Dylan turns 84 tomorrow (5/24) kk
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB DYLAN
By Harvey Kubernik © 2025
Bob Dylan’s 2025 tour concludes September 19th in East Troy, Wisconsin.
Continuing during 2025 is a free exhibition of Dylan’s paintings at the Halcyon Gallery in London at 148 New Bond Street. 97 original works featuring characters, objects and scenarios are in a solo show, Paint Black. It’s based on original sketches done between 2021 and 2022.
These drawings were then painted over with colours, to create “living, breathing entities that have emotional resonance, colours used as weapons and mood setters, a means of storytelling,” Dylan says. “The idea was not only to observe the human condition, but to throw myself into it with great urgency.”
Dylan’s ongoing influence is evident on the Bear Family Records’ 2024 compilation He Took us by Storm: 25 lost classics from the Bob Dylan folk-rock revolution era. Dion, P.F. Sloan, Len Chandler, Donovan, Leon Russell, Dino Valenti, Lou Reed, Johnny Winter, David Crosby, Jackie Washington, Tom Rush, and Bobby Darin are heard.
On June 27th, Columbia Records will release Barbra Streisand’s album of duets, The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume Two. Barbra and Bob team on a rendition of “The Very Thought of You.”
In her 2023 autobiography My Name Is Barbra, Streisand mentioned receiving a communication from Dylan.
“Back in the 1970s he sent me flowers and a charming note, written in colored pencil with childlike letters, asking me if I would like to sing with him.”
When the Streisand-directed Yentl was due for theatrical release in 1983, Dylan sent a copy of Infidels to Barbra, indicating he was looking forward to watching the film, and wanted to work with her.
“You are my favorite movie star,” Dylan wrote. “Your self-determination, wit and temperament and sense of justice have always appealed to me.”
On May 14, 2025, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened their European tour at the Co-op Live in Manchester England. Bruce closed the show with a cover of Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.”
Dylan (birth name Robert Allen Zimmerman) had been a Johnny Cash fan since the very late 1950s, when, as a teenager, he hitchhiked the 75 miles from his Hibbing, Minnesota, hometown to Duluth and paid $2.00 to see Cash and the Tennessee Two at the Duluth Amphitheater.
On February 6, 2015, when Dylan was honored at the 25th anniversary MusiCares 2015 Person of the Year Gala at the Los Angeles Convention Center, he praised Cash in his stage remarks.
“Johnny Cash recorded some of my songs early on, too. I met him about ’63 when he was all skin and bones. He traveled long, he traveled hard, but he was a hero of mine. I heard many of his songs growing up. I knew them better than I knew my own. ‘Big River,’ ‘I Walk the Line,’ ‘How High’s the Water, Mama?’ I wrote ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ with that song reverberating inside my head.
“Johnny was an intense character, and he saw that people were putting me down [for] playing electric music. And he posted letters to magazines, scolding people, telling them to ‘shut up and let him sing.’ In Johnny Cash’s world of hardcore Southern drama, that kind of thing didn’t exist. Nobody told anybody what to sing or what not to sing.”
On November 19, 1979, drummer and friend Jim Keltner, invited Knack drummer Bruce Gary and I to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to see Dylan’s Slow Train Coming concert.
I had a chat with Dylan backstage. I mentioned interviewing Johnny Cash and Phil Spector for Melody Maker. He inquired about Spector. During 1977, Dylan, Allen Ginsberg and I attended a Spector-produced Leonard Cohen recording sessions at Gold Star studios for Death of a Ladies’ Man.
I told Bob Phil talked about R&B vocalists, and he also cited “Dion, John, Paul, Elvis, Bobby Darin, and Johnny Cash as great singers.”
Bob removed his tinted sunglasses and smiled.
Dylan has blue eyes like Eva Marie Saint, Charles Bukowski, and Kris Kristofferson.
He offered a firm handshake, and replied, “Johnny Cash is a friend of mine…”
May 24, 2025 is Bob Dylan’s birthday.
From 1975-2025, I’ve conducted interviews about Dylan with many people.
Leonard Cohen: I came to New York City in 1966 and was unaware of what was going on at the time. I had never heard of Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins or any of these people, and I was delighted, overwhelmed and surprised to discover this very frantic musical activity. Producer John Hammond was extremely hospitable and decent. He signed me to Columbia Records.
I liked the work Bob Johnston did with Dylan, and we became good friends. Without his support I don’t think I’d ever gain the courage to perform.
Patti Smith: The Bob Dylan Live 1966 Royal Albert Hall record. I can tell you this. I saw Bob Dylan in that period. I saw him right before he went to England (in 1966). I was really lucky. I saw him in 1963 when Joan Baez introduced him. I saw him through various changes. Then when he started wearing a jump suit, this lion-like hair and had a band, The Hawks, behind him. I saw him booed by the people even though he was really great. When I hear that record, I see him in my head because I can remember when he sang “Visions of Johanna” acoustically for the first time. He said, “This song is called ‘Seems Like a Freeze-Out.’” He didn’t have that title, you know. So, when I listen to that record it’s almost like a visual experience for me.
Brian Wilson: I was a fan of Bob Dylan in 1965. I like him. We did a song of his on the Beach Boys’ Party! I thought Dylan’s voice was an interesting voice.
Rodney Bingenheimer: I met Bob Dylan in 1965 at The Trip nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. At the club I was with Billy Hinsche of Dino, Desi and Billy, who took a photo of Dylan and I holding my camera.
I went to the amazing December, 1965, Bob Dylan concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Marlon Brando sat in front of me. After the show, which was on my birthday, we all got up from our seats and went backstage. It was all happening! I love Cher singing Dylan’s “All I Really Want to Do.”
Andrew Solt: 1965 was the year my life changed. I graduated from Hollywood High School, started college at UCLA in February ‘65, and I discovered the Byrds at Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip. Ciro’s was two blocks from where I lived. Mecca! Dancing to the Byrds’ jet-powered rock at Ciro’s on Sunset Strip had me feeling like I was present at America’s version of the Cavern in Liverpool.
One day late that fall I heard on the AM radio, probably KFWB or KRLA, that Bob Dylan would be appearing one weekend at three L.A. area venues. My brother John and I bought tickets for his concerts at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium and the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
The first set was acoustic. But when Dylan strutted out after intermission with the Hawks, the world seemed to stop spinning for a couple of hours. I was even more transfixed by Dylan live on stage with his electric guitar.
I was thrilled by his every move, his delivery and the way he cocked his head and sidled up to the microphone. His confidence and charisma were undeniable. He may have been an unlikely rock icon, but he definitely was one. It couldn’t have been any better. It was transformative. I was immersed in something groundbreaking that felt raw as vibrant as Dylan and his group were taking the audience and rock ‘n’ roll on a magic carpet ride to a whole new level. I didn’t want those nights to ever end. It was undoubtedly one of the most exciting weekends of my early life.
In May, 1967, when Don't Look Back, the D.A. Pennebaker documentary on Dylan’s UK tour in 1965, premiered in Los Angeles at an art house in Los Angeles, the Los Feliz Theater, I was there. Transfixed. Dylan on screen. Not stage. Docu verite’ window into a magical world-spellbinding moments, musical gems, beyond comprehension. Next day. Same place. Back in line for another shot.
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Carlos Santana: FM radio in 1967 and ‘68 ... KMPX, KSAN. It blew my mind when I found it. Here’s the word: Consciousness revolution. It did not come from Liverpool or New York. I think it came from San Francisco. The psychedelic shock. Haight-Ashbury. When I first heard “Desolation Row,” it was like, “Man, this is like being inside one of Bob Dylan’s songs or something.”
For me, being right out of high school, and listening, really listening, it gave me a vast awareness of “where do I belong in all this?” And I looked at B.B. King on my left and Tito Puente on my right. The first time I saw Michael [Bloomfield] play guitar, it literally changed my life enough for me to say, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life."
Greil Marcus: The first thing a friend said when we first heard the album John Wesley Harding on the radio, late one night on KSAN-FM, “I think we'll be listening to this for a long time.”
Michael Simmons: I adored John Wesley Harding when it came out at the end of '67. Still do. It's one of my favorites among many Dylan favorites. There's an account that I read years after the album was released that Dylan had a huge, well-thumbed Bible on a stand at his home in Woodstock. I remember thinking that's where John Wesley Harding came from to some degree. It's full of morality tales and parables and Book Of Revelations dread. One could argue that JWH is Dylan's first biblical album. Also, Bob obviously knew that the album would be pored over by fans looking for ‘the truth’ and the liner notes are hysterically funny -- a dig at First Decade Dylanologists. The country seduction tunes “Down Along the Cove” and “I'll Be Your Baby Tonight” end the album and seamlessly lead into his next – Nashville Skyline.
Chrissie Hynde: Bob Dylan's "Forever Young” has got such a beautiful lyric. I just love it. He's the pride of our generation. The song is genius. I'll tell you another great Dylan album, that was not one of his most popular ones, was Shot of Love. The song, "Lenny Bruce.”
Time Out of Mind. It’s one of his best albums. He just sings magnificently, for a start. They're just great songs. Bob always writes impeccable songs, but my suspicion is that he's a little impatient in the studio. On this one, he really stuck it out and got gorgeous vocals. The singing is fantastic. The songs are so well crafted and they just got the great sound for each song. You don't feel like he just got a band in, wheeled them in and played all the songs and left. Each song is very carefully thought out.
Obviously, that's a lot in the production and I'm sure that's Danny Lanois who masterminded that. Jim Keltner is the perfect drummer for any band if you ask me. He's great with Bob Dylan. Keltner is a genius drummer. I love that guy.
Clem Burke: Dylan was just being himself in Dont Look Back. The whole cinema verite concept. You got the feeling you were a fly on the wall and Pennebaker had access.
The Last Waltz was great. I went to see a screening of it at The New School when it first came out and Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson spoke at it.
That is getting back to what I thought music videos should be. There you have great performances captured for prosperity. You have a moment in time that should have been captured. All those artists together in one place. Levon Helm blew my mind.
I liked The Concert for Bangladesh, but no behind the scenes stuff at all just about performance.
Steven Van Zandt: I’ve gone through different phases with Bob Dylan. I had an older friend who first played me the folk music stuff of Bob, the first three albums. I liked it but didn’t understand the whole poetry thing. I was age 12 and didn’t quite get it. He was interesting, even then.
As a guitar player, I've played Dylan’s songs with Bruce [Springsteen] and in top 40 bands earlier. Dylan was an extremely good folk guitarist as far as the folk style he played on his first few albums. Extremely adept at that.
The Byrds introducing him to the world, really, with “Mr. Tambourine Man,” was a major factor. I can't give them enough credit for that. I don't know if Bob Dylan would have been accepted at Top 40 radio if it hadn't been for “Mr. Tambourine Man.” I mean that, Harvey. That gang has been a great service to the world. I was a huge Byrds' freak. Still am. As you know, they lead you to Bob.
On my Little Steven’s Underground Garage and Outlaw Country [SiriusXM satellite radio] channels I program things from Johnston’s Cash albums all the time, especially the live San Quentin. On my shows I like to spotlight producers, whether it be Andrew Loog Oldham with the Rolling Stones, or Bob Johnston’s work with Dylan. These are people who need to be talked about.
I play a lot of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde. I talk a lot about [Michael] Bloomfield. Oh my God … One of the greats. The single most unsung guitar hero. Really, right there alongside the holy trinity of (Eric) Clapton, (Jeff) Beck and (Jimmy) Page. Probably next in line as far as influence and importance would be Mike Bloomfield in our early youth growing up. Extremely important.
We
usually don’t play a lot of Bob’s things that classic rock stations are
playing, like “Tangled Up In Blue.” I’ve programmed Rod Stewart and the Faces
covering “The Wicked Messenger” from John
Wesley Harding and Jimi Hendrix doing “All Along the Watchtower” from the
same album.
Dylan pretty much walked away from rock ‘n’ roll for a minute, ya know, and started getting back to his roots and taking them to some other place, more the country and folk world where he came from. People didn’t know what to make of it at the time. It was a strange sort of new Bob Dylan that emerged after his July, 1966. motorcycle accident.
Jimi Hendrix did more to promote John Wesley Harding than anybody. It was one of the most remarkable records ever made, of course. And the fact that Jimi picked up on that from that unusual and not very popular Bob Dylan album and made everybody go back to it. And, I’m telling you Harvey, that’s how powerful that record was.
Everybody
went back to John Wesley Harding
after hearing Hendrix, thinking, “You know, maybe I missed something? Look what
Jimi Hendrix did with it. Look what the Faces did with it.” It worked. It’s a
terrific album but sort of subtle, compared to Blonde On Blonde that most people consider Bob’s peak.
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Album cover Bob Dylan courtesy of Sony/Legacy
