Comments on: Bob Dylan :: After The Crash (1967-1970)

By: Music news :: Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash :: 1969 Sessions :: December :: 2008

Music news :: Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash :: 1969 Sessions :: December :: 2008 — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:20:13 +0000

[...] mentioned a couple of weeks ago in Bob Dylan :: After The Crash (1967-1970), back in 2005 AD posted the unreleased tracks from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash’s 1968 sessions. [...]

By: O.B. Dan

O.B. Dan — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:27:39 +0000

Favorite Dylan periods? That’s easy. The first few years, before he went electric at Newport (which I was there to see), the first three years or so after that, before he went country, and the Rolling Thunder Revue era. Otherwise, it’s one song at a time, and most of them I’d skip over.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:16:36 +0000

I’ve always loved JWH. JWH along with Sgt. Peppers were the first records I remember listening to. I thought everyone thought JWH was as much of a classic as I thought it was as a kid.

By: pete

pete — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:54:35 +0000

ahhh, just so good to soak in Dylan-ness at the end of a long day. brilliant write up dude. I love this part of Dylans life, we all have our ‘bike crashes’ in lifeNashville is one of my favourites. Singing North Country Girl to my north country girl helped me in my wooing,and now we are married,Thanks Bob! Theres a Dylan album for every mood and occasion, i guess thats because thats what created them. I will listen to, sing, wonder over, and get confused by Dylan forever. So keep writing!

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:31:10 +0000

I have been listening to Slow Train, Saved, and Shot of Love a lot lately. His singing on these albums is great, his songwritingis focused, and he had a crackerjack band playing behind him. I won’t say this is my favorite period, but it is often overloked

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:24:55 +0000

Great article. I’ve always been one of the weirdos who loved “Self-Portrait” (he called it “Self-Portrait” for Christ’s Sake!) and also the much-maligned “Dylan”. Of course, in my opinion, Dylan “was never known to make a foolish move”.

Is the Little Joy Bar still in LA?

Check out my website at http://www.tahoebasinblues.com if you have the time and are so inclined.

By: Nick Bauer

Nick Bauer — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:44:18 +0000

My personal favorite Dylan era is 65-66 when Dylan was the amphetamine powered, LSD taking, androgynous poet. His lyrics on Blonde on Blonde are the most amazing writings I have ever heard and Highway 61 Revisited is my favorite album of all time. Dylan was a wreck at the end of this era and after his crash he wrote songs a more personal meaning to himself. A great example is Blood on the Tracks which is about the brutal divorce he went through. But Dylan is music. He can write a song in any genre and it would win some sort of award or get some sort of critical acclaim. Bob Dylan is the greatest songwriter that has ever lived!

By: j. neas

j. neas — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:13:23 +0000

I’ve seen Dylan twice in the 2000s (once in 2002 and again in 2006) and found him engaging both times. Not in the way you normally think of it – the man does not talk on stage – but in the way his performances are always really interesting reworkings of his catalogue. Think about it in the way Whitman constantly reworked Leaves of Grass until his death. You don’t always like the changes, but you can’t deny the man is an inventive and restless performance artist.

By: Steve Walsh

Steve Walsh — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:42:24 +0000

That is my favorite period – nice summary of it. I call it the “Country Gentleman” era. JWH is my favorite Dylan record – it hits me on the deepest of levels, especially “Dear Landlord.” I would also include the Basement Tapes in that era as well. Great post.

By: uwmryan

uwmryan — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:18:38 +0000

couldn’t agree with you more jon.

By: jon

jon — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:37:49 +0000

yeah the last two times i’ve seen dylan i went in with llooowwww expectations…and he didn’t even come close to meeting them.

i took my gf the second time (it was ACL) and told her not to get too excited. she said “but its dylan, i mean know matter how bad it coudl be, its still dylan right?”

4 songs in she said “let’s go”

i just don’t get it. he couldn’t possibly have bills to pay. reading his autobiography he is hyper-critical of his performances, so he couldn’t “get off” on the performance. the disappointment oozes from the crowd, so he couldn’t be getting off on that either.

i won’t command him to stop because of his legacy or anything like that. that’s his business. personally i just don’t get it.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:02:54 +0000

went to woodstock at the end of the summer and took my gf to Levon’s Midnight Ramble with the Terry Adams Rock n Roll Quartet. Wonderful music, awesomely intimate atmosphere, and the best horn section I’ve ever seen. Levon doesn’t try to sing like he used to, really allows his band (includes his daughter and Larry Campbell of Dylan’s old band) to shine. He also has 80-year-old blues pioneer Little Sammy Davis blowing harp and adding old Chi-town style vocals. John Sebastian showed up but only played harmonica, I was a little disappointed he didn’t sing something from Woodstock.

We also caught Dylan (and Levon, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Conor Oberst, Swell Season, etc.) at the Saratoga Springs Fest. It was a great day with Welch, Swell Season, and Oberst highlighting, but Dylan was definitely off. I didn’t expect his voice to be good, but it was really hard to follow the tunes. It took a while to figure out what he was singing and it wasn’t like he was doing anything obscure; the arrangements were just wrong and the band was totally out of synch. Lots of people, some who had come just for him, walked out.

That being said, this era of Dylan is probably my favorite — my dad introduced me to John Wesley Harding when we used to shop for old cheap records at the Record Castle in NE Phila. I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine, Dear Landlord, All Along the Watchtower, and Judas & Frankie just brought chills…. can’t remember my age or where the hell I was the last time I heard it. It was a much different place.

Thanks for this site, and go to Woodstock for Levon’s Ramble — it’s pricey, but you won’t regret it.

By: mongreldog

mongreldog — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:51:19 +0000

I always thought JWH and New Morning were underrated…
especially “Three Angels” – an incredible song/poem/hymn unlike anything else Dylan’s done…

By: bokhara

bokhara — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:20:48 +0000

Great post. I love 1967-70. I think JWH is one of Dylan’s greatest albums. However, you cannot get to JWH without going through the basement sessions (and I don’t just mean the handful of songs released on the original acetate or the remixed and phony 1975 release). To truly understand how extreme Dylan’s transformation from, say March 1966 through December 1967, you need to work your way through the 100+ recordings of the tapes. And the many covers of the sessions – spanning the gamut of American and British folk, country, trad, bluegrass, blues, soul and more – are the key to understanding the transformational journey Dylan and the Band took in 1967 which allowed them to walk out of the basement and share with the world albums such as JWH and Music From Big Pink. The covers also give weight and meaning to the otherwise confounding basement originals.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:57:48 +0000

Thanks Jon!