BOB DYLAN:
The Final Chapter
It's been called everything from
sleazy to brilliant...but the bottom line is that the current series of television
ads for VICTORIA'S SECRET featuring BOB DYLAN have been a HUGE
success...perhaps the biggest in the chain's history.
In the commercial, we hear LOVE SICK, a track from DYLAN's latest album TIME OUT OF MIND. The remixed version of that track (which can be found on the special edition VICTORIA'S SECRET CD ... available for just $10 with any VICTORIA'S SECRET purchase) is included here today as our final BOB DYLAN track.
Well, thanks to my beautiful lady friend, I have a copy of the
free CD Victoria's Secret was giving away, and I must admit, I really like it,
and in my old(er) age I don't really mind a little commercialism in my music.
In fact if there were more commercialism, maybe artists wouldn't need record
company leeches sucking off so much of the profit that rightfully belongs to
the artists. (Getting off my soapbox now). BTW, thanks for this prolonged
tribute to an artist who has long been one of my favorites. His songs always
tell a story, the music is always well written, and in HIS old(er) age, I feel
like his songs have caught up to his voice especially the likes of "Things
Have Changed." Again, thanks for ALL the music and info you provide.
Mike (aka Daddyo)
Hey, I spent the ten bucks, too, and actually waited in line myself
to get this CD...and was pleasantly surprised by just how much I truly enjoyed
it. (Now if I can just get this damned, new lacy thong to stop riding up my ass,
everything'll be perfect!!!) kk
As
an added bonus, we've got a very rare GEORGE HARRISON track
that DYLAN wrote. (We featured GEORGE's version of IF NOT FOR YOU earlier in this series
and mentioned that HARRISON and DYLAN wrote some songs together both
for GEORGE's ALL THINGS MUST PASS album as well as the two TRAVELING WILLBURYS LPs.)
[EDITOR'S NOTE: A recent 2021 Bob Dylan release captures a number of the George Harrison / Bob Dylan sessions ... including a version of The Beatles' "Yesterday"!!! - kk]
Back in 1985, GEORGE cut DYLAN's I DON'T WANT TO DO IT and the track was featured on the PORKY'S REVENGE Soundtrack Album. In that it NEVER appeared on an
official GEORGE HARRISON release (it
was, however, released as a Columbia Records single at the time, backed with a DAVE EDMUNDS tune), it has become an
extremely rare track.
The PORKY'S REVENGE Soundtrack was
recently re-released on CD...it's a GREAT soundtrack (to an otherwise God-awful
movie), featuring tracks by HARRISON,
EDMUNDS, JEFF BECK, CARL PERKINS,
WILLIE NELSON, CLARENCE CLEMONS, THE
FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS and a group called THE CRAWLING KING SNAKES, which features ROBERT PLANT on lead vocals accompanied by PHIL COLLINS, DAVE EDMUNDS
and PAUL MARTINEZ.
This
OFFICIALLY wraps up our BOB DYLAN
series ... for real, this time ... other than a few more comments from our readers ... and we hope you enjoyed it.
Special thanks again to Phil (CALOTOONZ)
for helping out with our DYLAN
feature ... and to everyone else who contributed these past ten days by way of
comments and encouragement ... and to all of those who did NOT delete before even
giving the SONGS of BOB DYLAN a
chance to be heard by other artists.
re: BOB DYLAN:
>>>Several other artists have had HUGE hits over the years covering DYLAN's tunes ... songs that, had he
released them as singles himself quite possibly may have failed ... yet, thanks
to these cover versions, have gone on to become classics in the process. (kk)
Some covers of covers have become classics as well. Attached is one of my favorites - Marshall Crenshaw's cover of the Byrd's cover of Dylan's "My Back Pages". What a song! P.S. Not to offend anyone, but I think people who want to overlook the incredible songwriting talent of Bob Dylan and complain about his voice are the same people who want to complain about Joe Jackson's looks and bemoan the fact that he must appear in his own videos. Meanwhile, I'm treated to "form over substance" crap where I have to watch bimbos trapse around and compete for recording contracts in outfits that show me how long it's been since their last bikini wax ...
Vaguememory
Diana sent along the MARSHALL CRENSHAW version of MY BACK PAGES ... it's attached as a COMMENTS PAGE BONUS today!
Once
again Forgotten Hits has great timing. I just bought "The Essential Bob
Dylan" this weekend without even knowing he was going to be featured this
week! Psychic unity or Big Brother? hmmm. lol
- Hope
OK -
You didn't get Hendrix..
I don't get this guy..
What was that la di da song?
I kinda like the "Everybody must get stoned" and Lay Lady Lay but all
the fanfare over this guy escapes me. Maybe after this series I will change my mind, but so far ... Uh Uh (I know Hendrix loved this guy)
rp
In all honesty, I have never considered myself a BOB DYLAN fan either ... I don't think I
could make it through a whole album. But, that being said, I have to admit that
I absolutely LOVE SHE BELONGS TO ME by RICK
NELSON, IF NOT FOR YOU by GEORGE HARRISON, I SHALL BE RELEASED by THE
BOX TOPS, THE MIGHTY QUINN by MANFRED MANN ... and several of the
OTHER songs we featured this week ... which means that I really DO like the music
of BOB DYLAN ... just not as much
when it's performed by him!!! LAY LADY
LAY, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR
and RAINY DAY WOMEN #12 and #35 are
amongst my favorite DYLAN-recorded
classics ... and I've got to give the man his due ... he influenced everyone from THE BEATLES to JIMI HENDRIX back in the '60's ... and I find that I genuinely like
and enjoy his songs when performed by others ... and that simple fact was the
inspiration for this whole series! (By the way, in the liner notes for DYLAN's BIOGRAPH set, he wrote (about JIMI
HENDRIX): "It's not a wonder to me that he recorded my songs but
rather that he recorded so few because they were all his." In fact, DYLAN later changed his OWN arrangement
of ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER to
reflect JIMI's interpretation!
I guess somebody at Columbia must have thought this was gonna be a bigger hit ... when I was a youngun' going through the 3 for $1.00 45's at Klein's, I must come across a hundred of these ... no "Lay Lady Lay" or "Rainy Day Women" to be found! Just "Wigwam" after "Wigmam" ... and no, I didn't find "Indian Reservation" either ... (yea, I know it's bad, but I couldn't think of anything better) Mark Q¿Q
Copies of WIGWAM flooded the cut-out bins here in Chicago, too ... and over the years I bought several copies of this single ... yet NEVER found a clean-sounding version ... although brand new pressings, they all had static and hiss. I always liked the song, 'though, and no one was more shocked than me when I heard it on THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS soundtrack! (This isn't a DYLAN song that most people know ... let alone would pick for a movie!) Even MORE shocking was hearing EMITT RHODES' LULLABYE during the film!!! (It's a bizarre soundtrack to an even more bizarre film. THE CLASH, THE RAMONES and THE VELVET UNDERGROUND share disk-space with DYLAN, RHODES and THE VINCE GUARALDI TRIO!!!)
Ah yes, Elston Gunn, I remember him well. He showed up at the Jazz
Fest in New Orleans last year. Claimed he was Bob Dylan. He played a song or
two on guitar, but for the most part played piano on the songs, including Mr.
Tambourine Man! The singing was so different than the original melodies, that
often I didn't recognize what the song was until half way through. Clearly the
worst performance by a major star I ever saw in concert. I have seen Dylan at
least a dozen times. The best was in 1974 when he was touring with the Band. The
worst was at last year's Jazz Fest when for some reason he decided, once again,
he was a piano player. The Dylan concerts I attended have ranged from very good
to acceptable to poor. But the piano show at the Jazz Fest was really
horrendous.
As for Dylan covers, my personal favorite has always been "My
Back Pages" by the Byrds. One of the greatest rock 'n' roll recordings of
all time. Another one of my favorite Dylan covers is Manfred Mann's "The
Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)." I loved that song when I was in the
seventh grade a nd I still love hearing it today! I also enjoy listening to the
Hollies album of Dylan songs. My favorite Hollies cover on the LP is "When
The Ship Comes In."
Bruce "No I don't just listen to the Beatles" Spizer
Now THAT had to be an interesting concert!!! As a DYLAN fan, hopefully you've enjoyed our
little series ... and were glad to see that we featured both MY BACK PAGES by THE BYRDS
and THE MIGHTY QUINN by MANFRED MANN.
Kent,
A technical correction here ... The #9 placement for "All I Really Want To
Do" in Cash Box was based on the combined sales of both Cher's and the
Byrds' versions of the song, with Cher's being the bigger seller. Two weeks
after that #9 peak, Cash Box downgraded the Byrds' version to the status of
"other versions strongly reported," which indicated that its
contribution to the song's chart position was minimal. - Randy Price
Thanks for explaining ... I don't know if I'm totally clear on how CASH BOX used to show shared chart
positions ... sometimes in all caps (which I'm assuming meant a version that
actually was getting PLAYED) and then sometimes up to three or four OTHER
versions that nobody ever really heard of.
They can't stand to listen to him??? Try watchin'
him. I LOVE Dylan - I love his stories, but watching him is a a real pain. lol
I'd listen to him any day, but NEVER, EVER watch him!! ~~ Yumm
Does this mean that you have NOT been inspired to run out and buy VICTORIA'S SECRET underwear due to his
leering appearance in those commercials?!?!? (kk)
I love The Wonder Who's version of Dont Think Twice. Oddly, I only ever come across 45s of On the Good Ship Lollipop by them ... wonder why? Actually, I only like Don't Think Twice in stereo, my mp3 of it seems to be from a vinyl dub though.
Tom Diehl
I always thought the picture sleeve for the Wonder Who single was pretty clever ... like there was ANYONE on the planet who couldn't tell that this was Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at the time! (kk)
>>>THE BOX TOPS' version of I SHALL BE RELEASED was damn-near a religious experience! (kk)
The true religious experience associated with this song was with The Band in The Last Waltz. I sobbed through the entire performance.
Diana
I'm a big Dylan fan and John Wesley Harding is one of his BEST ... along with
Blonde on Blonde, of course.
PLQQKER
If Not For You by Olivia Newton
John :::::: sigh :::::: my favorite record of all time. I have her first chart
album, also entitled If Not For You. It's
been appraised at $100. It's worth that much just for the picture of her on the
cover ... a natural ONJ! She has a healthy, tanned, outdoorsy look as opposed to
the pale, air-brushed, soft-focused look that she seemed to favor later on. Ah
well ... I still like everything she's ever done.
Pete
I always liked OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, too ... not so much
the country stuff (although I think she does a GREAT version of IF NOT FOR YOU) ... but after she
revitalized her image in the finale of GREASE
and came back with grittier rock tunes, OLIVIA
proved that she had the chops to compete with any of the other female
vocalists out there. (PHYSICAL
topped the charts for an incredible TEN WEEKS ... then an all-time record!) My
daughter (who wrote our up-coming '70's
TEEN IDOLS / JOHN TRAVOLTA
piece) ALSO fell in love with OLIVIA and
has seen her in concert a couple of times including very recently ... she says
she still sounds (and looks) great! (kk)
George Harrison paid a compliment to Dylan by the remaking songs,
"I'll Have You Anytime", and "If Not For You." George paid
a tribute to Dylan's work by presenting these tunes in his own style ... They
sounded great ... Two of my favorites by Dylan and Harrison. Blossmwrld
ahhh ... thank you for the nice
memories ... my hubby and I love Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band and would
play the album often in our little apartment in the early 70's ...
pooh
i was never physically
attracted to rick nelson (lol), so i can give a reality check to those who
think he could act ... on ozzie and harriet, the stories were great, but as rick
aged from wisecracking kid to college man ... his acting became very 'wooden' ...
but as a kid actor, he was right up there with rusty hammer on make room for
daddy ... nelson used to appear every summer in a club in wildwood, nj where i
grew up ... never got to see him though ... those were his 'non' cool days to the hippie
kids (pre-garden party) ... but lonesome town and hello mary lou turned into a
couple of my 'oldie' favorites ... oh well ... dopey me ... renfield.
ahhhh - "love minus zero/no limit" and "tomorrow is a long time" are my favorite dylan tunes. i'll probably spend the next few days singing both of them. ed should be stark raving mad by then ... diana
As most of you already know, I was a HUGE RICK NELSON fan ... and I think SHE
BELONGS TO ME is one of his best. It's interesting how, although at the
time his country/rock material was completely ignored by radio and music fans,
it's now considered revolutionary and ground-breaking. (kk)
>>>HENDRIX was a HUGE BOB DYLAN fan ... (kk)
Although I never was ... for those that ARE ... Buy.com has a deal going on
the Bob Dylan Limited Edition Catalog Box Set (SACD Hybrid) (Limited Edition)
The complete set of 16 disks (and all the hoopla), for $216.27 (with FREE
shipping) ... Just a friendly "FYI"
-mark
It looks AWESOME ... and would make the PERFECT gift for
your very favorite FORGOTTEN HITS
author ... since the ONLY DYLAN album
I own (other than several GREATEST HITS
sets) is NASHVILLE SKYLINE!!! (kk)
Oh how I remember Johnny Cash standing tall and demanding that Dylan be allowed to be a guest on his television show or it could be cancelled - I so admired him for that when I read about it!
Diana
JOHNNY CASH brought
us many artists that we weren't used to seeing on television ... BOB DYLAN, DEREK AND THE DOMINOES, THE
MONKEES as a trio performing one of NESMITH's
country tunes, LINDA RONSTADT, and
many others ... a compilation tape of all his musical guests would be
outstanding. (I happen to have a bootleg copy and it's EXCELLENT!!! Next time
you guys are in town, we'll have to watch!) kk
As expected, we received lots of complimentary mail on CALOTOONZ's piece on BOB DYLAN...here are a few of those
comments regarding a job well done:
Wow Kent, all I can say is
what an eye opener! Thank you!
Lueyes
To Phil:
Great Bob Dylan piece. Caught what I believe is an error. Dylan's Mr. Jones did
not inhabit "Desolation Row." He was immortalized in "Ballad Of
A Thin Man."
Bruce "In addition to the Beatles, I'm a big Dylan fan" Spizer
It's always cool to be called a great writer by a great writer ... PHIL had this to say about MR. JONES:
Bruce is correct ... I realized the error
after I sent it and never got around to the correction (although I admit to
waking up at night thinking about it). Great catch!
Phil
Great write up. I've always loved Dylan. I think if he sang 'better,' people wouldn't have taken him seriously. His beauty, anger, love & humanity rang through that voice and paved the way for some many to follow, who don't have pretty voices, but have a hell of a lot to say. BritInvLvr
One of the things I've noticed while putting this whole series together is that the public may have short-changed Bob Dylan's abilities. His lyrics are always paramount ... a living poet, as they say ... Bob had a way with words unmatched by any others.
But listen to some of these INCREDIBLE melodies!!!
ALL of the songs we've featured this past week have impeccable, stick-in-your-head melodies that may stand head and shoulders above the words for some of us more lyrically challenged listeners. LAY LADY LAY, IF NOT FOR YOU, BLOWIN' IN THE WIND, I'LL BE YOUR BABY TONIGHT, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR, RAINY DAY WOMEN #12 AND #35 ... EVERY single one of these songs has a top caliper memorable melody. (Honestly, I think that I appreciate his artistry now more than ever, having put this whole thing together.) kk
thanks to phil for such a wonderful tribute to bob dylan - ed and i were
talking about this dylan series the other day and we both agreed that no one
would write more lovingly about dylan than phil. he gives words to thoughts
i've had about dylan forever, i think. he also has excellent taste and singled
out my favorite dylan tune, "tomorrow is a long time". WTG! diana
And thanks again to you and ED
for recommending that he write this feature for FORGOTTEN HITS ... congratulations on a job well done! (kk)
>>>It's a tricky thing...on the one hand, I don't consider myself to
be a BOB
DYLAN fan ... I never bought into all the intellectual hype back in the
'60's and found most of his music boring, annoying and hard to listen
to ... just not when it's performed by him!!! (kk)
when i saw that this next series was on bob dylan, my first thought was that i would probably delete it. i totally agree with the above statement, kent, and while i also do not like listening to him, i do love some of the songs he has created for others (who can sing lol). the only song i ever liked that was sung by dylan was "lay lady lay." but i did enjoy the traveling wilburys, too.
great piece by Phil ... i surprised myself by reading
all the way thru it!! lol
mamie :)
I like doing features like this one ... and some of the others
recently like BARRY MANILOW, JIMI HENDRIX and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN to name just a few ... where I get a chance to
still expose the music of the artist through other, non-conventional
means ... unfortunately, TOO many people on the list see the name of an artist
they don't particularly care for and delete before even seeing how we've
handled the coverage and what we've done ... one of the most discouraging parts
of doing FH, to be sure. Never the modest type, I think we did a bang-up job on The Songs of Bob Dylan Series!!! (kk)
Never thought I would comment as I am the silent type LOL, but The
Bob Dylan week was outstanding. I have loved Bob Dylan's songs for many years,
always preferred when other folks did them. But I do like hearing Dylan sing
some of them.
I grew up and still live in Mobile, Al., where there wasn't a lot
of different choices when it came to radio stations. But I always found a way
to hear Dylan, and many other artists that y'all have featured, I have been
introduced to some music I had never heard before joining this list. Just want
you to know that. I have listened to almost everything that y'all have
sent. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading everything written.
CALOTOONZ, you did an excellent job, but I have to close for now. I have to go
check out these links that CALOTOONZ suggested.
TOPAZ436
Hey, I just LOVE hearing from first-time writers / responders ... glad
to know we're appreciated (and that you're really out there!!!) LOL Glad you
enjoyed the series! (kk)
Again, some very good remakes of those Dylan songs by the Byrds,
Cher, Stevie Wonder, etc. Dylan is a great lyricist and music writer and I
believe one of the best as his songs were remade by so many famous artists.
Blossmwrld
The 60s will always be my favorite music era and I want to thank
you for the wonderful salutes to Hendrix and Dylan.
Regards,
Paula
LAY LADY LAY is a Dylan song that you can understand all the lyrics the first
listen!
VITO
Lay Lady Lay is my favorite from him too. :)
Candibbbls
"Lay Lady Lay" certainly proved that Dylan could, in fact, sing with
something besides that nasally whine, and actually could find a nice round
tone -- with pitch, even! I guess he needed to show us he could really sing if he
wanted to, but simply preferred the "screw you" (those who might be
overly anal about singing the "right way" should go listen to Jim
Nabors maybe) attitude of his usual delivery.
Can't say I ever totally got Bob Dylan though, other than being thankful for
how he helped people like Jimi (good series on him, BTW), The Byrds & The
Turtles ... and that harmonica is downright annoying for the most part.
What a cocky little punk he was in that B & W movie that was out around
'70. He was giving everyone a mess o' crap, one being being young Donovan L.
We do have Zim to thank for the vocal stylings of Tom Petty that are so fun to
make fun of.
Dan
>>>it inspired me to go out and buy my very first BOB DYLAN album, NASHVILLE SKYLINE...not a bad place to start a DYLAN album collection, btw!) kk
hey, that was the first one i bought
too ...
my brother had others ... but i remember it well.
always liked his 'country' days.
... renfield
Another wonderful series, my friends!
Back in 1979, my mother's friend's son
called me up and asked if I wanted to see Dylan at the Universal Ampitheatre.
It was a last minute thing and he told me that the girl he originally asked had
just backed out. So I tell him, hell yeah! Throw some make-up on and a clean
pair of jeans and out the door I go.
Cue up the "No No Song" now. The guy and I smoked a bunch of pot in
the parking lot before the show and I remember being really high walking to my
seat and that Dylan wore a lot of eye make-up and he sang many of his hits and
well known songs. I do remember trying to sing along but he sang them very
differently so that was hard to do. But that's all.
This was right before Dylan's conversion to Christianity and I thought I lost
my chance to see a Dylan show straight. I learned my lesson. No more smoking
dope before a concert ... save it for a Cheech & Chong movie.
Brit
Josh
Oh, we'll still be around ... just a series of long weekends for
now ... the REAL vacations don't kick in till later!!! (LOL) kk
Thanks so much for doing Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan (not two of
your favorites, obviously, but two of mine) back to back. I personally think
"The Times They Are A-Changing" might be the best song ever. It's my
favorite, by Dylan or any cover I've ever heard.
Chris
No, not two of my favorites...but, hopefully, we've done them justice
just the same.
Two songs that we did NOT feature the first time around that absolutely deserve to be heard and have, over the past several years, been added to the list of Dylan Classics, would have to be "Forever Young," released in 1974 yet, despite a TON or airplay tha continues to this day, incredibly never charted, and "To Make You Feel My Love," which became an INSTANT classic the minute it came out in 1997 ... and was quickly covered by just about EVERYBODY!!!
We can't rerun this feature without featuring these two tracks ... the first, by Mr. Robert Zimmerman himself, and the second as covered by Billy Joel, a pretty good songwriter in his own right!!! (kk)
Another favorite Bob Dylan story that happened in recent years (well after this series was first published in 2004) was at an outdoor concert when some fans in the back got together and started screaming "Free Bird!!!"
To the shock of everyone there, Dylan said, "OK," and then the band tore into a performance of the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic. THAT'S one of the things I love about all this great music ... when a guy who has literally already been out on the road for the past 50 years still enjoys what he's doing enough to have a little bit of fun on stage! (kk)
2020: Ironically, Dylan selling his publishing catalog this past December, for something like 400 gazillion dollars, will almost guarantee the floodgates to open for his music to now be licensed for any number of commercial products (at Universal Music’s choosing ... Dylan himself will have absolutely no say as to how his music is used in the future.) It represents the first time that he has licensed one of his songs to be used in this way since 2004, when he struck a deal with Victoria’s Secret for their Angel Collection line …
Which
was just about the time our Bob Dylan series first ran here in Forgotten
Hits! (kk)
