The Times They Are a-Changin

Very moving video produced for Bernie Sanders campaign.

Bob Dylan classic The Times They Are a-Changin performed by Lia Rose.

Only a Hobo

Thom Artway performing Only a Hobo, a Bob Dylan song I have never heard of before.

In the background Prague Castle.

I came across Thom Artway a couple of days ago playing in front of the John Lennon Wall in Prague.

He had attracted quite a large crowd. He kindly gave me a copy of Still Standing in the Unknown. I suggested he uploaded to bandcamp.

• Blind Man

The Drawn Blank Series 2012

Drawn Blank

Train Tracks

A couple of weeks ago I was in Guildford and stumbled upon art by Ronnie Wood in a little gallery. It must have been my lucky day, as the same gallery had running in parallel an exhibition of the art of Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan is one of the most influential figures in music in the last five decades.

I saw him play with Eric Clapton sometime in the 1970s.

Bob Dylan the singer-songwriter is well known, less well known Bob Dylan the artist.

A collection of his drawings and sketches created whilst on a world tour 1989-1992 were published in Drawn Blank (1994). The originals were lost. To recreate what was lost, the artwork in Drawn Blank was blown up to life size, and used to create a new set.

This new collection, a re-creation of the old collection, went on display at a museum exhibition in Germany in autumn 2007 where it drew record crowds, followed by the Halcyon Gallery in London in 2008.

Ingrid Mössinger – the curator of the Kunstsammlungen Museum, in Chemnitz, Germany – came across Drawn Blank during a visit to New York in 2006. Instantly excited about Dylan’s work, she contacted the artist’s team and was thrilled to learn that Bob Dylan would agree to have his art exhibited in public for the first time.

When Dylan had first drawn the works in this series he had intended to create paintings based upon them. Ingrid Mössinger’s proposed exhibition encouraged him to now do this using watercolour and gouache. “I was fascinated to learn of Ingrid’s interest in my work, and it gave me the impetus to realise the vision I had for these drawings many years ago,” Bob Dylan commented.

These paintings formed a collection entitled The Drawn Blank Series. Unlike the delicacy of the drawings in Drawn Blank the paintings are expressive and vibrant. Dylan paints several versions of the same image, using different colours and tones which result in a dynamic variety of impressions, feelings and emotions.

The Drawn Blank Series 2012 is a selection from this collection.

Bob Dylan has recently released a new album Tempest to mark 50 years and will tour North America.

I was in Guildford today talking with Ben in Ben’s Records. I mention the two art exhibitions, and that when I was there, I remarked they need to change the background music to Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Ben kindly lent an album by each which I was happy to drop off.

Forest Gallery is a small art gallery at the top of Guildford High Street.

Tempest

Tempest – Bob Dylan

Released last week, Tempest is the 35th album from Bob Dylan, 50 years on from his first album.

I picked up a copy last week, the deluxe limited edition version, from Record Corner during an afternoon in Godalming.

I had a listen this evening, or at least a quick flip through the tracks, as that was as far as I got.

It is rubbish, money down the drain.

The deluxe limited edition is a rip-off and waste of money. All you get extra is poorly put together note book with pictures of magazine covers featuring Dylan over the last fifty years.

The CD itself has a simple folded over sheet, no booklet, no additional information.

It is easy to see why CD sales are falling.

In UK has shot straight to No 1, but that would be Dylan fans on a nostalgia trip, and they were in for a grave disappointment.

It is a collection of poorly recorded hill billy songs, Duquesne Whistle a pleasant enough little ditty.

Where is the Dylan of Blowin in the Wind, Like A Rolling Stone, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door?

As I was writing I was listening to AVO Session, Mark Knopfler, Festsaal Messe, Basel, Switzerland, 12 November 2007. Far, far better.

• Bob Dylan: Tempest – review (a pretentious review in The Guardian)

Duquesne Whistle – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it’s gonna sweep my world away
I’m gonna stop in Carbondale and keep on going
That Duquesne train gonna ride me night and day
You say I’m a gambler, you say I’m a pimp
But I ain’t neither one
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Sounding like it’s on a final move.

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she’s never blown before
Look like blinking, red light blowing
Blowing like she’s at my chamber door
You smiling through the fence at me
Just like you always smiled before
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she isn’t gonna blow no more

Can’t you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like the sky is gonna blow apart
You’re the only thing alive that keeps me going
You’re like a tie bound to my hear
I can hear a sweet voice gently calling
Must be the mother of our Lord
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like my woman’s on a board

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it’s gonna blow my blues away
You old rascal, I know exactly where you’re going
I’ll leave you there myself at the break of a day
I wake up every morning with that woman in my bed
Everybody telling me she’s gone to my head
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it’s gonna kill me dead

Can’t you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing through another no good town
The lights of my native land are glowing
I wonder if they’ll know me next time around
I wondered if that old oak tree’s still standing
That old oak tree, the one we used to climb
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she’s blowing right on time

— Bob Dylan

A strange ditty, an even stranger video.

The song grows on one.

Duquesne Whistle is from the Bob Dylan album Tempest released today.

Note: Tempest is due for release tomorrow, but this evening I saw it was on sale (unless posters in window of shop were for tomorrow).

It is 50 years since Bob Dylan released his first album. Tempest is his 35th studio album.

• Song Premiere: Bob Dylan, ‘Duquesne Whistle’
• Bob Dylan Debuts Shockingly Violent New Video
• Darcey Bussell, Bob Dylan reviewed, and the Bristol Old Vic reopens (pretentious Dylan review ten minutes into programme)
• Bob Dylan on His Dark New Album, ‘Tempest’
• Bob Dylan’s New Album, ‘Tempest,’ Hits Stores on September 11th
• Bob Dylan Announces Extensive Fall Arena Tour with Mark Knopfler

A somewhat amauturish recording of Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits) at Hamersmith last year which nevertheless captures the magic of Bob Dylan.

Many years ago I saw Bob Dylan play with Eric Clapton. Have also seen Dire Straits.

Concern for missing Chinese artist Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei

The response from the West has been toothless. It is time now that China was referred to the UN’s Human Rights council, because these disappearances are such a departure from China commitment to UN mechanisms. — Nicholas Bequelin, Human Rights Watch Hong Kong

I didn’t care about jasmine at first, but people who are scared by jasmine sent out information about how harmful jasmine is often, which makes me realize that jasmine is what scares them the most. What a jasmine! — Ai Weiwei

There is growing concern for Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei 艾未未 who has not been seen since he was detained on Sunday whilst trying to board a plane in Bejing bound for Hong Kong.

His detention and disappearance is part of a crackdown by the Chinese authorities fearful of the spread of pro-democarcy protests as seen in the Middle East.

Beijing lawyer Liu Xiaoyan told the BBC he had been summoned by the police and held for 10 hours last Saturday after posting online notes asking about a missing Shanghai lawyer.

Ai Weiwei is an internationally renowned artist. He currently has an exhibition at the Tate Modern gallery in London. He was one of the designers of the iconic birds nest stadium at the Chinese Olympics. He is one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese government, his international reputation has until now safeguarded him from detention.

Ai Weiwei is the son of the late Ai Qing, one of China’s greatest modern poets, which may aslo up to now have afforded him a degree of protection.

To target Ai Weiwei, the order must have come from the top, which indicates a Tiananmen Square crackdown.

China has still to recognise and acknowledge that the Tiananmen Square massacre took place, to release all political prisoners, allow public debate of this terrible event in Chinese history.

Should Bob Dylan have played in China? Should he have have allowed the Communist leadership dictate the playlist?

– Ai Weiwei suffers for princelings’ paranoia
– Ai Weiwei’s wife fears for his safety
– Concern mounts over missing Chinese artist Ai Weiwei
– Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
– Eyewitness account of Tiananmen Square