a recording of the song live they are always from the New York City Town Hall in April that year. As far as I can find, the other time he performed it, there was no recording."

New Releases & Reviews

News about new music or reviews

The Hard Rain TV Special
- A new very low gen copy - Best Quality Ever - is now available on YouTube
God is Watching… From a Distance (Orlando Sentinal) [3]
- "“Girl from the North Country” becomes so wrapped up in its own artistry that it disconnects from the audience. Most musicals have a warmth that pulls you in; this one — often as chilly as a Thanksgiving morn in the play’s setting of Duluth, Minnesota — seems to keep the audience at bay."
'Girl From the North Country' is Uneven but Deeply Affecting (Orlando Weekly) [3]
- "Stripped of its score, Girl From the North Country would make a fine straight play, so perhaps its biggest surprise is how the musical’s biggest name — 1960s icon Bob Dylan, who contributed nearly two dozen of his classic songs — takes on a supporting role, rather than hogging the spotlight. "
More YouTube
- Did Dylan Deserve the Nobel Prize
- Wanted Man (Cover Song) Nick Cave 9/27/2024