Posts Tagged ‘Bob Dylan’

“I’m the King of Rock, there is none higher/Sucker Mc’s should call me sire/To burn my kingdom, you must use fire/I won’t stop rockin’ till I retire.” These were the famous opening lines to Run DMC’s crossover hit, “King of Rock,” establishing the rap trio as veritable rock stars.

It’s fitting that these self-proclaimed Kings of Rock are being inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of fame along with Metallica, guitarist Jeff Beck, soul singer Bobby Womack and doo-wop group Little Anthony and the Imperials.

In an interview Wednesday, rapper DMC (Darryl McDaniels) called their induction inconceivable. “I’m a rap dude, I’m an MC from Hollis, Queens just rockin’ the mic, and to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with the Beatles and Dylan, and the rock n’ roll gods? It’s ridiculous! Ridiculous in a good way,” he said.

DMC also acknowledged the predecessors who paved the way for their success. “I share this nomination and induction and the whole award with those cats, everyone from Bronx and Harlem who started this.”

The group will not perform, however, at the induction ceremony April 4 due to the absence of their legendary DJ, Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell), who was shot to death in his New York recording studio back in 2002. “We can’t do it without Jay,” DMC said. “I want people to remember the last time they saw us together, the three of us.”

Some might consider the induction bittersweet in light of Jay’s death, but DMC disagrees. “Because Jay isn’t here to celebrate doesn’t mean he’s not partaking in this event.”

So congratulations Run DMC on this incredible honor; you’ve surely earned it.

The bad news: I haven’t personally had the chance to listen to every album released this year.  The good news: neither has anyone else.  So here’s my take on the best music out in 2008, as I heard it.

First off, other music worth mentioning: Flight Of The Conchords’ hilarious self-titled album (can’t wait for the second season in ’09), Kanye West’s brave pop album 808s And Heartbreak, the way overdue but worth-the-wait Pacific Ocean Blue as my favorite re-release of the year and Doomtree’s self-titled debut for keeping things really real.

10. The Bedlam In Goliath – The Mars Volta – Difficult and labrynthine as ever, The Mars Volta continues to make great albums that are quite unlikely to follow anybody’s rules.  This beast of an album is epic and menacing, inspired by an evil Ouija board (no, really).  Careful with it: scary massive stuff.

9. Death Magnetic – Metallica – Death Magnetic may not even be the best metal album released this year (but lucky for Metallica, at least Mastodon didn’t release anything this year).  But it might represent one of the great comebacks in recent music history.  Almost every Metallica fan was convinced they didn’t have any more riffs in them the magnitude of those in Death Magnetic’s Suicide & Redemption, but not only did they bring the thunder, they did it for nine crushing vocal-less minutes.  Maybe the next album should be all instrumental.

8. What Does It All Mean?: 1983-2006 Retrospective – Steinski – It was almost impossible that we’d ever see this release.  Steinski’s collages are everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink affairs, packing as many cultural references into 5 minutes of hip-hop as he could.  The first track alone on this set samples classic funk and disco breaks, Little Richard, The Supremes, tap-dancing instructional records and Humphrey Bogart films.  As a result, it has been difficult for labels to legally release these tracks, but the Illegal Art label has pulled off a miracle.  That deserves recognition.  And the music is a kaleidoscopic journey bursting with head-spinning innovation.  It’s like hearing the future of mash-ups broadcast from the past.

7. One Day As A Lion – One Day As A Lion – This EP is the first official release from Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha since 2000.  Knowing that, the in-your-face agitprop is no surprise.  What IS surprising is the lack of guitar textures.  De la Rocha plays a dirty distorted organ on every track, and even sings once in a while.  This is a head-nodding street fight of an EP.  The lyrics are daggers and spiders.  A full album would almost be too intense.

6. Young @ Heart Soundtrack – Senior citizens singing modern pop songs.  That’s all it is.  But anyone who’s seen the movie understands the magic.  The singers are uniformly brave and willing to give ANYTHING a shot (from the wispy weirdness of Sonic Youth’s Schizophrenia to the syncopated soul of Allen Toussaint’s Yes We Can Can).  The performances are wonderfully imperfect.  And their biggest accomplishment is reclaiming some potential sapfests like Nothing Compares 2 U and Coldplay’s Fix You and associating them again with real-life concerns like death, loss and making every moment worth living.

5. Stay Positive – The Hold Steady– Any year in which The Hold Steady releases another album is a good one for rock music.  And it’s another album loaded with new classics like “Constructive Summer,” “Lord, I’m Discouraged,” “Slapped Actress,” and the title track.  This is the music you wish were playing on every bar’s jukebox, along with The Drive-By Truckers (who toured with The Hold Steady this fall).  Powerful singalong stuff.

4. Third – Portishead – And out of nowhere, they were back.  A different sort of comeback as strange and unexpected as Portishead’s music.  Third is an album with jagged edges and deep sorrow.  Some of the jazzier and torchier aspects of their prior albums are replaced with angry electronic drum machines.  But it’s pulled back from the brink by the whimsically lovely “Deep Water” and the most beautiful song they’ve yet written, “The Rip.”

3. Tell Tale Signs – Bob Dylan – This isn’t technically new music, but I don’t care.  It is a new release of older music from The Traveling Salesman himself and the party line is that “his throwaways are more powerful than most band’s entire recorded output.”  Well, it’s true.  “Red River Shore” is worth the price of admission alone, and “Huck’s Tune” is a future classic.  Is this old man the same who once sang Blowin’ In The Wind almost five decades ago?  Maybe, maybe not.

2. Dear Science – TV On The Radio – The ever-improving Brooklyn band’s third full-length is their masterpiece…so far.  Bands like TV On The Radio throw all their influences into a pot and make a gumbo.  But Dear Science succeeds where those other albums fall short: by keeping an emotional connection with the listener through it all.  They’ve out-Becked Beck.  Every song flips you on your head, but nothing seems willy-nilly, it all seems relevant.  Every track on this one is worth hearing; any album that follows the dancefloor Princedom of “Golden Age” with the beautifully honest ballad “Family Tree” (my song of the year) is something special.  This was my pick for album of the year (along with everyone else) until I discovered…

1. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes – This being the best album of the year is a revolution slipping in the back door.  There is nothing pop or rock or hip-hop or R&B about this.  In fact, this album could be from 1969.  But song for song, it is the greatest and most sublime collection of songs this year in one place.  I’ve listened to this album more than perhaps all the others on this list combined (and not gotten the slightest bit tired of it), and still have trouble putting its charm into words. 

Innocence and peace and wonder and dust motes in sunlight.  Sadness like losing a dog with the happiness of knowing that it will always be somewhere close.  Realizing there are good things in the future and bad things you can live with.  The influences in the music flow by gently: the psychedelic harmonies of Smile-era Beach Boys, the deep rootsy Americana of The Band, the open-heart melodies of The Shins, soul like Motown, timeless, inspiring, fresh, the Best Album Of 2008.

U2 lead singer Bono launched a new music download service this week, and for just $5 a month, fans get lots and lots of great new music.  But forget about that.

Proceeds from redwire.com go toward fighting preventable disease in Africa, diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.  Bono has long been associated with charitable acts on behalf of the African people, but this may be his most revolutionary move.

The music is distributed weekly: a track from a major artist like Jay-Z, Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, R.E.M., Cat Power, Ziggy Marley, John Legend, or Bob Dylan, and a track from an up and coming artist.  Subscribers also get a bonus video, perhaps someone reading poetry or telling a story.  And subscribers get updates on the direct positive effect their money is having for Africa.

The first artist to contribute a song is U2, of course, covering a Christmas tune called “(I Believe In) Father Christmas.”  The launch site red.msn.com features a video for the song.

At a time when some download services still restrict the use of their music even when it has been purchased, redwire.com allows fans to OWN the music and do whatever they want with it: share it, burn it to CD, or put it on any portable player. 

But that’s not the important part.

You don’t have to know much about Bob Dylan to see that “I’m Not There” is a wonderful biopic and just a fascinating movie in general. Todd Haynes, the director, takes a Dylan type direction to piece together a scrapbook of enchanting images both emblematic and realistic to visualize the singer’s career. On the DVD one can navigate the movie either by scene or by song. “I’m Not There” is original, genius and beautiful, which can be admired by both Dylan fans and non Dylan fans.

The Good: Its Novelty-ness: From the order of events to the personas to the narrative style to the dialogue, “I’m Not There” is fresh and inspired.

No Need to Be a Fan: The movie’s details of the star’s life may make more sense if audiences already know a bit about Bob Dylan.  However, it’s not a requirement and “There” is still captivating. One could picture that it’s about a fictional singer and still there are aspects of the movie to admire.

Biopic Is Only a Label: Precise details about the singer’s life are not revealed in the film. Think of it more as an art show displaying roughly some of the events and themes that occurred during Dylan’s early career.

The Cast: Altering themselves into the one man they all represent are six actors who have all either been nominated for or won film or acting related awards. That’s an impressive cast including Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Heath Ledger among others.

The Bad: Its Novelty-ness: “I’m Not There” strays from convention and could loose some viewer’s attention (due to the 6 different actors, the timeline aspects, etc).  It’s definitely not meant for the “Transformers” type crowd, which is fine, but audiences should just be made aware of that before they press the Play button.

Subtitles: Yep, subtitles may be needed even though it’s an English speaking film.

Assistance Please: Some help may be needed as a guide to the events of the film. Try typing “I’m Not There” into Wikipedia (I did).

It’s Long: There seems to be a recent trend of very long movies. “I’m Not There” runs a little over 2 hours.

In The End: “I’m Not There” uses imagination, fresh cinematography and a familiar soundtrack to create an enthralling film. Regardless if you know a lot about Bob Dylan or not you can still enjoy the captivating and artistic acting, writing, and directing.

America’s greatest songwriter allows the public a glimpse behind the curtain once again this week as Tell Tale Signs, the 8th volume of Bob Dylan’s ongoing Bootleg Series, hits stores.  Judging from this collection of songs, the last two decades have seen Bob gracefully aging, yet playful and crazy in love.

Unlike Dylan’s work in the 60s and 70s, very little of his studio outtakes since the late 80s has leaked, making this a genuine peek into the goldmine for everybody, even the hard-core Dylanologists.  Likewise, everybody should be pleased with what they hear.

Tell Tale Signs is an album of mountains and rivers, music that can’t be qualified as anything but American; sentiments run from tender to vicious.  And Dylan consistently surrounds himself with such amazing musicians that the album just SOUNDS good.

The set is chock full of separate but equal versions of previously released tunes; Bob has an unshakable belief in his words, regardless of musical context.  On the deluxe version of Tell Tale Signs, for example, there are not one but THREE more unique and individual versions of the great Mississippi from Dylan’s 2001 album, “Love And Theft.”

It might take multiple listens to squeeze out delicious little lines like Huck’s Tune’s “All the merry little elves, can go hang themselves, my faith is as cold as can be” or Red River Shore’s “Well I’m wearing the cloak of misery and I’ve tasted jilted love, and the frozen smile upon my face fits me like a glove.”  And that’s part of the fun.

The sum of this set’s reveal is the way that it fills out and enriches the human qualities of Bob’s tightly controlled output from 1989 through 2006.  The real tale that is told is the way that the artist’s music has remained so deep and rich in that period of time.