Visualizzazione post con etichetta bob dylan. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta bob dylan. Mostra tutti i post
mercoledì 2 marzo 2011
venerdì 9 ottobre 2009
CHRISTMAS DYLAN
Gino Castaldo per "la Repubblica"
Ci crediate o meno, "Christmas in the heart", l´annunciato disco natalizio di Bob Dylan (e già la notizia aveva creato un certo stupore) è proprio un disco di Natale, a tutti gli effetti. Inizia con un sentore di slitte e campanellini e un annuncio inequivocabile: Here comes Santa Claus. E succede davvero: un Dylan quasi disneyano, con coretti anni cinquanta e chitarrine country. Se non ci fosse la sua voce potrebbe essere un disco di Ray Conniff o di un gruppo di avvinazzati cowboy da balera.
Il sospetto che sotto ci sia un´intenzione ai limiti del comico è inevitabile, soprattutto in un pezzo come "Must be Santa", cavalcata grottesca che potrebbe essere presa da un musical tipo Sette spose per sette fratelli.
Mai sentito un Dylan di questo genere, riscattato di tanto in tanto da pezzi come "The christmas blues", dove sui sempiterni temi del natale si esercita la sovranità delle note blues. Ma ci sono anche "The little drummer boy", "Have yourself a merry little christmas", ovvero i pezzi che troverete in ogni buon album natalizio degno di questo nome, e c´è perfino Adeste fideles, metà in latino metà in inglese.
Una follia, segnata però dall´inequivocabile stile vocale del Maestro, in questo caso particolarmente roco, stracciato, irridente, ironico, a contrasto con il buonismo programmatico del disco che sembra inciso a volte in un saloon, a volte in una piccola chiesa pentecostale di provincia (in "Little town of Betlehem" c´è una preghiera con tanto di Amen finale), o in uno studio di registrazione vintage. Cosa c´è dietro? La sua voglia di stupire alla veneranda età di 68 anni, e nessun interesse economico, visto che i proventi del disco verranno devoluti al Programma Alimentare delle Nazioni Unite.
sabato 25 aprile 2009
ON "TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE"
Together Through Life
Bob Dylan's new album Together Through Life will be released at the end of April but a few lucky journalists have heard it and filed their reports:
San Francisco Chronicle's Joel Selvin: "The offhand, crudely informal atmosphere of the new Bob Dylan album, "Together Through Life," is a deceit. Beneath the apparently tossed off blues tracks and carelessly drawled vocals lies a master of details and pungent, piquant observations, couched as old blues songs. The music feels fresh, organic, and Dylan imbues each song with a powerful sense of storytelling... All of the songs are sung by this ragged, weary, impossibly gravelly voice perfectly suited to the sensibilities of the pieces. Latter period Dylan is turning out to be some of his deepest, richest work. "Together Through Life" is another brilliant, sure-handed outing by one of the few certified greats still living up to his legend."
Blender's Rob Sheffield: "he’s going off the cliff along with everyone else, yet he’s laughing all the way down." Five stars.
Rolling Stone's David Fricke: "Dylan...has never sounded as ravaged, pissed off and lusty, all at once, as he does on Together Through Life." Four stars.
The Telegraph's Neil McCormick: "Together Through Life is a beautifully played collection of antique blues pop." Four stars.
The Times's Pete Paphides: "his warmest, most unforced, set of songs in recent memory." Four stars.
Los Angeles Times's Ann Powers
The New Yorker's Alex Ross
Mojo's Michael Simmons:
"Yet what I heard offered ample proof of an artist steeped in the past but thoroughly living in the present, cognizant of everything, not afraid to point fingers or laugh at fools or fall in love.
"It's a powerful personal work by a man who still thinks for himself in an era of fear, conformity, and dehumanization. That it rocks mightily makes the message even more compelling. Whatever the hell it gets called, it'll be in the running for Best Album Of 2009."
Uncut's Allan Jones:
"We now know that the new Bob Dylan album, which unexpectedly will be with us on April 27, is called Together Through Life. We know also that it was written and recorded quickly.
"Dylan had been asked by the French film director Olivier Dahan, who made the Edith Piaf biopic, La Vie En Rose, which Dylan had apparently liked, to write some songs for his new movie, My Own Love Song. Dylan duly came up with a ballad called "Life Is Hard", and was so inspired the next thing anyone knew he'd written nine more new songs and not long after that - bingo! - here's Together Through Life in all its rowdy glory.
"What's it sound like? Well, early reports have hinted at a mix of Dylan's beloved Chicago blues and the loping border country feel of, say, "Girl From The Red River Shore", the latter courtesy of Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, whose accordion features on every track, alongside Dylan's formidable current touring band and as yet unidentified guest musicians.
"Both musical elements are indeed here, brazenly matched on nearly ever track, Hidalgo either providing lyrical lilting counterpoint to the band's hard driving blues muscle or flinging himself headlong into the fray with pumping riffs, as on the jumping "If You Ever Go To Houston" ("keep your hands in your pockets and your gun-belts tied").
"The broad template for much of the album would appear to be, let's say, "Thunder On the Mountain" and "Rollin' And Tumblin'" from Modern Times, but in truth these tracks are, overall, much punchier, a raucous edge to everything in sight. Only the noble "Life Is Hard" is in the crooning style of something like "Beyond The Horizon" and even here there's a ragged edge to things that wasn't apparent on Modern Times, a rawness - emotional and musical - that separates it from that album and its immediate predecessors, "Love And Theft" and Time Out Of Mind.
"Together In Life gets in your face immediately - with the wallop of the cheerfully-titled "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'", which is driven by spectacular drumming and massed horns, a trumpet prominently featured - and over the course of its 10 tracks doesn't back off, doesn't appear to even think about doing so, Dylan's voice throughout an unfettered roar, a splendid growl.
"The album broadly is preoccupied with themes of mortality, lost love, grief, the passing of time, memory, waning days and lonely nights. The mood of these songs, however, couldn't be more different to the mordant reflection of, for instance, "Not Dark Yet". Together Through Life is a rowdy gut-bucket, by turns angry, funny, sassy, Dylan heading noisily in the direction of that last good night.
"'My Wife's Home Town', "Shake Mama Shake" and the stingingly ironic "It's All Good" - an hilariously-wrought litany of personal and national woe - are all eventfully robust, heartily defiant.
"'Forgetful Heart', meanwhile, is set to a measured stalking beat that recalls "Walkin', Not Talkin'", while the cantina drift of "This Dream Of You", with accordion and fiddle taking lead instrumental spots, is fleetingly reminiscent of the first version of "Mississippi" on last year's Tell-Tale Signs. Elsewhere, there may be things about "Feel A Change Coming On" that will remind you of "Workingman's Blues".
"On first listen, then, a great album that when it comes out and goes on repeat will get better and better."
sabato 14 marzo 2009
New Dylan Album Coming Soon!
MOJONew Dylan Album: Our First Listen!
3:37 PM GMT 12/03/2009
YESTERDAY, MOJO HEARD seven of what may turn out to be ten or eleven Bob Dylan originals to be released by Columbia Records in April, possibly the week of the 27th in the U.S. and Europe. The album is not yet titled and final track selection, sequence and artwork are still being finalized. Sources confirm what many have already heard: French filmmaker Olivier Dahan, who directed La Vie En Rose, the blood-on-the-tracks biopic of Edith Piaf, asked Dylan to contribute something to My Own Love Song, a road movie starring Forest Whitaker and Renee Zellweger about a wheelchaired singer and pal who travel cross-country to Memphis. Bob offered up Life Is Hard, a gorgeous ballad with a descending melody line that is reminiscent of the Bing Crosbyish, early 20th Century pop that Bob displayed on both "Love And Theft" and Modern Times.
Although the facts remain a mystery, evidently Dylan had more to say, more to write, or simply had accumulated enough songs for a new album. It took him four years to follow 1997's Time Out Of Mind with 2001's "Love And Theft", and five twixt Love... and '06's Modern Times, so no-one expected a new one so quickly. Details are sketchy about precise recording dates and personnel but sources say that Jack Frost (Dylan's nom de studio) produced and the line-up features Bob on guitar and keys as well as his road band and David Hidalgo from Los Lobos on accordion. Other possible contributors have been floated but have not been confirmed.
Your correspondent first heard of the possible existence of an album of new material on Dylan encyclopaedist Michael Gray's blog on January 22. The rumour quickly made the rounds of Bobsites, forcing sceptics to point to the alleged April release date as proof that this was an April Fool's joke. As recently as March 10, one naysayer posted on the New Yorker website that guesswork about the album's title was "the strongest evidence there won't be an album." After checking with a friend of Bob's who confirmed the rumour, arrangements were made with the appropriate gatekeepers. Drugged, blindfolded, and forced to switch transportation periodically, I awoke on a tropical island in a bamboo hut, sparsely outfitted with a lone stereo. Here's what I heard:
1) Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - A minor chord mid-tempo rocker. Like all the tracks and like Bob's last two albums, it's got a big, full, raucous, rocking sound, making the case that Jack Frost is indeed Bob Dylan's finest producer since the '60s and '70s. Likewise, his voice packs a punch; not the thin, reedy instrument that occasionally detracts during live sets. He's enunciating the lyrics with a fire and intensity we didn't hear on Modern Times. Hidalgo's soulful squeezebox is omnipresent here - and everywhere else.
2) Life Is Hard - The song that possibly buzzed his muse and encouraged him to write the others. "I need strength to fight that world outside," and "I'm on my guard / Admitting life is hard / Without you baby" are lines that leapt out in a paean to the notion that two are better equipped to weather tragedy than one. A forlorn twinkling mandolin and mournful pedal steel accentuate the deep blue lyrics.
3) My Wife's Hometown - Chicago blues has always been a huge influence on Dylan. From Bringing It All Back Home up through his most recent work, the ghosts of Chess Studios lurk inside the man from Minnesota. This one's reminiscent of Muddy Waters' I Love The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love. Job loss is referenced (a topical theme, you may have heard), but Bob's black humour is in cheeky abundance: "I just want to say that hell's my wife's hometown" and "I'm pretty sure she'll make me kill someone," Bob sings and then laughs demonically at the end. Man, he's enjoying himself.
4) Forgetful Heart - Lots of tunes in minor keys on this record, including this one. A neat banjo barely audible in the mix and one of The Master's best lines ever: "The door is closed for evermore / If indeed there ever was a door."
5) Shake Shake Mama - More Chi-town chugga-lugga. Some artists retreat to servile reasonableness and bourgeois banality as they get older. Not Bob. He got Las Vegas out of his system at Budokan. "I'm motherless / I'm fatherless / Almost friendless too," he growls and you believe him.
6) I Feel A Change Coming On - Like Spirit On the Water from Modern Times, this one possesses a blithe jaunt and gorgeous melody. As in all his recent work, there are intimations of mortality ("And the last part of the day is already gone") but there's a devil-may-care wistfulness and a frisky sexuality in both lyrics and phrasing. Best lines: "I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver / I'm reading James Joyce / Some people they tell me / I've got the blood of the land in my voice."
7) It's All Good - Propelled by a John Lee Hooker boogie rhythm with a stinging slide guitar, here's Dylan taking on human woes: social, political, personal. He itemizes crimes ranging from "politicians tellin' lies" to environmental illness ("a teacup of water is enough to drown"), urban degradation, murder and adultery and sarcastically and scathingly responds to each in the chorus with that hideous New Age cliché referenced in the title. More proof that Bob never really stopped writing "protest songs".
Other song titles that I didn't hear but have been mentioned elsewhere include If You Ever Go To Houston and This Dream Of You. Yet what I heard offered ample proof of an artist steeped in the past but thoroughly living in the present, cognizant of everything, not afraid to point fingers or laugh at fools or fall in love.
It's a powerful personal work by a man who still thinks for himself in an era of fear, conformity, and dehumanization. That it rocks mightily makes the message even more compelling. Whatever the hell it gets called, it'll be in the running for Best Album Of 2009.
Michael Simmons
SLICE OF AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB DYLAN ABOUT THE FORTHCOMING ALBUM
A lot of this album feels like a Chess record from the fifties. Did you have that sound in your head going in or did it come up as you played?
A lot of this album feels like a Chess record from the fifties. Did you have that sound in your head going in or did it come up as you played?
Well some of the things do have that feel. It’s mostly in the way the instruments were played.
You like that sound?
Oh yeah, very much so. . . the old Chess records, the Sun records. . . I think that’s my favorite sound for a record.
What do you like about that sound?
I like the mood of those records - the intensity. The sound is uncluttered. There’s power and suspense. The whole vibration feels like it could be coming from inside your mind. It’s alive. It’s right there. Kind of sticks in your head like a toothache
Do you think the Chess brothers knew what they were doing?
Oh sure, how could they not? I don’t think they thought they were making history though.
Did you ever meet Howlin’ Wolf? Muddy Waters?
I saw Wolf perform a few times but never met him. Muddy I knew a little bit.
I suspect that a lot of men will identify with MY WIFE’S HOME TOWN. Do you ever get in hot water with your in-laws over your songs?
No not really. The only person it could matter to gets a kick out of it. That song is meant as a compliment anyhow.
1234
martedì 9 settembre 2008
bob dylan- tell tale signs
Disc One
01 "Mississippi" (Unreleased, Time Out Of Mind)
02 "Most Of The Time" (Alternate version, Oh Mercy)
03 "Dignity" (Piano demo, Oh Mercy)
04 "Someday Baby" (Alternate version, Modern Times)
05 "Red River Shore" (Unreleased, Time Out Of Mind)
06 "Tell 'Ole Bill" (Alternate version, North Country soundtrack)
07 "Born in Time" (Unreleased, Oh Mercy)
08 "Can't Wait" (Alternate version, Time Out Of Mind)
09 "Everything Is Broken" (Alternate version, Oh Mercy)
10 "Dreamin' Of You" (Unreleased, Time Out Of Mind)
11 "Huck's Tune" (From Lucky You soundtrack)
12 "Marching To The City" (Unreleased, Time Out Of Mind)
13 "High Water (For Charley Patton)" (Live, Niagara, 2003)
Disc Two
01 "Mississippi" (Unreleased version #2, Time Out Of Mind)
02 "32-20 Blues" (Unreleased, World Gone Wrong)
03 "Series of Dreams" (Unreleased, Oh Mercy)
04 "God Knows" (Unreleased, Oh Mercy)
05 "Can't Escape From You" (Unreleased, December 2005)
06 "Dignity" (Unreleased, Oh Mercy)
07 "Ring Them Bells" (Live at the Supper Club, 1993)
08 "Cocaine Blues" (Live, Vienna, Virginia, 1997)
09 "Ain't Talkin'" (Alternate version, Modern Times)
10 "The Girl On The Greenbriar Shore" (Live, 1992)
11 "Lonesome Day Blues" (Live, Sunrise, Florida, 2002)
12 "Miss the Mississippi" (Unreleased, 1992)
13 "The Lonesome River" (w/ Ralph Stanley, Clinch Mountain Country)
14 "'Cross The Green Mountain" (From Gods And Generals soundtrack)
Disc Three
01 "Duncan And Brady" (Unreleased, 1992)
02 "Cold Irons Bound" (Live, Bonnaroo, June 2004)
03 "Mississippi" (Unreleased version #3, Time Out Of Mind)
04 "Most Of The Time" (Alternate version #2, Oh Mercy)
05 "Ring Them Bells" (Alternate version, Oh Mercy)
06 "Things Have Changed" (Live, Portland, Oregon, 2000)
07 "Red River Shore" (Unreleased version #2, Time Out Of Mind)
08 "Born In Time" (Unreleased version #2, Oh Mercy)
09 "Tryin' To Get To Heaven" (Live, London, England, 2000)
10 "Marchin' To The City" (Unreleased version #2, Time Out Of Mind)
11 "Can't Wait" (Alternate version #2, Time Out Of Mind)
12 "Mary And The Soldier" (Unreleased, World Gone Wrong)
Tell Tale Signs - The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 is out 10/7 on Columbia.
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