The Smiley Smile Message Board

I received a copy of this Dylan bio by Clinton Heylin for Christmas, and I'm a little more than half of the way through it (up to the Rolling Thunder Review era).  I'm finding myself becoming incensed at the author.  Heylin seems to have some type of axe to grind against Robbie Robertson, and basically the Band in general.  He rips their pre-Dylan work, claiming that anyone who claims they were anything more than an average bar band prior to working with Dylan is delusional, and that their releases and live tapes don't show anything special.  It makes you wonder if he's ever heard "Who Do You Love" with Hawkins. 

Basically, everytime the Band are mentioned, Heylin disparages them in some way.  They can't improvise, Dylan could never really soar with them, etc.  He goes on to basically imply that the Band orchestrated the '74 tour to use Dylan to prop up their ailing careers, and that their performance was the reason for "Before the Flood"s relatively poor sales. Now, my take on Planet Waves and the '74 tour is that Dylan needed the Band just as much as they needed him.  Dylan  clearly loved playing with them in '66 (just look at the performances in No Direction Home), and they all wanted to try to recapture some of that magic.  Of course they couldn't recreate that intensity and feeling 8 years later, and I think that they should have played more of Planet Waves (a wonderful album) at the shows.  They needed to be playing their new material, not trying to duplicate feeling that can't be recaptured.  Furthermore, I prefer the Band's performances on "Before the Flood" over Dylan's songs.  I can at least enjoy Danko's vocals, while Dylan plows through  his as if he couldn't wait for them to be over.  The boots from that tour are much better than Before the Flood.

I guess the part that really pissed me off was that Heylin then lays all the blame for the Basement Tapes being released in the bastardized form that they appeared in on Robbie.  Somehow Robbie selected all the tracks, arranged all the overdubs, etc., and managed to put out this product without any input from Dylan at all?  I just don't buy it, and I don't understand why Heylin feels like he has to somehow run the Band down to prop Dylan up.  Its clearly unneccessary.  Heylin also takes cheap shots at Paul Simon and Joan Baez (tempting and easy targets but c'mon!, we already know Dylan's talent eclipsed Simon and Joanie.  Slagging them just diminishes the authority of the authors voice by making him appear biased.)

Anyway, I'm curious about what other reactions to this book have been.  The only other Dylan bio I've read is "Down the Highway" and I found that one to be much better.  Any thoughts?

I don't know about the book but I attended the Feb. 14, 1974 Inglewood, Ca. Forum show that was used for most of the "Before The Flood" record. To play venues that size he really needed to be playing a lot of his "standards".    He has never been one to just play his new songs anyway.  In fact for the most part he has made it a point to avoid playing material he has recently recorded in the studio.  I believe he commented on this in an interview with Robert Hilburn not that long ago.       
 It certainly helped the promotion to have the Band as a "hook" and artistically it was real valid too.   I don't know about the "boots of the tour" but for those who were there, the sound and the performances at that paticular show were excellent.  I came with high expectations and I was not disapointed. Everybody else that I saw appeared to feel likewise .  I can still specifically recall  the performance of "It's All Right Ma" and the collective reaction of the the crowd to the line "Sometimes even the President of the United States must have to stand naked" (It was at the height of Watergate when President Nixon was under intense pressure).  The show's format of Dylan coming and going and the band switching around on instruments was unusual but it worked pretty well. There might be something to your comment that he just wanted to get through it though. I happened to spot Dylan after the show all alone in the back of a limo leaving about as quickly as he could.  His limo, however, was stuck in a crush of fans leaving and couldn't move.  I don't think anyone, out of hundreds, besides myself noticed he was there.  He saw that I spotted him (I was just a few feet away) and reacted with body language that said "damn, don't tell everybody or I'm screwed here" and I did play it cool.   

Great comments, Mikee.  I would have loved to have the chance to see one of those shows, and I greatly enjoy some of the tapes of those shows.  I think that some of the critical reaction to that tour was based upon a sense of Dylan and the Band trying to capitalize on a nostalgia for the mid-60s that was just beginning to emerge.  I really think that including more of the Planet Waves material might have made Dylan and the Band more interested.  As much as I like some of those shows, they really were a bit of a traveling jukebox.

Also, I may be wrong, but it seems to me that Dylan, until the last ten years or so, has always been at his best when playing newer material.  Certainly in his early days, songs would quickly be replaced in his sets by newer material.  In fact he was reportedly quite annoyed at first when George Harrison wanted him to play Blowin' in the Wind at Concert for Bangledesh, asking him "Are you going to play 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'?"  Also, Dylan's next major tour after '74, The Rolling Thunder Revue benefitted greatly from the Desire material which he performed. 

I believe that virtually all rock tour shows are traveling jukeboxes. The rare exceptions are traveling  jukeboxes with improvisation (Zappa, Allmans etc.). Generally that "criticisim" (if it is a criticism) is leveled at acts who recreate the sound of their records note for note in live performance as groups like Creedence Clearwater did for their entire existance.  Dylan did not do this.  He played new arrangements - ones that worked for the 1974 Bob Dylan and the Band.  The audience was part of the equation and the songs on the setlist were to a great extent ones that people wanted to hear.  'Planet Waves'  seemed to be a  very incidental record at the time, to the greater audience, the industry, Dylan, and the Band.  The tour though was a very much a very big deal.   I suspect that there was a less than satisfactory relationship between the principals (Asylum Records, Dylan, and the Band).   Whatever the deal, the show was good and it was fairly relevant.  What critics may have expressed does not necessarily have any relationship to how the regular people in the audiences experienced those shows. 
What I did find really interesting is that Dylan came back after 8 years of not giving  live performances  by playing in front of audiences of 15,000 to 20,000.  That's pretty amazing.  I spoke with drummer Max Weinberg once about a year after he completed the 'Born in the USA' and  'World Amnesty International' tours.  He told me that he was getting to the point where he could not remember what it was like to play in front of 20,000 - That it goes away in about that much time.  So it's amazing to me that Dylan came back like that.           

     

Perhaps it seemed lke an incidental record to the public because of the lack of promotion, and the fact that Dylan wasn't playing the songs from it on the tour.  Dylan was upset about the relatively poor sales of Planet Waves, and he blamed Asylum.  Considering the hundreds of thousands of people he played to on that tour, he might have helped sales if he'd actually promoted the record by playing it.  I think "Forever Young" was the only track that made a regular appearance in the setlist.

By the way, I agree with you entirely about critical reaction and fan reaction often being quite different.  Just look at the critical bashing the '79 Slow Train tour received, when, in fact, the audiences were often won over by the shows.  Even if you didn't care for the material (and its not my favorite period), the shows were undeniably impressive on a musical level.

Finally got around to re-registering here...

I had Behind the Shades Revisited, and ate it right up. Maybe that explains why it disappeared after I moved.  Anyway, I didn't particularly take issue with Heylin's attitude towards the Band, probably because I've always thought they were a tad overrated. Kind of like the Crazy Horse to Bob's Neil Young -- they served his purposes just fine, like no one else could, but the pedestal could be put to better use elsewhere. If Before The Flood didn't sell well enough, personally I'd attribute it to that awful keyboard sound that ruins an otherwise very good live document.

Overall I thought the book was meticulously researched, enjoyable to read, brimming with all sorts of information, precisely the kind of thing I'd want to read. I didn't agree with Heylin's take on everything, but for the most part, I'd say it's a model of what a great, exhaustive, nearly definitive rock bio should be. Like Shakey (which also has its share of flaws, but hey, what doesn't).

Except, of course, that Crazy Horse didn't release two completely ground-breaking albums that's a totally different animal than their compadre's music. In the pop pantheon Big Pink and The Band stand proudly with Highway 61 and Blonde, having a casual conversation about the civil war.

(No Horse diss, btw, I love them. Their self titled album with Jack Nitzsche is great.)

Oh yeah, agree with you there. The Band obviously connected on a far wider level apart from Bob than Crazy Horse did apart from Neil.

Personally though, my favorite live setting for Bob has been either Rolling Thunder or just Bob by himself. I remember Heylin seemed to like the Heartbreakers quite a bit, though I don't think I've heard a really good recording from that era to judge for myself. Were they that great as a backing band for Bob?

I think The Band are underrated, if anything.

I agree.

I've finished the book now, and overall, I was less than impressed.  I much preferred Sounes' Down the Highway.  I just felt that Heylin seemed to have a bit of an axe to grind, and that affected his credibility.  It was also pretty clear that he really liked the Rolling Thunder and Born Again eras better than the Band performances.  He's certainly entitled to his opinion.

Anyone who thinks Bob was EVER better live than 66 with the Hawks needs their head examined. And I am a BIG fan of the early acoustic day, Thunder, and born again phases.
Another lame read is Barney Hoskins' book on The Band. Avoid at all costs.

Let me just say for the record that:

a) I think Bob was a tad better with Rolling Thunder than '66, and

b) I've had my head examined on numerous occasions, and the consensus in the medical community is that I am a normal, well-adjusted, intelligent human being with a few minor flaws like just about every other such person.

 ;D


Seriously though, it's a matter of personal taste. The whole 'up yours' attitude of '66 is cool and yadda yadda, but it gets old real fast. I feel like, when listening to that stuff, that it was as far as the music could ever go. By the time of Rolling Thunder, he had stumbled onto something different, and every time I hear those recordings '75, I hear the sound of possibilities. Not just in the instrumentation or the storytelling of the lyrics or festive atmosphere, but in Bob's voice too. That typical anger and irony he had before sounds tempered with joy, fear and uncertainty all at the same time. Going from "Isis" to "Sara" will do that, I suppose. It was the sound of youthful energy colliding with added experience and facing adult problems and refusing to crash and burn. It should sound more depressing than it does, but fortunately it doesn't. Street-Legal would take care of that.

I hear MUCH more than that in the 66 recordings.
I hear almost the entirety of American music up to that point. Country, blues, pure rock, pop, it's all there. I hear gentility, beauty, wonder along with fury. I think the Hard Rain album is MUCH more angry and F.U. than 66.
He simply never had such a symbiotic releationship with another musician after Robbie. Although Scarlet Rivera comes close.
Anyway, both periods are 5 stars all the way.

Did any of you see The Bob Dylan Show in 2005? I'm curious about your thoughts...

I saw him last summer. He was touring minor league baseball stadiums with Willie Nelson. Dylan played the entire set behind a keyboard, only coming out front occasionally to play a harmonica solo. There was a guitar sitting next to him, and I thought he had to pick it up. But he never did. Somebody near me mentioned carpal tunnel(?). He played a mixed bag, with a slight emphasis on post-1989 stuff. I was slightly disappointed at the lack of hits, but in a way, expected it. The band was tight and Dylan put out, giving 100%. His vocals were a little raw (even for Dylan) but you could understand him.

Any comments on the recent Dylan, say from Love And Theft on?

Saw him at the Pantages last year. Great show, with Merle Haggard opening. I liked the keys, a change of pace from the last few tours where he played lead guitar the entire show.
Love And Theft? No less than one of his Top 10 albums, IMO.
New one next year. I'll bet you it's gonna be amazing. And that makes me more excited than any of the autobiography/documentary/unreleased/historical stuff from last year.

I hear most of that in '66 too, except not as much country and it's not as congealed as '75, if that makes sense. And you're right, Hard Rain is definitely more FU than '66, but that record was taken from the '76 tour. It was mostly the same people and still Rolling Thunder by name, but it just wasn't the same as '75. I seem to remember something about Sara showing up in '76 and that it changed Dylan's mood completely. Anyway, I prefer the Bootleg Series Vol. 5 to Hard Rain. It's definitely my most-listened-to and enjoyed live Dylan document.

And yes, both periods ('66 and '75) are 5 stars, agreed.


I saw Dylan last March at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland with Merle Haggard. He came out of the gate sounding ready and roaring, but he seemed to get tired a few songs into the set. Nonetheless, it was a good show, "Drifter's Escape" kicked butt, and the Love and Theft material sounded excellent. I really enjoy his last two studio records. If his next one is even half as good as those, we'll all have reason to celebrate.

Agreed on Love and Theft. As I think I said on the old version of the board, I rank it among my favorites. It isn't Blonde on Blonde or Bringin It All Back Home...but you don't drop down too many other albums before you've got to mention it. The sound is excellent, perfect for the songs he's doing. Performances are just great. And those songs are wonderful, alternatingly funny and touching, and sometimes simultaneously. It's like (and I mean this nicely) a musical Garrison Keillor or something.

The thing about Love And Theft is that he's become the kind of artist he was imitating all those years ago.

Practice makes perfect?

Experience make perfect, I'd say. The road, a lot of years and a lot of women will tend to do it, I think.

I don't know about the first two, but I'll take a double of the third.

Seriously, though, the lyrics of the bulk of L&T are among his finest. I believe that.

God, man, one of my highest moments was listening to that album the day it came out.
All those years of wishing I was around when the early masterworks came out, to have experienced the impact that those records had.
And then hearing that, and realising that I was alive to hear a new work just as important. The first time I heard Po' Boy, I hung my head and cried I was so moved. Then the crushing impact of Lonesome Day Blues! Woah....I can't even talk about it.

Didn't it come out on Sept. 11? You listened that day? Wow. I got fvcking drunk and listened to a (drunker) friend become a hateful "patriot."

I can't explain my favorite line--no idea why it does it to me--but "he said, you can't repeat the past? Whaddaya mean you can't? Of course you can..." immediately struck me as just great. One of many greats on that disc.

I think it probably says a lot about me that I remember Love And Theft and not that.

High water risin' - risin' night and day
All the gold and silver are being stolen away
Big Joe Turner lookin' East and West
From the dark room of his mind
He made it to Kansas City
Twelfth Street and Vine
Nothing standing there
High water everywhere

High water risin', the shacks are slidin' down
Folks lose their possessions - folks are leaving town
Bertha Mason shook it - broke it
Then she hung it on a wall
Says, "You're dancin' with whom they tell you to
Or you don't dance at all."
It's tough out there
High water everywhere

I got a cravin' love for blazing speed
Got a hopped up Mustang Ford
Jump into the wagon, love, throw your panties overboard
I can write you poems, make a strong man lose his mind
I'm no pig without a wig
I hope you treat me kind
Things are breakin' up out there
High water everywhere

High water risin', six inches 'bove my head
Coffins droppin' in the street
Like balloons made out of lead
Water pourin' into Vicksburg, don't know what I'm going to do
"Don't reach out for me," she said
"Can't you see I'm drownin' too?"
It's rough out there
High water everywhere

Well, George Lewis told the Englishman, the Italian and the Jew
"You can't open your mind, boys
To every conceivable point of view."
They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway Five
Judge says to the High Sheriff,
"I want him dead or alive
Either one, I don't care."
High Water everywhere

The Cuckoo is a pretty bird, she warbles as she flies
I'm preachin' the Word of God
I'm puttin' out your eyes
I asked Fat Nancy for something to eat, she said, "Take it off the shelf -
As great as you are a man,
You'll never be greater than yourself."
I told her I didn't really care
High water everywhere

I'm getting' up in the morning - I believe I'll dust my broom
Keeping away from the women
I'm givin' 'em lots of room
Thunder rolling over Clarksdale, everything is looking blue
I just can't be happy, love
Unless you're happy too
It's bad out there
High water everywhere

I like that one a lot too. It's both profound and absurd, and it made me chuckle out loud when I first heard it.

And on Time Out Of Mind, my favorite line is "don't know if I saw you, if I'd kiss you or kill you, probably wouldn't matter to you anyhow." Great example of indifference as the ultimate firehose.

That's what Gatsby said to Nick in one of the pivotal scenes in the Great Gatsby.

"You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books . . ."

Seriously though, on both Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft, there are a lot of borrowed lines, put together in a way that makes them completely new.  I know I'm not even coming close to catching all of the allusions.

Check this out: http://www.republika.pl/bobdylan/lat/

Summer Days
(words and music by Bob Dylan. Copyright (c)2001 Special Rider Music)

        Summer days, summer nights are gone,
        Summer days and summer nights are gone,
        I know a place where there’s still something going on.

        I got a house on a hill, I got hogs out in the mud,
5      I got a house on a hill, I got hogs all out in the mud,
        I got a long-haired woman, she got Royal Indian blood.

        Everybody get ready, lift up your glasses and sing,
        Everybody get ready, lift up your glasses and sing,
        Well, I’m standing on the table, I’m proposing a toast to the King.

10    Well, I’m driving in the flats in a Cadillac car;
        The girls all say, “You’re a worn out star!”
        My pockets are loaded and I’m spending every dime.
        How can you say you love someone else, you know it’s me all the time.

        Well, the fog’s so thick you can’t spy the land,
15    The fog’s so thick that you can’t even spy the land,
        What good are you anyway if you can’t stand up to some old businessman.

        Wedding bells are ringing and the choir is beginning to sing,
        Yes, the wedding bells are ringing and the choir’s beginning to sing,
        What looks good in the day, at night is another thing.

20    She’s looking into my eyes, and she’s a-holding my hand,
        She looking into my eyes, she’s holding my hand,
        She says, "You can’t repeat the past," I say "You can’t? What do you mean you can’t? Of course, you can.”

        “Where do you come from? Where do you go?”
        Sorry, that is nothing you would need to know.
25    Well, my back’s been to the wall so long, it seems like it's stuck.
        Why don’t you break my heart one more time just for good luck?

        I got eight carburettors and, boys, I’m using ‘em all,
        Well, I got eight carburettors and, boys, I’m using ‘em all,
        I’m short on gas, my motor’s starting to stall.

30    My dogs are barking, there must be someone around,
        My dogs are barking, there must be someone around,
        I got my hammer ringing, pretty baby, but the nails ain’t going down.

        If you got something to say, speak or hold your peace,
        Well, you got something to say, speak now or hold your peace,
35    If it’s information you want, you can get it from the police.

        Politician’s got on his jogging shoes,
        He must be running for office, got no time to lose,
        Sucking the blood out of the genius of generosity.
        You been a-rollin’ your eyes, you been teasing me.

40    Standing by God's river, my soul’s beginning to shake,
        Standing by God's river, my soul’s beginning to shake,
        I’m counting on you, love, to give me a break.

        Well, I’m leaving in the morning as soon as the dark clouds lift,
        Yes! I’m leaving in the morning just as soon as the dark clouds lift,
45    Gonna break in the roof, set fire to the place as a parting gift.

        Summer days, summer nights are gone,
        Summer days, summer nights are gone,
        I know a place where there’s still something goin’ on.

"Summer Days (And Summer Night)" is a 1965 Beach Boys studio album.

"Summer Days" is a Charlie (aka Charley) Patton song. (thanks to DFurrym11)

line 16: Junichi Saga's Confessions of a Yakuza: "D'you think I could call myself a yakuza if I couldn't stand up to some old businessman?".

line 23 is borrowed from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Chapter 6.

line 24 comes from an old folk song, "Cotton-Eye Joe." Incidentally, the song is played during the seventh-inning stretch at regular-season New York Yankees games in Yankee Stadium:

"Where did you come from? Where did you go?
Where did you come from, Cotton-Eye Joe?"

lines 28-29 are a refernece to the song mentioned by title in High Water, Hopped Up Mustang by Bill Romberger & Arlen Sanders.

line 42: "I'm Counting On You" is an Elvis song from his first LP (1956)

line 42: "I counted on you, babe, to give me a break" in Woody Guthrie's "21 Years".

line 45: Junichi Saga's Confessions of a Yakuza: ""Break the roof in!" ...splashed kerosene over the floor and led a fuse from it outside".

I didn't say I memorized them.

Ian, have you read Levon Helm's book on The Band? If so, how is it? As anti-Robbie as they say?

Interesting, worth reading. But Levon has admitted that he was goaded into making the Robbie sections a lot harsher than they originally were.