r/bobdylan

I really love this song. It’s been hitting me lately because I’ve been going through a lot of things. Quinn The Eskimo is one of those songs where you don’t really think it’s that deep. But the more you listen to it, the more you pick up on themes in the song. Quinn is basically a calm during the storm. He has some kind of presence that transcends a normal person. I wouldn’t say he’s Christlike, but I would say he’s someone like Moses. I really think that Dylan intended to have this biblical imagery about the character. I especially like the line about the pigeons coming to him. That makes you think who is this person, that pigeon bull just flock to him

The mighty Quinn is one of those songs that at first seems like a throwaway song. If you’re not a Dylan fan, probably wouldn’t think much of it. It comes off as light humor. I think it’s a very deep song though, and it gives me a little bit of hope during chaotic times. Especially the part “Come all without, come all within, you’ve not seen nothing like The Mighty Quinn.” that’s basically a congregation for meeting, it reminds me of an old religious gathering that she would see under a tent. I still don’t know what the cup of meat lyric means though lol. I think this song is in my top 10 Bob Dylan songs now.

Hey everyone!

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"I stood there and hummed

I tapped on her drum

I asked her how come

And she buttoned her boot

And straightened her suit

And she said, “Don’t get cute”

So I forced my hands in my pockets

And felt with my thumbs

And gallantly handed her

My very last piece of gum"

I can't get this part of Fourth Time Around out of my head. I love the atmosphere, enunciation and humor of all these lines

I use the quotes more of a joke than anything. So I'm listening to Bob's studio discography for the first time front to back. In the past I've only really listened to Highway and Blonde on Blonde so this has been a very pleasant surprise. I finished up Together Through Life (2009) yesterday and loved it. I figured I had more albums of original material but it looks like just Tempest and Rough and Roudy Ways are it and I'm not sure how to wrap up this discography.

I usually love his covers, I thought Bob Dylan (1962), Self Portrait, and Dylan (1973) were all really solid. I didn't really enjoy his two 90's cover albums. I'm just not sure how much I really want to dwell on these albums at the moment when he's just been on such an inspired kick since Time Out of Mind with his Outlaw Blues stuff. I typically hate Christmas songs and Frank Sinatra style songs with a passion so 4 long albums of it sounds dreadful but maybe you guys here at r/bobdylan will tell me they're secret masterpieces that shouldn't be missed.

What do you all think? Listen to Tempest and Rough and Roudy Ways and call it a wrap or include Christmas of the Heart, Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels,Triplicate and Shadow Kingdom as well?

Looking to get a tattoo. I love some of the doodles on the sides of his lyrics as well but they’re kinda hard to find, searching ‘Bob Dylan art’ always pulls up others’ art of him or his paintings. Bonus points for anything related to Highway 61. TIA :)

Dylan’s duets with Joan Baez are remarkable. Bob would handle the melody and Joan, with her mind boggling musicality, would create harmonies. But she soon found out that singing with her erstwhile vagabond was going to be more challenging than anyone would have expected. Dylan would sing the song one way in rehearsal, but then for the actual performance start singing it in a totally different way. In her inimitable style of communicating, Baez says this was in keeping with Dylan’s usual behavior, “he just enjoyed fucking people up.” So Joan had to adapt.

One of the first things Joan Baez improvised was keeping her eyes on Dylan’s lips. Since she already knew the words, she found that in this way singing in complete syncopation with Bob was possible. Dylan would catch her with her eyes focused on his lips and it was all he could do to keep from breaking out into laughter. This dynamic added a lot of spontaneity and fun to the performance. As they began to perform together more an more, another adjustment Baez found she could make was lowering her voice, especially on the more upbeat numbers. With Dylan spitting out some angry lyrics with the melody, she found singing some angelic soprano harmony didn’t sound right. So Joan would drop down an octave and imitate his delivery. This, too, tended to crack Dylan up and made for some priceless moments on stage.

As we all know, the two became very close. So after the release of BLONDE ON BLONDE Joan Baez accompanied Dylan on the tour of Great Britain which followed. Each show was split into two parts, the first an acoustic set with Dylan accompanying himself on guitar to present the new songs off the album. The second part was electric in which Dylan was accompanied by the musicians who would later become known as The Band. This is also well known so please bear with me because I’m nearing the point of the post.

Put yourself in Joan’s shoes. You’re standing back stage watching Dylan perform acoustic renditions of the BoB tracks, many of which have beautiful melodies, and never does Bob bring you onstage to put on a harmony or two. Not once. You do not forget that you brought Dylan on stage for the first time during your set at the Newport Folk Festival. Hardly anybody there even knew who he was, and it exposed him to a massive new audience. It was only three years ago. Now here’s a chance for Bob to return the favor and… nothing. How would that make you feel?

Dylan would later try to shed some light on the situation, saying sometimes you have to choose between being in love and being smart. This didn’t do much to justify his behavior. But personally, I think there was more to it than that. There was enormous pressure being applied on the young man by a large block of his fans not to pursue the musical direction he had chosen. I believe Dylan felt he had to be true to his art. Literally had to. I believe for Dylan there was no choice. He couldn’t bring Joan onstage because that would be conceding to fans who were against the change. Literally couldn’t. For him, those folky days of Newport were over. Bob Dylan stood between heaven and earth, and crossed the Rubicon.

Thinking of Bob using AI to write is really upsetting to me and makes me a bit hesitant to hear new material, but I will almost always gladly take anything Bob

Like a Rolling stone

After My mom gave birth to My sister They're home and Was the First song that My sister listening 36 years ago

is he too old or do you really recommend to still go to it now ?

Dylan’s Apollonian, annus mirabilis 1965 trio of albums were written to be listened to after nuclear apocalypse. At the height of the Cold War, he was documenting what civilization looked and felt like, for the benefit of wasteland generations to come.

All the imagery in those songs herald destruction. Those lines were written to be in the mouths of survivors so they could have a connection to what came before and make sense of where they were to stand. He was decidedly not writing for Billboard or for TIME Magazine, which is why he was invariably dismissive of the media. He was writing about the eschaton, the true Geist of the early ’60s. It’s insane that we are listening to those lines on Spotify instead of from vinyls found in the rubble.

I think everyone should lead their own life, but also I'd like to hear/see the full presser that this was apart of...

I always understood on an intellectual level what the song is about and why it was/is so impactful for so many, but it finally really clicked for me.

Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is a very odd album. A young, up and coming singer-songwriter in NYC, posed in a cozy looking album cover with his then girlfriend. Probably an album mainly about relationships, growing up, friendship, and other similar life topics, with an intimate and maybe even comforting feel? Well, sorta.

But it’s also about the end of the world, at the hands of the wicked, and how those wicked, even when not causing the apocalypse make the world a worse place and cause the suffering of the innocent. It’s about how the world seems to be broken, and how it may have always been this way, and maybe always will.

Hard Rain is perhaps the starkest example of the latter subject matter. Images of things already wrong with the world, as well as terrible possibilities that have as yet not come to pass. The world has always been a messed up place, but as a resident of this planet and one who sees how messed up it can be, Hard Rain really clicked with me yesterday.

Honestly, I love Freewheelin’ a lot and the mixture of the seemingly disparate subject matters is a huge reason why. As a person who is only a bit older than Bob was when he recorded the album, I feel it may be one of the most timeless and directly applicable across the decades. Of course, there is plenty of value for folks of all ages in the album. But, there is something about his particular blend of personal/growing/romantic topics with dread about the world (it’s current and potential states) and anger at who/how it got that way that just really speaks to me particularly at this age. And the whole thing is presented in such an intimate, even cozy, and easy on the ears package.

When Joni Mitchell famously said Bob Dylan “borrowed” his voice from old hillbillies, I pretty much rejected the statement out of hand. The first word that comes to mind when considering Dylan’s voice is authentic. However, recently I’ve been finding some merit to her comment. Here’s why:

It started on a road trip listening to my Spotify playlist when a Ralph Stanley tune came on. My wife asked me, “why does this remind me of Bob Dylan?” Taken aback I mumbled something about Stanley being an influence. If there’s one person who qualifies as an old hillbilly it’s Ralph Stanley who hailed from the mountainous area of Virginia.

Later I recalled reading a quote of Johnny Cash saying the first time he heard Bob Dylan he thought it was an old Country singer, which is a polite way of saying old hillbilly singer. Then I thought about Dylan’s “Talking New York” in which the singer relates taking the stage at a Greenwich Village open mic event, only to have the moderator tell him in no uncertain terms not to come back: “You sound like a hillbilly!” This line would invariably reduce my brother and me to stitches the summer we wore out BOB DYLAN. We’d be like, what a jerk, this guy! Now I’m wondering, was the moderator right? Was Joni Mitchell right?