MICHAEL GRAY SPRING TOUR: NEW UPDATES

Thu Mar 24, 5pm
New College, University of Alabama
Gorgas Library Room 205, Campus, Tuscaloosa AL
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Tue Mar 29, 6.30pm
Statesboro Holiday Inn

455 Commerce Drive, Statesboro GA 30458
limited no. of tickets on sale at $35 including food & drink
Throw My Troubles Out the Door: Bob Dylan & the Southern Musical Landscape

Wed Mar 30, 4pm
University of Georgia

101 Miller Learning Center, UGA, Athens GA 30602
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Thu Mar 31, 3.30pm

University of Georgia

247 Miller Learning Center, UGA, Athens GA 30602
restricted admission
Searching for Blind Willie McTell

Sun Apr 3, 2pm
Nighthawk Books, Highland Park NJ

212 Raritan Ave., Highland Park NJ 08904
free admission but donations requested
Bob Dylan & Beyond: Geniuses of American Music

Mon Apr 4, 4.30pm
Connecticut College

English Dept., 270 Mohegan Ave., New London CT 06320
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Wed Apr 6, 6.30pm
New School, NYC

5th Floor, Room 510, 66 W. 12th St., NY NY 10011
reservations: TurnerL@newschool.edu
Searching for Blind Willie McTell

Sat Apr 9, 8pm
Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Ireland

Main St, Newbridge, Co. Kildare
tickets €15 (€13 concessions)
Box Office: boxoffice@riverbank.ie
or buy online or phone 045 448327
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Tues Apr 12, 8pm
Passionfruit Theatre, Athlone
9 Northgate, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
Box Office: 086 333 8547 or buy online
tickets: €10
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Wed Apr 13, 8.30pm
Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon

St. George's Terrace, Carrick, Co. Leitrim
Box Office: info@thedock.ie or phone 071 96 50828
tickets €12 (concessions €10)
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Thu Apr 14, 8pm
Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar
Linenhall St., Castlebar, Co. Mayo
Box Office: linenhall@anu.ie or 094 90 23733
tickets €10
Searching For Blind Willie McTell

Fri Apr 15, 8pm
Locke Bar, Limerick

The Loft at The Locke Bar, 3 Georges Quay, Limerick
Box Office: 085 208 5737
tickets: €12 (concessions €10)
Love Me Slender: The Genius of Early Elvis

Sat Apr 16, 1pm
Cúirt International Festival of Literature, Galway
All enquiries: dani@galwayartscentre.ie
Searching For Blind Willie McTell

Sun Apr 17, 8pm
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray

Main St., Bray, Co. Wicklow
Box Office: 01 272 4030 or
http://mermaid.ticketsolve.com/performances/all_shows
tickets €12
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Wed Apr 20, 7pm
Cork World Book Festival
Central Library, Grand Parade, Cork
enquiries/tickets: 021 492 4900 or
libraries@corkcity.ie or www.corklibraries.ie
Love Me Slender: The Genius of Early Elvis

Thu Apr 21, 8.30pm
Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda
Stockwell St., Drogheda, Co. Louth
Box Office: in person or online at www.droicheadartscentre.com/booking
or by phone 041 983 3946
tickets €14 (concessions €12)
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Tue May 17, 8.15pm
The Salon, Vienna
Salon, Praterstraße 17 (Hof), 1020 Wien
Free admission: be early!
Some Special Dylan Solo Moments

Thu May 19, 2.30pm
University of Vienna Refractions Of Bob Dylan Conference
Main Lecture Hall, Amerikahaus, Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 2, Vienna
How Did Bob Dylan's Version Of Americanness Impact '60s British Culture?

Wed May 24, tba
Bristol University Seven Ages of Dylan Conference
details tba
Keynote Speech 

THE DEATH OF ROBERT TILLING

Very sorry to learn this morning of the death of Robert Tilling, whose work as an artist was much admired but whom I knew, if only briefly, through his engagement with music. He was the biographer of, but also a pupil and friend of, the Rev. Gary Davis, and thanks to his involvement in the arts in Jersey he invited me to do a gig at the arts centre in St.Helier in 2007  -  and, very generously, to have Sarah and me stay at his house  -  a house with walls splendidly crowded with paintings, prints, lithographs and more by an amazing array of people. Robert and his wife Thelma were warm & hospitable hosts to us.

 The photograph was taken during that visit.


For more information see here.

"A PUDGY MAN WITH DERISIVE EYES"

It's 25 years ago tomorrow that Dylan's most high-profile manager, Albert Grossman, died.

This is his entry in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia *:

Grossman, Albert [1926 - 1986]

Albert B. Grossman was born in Chicago on May 21, 1926, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who worked as tailors. He attended Lane Technical High School and graduated from Roosevelt University, Chicago with a degree in economics, though he’s also said to have studied child psychology under the great Bruno Bettelheim (later the author of the pioneering work The Uses Of Enchantment, a 1970s study of the inherent psychological wisdom of the fairy tale). Perhaps this helped Grossman to psych people out, which he was extremely good at, in his later business dealings in the music industry.

After university he worked for the Chicago Housing Authority, leaving in the late 1950s in unclear circumstances  -  it’s often suggested that he was fired for misconduct  -  to go into the club business. Seeing folk star Bob Gibson perform at the Off Beat Room in 1956 prompted Grossman’s idea of a ‘listening room’ to showcase Gibson and other talent, as the folk revival movement grew. The result was the Gate of Horn in the basement of the Rice Hotel, where Jim (later ROGER) MCGUINN got his early inspiration and kicked off his career as a 12-string guitarist. Grossman moved into managing some of the acts who appeared at his club, and in 1959, with Boston-based club owner George Wein, who had founded the Newport Jazz Festival, Albert started up the NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL. ‘The American public,’ he told ROBERT SHELTON, ‘is like Sleeping Beauty, waiting to be kissed awake by the prince of Folk Music.’

He was a pudgy man with derisive eyes, with a regular table at Gerde’s Folk City from which he surveyed the scene in silence, and many people loathed him. In a milieu of New Left reformers and folkie idealists campaigning for a better world, Albert Grossman was a breadhead, seen to move serenely and with deadly purpose like a barracuda circling shoals of fish. Other people  -  among them Jones and HOWARD ALK  -  liked him, finding him loyal, flexible and tolerant, polite and considerate on a personal level and possessed of a dry sense of humour.

Either way, he protected those whose careers he managed, building them up, gaining them far more of their dues and defending their interests more fiercely than the nicer, more amateurish managers in the Village. His clients included Bob Gibson and Hamilton Camp, ODETTA, PETER PAUL & MARY, JOHN LEE HOOKER, IAN & SYLVIA, GORDON LIGHTFOOT, Richie Havens, TODD RUNDGREN, THE BAND, the Electric Flag, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan. Sometimes he advertised that he was managing an act before they knew it themselves (as for instance in the 1965 Newport Folk Festival programme, when MIMI & RICHARD FARINA  -  and their manager  -  were surprised to find themselves on Grossman’s list of clients).

He moved in on Bob Dylan’s career very early  -  secretly his manager by the time he encouraged IZZY YOUNG to lay out the money to hire Carnegie Chapter Hall for Dylan’s launch there in November 1961, though not officially in place as manager until August 20, 1962  -  and who is to say that Dylan might not have taken a little longer to break through had Grossman not been wheeling and dealing for him? Nor can it be denied that he accommodated this most intelligent, difficult, hustler of a client superbly  -  giving him space, not only figuratively but literally too, out at his house near Woodstock (where DANIEL KRAMER photographed him so memorably in early 1965), and never telling him, as others were quick to do, that he should stay where he was artistically, or stay sober, or play safe.

Grossman is to be seen in all his stealthy pomp, like the Cheshire cat without its grin, oozing in and out of the scenes of Don’t Look Back as he guides Dylan through his 1965 British tour and out the other side into superstardom.

In 1969 he built the Bearsville Recording Studio near Woodstock, and in 1970 founded Bearsville Records. He had a pudgy finger in every possible pie, taking his percentage from venues and festivals his clients played, from their fees and royalties, from their music publishing, from the studios they recorded in, from the record labels that released their work, and sometimes from the houses they rented out of town.

By this time he was coming to the end of his association with Dylan. But he guarded Dylan’s premium value to the end. At the Isle of Wight Music Festival in August 1969, by this time with his long hair in a ponytail (a rare sight on a man in his 40s), he was prowling around the hospitality tents ahead of Dylan’s appearance. Asked if he’d heard the rumours that various members of THE BEATLES were going to join him on stage, he replied, sotto voce: ‘Of course the Beatles would like to join Dylan on stage; I should like to fly to the moon.’ Bob Dylan has never been given that level of guardianship since. The contracts between them were officially dissolved on July 17, 1970.

There are two interesting comments on Grossman in the SCORSESE film No Direction Home. One is Dylan’s: ‘He was kind of like a Colonel Tom Parker figure…you could smell him coming.’ The other is JOHN COHEN’s: ‘I don’t think Albert manipulated Bob, because Bob was weirder than Albert.’

Albert Grossman died of a heart attack while flying on Concorde to London on January 25, 1986. He is buried behind his own Bearsville Theater near Woodstock, New York. His widow Sally, née Bueler, an ex-New York City waitress whom he’d married in 1964, and who is the woman in red on the front cover of Bringing It All Back Home, continued to oversee his domain after his death. In 2004, reportedly, she began to sell off some of her late husband’s holdings, including the theatre complex, the Bearsville restaurant and the studios.

[Albert Grossman to Robert Shelton, No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan, London: Penguin edn., 1987, p.88; Grossman on Dylan & the Beatles, remark to this writer, Isle of Wight UK, Aug 31 1969. Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment, London: Thames & Hudson, 1976.]

* What I don't mention in this entry, but include in the entry on C.P. LEE a propos of his book Like The Night (and indeed Like The Night Revisited) is this:

It may be suspect to claim to tell us what Dylan and ALBERT GROSSMAN notice and don’t notice as they take their taxi-ride to Didsbury in May 1964, but what they might have noticed is nicely drawn, and so are they. The richly comic way that they’re seen as mesmerising exotica by a young Mancunian, Neville, whose task is to look after them at the TV studio: this is beautifully rendered, and with great vividness, from Bob’s spidery shyness to Grossman’s fleshy coldness to Neville’s dilemmas and delight. (C. P. has more than a soft spot for Albert. He speaks ruefully here and there in the book of how we all wished in vain for Dylan’s mid-60s cool, but actually C. P. would settle for Grossman’s.)

RICHIE HAVENS & PAUL NELSON

Happy birthday Richie Havens, 70 years old today. Among many other things he was another headliner at the 2nd Isle of Wight Festival back in August 1969, and nearly 40 years later appeared briefly in Tod Haynes' film I'm Not There & contributing a version of 'Tombstone Blues' to the soundtrack.

Paul Nelson would have been 75 today. He was co-founder of the small but influential critical journal Little Sandy Review  -  sometimes claimed as marking "the birth of rock criticism"  -  and was one of those who knew Bob Dylan in his Twin Cities Dinkytown days (1959-60), seeing him perform, watching him develop as a performer and meeting up with him again on subsequent Dylan revisits to the North Country (1961-63). He was found dead at his home in July 2006. (He has a detailed entry in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, though the first hardback edition was published before his death could be included.)

OCCASIONAL PICTURES NO. 177

AND IN FURTHER 2ND-HAND BOB NEWS...

And this comes courtesy of John Baldwin's Desolation Row Newsletter this morning, who found it in a message on AllAlongTheWatchtower.dk:

My Own Love Song is now available on DVD... [This] is a 2010 road movie directed and written by Olivier Dahan and starring Renée Zellweger, Forest Whitaker, Madeline Zima and Nick Nolte. It premiered in Dahan's native France on April 7, 2010 and in the United States at the Tribeca Film Festival between April 21 to May 2, 2010. The soundtrack contains music written by Dylan, including 'Life is Hard' from his 2009 album Together Through Life.

The soundtrack is heavy in material from those studio sessions. Not only does it feature several selections that originally appeared on Together Through Life, but it also includes 16 previously unreleased originals recorded during that same time frame. Titles include...'Driving South', 'Bumble Bee', and 'Sweeping The Floor'.

So, My Own Love Song includes both old and new Dylan, all of which came from the same studio sessions... Tracklist:

Bob Dylan – Forgetful Heart (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Life Is Hard (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Sweeping The Floor (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Bumble Bee (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Jane’s Lament (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Joey’s Theme (Dylan)
Ron Eaton – Preludes, Opus 28 #6 in b Minor (Chopin)
Bob Dylan – I Feel A Change Coming On (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Driving South (Dylan)
Georges Drakoulias – What Good Am I (Dylan)
Forest Whitaker – What Good Am I (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Back Alley (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Snow Falling (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Billie #30 (Dylan)
Chopin Nocturne 7
René Zellweger – Precious Angel (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Road Weary (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Click Clack (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Life Is Hard (Dylan) (instrumental)
Bob Dylan – Robbie Robert’s Lament (Dylan)
Robert Johnson – Me And The Devil Blues
Bob Dylan – New Orleans Drums (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Janet’s Step (Dylan)
Source Music – Late Night Blues For Leroy Carr
Ron Eaton – Preludes, Opus 28 #4 in e Minor (Chopin)
Don Sparks – I Believe In You
Bob Dylan – Swingin’ (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Blues Club (Playback) (Dylan)
Renée Zellweger – This Land Is Your Land
Bob Dylan – It’s All Good (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – East Texas (Dylan)
The Bourbon Street Stompers – Down By The Riverside
Georges Darkoulias – What Good Am I (Dylan)
Ron Eaton – Preludes, Opus 28 #15 in Db Major (Chopin)
Renée Zellweger – Life Is Hard (Dylan)
Bob Dylan – Beyond Here Lies Nothing (Dylan)

Amazon France has a better price than Amazon UK at Euro 15.98.

CHRONICLES VOLS. 2 & 3 ON THEIR WAY?

This was sent on to me by Mick Gold, and comes from Crain's NewYorkBusiness.com:

Published: January 16, 2011 - 5:59 am

Rock legend Bob Dylan has a new book deal—with his old publisher, Simon & Schuster.

The house, which brought out the singer-songwriter's 2004 best-seller Chronicles: Volume One, has reached a deal with literary agent Andrew Wylie for six books, according to several industry insiders. The books include two follow-ups to Chronicles and a collection of riffs from Mr. Dylan's radio show on Sirius XM.

The deal came after Mr. Wylie had spent months trying to drum up interest in the project among other publishers (see Crain's, Nov. 22), despite Simon & Schuster's insistence that it had the rights to any Chronicles sequels. “Wylie's contention was that S&S didn't own the "memoir,' because Chronicles was "nonfiction stories' from his life and not a memoir,” said the editor. But no house would bite because of the potential for a lawsuit.

Mr. Wylie had been looking for an eight-figure offer, according to another editor, who didn't know the deal's final value. The agent did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. A Simon & Schuster spokesman declined to comment.

My thanks to Mick for spotting this.

A GUEST POST FROM ANDREW MUIR

Hi Michael

As you know I spent about as much of the 90s and early 2000s collecting, “rare Dylan CDs” as I did travelling around various countries following his shows. I had a trip down memory lane last week and thought you’d be interested in changes in the “rare records” market.

Now, this is all within the overall perspective that the CD market and the “rare” market in particular is in terminal decline anyway. (Unlike vinyl but that is another topic); replaced as we know by downloads and computer files that with a broadband connection can be easily shared in full quality rather than using files like MP3s that compress the files.

But what has changed recently is that from a commercial point of view the Dylan market is almost completely dead after decades of him being the top seller (by far). Although diminished, the likes of Neil Young and the Stones still sell and Springsteen, who was second only to Bob for many years, now sells the most.

My curiosity piqued, I asked a couple of leaders in the field and they both said the same thing: that within the last year or two the hard core Dylan buyers have stopped altogether, while some Springsteen and Young hardcore buyers still remain.

They said that some of the old guard collectors from the other artists still come to the fairs etc. but the Dylan ones – by far the most numerous – just stopped. Odd. I have to stress that this is very recent: in the middle of the last decade Dylan was still the main centre of attraction.

Three possible reasons occur to me:

An over-abundance of Dylan already out? (I once would have found that phrase unintelligible) Perhaps people have simply stopped because they bought so very much in the past... and for newcomers now there are so many official bootlegs that it’d take an age to buy all the official albums and your whole life to absorb them.

Or is it that the Dylan audience has changed in a way that others haven’t?

Or is it just lack of interest? If you were to make a list of all your long term Dylan listening friends, how many would still hold his work in high regard and/or still be collecting?

One way or another, given that younger fans will generally download, we seem to be looking at the Dylan old guard finally giving up on their man in terms of collecting. Perhaps your blog could confirm/deny whether it it the same in Europe and the States.

Homer

MICHAEL GRAY SPRING TOUR: UPDATE

Next week I should be able to post some information about when tickets for each of the Irish dates go on sale. Meanwhile all the earlier dates - except at the bookshop in New Jersey - are at colleges or universities, and with one exception (the McTell talk in Athens GA) these offer free admission to the public as well as to college people.

New dates have been added in Connecticut (April 4) and in County Wicklow, Ireland (April 17).

Details:

Thu Feb 17, 5pm
Liverpool University
Sherrington Building Lecture Theatre 1, Ashton Street, L'pool L69 3GE
reservations policy change:
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Tues Feb 22, 11am
West Valley College, Saratoga CA
1400 Fruitvale Avenue, Saratoga CA
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Searching For Blind Willie McTell

Wed Feb 23, 7pm
University of the Pacific, Stockton CA
Janet Leigh Theatre, off Atchley Way/Stagg Way
3601 Pacific Avenue, Stockton CA
reservations: cdobbs@pacific.edu
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Thu Feb 24, tba
Stanford University
Building 260, Room 113
450 Serra Mall, Stanford CA
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Thu Mar 24, 5pm
New College, University of Alabama
Gorgas Library Room 205, Campus, Tuscaloosa AL
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Tue Mar 29, tba
Georgia Southern University
1400 Southern Drive, Statesboro 30460
limited no. of tickets will go on sale later; details to come
Compressed Version of a Winterlude Weekend, with Dinner

Wed Mar 30, 4pm
University of Georgia
101 Miller Learning Center, UGA, Athens GA 30602
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Thu Mar 31, 3.30pm
University of Georgia
247 Miller Learning Center, UGA, Athens GA 30602
restricted admission
Searching for Blind Willie McTell

Sun Apr 3, 2pm
Nighthawk Books, Highland Park NJ
212 Raritan Ave., Highland Park NJ 08904
free admission but donation requested
Bob Dylan & Beyond: Geniuses of American Music

Mon Apr 4, 4.30pm
Connecticut College
English Dept., 270 Mohegan Ave., New London CT 06320
no reservation needed: free & open to public: be early!
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Wed Apr 6, 6.30pm
New School, NYC
5th Floor, Room 510, 66 W. 12th St., NY NY 10011
reservations: TurnerL@newschool.edu
Searching for Blind Willie McTell

Sat Apr 9, 8pm
Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Ireland
Main St, Newbridge, Co. Kildare
ticket price to be confirmed mid-February;
tickets will go on sale mid-March
Box Office: boxoffice@riverbank.ie
or buy online at www.riverbank.ie or phone 045 448327
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Tues Apr 12, tba
Passionfruit Theatre, Athlone
9 Northgate, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
Box Office: 086 333 8547 or www.passionfruittheatre.com
tickets: €10
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Wed Apr 13, tba
Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon
St. George's Terrace, Carrick, Co. Leitrim
Box Office: info@thedock.ie or phone 071 96 50828
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Thu Apr 14, 8pm
Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar
Linenhall St., Castlebar, Co. Mayo
Box Office: linenhall@anu.ie or 094 90 23733
tickets €10, on sale end of February
Searching For Blind Willie McTell

Fri Apr 15, tba
Locke Bar, Limerick
The Loft at The Locke Bar, 3 Georges Quay, Limerick
Box Office: 085 208 5737
tickets: €12 (concessions €10)
Love Me Slender: The Genius of Early Elvis

Sat Apr 16, 1pm
Cúirt International Festival of Literature, Galway
All enquiries: dani@galwayartscentre.ie
Searching For Blind Willie McTell

Sun Apr 17, 8pm
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
Main St., Bray, Co. Wicklow
Box Office: 01 272 4030 or
http://mermaid.ticketsolve.com/performances/all_shows
tickets €12, on sale now
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Wed Apr 20, 7pm
Cork World Book Festival
Central Library, Grand Parade, Cork
enquiries/tickets: 021 492 4900 or
libraries@corkcity.ie or www.corklibraries.ie
Love Me Slender: The Genius of Early Elvis

Thu Apr 21, 8.30pm
Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda
Stockwell St., Drogheda, Co. Louth
Box Office: in person or online at www.droicheadartscentre.com/booking
or by phone 041 983 3946
Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues

Tue May 17, 8.15pm
The Salon, Vienna
Salon, Praterstraße 17 (Hof), 1020 Wien
Free admission
Special Dylan Talk: topic tba

Thu May 19, 2.30pm
University of Vienna Refractions Of Bob Dylan Conference
Main Lecture Hall, Amerikahaus, Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 2, Vienna
How Did Bob Dylan's Version Of Americanness Impact '60s British Culture?

ODDS & ENDS NO. UMPTEEN

The Dylan Box Of Vision: I believe this will be published/released in March: it's a beautiful package, in a large box, that includes the artwork from all Dylan's vinyl albums, plus a book that gathers together reviews of each album from when each was new. I'm pleased to be able to say that a couple of my own reviews are featured - of Dylan and Blood On The Tracks - and in the latter case at least, I'm happy to stand by what I wrote more than 35 years ago...

Meanwhile a couple of new URLs to draw to your attention. First, for anyone in the north of England who writes songs, wants to record demos, needs a music publisher, wants to learn studio techniques, or various other things, I can recommend the excellent people who have just launched www.lookatmedance.co.uk. And of course if you don't need their studio, you don't have to be in the north of England to find them useful.

I shall be using their studio next month to record readings from The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. Obviously the book is far too big to make for an audiobook version, but we're going to create a CD (and perhaps an mp3) comprising audio versions of around 15-20 entries, which will be available - I hope in March - and which I'll have for sale at my March and April gigs in the US & Ireland and from this blog. The title will be Bob Dylan Encyclopedia Greatest Hits...

Second, my old friend the writer Nigel Hinton now not only has a website (www.nigelhinton.net) but has just created a new blog.

Meanwhile later today I'll be posting an updated list of all my Spring 2011 tour dates - talking of which: is there anyone out there in Berkeley or Carmel or Monterey or San Anselmo CA with a venue to offer for the night of Friday Feb 25 or Saturday Feb 26???

IS BOB DYLAN GOING TO HAVE BEEN A LIFELONG NON-SMOKER?

Here's Robert Johnson then and, er, now. He's become a non-smoker. So has everyone from Jackson Pollock to Winston Churchill. No cigar, apparently. Can Bob Dylan be far behind? See this Iconic Photos blog.

GOOD IDEA

This item comes to me from today's Desolation Row Newsletter, and it (ie John Baldwin) was alerted to it by reader David McBride:

The cover mounted CD '2011 For Your Pleasure' with the latest issue of Uncut (February 2011 Issue 165 price £4.60) has as its first track Thunder on the Mountain by Wanda Jackson from her latest album 'The Party Ain't Over' on Third Man Records. The detail of the track listing inside the magazine says "A perfect collaboration across the generations; the most spirited female rocker of the '50s covering the opening track of Dylan's 'Modern Times' album, produced by Jack White, who also plays blistering lead guitar over rambunctious backing from various Raconteurs and a fiery horn section". In the album review it says "a breathless, weird, oh-so-slightly-rushed run through of Bob Dylan's 'Thunder on the Mountain' recorded at Dylan's suggestion that defies description”. In a question and answer section "Was Dylan's 'Thunder on the Mountainl' a challenge to record?" she says "Yes. 11 verses! But Jack White helped me with it, to edit it down. You know that verse Bob Dylan sings about Alicia Keys? Jack had to change that to 'Jerry Lee'."

I'd like to hear it.

DEATH OF GERRY RAFFERTY

Gerry Rafferty & producer Hugh Murphy, February 1980
photo © Michael Gray 2011

I was saddened to hear yesterday that Gerry Rafferty had died that morning. I first met him in 1977-78, that punk-dominated era, when I'd retreated from the cold of freelance writing and taken a job as press officer for United Artists Records in London. Gerry was signed to the label - after years in a contractual tangle after the demise of Stealer's Wheel - and had recorded, very economically, the album City To City. The company decided to issue the title track as a single. It didn't do much. I sat in the weekly marketing meeting at which we were all asked which track should be the next single. Someone suggested 'Baker Street'. With my usual infallible finger on the pulse of popular taste, I said "No: too jazzy."

After the huge success of that record, and the album's enormous sales around the world, Gerry found he needed a manager - but he'd been burnt by heavy American pro management in the case of Stealer's Wheel and didn't want that again. He just wanted someone he could trust, to stand between him and the cacophony of music-biz people wanting him to tour America, meet so-and-so, do this TV, and so on. We'd got to know each other from when he'd sat in my office answering questions for press releases and a long interview we'd constructed together for a UK tour brochure, and from coping with the odd bit of media together. I think he recognised that my fit in the biz was as awkward as his and my ardour for great records just as real - though all through the years I knew him, he always retained the artist's wariness for the critic.

At any rate, I stopped working for the record company and started working for its most mega-selling artist (involving a satisfying shift in my relations with the label's managing director). My son Gabriel was often around in this period, spending time in the dressing room on tour, time at Gerry & his wife's homes first in Scotland and then in Kent, always treated with great kindness by both, and enjoying the time spent with the Raffertys' daughter Martha, who was about the same age. Gabe remembers all this with great fondness, and was deeply saddened by yesterday's news.

In some ways my job was less fun than you'd imagine, because mostly I was being asked to say "no" to everything and everyone. Gerry never would tour America, and when he and I went over there just for him to do bits of media, we stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel but declined, I was sorry to say, all invitations to celebrity Hollywood parties. In New York, we stayed at the Plaza. We crossed the Atlantic several times in the first-class cabins of aeroplanes, and one time flew both ways on Concorde. We spent weeks at George Martin's recording studio in the West Indies and holidaying in beachside luxury on Antigua.

Yet while Gerry relished all this, it was, I think, the relish of the naughty boy allowed by chance to run around some corridors of power; and besides, he retained a healthy scepticism not just about the music industry but about society, money and politics in general. His background was soaked in Scottish socialism and poverty, his mind sharp and his personality acerbic, and he wasn't going to be dazzled by the glamour of success.

There was a good deal of grass and cocaine around, but Gerry always seemed to derive more pleasure from drink. Whisky didn't bring out the best in him, and yet it never occurred to me in all the time I knew him that he was heading for alcoholism. Maybe I should have realised, but I didn't. I'm unsure whether he did.

The second edition of my study of Dylan's work, that time titled The Art of Bob Dylan: Song & Dance Man, came out in 1981 in the UK and 1982 in the States, and Gerry and I parted company that latter year. I went back to full-time freelance writing. We never met again. I often missed him.

Last year, after reports of his illness made the papers, I was asked to write an obituary for him for The Guardian. (With people judged to be famous/important, they like to have these things ready in advance, so that they can publish promptly when death comes around.) I wrote one. It was published online last night - here - and should be in today's paper. It ended up with a bit more about his alcoholic decline than I'd wanted, and I wish I'd been given the space to put in more of the kind of stuff I've written here and now - but an obituary isn't supposed to be about its writer, and while he'll aways be important to me, I don't claim it was mutual. It was good at the time, though, and I'm sorry he's gone.

WORD OF MOUTH: BOB ON THE RADIO TOMORROW

I was interviewed on December 8 for a BBC Radio 4 programme that goes out tomorrow in the series Word of Mouth, fronted by Michael Rosen (no relation to Jeff, as far as I know). More interesting than my not especially tremendous answers to the scripted questions will be the contribution of KT Tunstall. There's a morsel more information here, and the 30-minute programme starts at 4pm UK time (Tuesday January 4).