I was pretty late getting into Bob Dylan. I was about 20 or 21 and working in the Royal Hotel, Ullapool where my roommate in the staff chalets had a tape of Highway 61 Revisited.
That started it for me but it was a good few years before I started to pick up his back catalogue in earnest. One of the first was probably a CD copy of The Times They Are A-Changin' his third album from 1964 on the Columbia label.
The title track is a real tour de force detailing the huge generational shift that was underway and scaring the bejesus out of the older generations:
Come mothers and fathersThroughout the landAnd don't criticizeWhat you can't understandYour sons and your daughtersAre beyond your commandYour old road is rapidly agin'
The album shows a political awareness and highlights a number of injustices which had previously been overlooked or swept under the carpet.
Fast forward to 2019 and I am in the BHF shop in St Andrews and there is a vinyl copy of the 1964 original going for 99p. Even though I had the CD there was no way I was going to pass up on that.
Still going strong at the age of 81 his current UK tour is receiving rave reviews.He is an absolute genius. In centuries to come is name will be mentioned in the same breath as Mozart and Beethoven. You can't say that about Ed Sheeran.
Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
I don't know about that. "Roll over Ed Sheeran, tell Tchaikovsky the news" has a certain ring to it
ReplyDeleteI've been listening to Desire a lot lately.
ReplyDeleteGreat album.
I'm sure Ed Sheeran is very nice to his gran.
Bob is indeed on superb live form, I can personally vouch for that. You won't be surprised to learn that I own the majority of his albums on both formats. Blonde on Blonde is an exception, in that I have three copies on CD and three on vinyl, each containing various mix permutations and stereo/mono variations. I'll get me coat.
ReplyDelete99p for a 1964 original LP is an incredible bargain. One of my local charity shops is currently trying to get £5 for a Barron Knights LP. They have a very long wait ahead of them.
Has it got the one about the dentist from Birmingham on? Asking for a friend
DeleteYou discovered him when staying in the staff chalets in Ullapool in 1981 - bet you have a few stories to tell from that time.
ReplyDeleteI was the same though, only discovering him properly through a flatmate who had a Bob cassette tape around the same time.
A wonderful thing that he is still touring at the age of 81 (that number again) - I may not be a fan of his voice but I do like the songs. Will Ed be touring in the year 2072? I suspect not and if I'm being a real doom-and-gloom merchant I doubt if anyone else will be either as we'll probably all have had to go and live on the Moon or Mars.
Yes there appears to be some collective burying of heads in the sand What ever COP27 comes up with it will be too little too late
DeleteA happy thought for a Monday. Doubt if I or my offspring would be on the ballot for a place on Mars anyway - that would probably be reserved for the descendants of Boris, Matt, Gavin, Rees-Mogg et al.
DeleteJust came on to say that someone in that charity shop made a big mistake in the pricing. It's increasingly rare to see any decent albums going for less than around the median price on Discogs.......
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally when I queried the price of some albs in Vinyl Exchange in Manchester yesterday he quickly defended them against Discogs prices which shows how they price up there.
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