Maggie's Farm

Harvested from here:

Joan Baez:
"I heard about Bob Dylan before I heard him. Somebody invited me to Gerde's Folk City in 1961, and that was the first I heard him sing. He knocked me flat. Everything everyone said [about him] was right. I thought he was brilliant, amazing, a scuff ball."

Donovan:[After mentioning the accusations of "ripping off" Dylan and being irritated with Dylan comparisons in general, Donovan tells this anecdote:] "I remember arriving, and Bobby Neuwirth, Dylan's roadie at the time, quietly bringing me into Dylan's suite... I went into a little television room, creeped in and shut the door. It was dark in there. Dylan was just a shadow. He was looking at the ice skating championships from Austria on television in a darkened room. He didn't say anything. We just sat down. Neither asked the other a question. There was nothing to say, nothing to ask. Slowly my eyes got accustomed to the dark, and I realized there were other figures in the room sitting on the couch. Slowly the figures became more real. It was John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I must say I felt a little out of my depth."

Bono of U2:
"I think he is a very tenacious character. I think underneath all the so-called eccentricity, which I think is just a mask, there's a very true person. He's a good father --- I've seen him with his children --- with a moral compass, and who can get lost at sea like everybody. But I think he's very strong."

George Harrison:
"Dylan is so brilliant. To me, he makes William Shakespeare look like Billy Joel."

Levon Helm of The Band:
"He's turned himself into a decent bandleader. He don't strum no more. Bobby plays an electric guitar. He plays like [Steve] Cropper plays. He's really part of the rhythm section. Oh man, I love the way Bob has led his band... I like to go like that, just no plan, and play it all by ear. He's as good at it as anybody I know."

Dave Matthews:
[Asked to name his favorites.] "It wouldn't be fair if I didn't name every Dylan record. It almost makes me furious sometimes, how good his lyrics are. You know, you aspire to things. I'm trying and trying [to write a song], and I'll get something and I'll say, 'That's pretty good,' and then I'll listen to Blood On the Tracks and think 'Who the hell am I kidding? What the hell am I talking about?' 'Come in, she said / I'll give you / shelter from the storm.' Asshole!"

Paul Simon:
"I don't think [Dylan and the Beatles] influenced me a lot. I think it was inevitable; they were so powerful that you couldn't really escape the influence... As for Bob, I don't know. He's like the most mysterious of all the people of our generation. He's sort of impenetrable, really."

"Senor, senor, do you know where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?
Seems like I been down this way before.
Is there any truth in that, senor?

Senor, senor, do you know where she is hidin'?
How long are we gonna be ridin'?
How long must I keep my eyes glued to the door?
Will there be any comfort there, senor?

There's a wicked wind still blowin' on that upper deck,
There's an iron cross still hanging down from around her neck.
There's a marchin' band still playin' in that vacant lot
Where she held me in her arms one time and said, "Forget me not."

Senor, senor, I can see that painted wagon,
I can smell the tail of the dragon.
Can't stand the suspense anymore.
Can you tell me who to contact here, senor?"

From "Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)," off Street Legal.  Download a live version of this song from 1994 at the link here.

"Well, your railroad gate, you know I just can't jump it
Sometimes it gets so hard, you see
I'm just sitting here beating on my trumpet
With all these promises you left for me
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Well, I waited for you when I was half sick
Yes, I waited for you when you hated me
Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic
When you knew I had some other place to be
Now, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Now, I been in jail when all my mail showed
That a man can't give his address out to bad company
And now I stand here lookin' at your yellow railroad
In the ruins of your balcony
Wond'ring where you are tonight, sweet Marie."

From "Absolutely Sweet Marie" off 1966's Blonde On Blonde

We carried you in our arms
On Independence Day,
And now you'd throw us all aside
And put us on our way.
Oh what dear daughter 'neath the sun
Would treat a father so,
To wait upon him hand and foot
And always tell him, "No"?
Tears of rage, tears of grief,
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know
We're so alone
And life is brief.

It was all very painless
When you went out to receive
All that false instruction
Which we never could believe.
And now the heart is filled with gold
As if it was a purse.
But, oh, what kind of love is this
Which goes from bad to worse?
Tears of rage, tears of grief,
Must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know
We're so alone
And life is brief.

From "Tears Of Rage," officially released on The Basement Tapes and covered by The Band on Music From Big Pink.

"Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin' at his last meal
Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield
For dignity

Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass
Young man lookin' in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin' through painted glass
For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve
Somebody said dignity was the first to leave
I went into the city, went into the town
Went into the land of the midnight sun

Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure
Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
for dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams"

"Dignity," outtake from Oh Mercy, officially released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol 3 and MTV Unplugged.  Download a live 2004 version of this song here.

Drifting Like A Satellite: Dylan To Hit The Airwaves

If various news outlets are to be believed, Bob Dylan will begin broadcasting his own music show on XM satellite radio next March.  In addition to playing music hand-picked by Dylan, the show will apparently feature Dylan conducting interviews of special guests and providing commentary on music and as-yet unspecified "other topics."  The news is all the more surprising given Dylan's notorious reticence, not to mention a rigorous touring schedule which takes up a good portion of the year.  Perhaps the shows will be taped right from the tour bus?  Either way, this is quite the coup for XM, which is in a fight with rival Sirius for the subscription satellite radio market.

Learn more about satellite radio here.

"Of war and peace the truth just twists
Its curfew gull just glides
Upon four-legged forest clouds
The cowboy angel rides
With his candle lit into the sun
Though its glow is waxed in black
All except when 'neath the trees of Eden

The lamppost stands with folded arms
Its iron claws attached
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail
Though it shadows metal badge
All and all can only fall
With a crashing but meaningless blow
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden

With a time-rusted compass blade
Aladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian hermit monks
Side saddle on the Golden Calf
And on their promises of paradise
You will not hear a laugh
All except inside the Gates of Eden."

From "Gates of Eden," from 1965's Bringing It All Back Home. Buy it if you don't have it.

Dylan Download Of The Day

Dylan may have left the most outspoken part of his so-called "born-again period" behind in the early 1980s, but he continued to perform many of the songs from his three most religious albums well into the 1990s.  Today's selection from the vaults is a 1994 performance of "In The Garden," off "Saved," an album of explicitly-Christian gospel songs that has been received with everything from harsh criticism to glowing praise since it came out in 1980.  Even if you aren't a believer, however, you should still be able to appreciate the sheer naked honesty of Dylan's vocal performance of the song, as moving to my ears as any choral hymn ever composed by Isaac Watts or Charles Wesley.  Get the MP3 of the November 1994 performance at the link found here.  Buy the original album here.

(The Dylanologist should add that readers will never find copyrighted versions of Bob Dylan songs available on Maggie's Farm: everything we provide is taken from audience recordings of live performances or else unreleased studio work.  Our hope is that hearing these commercially unavailable recordings will expose the listener to a vitally important side of Dylan's craft and encourage the purchase of albums and concert tickets.)

Dylan Download Of The Day

Thanks to new websites which allow the uploading of large files, The Dylanologist is pleased to be able to share some rare audio and video clips of Maggie's favorite "recording artist."  Today's selection is from the 1996 tour, where Dylan - foreshadowing the direction his live act would take in years to come - debuted the Elizabeth Cotten classic "Shake Sugaree" with an understated, almost country-style arrangement that diverged sharply from the hard rocking/spare acoustic sets of the mid-90s.  Get an mp3 version of a June 1996 performance of the song by going to this link and hitting "download now." Buy the original, listen to a clip, or just learn more about Elizabeth Cotten here.

"Tryin' To Get To Heaven," from Dylan's 1997 Time Out Of Mind

The air is getting hotter
There's a rumbling in the skies
I've been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes
Every day your memory grows dimmer
It doesn't haunt me like it did before
I've been walking through the middle of nowhere
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

When I was in Missouri
They would not let me be
I had to leave there in a hurry
I only saw what they let me see
You broke a heart that loved you
Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore
I've been walking that lonesome valley
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door