Bob Dylan

Date

1946–

Description

City of birth: Duluth
Country of birth: United States
Field of activity: Culture — music, performance

More detail coming ...

Quotes

‘Dear Douglas, David, Emilia and Annie, Many other people have also written in about Bob Dylan’s new song, ‘Murder Most Foul’ — and the interest is justifiable. It is a perplexing but beautiful song and, like many people, I have been extremely moved by it. … Lyrically it has all the perverse daring and playfulness of many of Dylan’s great songs, but beyond that there is something within his voice that feels extraordinarily comforting, especially at this moment. It is as though it has travelled a great distance, through stretches of time, full of an earned integrity and stature that soothes in the way of a lullaby, a chant, or a prayer.’

Author

Nick Cave

Speaker

‘Dear Douglas, David, Emilia and Annie’

Title of the publication

‘Dear Douglas, David, Emilia and Annie’

Other contributors

n/a

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

The Red Hand Files

City of publication

Brighton

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United Kingdom

Publication date

April 2020

Location [pp. or web]

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/bob-dylans-new-song/

Original language

English

Genre

Website post

Context

In 2018, Nick Cave launched the Red Hand Files website to engage in one-on-one communication with his fans.

‘I was asked to give a statement on Johnny’s passing and thought about writing a piece instead called “Cash Is King,” because that is the way I really feel. In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him — the greatest of the greats then and now. … There wasn’t much music media in the early ’Sixties, and Sing Out! was the magazine covering all things folk in character. The editors had published a letter chastising me for the direction my music was going. Johnny wrote the magazine back an open letter telling the editors to shut up and let me sing, that I knew what I was doing. This was before I had ever met him, and the letter meant the world to me. I’ve kept the magazine to this day. … The record sounded like a voice from the middle of the earth. It was so powerful and moving. It was profound, and so was the tone of it, every line; deep and rich, awesome and mysterious all at once.’

Author

Bob Dylan

Speaker

Bob Dylan

Title of the publication

'Remembering Johnny'

Other contributors

Matt Diel

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Rolling Stone

City of publication

New York

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

16 October 2003

Location [pp. or web]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/remembering-johnny-186961/

Original language

English

Genre

Magazine

Context

Shortly after Johnny Cash died, Rolling Stone magazine asked musicians for statements about the impact that Cash had on their lives and careers..

‘[Dylan came into the control room, smiling. Although he is fiercely accusatory toward society at large while he is performing, his most marked offstage characteristic is gentleness. He speaks swiftly but softly, and appears persistently anxious to make himself clear.] “We’re going to make a good one tonight,” [he said to Wilson]. “I promise.” [He turned to me and continued,] “There aren’t any finger-pointing songs in here, either. Those records I’ve already made, I’ll stand behind them, but some of that was jumping into the scene to be heard and a lot of it was because I didn’t see anybody else doing that kind of thing. Now a lot of people are doing finger-pointing songs. You know — pointing to all the things that are wrong. Me, I don’t want to write for people anymore. You know — be a spokesman. Like I once wrote about Emmett Till in the first person, pretending I was him. From now on, I want to write from inside me, and to do that I’m going to have to get back to writing like I used to when I was ten — having everything come out naturally. The way I like to write is for it to come out the way I walk or talk.” Dylan frowned. “Not that I even walk or talk yet like I’d like to. I don’t carry myself yet the way Woody, Big Joe Williams, and Lightnin’ Hopkins have carried themselves. I hope to someday, but they’re older. They got to where music was a tool for them, a way to live more, a way to make themselves feel better. Sometimes I can make myself feel better with music, but other times it’s still hard to go to sleep at night”.’

Author

Bob Dylan

Speaker

Bob Dylan

Title of the publication

'Bob Dylan, The Wanderer'

Other contributors

Nat Hentoff

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

New Yorker

City of publication

New York

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

17 October 1964

Location [pp. or web]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/10/24/the-crackin-shakin-breakin-sounds

Other location

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/10/24

Original language

English

Genre

Magazine

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