Source www.uncut.co.uk

Uncut March 08

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Bob Dylan has compiled an album of his favourite music for Starbucks coffee chain.

Marketed under the slogan 'the music that matters to him', it is the third release in Starbuck's 'Artist's Choice' series and follows similar compilations by Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello.

Available in Starbucks outlets from February 26, the tracklist reflects the broad tastes Dylan has shown in his Theme Time Radio Hour show, with a heavy bias towards the blues, country, jazz and r&b singers he heard on the radio while growing up in Minnesota.

Costello and Mitchell supplied track-by-track notes to their selections, explaining what the songs meant to them. It is not yet clear whether Dylan has written similar notes to accompany his choices.

Meanwhile, Ace Records is releasing a two CD set ''Theme Time Radio Hour
With Your Host Bob Dylan'', containing 50 tracks from the show. There have been several similar compilations - including Uncut's own ''Radio Bob'' CD in August 2007 - but the Ace collection is the first to be officially authorised by Dylan and is co-produced by his manager Jeff Rosen.

Here is the full track listing of Dylan's ''Artist's Choice''

1. Pee Wee Crayton - Do Unto Others
2. Clancy Eccles - Don't Brag, Don't Boast
3. Stanley Brothers with The Clinch Mountain Boys - The Fields Have Turned
Brown
4. Gus Viseur - Flambée Montalbanaise
5. Red Prysock - Hand Clappin'
6. Sol Hoopii & His Novelty Quartette - I Like You
7. Ray Price - I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)
8. Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys - I'se A Muggin' (part 1)
9. Charley Jordan - Keep It Clean
10. Junior Wells - Little By Little (I'm Losing You)
11. Patty & The Emblems - Mixed-Up, Shook-Up Girl
12. Gétatchéw Kassa - Tezeta
13. Flaco Jiménez with Toby Torres & José Morante - Victimas De Huracan
Beulah
14. Wanda Jackson - I Gotta Know
15. Billy Holiday & Her Orchestra - I Hear Music
16. Junior Parker - Pretty Baby

Uncut March 08

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Barb Jungr

Barb Jungr is one of the top modern "jazz" singers, though she covers a wider field than pure jazz and has in the main strayed well away from the traditional american songbook prefering instead to record her often unique versions of songs by her favourite songwriters with Bob Dylan and Ray Davies being particularily amongst her favourites.

She obviously has vocalist influences and songs covered by Elvis Presley are also a target for he re-iterpretation, her latest project has been a tribute to Nina Simone and the resultant album "Just Like A Woman - Hymn To Nina" hits the shelves in May but can be downloaded from the superb Linn Records site where your download can be as basic as a mp3 file up to studio quality audio.

Just like a woman - hymn to Nina

As you can see from the above even on a project dedicated to Nina Simone three of the tracks are Dylan songs, out of the 29 Barb songs on my iPod ELEVEN are Dylan compositions.

Of all her albums so far I am of the opinion that this is the least successful, perhaps because Nina herself was a unique interpretor of songs it makes it hard to cover a cover and the album doesn't sound like Nina and doesn't really pay homage in any real manner other than promoting Nina as an entity.

This "reggae vibe" Just Like A Woman is a fair example of what is on offer.

02 Just Like a Woman

Barb Jungr

Now Nina's version of "Feeling Good" is one of my all time favourite songs and really shouldn't be challenged, though hats off to Eels live piano rendition, Barb goes for a second rate "Blues Brothers" arrangement which you will either love or hate.

11 Feeling Good

Barb Jungr

Barb you could do and have done BETTER.........maybe it will grow on me.

Beautiful Life

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Dylan

Bob Dylan is perhaps one of the most covered artists ever, his brilliant songwriting skills together with, to some, a preference for others singing his songs created a mass market for cover versions ranging from the early Peter, Paul & Mary to the current Cat Power.

Below is a version of one of the key songs from the classic "blood On The Tracks" album by Lloyd Cole.

07 You're a Big Girl Now

Lloyd Cole

Queen

Queen on the other hand are rarely covered, excluding the obvious Freddie Mercury Concert CD, mainly due to the remarkable voice of Freddie Mercury without which most of the music's attraction is lost as evidenced by the Flaming Lips cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" below.

13 Bohemian Rhapsody

The Flaming Lips

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Again Matador Records are complaining about the free publicity given to their PURCHASED product so the Jukebox tracks have been removed.

Cat Power & The Red Hot Dirty Delta Blues Band

My favourite current album finally has a UK release today, as such Matador Records might stop moaning about the advance publicity via blogs that it has been getting, I can understand their reluctance to spreading mp3's but you would have thought that any listening exposure via songs would have been good news.

Anyway enough moaning and here is her Bob Dylan tribute duo, first the cover of Jesus era "I Believe In You" and then her own self penner tribute the superb "Song To Bobby" a contender for the song of the year already.

Cat Power 2

Cat Power

Finally as a bonus a re-posting of her track from the "i'm Not There" soundtrack album.

06 Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The M

Cat Power

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Uncut Feb 08

Bob Dylan-Knockin' On Heaven's Door

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Uncut Feb 08

The new edition of "Uncut", out now, includes a main feature story on Dylan circa 1968 which was the period where his country roots first came to real prominance.

In addition there is a superb free CD with many tracks which were key influences on the young Mr Dylan, many were aired during his superb run of radio broadcasts during the last couple of years.

Below are three of my favourites together with the appropriate text from the magazine highlighting the reason for their inclusion.

01 I'll Never Get Out Of This World

Hank Williams

"Sitting in Woodstock writing the songs for "John Wesley Harding" Dylan regulary read the Old Testament and the Hank Williams songbook he is quoted as saying " I became aware that in Hank's recorded songs were the archetype rules of poetic songwriting" "

07 Matchbox

Carl Perkins

"By the late 60's Sun Records legend Perkins was a member of Johnny Cash's touring band which is how he came to play guitar on Nashville Skyline's "Girl From The North Country". Dylan had considered recording "Matchbox" at sessions with George Harrison in 1970 but did sing it with Perkins on stage in 1994"

12 The Wild Side Of Life

Hank Thompson

"Dylan once claimed that he'd never felt at home with the New York folk scene and that his true heart lay in a Texas honky tonk listening to Hank Thompson. It was only after the release of Nashville Skyline that people actually began to believe him. This 1952 hit was also a big favourite of Gram Parsons"

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash "Girl From The North Country" 1969

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Uncut Jan 08

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Uncut Dec 07

BOB DYLAN - A HARD RAIN´S A GONNA FALL

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Self Portrait

 

BOB DYLAN PAINTS SOME MASTERPIECES

 

Detail from "Train Tracks", Bob Dylan 2007, Black Buffalo Collection

A German art gallery in the town of Chemnitz mounts the first-ever exhibition of water-colour and gouache paintings by Bob Dylan. Cornelia Rudat throws the bums a dime, and goes to take a look ...

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

Chemnitz, of all places!

This little-known Saxon city, called Karl-Marx-Stadt in the communist era, has a miserable image as a poor, dilapidated, rustbelt town. Its population has shrunk from 330,000 to 240,000 since German unification. But in the arts world its fame is spreading. The beautiful König Albert Museum houses the Chemnitz City Art Gallery, where Ingrid Mössinger, its clever director since 1996, has been very busy.

Since her arrival the gallery has had remarkable exhibitions of work by Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Edvard Munch and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. The permanent collection includes 65,000 works of 20th-century art, including a large collection of paintings by Chemnitz-born Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, one of the founding members of the famous Brücke group, in 1905, which marked the beginning of German expressionism.

Last year Mössinger came across Bob Dylan's 1965 album, "Bringing it All Back Home" (her first and—still—only Dylan album). She was touched, especially by the first song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues". "Someone who uses such metaphoric and abstract language might also be drawing", she explained to me. She searched for evidence in several Dylan biographies and was not at all surprised when she discovered "Drawn Blank", a book published by Random House in 1994, with 92 drawings and sketches Dylan made while on tour between 1989 and 1992. She finally got hold of a copy at the Morgan Library in New York.

Persuaded of Dylan's talent as a draftsman, Mössinger wanted him to "eventually complete" his sketches—something he had indicated a desire to do in his book's preface. It took her a while to get hold of him, but once she did, she received a positive reply within two days. Dylan was inspired by her commitment. "I was fascinated to learn of Ingrid's interest in my work, and it gave me the impetus to realise the vision I had for these drawings many years ago. If not for this interest, I don't know if I even would have revisited them", the singer is quoted as saying in the museum's literature. Over eight months Dylan elaborated on his 322 works.

With the help of digital fine-art print, he enlarged 85 drawings and printed them on deckle-edged paper. He produced three or four variations of a single motif by adding water colours or gouache and sometimes repainted one or two details. Mössinger chose 140 paintings (all titled and signed by the artist) for her show and 170 for the catalogue, available in German and English.

The exhibition's audio guide is available in German only. But even without a guide, the real Dylan fan is going to find songs (or lines from them) visualised in this or that painting. Take a long look at "Woman in Red Lion Pub", for instance, probably the show's highlight, and songs including "Visions of Johanna" and "Just Like a Woman" from "Blonde on Blonde" (1966) are bound to cross your mind. Or did Dylan think of "Sara" (from "Desire", 1976) when he painted this erotic woman?

Art critics have been quick to see the influence of German expressionists, especially Kirchner and Max Beckmann, in the bright colours and the bold, dark contours. Three variations of "Corner Flat" depict three different men of different ages in the same environment. They all look sad and introverted, and they don't seem to notice what's going on outside the (hotel?) room. Are they a metaphor for Dylan's "lonesome hobo" on "John Wesley Harding" (1967)?

The exhibition ends with three variations of "Train Tracks" (pictured at the top of this page), whichtrail away to the horizon, like the trains and journeys running through so many ofDylan's lyrics.

Overall, Dylan's portraits and nudes seem clear and calm, but his interiors and landscapes often radiate a certain chaos and restlessness. He's got the measure of other people, it's the universe that worries him. That fits with the musician whose most evocative lyric is still probably this one:

"How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?"

("The Drawn Blank Series" until February 3rd 2008 at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Theaterplatz 1, 09111 Chemnitz. Tel.: +49-371-488 44 24.

Source :- www.moreintelligentlife.com

 

02 Simple Twist Of Fate

Bob Dylan

Dedicated to Alex McLeish and his players beaten but not down.

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