Today is folk/rock icon Bob Dylan’s 70th Birthday. Dylan has not lost his mojo or beatnik mystique throughout the years. With films, books, music, and art from the enigmatic singer/songwriter/guitar player, it seems he is not a fading light but a shining beacon into the not-so-distant history of music. Rolling Stone describes Dylan’s anthology as “a catalog of masterpieces and throwaways: narratives, protests, romances, put-downs, travelogues, warnings, comedy, tragedies and those nonlinear, oracle song.” He is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, and a Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winner.
The sunglass wearing, cigarette smoking legend has been up to many projects lately including a 6 book deal with his publisher Simon & Schuster. The deal includes two sequels to his best-selling book Chronicles: Volume 1, plus four additional books. Chronicles spent 19 weeks on the New York Times best seller list. The first two books in the deal will be sequels to Chronicles making Dylan fans and rock and roll history buffs eagerly anticipate the new memoirs. Another book is expected to be a collection of musings from the Theme Time Radio Hour show from his Sirius XM radio show.
Here is a hodgepodge of various recent Dylan projects, both by him and about him.
A new film by Murray Lerner called The Other Side of the Mirror is a documentary of the Newport Folk Festival in1963,1964, and 1965 when Dylan famously plugged in, shocking the folk planet. (See video below.)
There is a new release of recently uncovered film lost 40 years ago of Dylan performing a show at Brandeis University in 1963, when he was 21.
A new Dylan biography, one of many written, titled The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait by Daniel Mark Epstein has recently been released.
Dylan completed the Drawn Blank series of 200 watercolors, which showed along with the release of a book by the same name which includes 170 reproductions from the show.
Another art show called The Brazilian Series includes 40 large scale acrylic paintings.
Dylan recently performed in China for the first time, playing a government approved set list.
Rolling Stone called on the world’s foremost Dylan experts to compile a list of the best Dylan songs. Check out the top 10. Download Music from the Dylan experts’ playlist.
1 “Like a Rolling Stone”
2 “A Hard Rain is Going to Fall”
3 “Tangled Up in Blue”
4 “Just Like a Woman”
5 “All Along the Watchtower”
6 “I Shall Be Released”
7 “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”
8 “Mr. Tambourine Man”
9 “Visions of Johanna”
10 “Every Grain of Sand”
Dylan will be on a whirlwind tour in July keeping up his wandering reputation, hitting the countries of Ireland, England, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the US, in Costa Mesa, CA.
No comments:
Post a Comment