gerde's folk club, new york city, 1961

52 years ago today in a Gerde's Folk Club, New York City, John Lee Hooker headlined a night which also included a young musician playing his first live gig.
There are no recordings of Bob Dylan's live performance, but here is the set list -
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
Talkin' New York
Corrina Corrina
Deep Ellem Blues
Blowin' in the Wind

And here is John Lee playing Tupelo from around the same time.

dylan in 1984

There are not too many performances by Bob Dylan that have slipped into view over the years without a thorough discourse in advance by his fans. For Dylan fans there is always much discourse.
But this is unusual footage from David Letterman's US show in 1984 because it is largely unseen and also comes from a period when Dylan himself was less seen and his music was less heard in the post punk / new wave era than in previous decades.
This excellent quality footage shows that far from ignoring the music scene of the day, he'd turned up with a young band with a new wave sound and a black suit and shirt with a white tie to go with it. Very on trend at the time.

"As far as I know, this is the only time a musical guest ever played three songs on Letterman's show. For his appearance, Dylan requested not to be interviewed, which is why he begins with Sonny Boy Williamson's "Don't Start Me Talking." The second and third songs are "License To Kill" and "Jokerman" from his album "Infidels." Backing him were JJ Holiday (aka Justin Jesting) on guitar, and two members of the LA punk band, The Plugz (Tony Marisco on bass and Charlie Quintana on drums)."
quoted from YouTube uploader 'eclecticalchemy'

down in the flood

This was a new and lesser known version of Bob Dylan's song which came out originally on the Basement Tapes in 1967 and then again rerecorded in 1971.
Then even again it had another work over when it was part of the soundtrack to the film "Masked And Anonymous" which he also starred in. It's been a little seen film since it's release in 2003, panned by the critics and met with indifference by an audience really wanting a story more about Dylan himself rather than the fictitious comedy drama of "a singer, whose career has gone on a downward spiral, is forced to make a comeback to the performance stage for a benefit concert.
But like all Dylan moments there's always something that stands out and the film did have the reworking of "Down In The Flood" to drown anyone's sorrows.
This surprisingly little seen/heard track on YouTube has been put to the uploaders own chosen film and the footage of "flooding in the Midwest, broken levee along the Mississippi River".
Which is precisely what it feels like here in the UK at the moment as news footage shows half the country slipping into a large lake that's appeared over the last week.

bob dylan's tempest

1962 to 2012 and the Bob Dylan story continues. On the 50th anniversary of his debut LP 'Bob Dylan', the latest release has been greeted with rapturous applause all round. Rarely do the music press agree on a 5 star rating across the board but it would be unlikely few other artist's have received such plaudits on their 35th album after 50 years!
A truly inspiring creative statement particularly as some years back his work was considered to be somewhat diminished, apart from the hardened fans view that is.
This from someone who has heard the complete Tempest works -
"He now makes records the same way he tours - like he's issuing bulletins from one never-ending session of jump blues, clattering boogie, and dead man walking shuffles, cut in steady circular arrangements with his rail road groove road band". David Fricke. Mojo
This latest recording is not going to speak broadly to the troubled youth as he had once done but in the face of 21st Century American pop and rock music Bob Dylan embodies the very spirit and narrative of American musical culture from a previous century, and with a poets gift brings the story into the modern world. Shakespearean indeed.
When he says in the Tempest track Early Roman Kings "I ain't dead yet, My bell still rings" it's clear Bob Dylan has still not finished his story.
Here is Early Roman Kings.

dylan summer tour

Bob Dylan seems to be permanently on the road these days and this summer he's touring Europe once more. Hop Farm Festival in the UK saw him perform half the set playing grand piano which put an entirely new edge to his set of classic songs.
The songs are a challenge for those not use to his delivery these days but it has to be said the man has found the perfect antidote to the dreaded audience sing-a-long which seems to be de rigueur at modern gigs. He basically alters the delivery and phrasing to such an extent absolutely no one can predict how it goes and at the same time breath new life into an old song that he must have sung a thousand times.
This harks back to a time when buying an album of an artist was just the first step in knowing their music, the second was how the artist interpreted that work live. It just made you come back for more.
Here's Dylan doing All Along The Watch Tower in Bonn, Germany this year.
It's an audience shot video so it does have the usual camera mangling but the sound is good enough and you do get to see a shot or two of the man that changed 20th century music. Magic stuff.

dylan isn't digital

"You can't imagine a digital age bringing forth a Dylan.. the channels of communication would steal their veils one by one. How could a (new) Dylan possibly resist giving away in instalments what he once delivered in biannual blasts.. A Bob Dylan of the 21st century would find it impossible to avoid being engaged by his Facebook group.." David Hepworth. The Word. June. 2012
Although Twitter (until something else comes along) is the present delight for anyone with their self esteem switched on high enough to think the smallest detail of their lives is surely most noteworthy to everyone, we find in this digital babble that musicians, poets, actors, artists et al, who need to share their lives in this way are in fact all exactly the same. Ordinary.

Here's something extraordinary
15th June 1965 - Bob Dylan records "Like a Rolling Stone"