Monday (May 24th) marks Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday …
We will commemorate the event by rerunning our “Songs of Dylan” pre-website series from 2004 all week long.
Harvey Kubernik has a lengthy tribute running in Music Connection right now, offering quotes from a variety of sources about Dylan’s impact on the music scene (and life in general) ...
https://www.musicconnection.com/kubernik-happy-80th-birthday-bob-dylan/
... but of all of them, my favorite is the piece by Gary Pig Gold, who gives us
80 GOOD REASONS TO CELEBRATE BOB DYLAN’S BIRTHDAY THIS YEAR
1. His previous 79 years
2. Most notably, between the hours of 8 and 9 pm on the evening of May 17, 1966, in the Manchester Free Trade Hall
3. Chronicles: Volume One
4. Blonde on Blonde … in MONO, of course
5. Not to mention Columbia single # 4-43683
6. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” … Before the Flood version especially
7. He recorded no less than Elvis’ “That’s Alright, Mama” at his very first “electric” session
8. He
recorded his first – and so far only –
# 1 song at the age of 78
9.
He totally gets Smokey
Robinson
10. He wrote the best-ever Picnic song
11. Introduced the Fab Four to jazz cigarettes (…Is it any wonder then that he later…)
12. Portrayed the coolest-ever Wilbury
13. His Theme Time Radio Hour
14. The band he used when he performed at Newport in 1965
15. The wig he used when he performed at Newport in 2002
16. “I’m looking for a place that will collect, clip, bath and return my dog. I want a dog that’s gonna collect and clean my bath, return my cigarette, and give tobacco to my animals, and give my birds a commission. I’m looking for somebody to sell my dog, collect my clip, buy my animal and straighten out my bird. I’m looking for a place to bathe my bird, buy my dog, collect my clip, sell me cigarettes and commission my bath. I’m looking for a place that’s gonna collect my commission, sell my dog, burn my bird, and sell me to the cigarette. Gonna bird my buy, collect my will, and bathe my commission. I’m looking for a place that’s going to animal my soul, knit my return, bathe my foot and collect my dog. Commission me to sell my animal to the bird to clip and buy my bath and return me back to the cigarettes.”
17. In fact, the entire Eat the Document film
18. His performance at the 1991 Grammys
19. His Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech at the 1991 Grammys!
20. His 1963 Tom Paine Award acceptance speech … possibly
21. “If Dogs Run Free”
22. “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” … listen to the melody, too
23. Invited Brian Jones over during the Great Northeastern Blackout of 1965
24. Asked Frank Zappa (!) to produce Infidels
25. His canned goods inventory scene in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
26. His Live Aid, um, performance
27. His $4 million, twelve-acre, ranch(es)-style six bedroom, seven bathroom, recording-studio-equipped onion-shaped copper-domed Point Dume “Malibu Taj Mahal” complete with 20-foot whale-tiled fireplace and vintage full-sized automobile suspended from the living room ceiling
28. Has more unauthorized bootleg recordings out there than the Beach Boys have Greatest Hits albums
29. That rap number he recorded with Brian Wilson
30. That limo ride he took – and filmed – with John Lennon in ’66 (see # 17)
31. Always carries a large light bulb
32. Always remembers to remember Buddy Holly
33. Masked and Anonymous
34. “I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”: he said that
35. His harmonica playing
36. His lead guitar playing … on the first 12 bars of “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” especially
37. Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower”
38. Suze’s “Cough Song”
39. Race Marbles’ “Like a Dribbling Fram” even!
40. He walked out on Ed Sullivan (unlike Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger)
41. But, he had breakfast with then-governor Jimmy Carter in 1974
42. He recorded the definitive version of “The Boxer”
43. He recorded the definitive version of “Froggie Went a-Courtin’”
44. He even recorded the definitive “Yesterday” … with George Harrison on guitar!
45. His masterful telephone etiquette with A. J. Weberman
46. His Victoria’s Secret commercial
47. Those long, pretty damn dirty fingernails on the cover of Nashville Skyline
48. That long, damn funny promotional video for The Original Mono Recordings box set
49. His long-time friendship, and mutual admiration society, with Johnny Cash
(also see # 17) (again)
50. His Chopped Liver band
51. His “Must Be Santa” video!
52. “Lenny Bruce”
53. Elston Gunn(n)
54. Renaldo and Clara … yes, all FOUR hours of it
55. He hung out – a LOT – in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (with Grizzly the Wrestler) during the making of Hearts of Fire
56. He not only hung out, but motorpsycho’d around New Orleans with Eric Burdon during the making of Oh Mercy
57. Tarantula (especially page 10)
58. Wrote “Lay Lady Lay” for the Everly Brothers and/or Midnight Cowboy
59. Recorded “Buckets of Rain” with Bette Midler
60. Auditioned Dharma Montgomery for his band
61. …Revisited
62. Got the non-evil eye from Gorgeous George
63. Got Milton Glaser to paint his idol’s name into the hair on his Greatest Hits album poster (see # 7)
64. He (inadvertently) wrote the theme song for “Absolutely Fabulous”
65. He showed up on “Pawn Stars”
66. … to autograph his Self Portrait, no less!
67. Performed for the Pope
68. “Judas!”
69. Soy Bomb!!!
70. Granted an interview to the American Association of Retired Persons magazine to promote his Sinatra album
71. Was once almost – almost – the new King of Comedy on HBO via Larry Charles
72. Rode in a Chrysler 200 (and an old
elevator) in a Super Bowl commercial
73. Talked back to Watson in an IBM commercial
74. Managed to once rhyme “Delacroix”
with “employed”
75. Managed to mix Allen Ginsberg with
Bill Haley’s Comets on The Basement Tapes
76. Put John F. Kennedy, among many others, at the top of the Billboard charts in 2020 with “Murder Most Foul”
77. Shortly thereafter, Bob sold his entire song
catalog of over 600 titles to the Universal Music Publishing Group
78. … and it only earned him
$400,000,000.00
79. Remember, ’way back in 1967, the man
realized “I’m Your Teenage Prayer” (also on those Basement Tapes), but …
80. He’s younger than that now
Be sure to check back on Monday to catch the replay of our SONGS OF DYLAN Series. (kk)
And watch for Chrissie Hynde's new Bob Dylan tribute album, "Standing In The Doorway," available August 20th ... https://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/chrissie-hynde-bob-dylan-tribute-album-listen-stream/?mc_cid=f84684d123&mc_eid=f8f75f98ed
