This year just keeps getting crazier

First time since 2019 I think? Can’t believe my luck, it’s one of my favorites. Sounded great with a slight reggae feel to it.

Hello folks,

As the title asks, what is your favorite track from the Daniel Lanois produced sessions?

There are so many gems, and Oh Mercy! feels like it is start to finish all hits.

Right now, I’m really loving Shooting Star. It is so emotional, and its smaller scale in both writing and performance gives such a sense of intimacy. In fact, there is almost a straightforwardness in the intimate writing that I do not always expect from Bob, and it makes for such an emotional listen.

Of course, that is this week. I also love Most Of The Time, Not Dark Yet, and many more tracks from OM! and TOOM

What are y’all’s thoughts?

I was listening to Key West (Philiosopher Pirate) earlier, and it's probably my favourite from Rough and Rowdy Ways. After, Mozambique came on in the shuffle, and I found myself thinking how much I would have loved to have heard how Key West would have sounded in the Desire album.

I’ve got to get other people’s opinions on this.
I know Bob has been reinventing his songs live since forever, and not ALWAYS released the live recordings, but the past few years have felt like a new era, similar to the Rolling Thunder or Budokan era which each had their releases.

With the setlist being fairly steady for 50-60% and the remainder being switched regularly from gig to gig, leg to leg, and year to year, it would make a fantastic collection of incredible reinventions of both classics and deepcuts. It almost feels criminal for them not to be properly recorded and released at some point ?

Tonight was an absolutely amazing concert with great arrangements, but Tangled Up in Blue floored me completely. He had such a tender delivery and he succeeded in singing as clean and soft as I've rarely heard him before this consistently. He used some different lyrics, I can't remember verbatim but something like "all the people we used to know, they're no longer around, some got off the train, others just left town".

Him staying on the road and playing his music seems to be a throughline in his song selection. Tonight he played a beautiful cover of the aptly titled Can't Seem to Say Goodbye (where drummer Anton Fig seemed to be a little lost, but it somehow came together anyway). Also obviously I Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You ties into this theme.

He's still headin' for another joint - and hopefully I'll get to see him again next year.

The lyrics to Like a Rolling Stone and it's chorus are some of the most famous ever in music. The way Dylan describes feeling small and without options in face of life and the cruelty of things and you just keep rolling on really strikes you. He combines words in a really good away and when I heard it when I was 16 it really stroke me, lol

But what makes it even better is Bob Dylan's singing, even if some people don't like. There is a bit of sarcasm on the way he sings as if he's talking directly to you in a "I told you so" way. Makes you feel like you are on the situation Dylan's describing, and that comes across really well on the chorus, especially on the last one (When he sings "Oh, How does it feel?")

Talking about the last chorus specifically, the harmonica part right after it with all the instruments just going crazy drives home all the build up the song was having. Also the chorus is just so catchy and it makes you want to sing it as loud as you can ( when I play it on guitar I sing it as loud as I can lol)

Just one of the best songs ever IMO

This isn’t a critique. I quite like the get on the stage and get off approach. I am just generally curious. Is there an exact date of the last time he said anything?

Ps the show from 10/25/2026 is superb

Never heard this one before. Hope you enjoy!

I'm making a specific playlist of really melancholic Dylan songs, and I need help. I'm not talking like sad break up songs or simple twist of fate etc., I mean more so the songs that are more story based, dark, and like story heavy. Stuff that's of dark nature, mysterious, spooky, etc.,

So far I've got:

As I Went Out One Morning

All Along the Watch Tower

One More of Coffee

Man in the Long Black Coat

This Wheels on Fire

Tin Angel

Again, not really talking sad love songs, but some could apply. What are some good, sparse, dark songs in this nature?

Like A Rolling stone for me is about taking a risk and breaking free, pursuing a dream. Then Tom Thumb Blues is a sequel about losing the passion and feeling burnt out. Then after losing the passion deciding to go home, feeling defeated.

Hard Rain, Dylan’s 1978 album, has always been a favourite release. And the Fort Collins NBC video, notably the performance of Idiot Wind, caught Dylan at a performing peak.

So I’ve enjoyed reading Rolling Thunder 76 Day By Day, Ray Padgett’s new booklet (70 pages, self-published).

He reviews all 25 Rolling Thunder 1976 gigs, from Lakeland, Florida to Salt Lake City, Utah - set highlights, performances, local reaction and notes on the context of each show.

Ray Padgett’s USP - deep diving into Dylan’s live performances - gets another fine outing here. Numerous perceptions and details stand out, including: this was really the Blood On The Tracks tour; Dylan hand-painted the wooden stage backdrop; BobTalk quotes; the resulting LP and NBC TV show; and the tour’s mixed commercial success, with some poor turn-outs and cancellations.

The “Phew! Rock n Roll!”, Boomer rockmag-type detail interests me less, though I’ll be in a small minority here.

Based on Flagging Down the Double E’s, Ray Padgett’s Substack newsletter, 76 Day By Day adds detail from recent band member interviews and benefits from his advance copy of the new 39CD box set, due 6 Nov. It’s likely to complement the box set’s liner notes.

A welcome addition to my 500-plus Dylan book collection.

Thoughts on wigwam please

I don't often think Gregory Alan Isakov sounds like Bob, though it's hard not to force a connection with anyone I like who plays the guitar. He is great in his own right and definitely worth exploring.

When this came on today, I swore it was the start to Hollis Brown until the vocals came in. I imagine it was an intentional decision to carry on the tradition, and I hope more songwriters continue to do this and we can watch the songs continue to evolve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuohOHrS6JY&list=RDMuohOHrS6JY&start_radio=1

Here is Pretty Polly where Bob got the melody for Hollis Brown:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxkSuBhzHqg

All three of these guys seemed to have voracious touring schedules. Who do we think performed the most?

Woah. The One More Cup of Coffee-esque arrangements is one of the best things I've heard.

Bob's voice is sounding incredible, the arrangements and setlist are inspired and the new band is breathing a different sound into the shows, more focused on loose grooves and guitar licks. This version of Trying to Get to Heaven is fantastic stuff.

I find it refreshing when Bob switches to piano in studio recordings and we get a soulful, lilting song on the instrument. My top 5 piano-based songs at the moment are:

1) Ring Them Bells

2) Murder Most Foul

3) Dirge

4) Make You Feel My Love

5) Ballad of a Thin Man

What are yours?

I've been listening to the version of When I Paint My Masterpiece for a week continuously and now he comes out with THAT version of Tryin to get to Heaven recorded in Bremen...

What are we going to get next?? Which other songs has he revamped that radically this year?

(I liked the new Tangled Up In blue, but not in the same level as the two in the title)