“Seven Curses”: Bob Dylan’s 70th Birthday – A Look Back In Seven Stages (Bob Dylan Feature)
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Written by Chris Norman
For a man that's had more rebirths in his career than any other, it seems strange to be celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th birthday. But when half a century since 1960 passed last year, and Dylan was still reinventing himself abreast of the times in his 60s, there could be no doubting the size of the man's shadow over music and popular culture over the past half a century.
Ten years ago Dylan told The Guardian: "People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around — the music and the ideas."
Dylan's role in this 60s dining table of popular culture was in making popular consciousness sit up straight with knife and fork firmly in both hands. But the rest of his career is often unfairly overlooked.
No artist since has traversed the gulf between poetry and music, words and song, art and career, so harmoniously. The depth of his influence is unparalleled.
As Bob Dylan continues his endless tour of the world, Stereoboard celebrates his birthday by squeezing the last 70 years into seven succinct stages.
The Times They Were A-Changin’
Dylan’s career began with a hitchhike to New York with just a suitcase and a guitar. The trip began as a pilgrimage to his hero Woody Guthrie (see the heartfelt lament 'Song to Woody' on his debut album, the eponymously named 'Bob Dylan') who was in a psychiatric hospital with Huntington’s disease.
But more importantly, what Dylan found in New York was Greenwich Village. The village was in full bloom after a decade of beat bohemia. Dylan spent time in the cafés learning from the freaks, musicians and artists, and building up a name as a folk artist worth listening to (see the Greenwich Village highlights in the live album 'Live at the Gaslight'.)
After hustling a deal with Columbia records, Dylan released two timeless topical folk albums, 'The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan' and 'The Times They Are a-Changin’'. It was these two albums and his sporadic involvement with the civil rights movement that led to the press labeling Dylan as a protest singer – a label that the troubadour would rebel against in dramatic fashion.
“The Ghost of Electricity”
While Dylan had already rebelled against topical songwriting with his poetic and often amusing 'Another Side of Bob Dylan', there was to some folk purists and civil rights activists no greater betrayal than the symbolic act of plugging in his music.
Sparks flied at the Newport Folk festival (where Dylan had performed the two previous years to warm and unanimously avid fans) when Dylan turned up with an electric backing band played a raucous set featuring an early version of his revolutionary single 'Like a Rolling Stone'.
The crowd’s impassioned boos and cheers on this night echo throughout much of Dylan’s live performances in this period, culminating in the famous “Judas” cat call on Dylan’s live album 'Bob Dylan Live 1966', 'The Royal Albert Hall Performance' (actually recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall.)
Highlights of the era include 'Blonde on Blonde' with its metallic quality, and the start of many of Dylan’s collaborations with 'The Band'. An explosion of creativity and partying ensued until Dylan’s mysterious motorcycle crash in 1966.
“Motorpsycho nightmare”
The crash gave Dylan an excuse to drop out of touring and ease the pressure of his celebrity lifestyle. Dylan spent the rest of the 60’s living the family life in a country house in Woodstock. During this time Dylan recorded two albums harking back to America’s rich spring of folk music that he had drank from in his earlier years.
A collaboration with Johnny Cash on 'Nashville Skyline' summed up this lazy decade, as did his continuing collaboration with The Band on the Americana classic 'The Basement Tapes'.
“Before the Flood”
It was with The Band that Dylan would again feel ready to tour. After appearing at George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, Dylan embarked on a US tour leading to the monstrously large live album 'Before the Flood' – a must-hear album for anyone searching for Dylan’s close musical relationship with The Band. This era also saw Dylan return to critical favour with two beautiful albums 'Desire' and 'Blood On the Tracks', which both saw some directly personal tracks about his failing marriage with model Sara Lownds.
“Saved”
'Before the Flood' is a fitting name for Dylan’s early 70’s work, because by the end of the decade, Dylan would see his life and work convert to Christianity. The next three gospel albums 'Slow Train Coming', 'Saved' and 'Shot of Love', were a mixed bag. After converting with an instantaneous epiphany on stage, his hold on Christianity was released more gradually during the 1980s.
Time out of Mind
At the turn of the 1990’s Dylan released the first of many official bootleg collections. The highlights of these studio outtakes and live recordings have become fan favourites in their own right, and are testament to the breadth of Dylan’s songwriting and musical ability.
Dylan’s studio output of the time was mature and pensive, and was helped and hindered by Dylan’s middle-age in equal measure. 'Time out of Mind’s' 'Make you Feel my Love' is just one of many of Dylan’s songs that has received multiple covers, including Adele’s recent popular version, after Billy Joel had success with it.
Modern Times
The 21st century has seen Dylan find seventh gear. Trying his hand at radio disk jockeying, painting and still releasing albums with original, beautiful, highly musical, lyrically profound and at times bizarre (see 'Christmas in the Heart') content, it is amazing Dylan still has the time and energy to tour.
But he still does! Why not catch Dylan live in full vintage maturity as he reaches 70?
Bob Dylan UK & Ireland Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu June 16th 2011 - Live At The Marquee, Cork
Tue May 24th 2011 - Arches, Glasgow, Glasgow
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