Tag Archives: dylan

Happy 69th Birthday to Bob Dylan!

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By Chris Moore:

Although Sony Music has accused me of copyright infringement — then revoked their claim, then made it again — for posting acoustic cover versions of Bob Dylan songs, I am endeavoring to direct all my negative energy at the financial mega-power rather than at the singer/songwriter himself.

With that being said, I couldn’t allow today to slip by without tipping my hat to the man that sparked in me a passion for lyrics and music, albums and artwork, critical perceptions of social issues, and 1960’s American history.

To celebrate Bob Dylan’s sixty-ninth birthday, I’ve put together two more posts in my quest to review all of Dylan’s studio albums by New Year’s Day 2011.  I already put Bob Dylan (1962) under the one-sentence microscope and wrote a full five-star Weekend Review of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963), so that brings us to The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964) and Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), the last of his all-acoustic albums until the early nineties.

Before I leave you to my reviews, I want to make two additional plugs for Dylan.  First of all, if you haven’t already, you should take a few minutes and check out the “Drawn Blank” series of Dylan-penned graphics at http://www.bobdylanart.com.  I wish I could afford the actual prints, but I had to settle for l0w-quality j-pegs from the Cassandra and Train Tracks portfolios to use on my desktop, a nice affordable way to celebrate Dylan’s birthday!

Finally, I just read that Newsweek released its list of the top albums of the decade…

…and Love & Theft (2001) is #2!

This thrilled me more than it probably should have, as his September 11th, 2001 classic has been one of my favorite in his catalog since the day it was released.  Well, technically the day after.  (I remember writing in my journal on September 10th that nothing would stand in the way of me going to the CD store to buy Love & Theft on its release day, of course having no idea what tragedy was to befall NYC and the nation.)  I love this album so much, that I actually own two different versions — the original edition, as well as the special edition released later with two additional tracks and different photos included in the packaging.

And, with that, I urge you to listen to a Bob Dylan song today, or better yet, a whole album!  As for me, I’ve listened to two and if you’re interested, my thoughts on them will follow soon…

Jakob Dylan’s “Women & Country” (2010) – Yes, No, or Maybe So

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Jakob Dylan’s Women & Country (2010) – MAYBE NOT

Jakob Dylan's "Women & Country" (2010)

Jakob Dylan's "Women & Country" (2010)

Review:

With the most compelling lyrics since his last Wallflowers album, Jakob Dylan continues to putter along with his return-to-roots approach; there are some flashes of brilliance here, yet I simply have to expect more from a man I consider to be one of the most outstanding songwriters of all time.

Top Two Tracks:

“Holy Rollers for Love” & “Standing Eight Count”

“I Threw It All Away” (Bob Dylan Cover)

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It’s back-to-back Bob Dylan songs for me. This one comes from his 1969 country-rock album, complete with “Lay, Lady, Lay” voice! For those of you WCJM.com Free Internet Radio fans out there, try not to confuse this with John Daley’s trademark tones…

I’ll be tapping into some new artists in the next few posts, and I’d like to really kick off the Christmas season with some holiday tunes (coming soon!). As always, thanks for “tuning in”!!

(Looking for a different song? Use the SEARCH bar to the upper right of the screen!)

“Here Comes Santa Claus” (Gene Autry Cover)

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For Gene Autry chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the final Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions before Christmas Day!  There’s been a lot of Christmas music being posted this month, and it’s hard to believe that this season is almost coming to a close.

Regardless, it’s an honor to kick off Christmas week here at the best cover song music video blog in the universe.

(And the most modest, too…)

“Here Comes Santa Claus” is a track from MoU’s expanded Christmas chord book.  It fits all the criteria for an enjoyable live song — easy to play, upbeat, instantly recognizable, and just plain fun.  There have been so many versions of this song recorded since Gene Autry’s original.  He himself re-recorded it not once, but twice.  In addition, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan have all recorded their own versions over the years.

In fact, in my favorite music/TV crossover this year, Dylan’s version was used as the opening song in the first few minutes of a Bones episode a couple weeks ago.  Of course, it faded out just as a bank robbery and a bombing were about to occur, but somehow I think Dylan must have enjoyed this macabre twist on the season for peace on earth and good will toward men.

That is, if he watches television.  I’m not entirely convinced he’s moved on from the radio…

It’s not only difficult to believe that Christmas will be this Friday, but that the new year is also just around the corner.  You should know that you have a special Guest Session to look forward to this Friday, with new sessions regular Jeremy Hammond bringing yet another all-new artist’s material to the blog.  It’ll be one of those “how have we not included a song from this guy” moments, I promise.  Being that it’s the end of the decade as well, there’s a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks.  To celebrate the decade’s best albums, The Weekend Review is in the middle of a Top Five Albums of the Decade, 2000-2009 countdown, with number 3 having been revealed yesterday in Ben Folds’ 2001 release Rockin’ the Suburbs.

On a side note, yesterday’s review brings me within one review of my twenty-six review commitment for the year, as suggested by Jim back in February of this year.  I hope he’ll be happy to hear that, in the spirit of continual progress, I’ll be committing to one review a week this year for a grand total of fifty-two!  Because I’ll be reviewing albums on a very regular basis, I’ll be able to really vary the type of reviews that I do.  For instance, I tend to review the albums I like most because I’ve always figured, why waste my time on the music I’m not crazy about?

Well, no more.

This will be a year of exercising my critical abilities as I review new 2010 releases, revisit the classic hits and infamous misses of the past, as well as continue my Deep Racks Report series (for which I already have five albums lined up — I’ve featured albums that begin with A, B, and C, so you maybe you can imagine where I’m going with this…). And I’ll be continuing the five star rating system I introduced a couple of weeks ago. While I’m still hesitant to comfortably box an album into a fraction like that, I really like the feel of the five star rating system.

In other end-of-the-year highlights, the Laptop Sessions will be featuring some great lists, including the Weekend Review’s take on the following:

“The Top Thirty Rock Albums of the Decade”

“The Top Ten Rock Albums of 2009”

“Yes, No, or Maybe So: One Sentence Reviews of 2009 Albums”

“The Top Ten Rock Songs of 2009”

“The Best Packaging of the Year”

“The Best Deluxe Edition Features of the Year”

As a final note, I would like to call on Jim and Jeff to share their thoughts for the best music of the decade.  We all have our overlapping areas of mutual appreciation, but we certainly have room for debate.  Considerable room, at times.

I know what my picks are for the best albums and songs of the decade, but I would love to be reminded or learn of Jim and Jeff’s picks.

With that, I’m done for tonight.  As I sign off, I wish a merry Christmas to all those out there eagerly awaiting a Christmas Eve service or the pitter-patter of eight tiny reindeer overhead.  As for me, I’m going back to the MoU 2006 Christmas Concert CD for a stroll down memory — and also Santa Claus — lane.

See you next session!