misc:
"Tangled Up In Blue"
   - different versions

   Bob Dylan was born as Robert Zimmerman on 24th May 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. He formed various bands in Hibbing and Detroit during the second half of the 50's. He scared the older generation to death several times because he played "f#¤/+n' loud" (he did that later too!) at school parties. He was just as hysterical behind the piano as Little Richard.
   The 50's turned into the 60's and you couldn't play rock'n'roll anymore. Acoustic guitar and a harmonica were more apropriate now. Dylan used his voice as he did before and with acoustic guitar it turned out to be the most exciting music anybody has ever heard! Dylan didn't understand a thing. He thought he played the old folk tunes and the blues like everybody else did.
   By the time he came to New York he had his own style. With his unusual style and an extraordinary big charisma he reached the top in Greenwich Village in 6 months. He changed his name to Dylan after his son Jacob. Soon Greenwich was too small. He headed for another joint and when he came back we saw a new Dylan.
   He recorded love songs and personal epic songs from inside his mind. Dylan was always at least one step ahead of his audience.
   Next album is the electric "Bringing It All Back Home" and after that he arrived in London as a folk(?)star. One too many albums and the audience a thousand miles behind! It took two more electric albums (that changed rock history), a world tour and songs that made The Beatles' "Love Me Do" type of songs look stupid, before the listeners understood that Dylan finaly was a rockstar. Not even the audience in the hip London in 1966 knew what was goin' on, even though he again played f¤#"in' loud (ok, that was in Manchester). They knew something was happening there but they wished they knew what it was.
   Dylan crashed his bike in Woodstock and retired from public live appearance for a long time (about 3 years). The people cried for a new Dylan album. The Beatles did Sgt. Pepper, Stones did Satanic Majesty.. and Dylan came up with - John Wesley Harding! What a shock! As soon as we got use to hear Dylan play electric he changes to simple unplugged sound, 15 years before MTV! Amazing songs played f#@%[n' low so you just had to sit down in silence and listen closely. Lucky for us that Jimi Hendrix understood us and recorded an absolutely stunning version of All Along The Watchtower. In my oppinion Jimi was the only singer that could sing Dylan just as good as Dylan (if you listen closely).
   Next style was horse-jazz (a Swedish expression for country & western). Lucky for us (again) that Dylan reinvent himself and the songs all the time so we're not stuck with the original recordings. Compare Lay, Lady, Lay on Nashville Skyline and seven years later live on Hard Rain (the best live album Dylan released so far)!
   From 1963 to 1981 he constantly changed the style of his performance with every single album he released! Amazing! You can easily find inventive and stunning performances in every tour from 1975 to 1981. After 1965-66 I think this is Dylan's strongest period artisticly. During this period we find Blood On The Tracks (best album in the 70's), the inventive Desire, The Rolling Thunder Revue I and II that brought live performances to a new level, a highly artistic movie, the 4 hour long "painted" journey Renaldo & Clara, stunning, burning concerts as a born again Christian in 1979-80 and a magnificent tour in europe and the US in 1981.
   After that the changes are small. Of course we have Oh Mercy, MTV unplugged and compilations with previously unreleased recordings and a good song here and there but times were surely passing slowly. What is interesting to notice is that during the period from 1984 to 1996 his output live are very good and much more inventive and says more about Dylan as a performer than the studiowork does.
   After the MTV unplugged shows, Dylans' concerts improved constantly and we hoped desperately for a new album with new songs. The rumours reached our ears through stormy seasons and suddenly it was released in September 1997 - Time Out Of Mind. The first album with new original songs in seven years. Dylan's back in business - again!
   Well, and I can't wait until the next album arrives and hits me in the head. Until then, so long, good luck and goodbye!

These are definitely distorted facts that are blowin' in the idiot wind with a simple twist of fate and wherever you  roam together on desolation row, you can always loose a little more because there is no time to think before the changin' of the guards with the new pony... but don't think twice it's allright, ma, I'm only bleeding behind the gates of Eden along highway 61 to revisit the man who was famous long ago for playing around with some sweet senorita that stood there and hummed and chewed on her gum, I asked her how come? I thought somehow.... to be continued in another lifetime!

  copyright dante 1997-2000