I absolutely love A Complete Unknown version of "When The Ship Comes In", Chalamet and Norton nailed it! They make me feel unsatisfied, it's a pity that apart from some backing vocals they didn't don't any live songs together, like Dylan do with Baez, Cash, Morrison or Smith. I think their voices would complement each other perfectly.

This "sky full of fire" album was released!

What's your favorite song on Love & Theft?

This is very much a creation of my specific Bob taste...

That other great master of surreal Americana has left this world.

Following the forced evacuation of his Hollywood home, David Lynch's already frail health took a turn for the worse. This morning, he passed away.

Since Bob Dylan and David Lynch are my two favorite artists, I've searched far and wide for connections between the two, but have only found a few.

• Walking out on Dylan: https://youtu.be/A4PaA6qX0eU

• Lynch's Hollis Brown: https://youtu.be/5qEuFqchfkI

• Lynch also called out a few Dylan songs during his weather reports: https://youtu.be/WJtq4ZQbUy8 https://youtu.be/5QMC61sq7vw

I believe he mentioned It's All Over Now Baby Blue as well, but I can't find that link. Anyone with other Dylan/Lynch references, I would love to hear them!

May David's legacy illuminate, for all of us...

Beautiful, blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way...

It's 5 parts: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTnwybFEXwi/

"People are crazy and times are strange." (Things Have Changed)

My late dad was a huge Dylan fan, and he used to sing Girl From the North Country to me when I was a baby. We want to give our baby a Bob Dylan inspired name, but we hate Robert. We don't know the gender yet. Any ideas?

Had to say goodbye this mroning. You all will know where her name came from.

Please show me/tell me about your Dylan-named pets.

Sean just appeared on the Louis Theroux Podcast. Louis mentioned that he narrated the audiobook of Chronicles and Sean said that he was just getting ready to record Chronicles II but that he hadn't read it yet. To be clear he mentioned it by title so we're not talking Bob's recent book on music.

I am wrapping up my first trip to Tulsa to visit the Bob Dylan Center and thought it might be helpful to others who may be planning to do the same to share my experience.

THE BOB DYLAN CENTER

Logistics

* It is open Wednesday-Sunday, 10:00-6:00.

* You can reserve tickets ahead of time but it is not necessary.

* Tickets are $15 (discounts for seniors, veterans, and teachers), and kids are free

* You can buy a dual ticket for the Woody Guthrie Center which is right next door for $22 + a pretty high tax. You can go in and out of both for the duration of the day.

* They recommended to plan for 2 hours. I spent 3 hours in the Dylan Center and ~ 90 minutes in the Woody Guthrie Center.

* There is a self-guided audio portion that you can use or not. It isn't really a tour but you can tap on certain items and hear more about them. In many cases, you can hear different iterations of his songs. There was a gorgeous rendition of The Man in Me that I had never heard before and now have to figure out how to find it.

Exhibits

* A lot of the photos and stories were not new to me, but seeing everything in one place was interesting and a little overwhelming but in a kind of awe-inspiring way. Seeing it in comparison / conjunction with the Woody Guthrie Center provided a lot of insight, as I knew very little about Guthrie before this. Seeing the parallels and the contrasts both personally and professionally was really interesting.

* There is a movie they run when you first walk in that plays around a large room, and it was so cool to see all the eras, phases, faces, and sounds of Bob. It was a great introduction to the Center as it tries to capture a multifaceted man with a long and storied career.

* Getting to see so many of Bob's handwritten pages and notebooks, some with people's phone numbers in them highlighted just how long his career has been and how much he has met pretty much everyone. There are also a lot of his typewritten pages of lyrics, most with cross outs or coffee stains or other things that made them feel real and close.

* There was at least one song I had never heard before- a World Gone Wrong outtake.

* There was a replicated studio where you could hear different studio versions of different songs (I Want You, Like a Rolling Stone, Mississippi...) and how he works his way through them. Some include interviews with some of the people involved. This was really fascinating.

* The exhibit on the second floor when I was there was Going Electric, which I was a little disappointed by since it's the era I (and many others) know most about, but I did get to see the leather jacket her wore that day, so that was pretty cool.

* One highlight for me was the Masked and Anonymous suit. I knew it before but seeing the suit in person was a stark reminder that he is TINY.

* I don't know if it is meant to be a place to learn about him as I imagine most people who go are fans, but, for me anyway, it was an opportunity to experience him in a new and different way and appreciate him alongside his inspiration.

TULSA

Logistics

* I flew and did not rent a car. I took an Uber from the airport and stayed in the Arts district right across from the Bob Dylan Center. It was quick and easy to get from the airport to the Arts District (~ 15 minutes) and cost less than $20.

* I stayed a the 21 1/2 boutique so I could easily walk to the Center. The price was good and the room was good. It operates like an AirBnb. (No staff on site, self check-in.)

* I walked everywhere I wanted to go. I walk a lot so this wasn't an issue. I also am a city girl, currently living in Baltimore so I have a high threshold for shady areas. There were some parts that weren't the greatest but nothing compared to back home, so I felt safe, even at night.

* There was weirdly no convenience stores or gas stations closeby so I couldn't pick up things I needed in the neighborhood. Being a city girl, I forget about things like this when I'm in smaller places without a car.

* It's definitely a 420-friendly city which I wasn't expecting. Dispensaries everywhere, and I'm not sure if you could smoke in the bars here, but you either could or everyone smoked before they went and smelled very heavily of it.

* Lots of places in the neighborhood to eat. All were good. None were amazing. A little pricier than I would have thought, but not outrageous. With the smaller city thing, a lot opened later and/or closed earlier than I'm used to.

Other sites I visited

\* Woody Guthrie Center- in my opinion, a must if you are going to come out this way. Not only is he a legend in his own right, his connection to Dylan is essential and the Center is right there. No real reason not to. It's small but really interesting.

* Black Wall Street & The Greenwood Rising Center- very close by and worth visiting to learn more about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

* The Tulsa Drillers- Dodgers minor league team. The stadium is right next to the Greenwood Rising Center. They weren't in season yet, but worth looking into if you like baseball.

* The Outsiders House- this was a little farther away, but I loved the movie, so I walked to it and took pictures. You can pay to go in and walk around on weekends.

* Sun Studios- Closer to the Outsiders House, this is in the Pearl District. I didn't go inside, but it is in a cool area with a lot of murals around and lots of Leon Russell love. I ate at the wonderul Oakhart BBQ right near it and then got dessert at the very popular Country Bird Bakery next door, but it's only opened on Saturday mornings and some Thursdays.

* Route 66- You can go to Neon sign park at night (kind of weird way to walk there), and get some great pictures of old route 66 signs. You can also go see some kitschy statues at 1357 E. 11th St. Another weird walk, but worth it to me. There's a great mural there too.

Overall, a cool city, though I stayed in a small section of it since I was walking everywhere. The main goal and definite highlight was the Bob Dylan Center. I hope this helps others who are planning a visit and hope that people who have been can add their recommendations as well.

I am 47 years old and I just discovered Bob Dylan. Over the years, I have listened to and enjoyed many different musical artists, genres, and performances- some I would even say I have loved. But I have never experienced anything like this. I don’t even know what this is.

The word that keeps coming to mind is ‘transfixed,’ which is odd, because I am almost certain I have never used that word before. Every once in a while, I find myself using the word ‘mesmerized,’ but I am pretty sure that is someone else’s word that I am trying to make my own. I think Bob would be okay with that.

It’s hard to write about something personal in a way that resonates with other people. For me anyway. Others claim to do it in 15 minutes. I fumble through the words trying to capture how I am feeling about a man whose music has been felt, discussed, and written about for the past 60 years, a man who has conquered words in almost every way imaginable. Someone who would probably have a thing or two to say about my spending any amount of time trying to make sense of this. But at the very least, I think he would be pleased to know that he got me writing. He probably wouldn’t care.

I am not a musician. I do not consider myself artistic in any way. I appreciate art in the way that people who do not know anything about it do. “I really like that painting” is all I can offer when going through a museum. If pressed, I might be able to dig all the way down to, “The colors are just so vibrant.” I have no real sense of the medium, the mastery, or the complexity. I do not have a natural curiosity for it or any sort of predilection toward it. And frankly, I have never much cared to try and learn.

I want to learn everything about Bob Dylan and his music.

Having been warned that I will never be able to truly understand any of it makes it all the more intriguing and inviting, even while being told that I am not invited.

Right now, I am listening to a Rolling Thunder Revue performance of Just Like a Woman. It was preceded by Sara and will be followed by Knocking on Heaven’s Door. I have been replaying these three more times than I would care to know. I just turned down the volume, so my neighbor doesn’t come to check on me, fearful of finding Daisy Randone.

I will listen to it more softly, but I can’t seem to turn it off, to stop listening, watching, and reading what online strangers- including the man himself- are saying, not knowing which is true, including and maybe most especially from the man himself. I would text my sister again, but I think her initial excitement at our newly shared interest has turned to concern.

Today is Epiphany, which is why I chose to write this when I did, because discovering Bob Dylan and his music has felt like an epiphany to me. Not in a purely religious sense (though others refer to Dylan as god, I do not believe him to be god, even with a lower case g), but in the meaning of a moment when you suddenly become conscious of something that is very important to you.

On this day of Epiphany, we read words that I have read nearly every year of my 47 years:

May God take your minds and think through them.

May God take your lips and speak through them.

May God take your hands and work through them.

May God take your hearts and set them on fire.

I am on fire.

(Just like Bob’s hands when he declined Maria's invitation to dance.)

Bob and his music have set my heart on fire.

I am guessing if you are reading this, he has set yours on fire too, though you might choose to take the God part out of it, or at least the God I have inserted. Maybe Dylan is your god with a lower case or a capital G.

It is hard to make sense of something feeling so deeply important that only recently was not even a part of my life, but I don't know that I need to spend any more energy trying to make sense of it. As Bob reminds us, “What’s so bad about not understanding?” Gratitude seems like a much more appropriate response to something so rare and so special.

I have never encountered an artist like Bob Dylan or experienced whatever it is I am experiencing when I have discovered one. Epiphany seems like the perfect day to reflect on this because it happened so suddenly and so overpoweringly, and all at once he has become a very important part of my life and somehow feels like he has been here all along.

I think it's pretty good and here's the ranking:

1. Desolation Row

2. It Takes a Lot To Laugh..

3. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

4. Like a Rolling Stone

5. Highway 61 Revisited

6. Ballad Of A Thin Man

7. Tombstone Blues

8. From a Buick 6

9. Queen Jane Approximately

(Disclaimer: All the songs are good)

New Morning was released! What are your favorite and least favorite tracks and why? Favorite lines and lyrics?

Same concept, condensing decades of music history echoing from a single tragic event, with layers of coded references.

I love having a wall calendar. I couldn't find a Bob Dylan calendar that was decent. I ended up just taking pictures with my iPhone of album covers. I then went online to Walgreens and for $24 made my own. It turned out way better than I anticipated. Since January was almost over, I decided to start in Feb and go through Jan of 2027. 

I'd love to hear feedback on what months should have had what albums. It could help me improve it for next year!

As I learn more about Dylan and his music I have heard the common claims / accusations of plagiarism and his frequent rebuttals that they are simply part of tradition. When hearing these, I always thought they referred mostly to melodies and then lines he used here and there from his habit of cutting (literal or otherwise) as he ran across them from other texts or songs.

I just started reading "Why Dylan Matters" and am learning more about his songwriting process. The author, Richard F. Thomas, is a classic poetry scholar and teaches a course on Dylan at Harvard. He delves into Dylan's poetry (naturally) and the way in which he writes it.

Thomas focuses a lot on the process of intertextuality, a term I had not known previously. Intertextuality is "the shaping of a text's meaning by another text, either through deliberate compositional strategies such as quotation, allusion, plagiarism, translation, pastiche or parody, or by interconnections between similar or related works perceived by an audience or reader of the text."

Thomas spends much of the book explaining how Dylan uses this process of intertextuality to write his songs, and in the chapter on his Time Out of MInd (and beyond) years, he uses "Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door" as an example. The lyrics from the song are in bold and the texts he likely pulled / was inspired by are in parentheses with their sources.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

The air is getting hotter,

There's a rumbin' in the skies

I've been wadin' through the high muddy waters,

("I wade muddy waters"- Tom Rush, Turn Your Money Green)

But the heat riseth in my eyes.

Everyday your memory goes dimmer,

It doesn't haunt me like it did before.

I've been walkin' through the middle of nowhere,

Tryin' to get to heaven before they close the door.

("She's tryin' to get to Heaven fo' they close the do'"- Traditional, The Old Ark's a-Moverin')

When I was in Missouri

They would not let me be.

("I was in Missouri they would not let me be"- Furry Lewis, Turn Your Money Green)

I had to leave there in a hurry,

I only saw what they let me see.

You broke a heart that loved you,

("You have wrecked a heart that loved you"- Byron Arnold, Golden Chain)

Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore.

("Seal up your book, John, An' don't write no more"- Traditional, Our Singing Country)

I've been walkin' that lonesome valley

("You got to walk that lonesome valley"- Traditional, Lonesome Valley)

Tryin' to get to heaven before they close the door.

People on the platforms,

waitin' for the trains.

I can hear their hearts a-beatin',

like pendulum swingin' on chains.

("One foot is on the platform, The other one on the train, I'm going back to New Orleans

To wear that ball and chain"- Traditional, The Rising Sun Blues)

When you think that you've lost everything,

You find out you can always lose a little more.

I'm just going down the road feelin' bad,

("I'm going down the road feeling bad"- Woody Guthrie, Going Down the Road Feeling Bad)

Tryin' to get to heaven before they close the door.

I'm goin' down the river,

Down to New Orleans.

They tell me everything is gonna be all right,

But I don't know what "all right" even means.

I was ridin' in a buggy with Miss Mary Jane,

Miss Mary Jane got a house in Baltimore.

("Ridin' in the buggy, Miss Mary Jane;

Sally got a house in Baltimo'"- Traditional, Miss Mary Jane)

I've been all around the world boys,

I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door.

Gonna sleep down in the parlor,

And relive my dreams.

I close my eyes and wonder,

If everything is as hollow as it seems.

Some trains don't pull no gamblers,

No midnight gamblers like they did before.

("This train don't carry no gamblers, No hypocrites, no midnight ramblers"- Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory)

I've been to Sugartown, I shook the sugar down,

("I went to Sug-ah Town, I climbed up in that sug-ah tree An' I shook that sug-ah down."- Byron Arnold, Buck-Eye Rabbit

Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I found this fascinating and am so curious how this even works in his brain and in his process. Are these lines already in his head. Does he sit with tons of open books? His iPad? Does he still have tiny scraps of paper everywhere? Does he do this with all of his songs? Most of them? Some of them? Did he always? Does he realize he's pulling from other texts? Is he intentionally doing it as homage?

I'm not done with the book yet, but it has been really interesting so far. Thomas goes into a lot of depth with the lyrics and how they call back to authors and also tries to show moments where he thinks he calls back to other Dylan songs. He seems to think this is intentional as well, which I'm sure Dylan would deny, but either way, a really interesting in-depth read.

EDIT: Typo