Bob Dylan at his best. It don’t get no better than that.

‘Tears of Rage’ is Dylan’s “King Lear”, a brutally painful description of a daughter’s love denied. The Basement Tapes, recorded in 1967 as he convalesced from his motorpsycho accident, lay underground for decades. But their impact on the way we perceive the world is greater than any other pop music, including “Sgt Pepper”.

‘More Blood, More Tracks’ is the latest Columbia boxed-set Dylan rip-off. Not him as a kid pretending to be a cotton-picker in Greenwich Village; not him embarrassing himself as an Evangelist preacher; not him as an old fool croaking standards. It’s a complete, 6-CD compilation of the New York sessions for “Blood on the Tracks”, Dylan at his creative pinnacle.
It’s another side of Bob Dylan — unmasked, naked and vulnerable. We’re idiots, babe, it’s a wonder that we still know how to breathe.

In 1970, Dylan seemed so intent on releasing his first terrible album that he left out all the good stuff.
Here’s the good stuff.
Welcome to Dylanland.

You don’t need Thile and Mehldau to justify the standing of Dylan or Mitchell. But their fresh new readings may still amplify and even enhance the originals.

Who da daddy of rap?
Who da grandaddy?
RIP, Chuck.

34 days left to join in supporting Vocalocity’s first EP.
https://www.headstart.co.il/project.aspx?id=22110&lan=en-US

A whole lot of folks have been asking me what I think of Dylan winning the Nobel. I answer that I’m no authority on the Nobel committee’s decision-making process, but that I certainly do thing Dylan’s a monumental artist.
Here’s a less-known Dylan masterpiece, ‘Black Diamond Bay’ from the last of his great albums, ‘Desire’ (1976).
It’s a cinematic tour de force, a dreamed narrative from a movie that you’ve never quite seen, hovering just beyond the horizon of your consciousness. You know every cliché, even the ones you’re aware Dylan is inventing as you watch.

Well, Bobby got The Nobel, and that’s great.
Fifty years ago, he was awarded a very different prize, The Meshel:
“For introducing me to a new direction, a path I chose to adapt and adopt and live by.”