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"Those who later formed the Weatherman organization produced a paper at the Students for a Democratic Society Convention in Chicago in June of 1969. With a nod to Bob Dylan, the sponsors titled their epistle: 'You Don’t Need A Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Is Blowing.'"http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26243 "Dubbing itself the Weathermen, this new organization took its name from a line in Bob Dylan’s 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'—'you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows'—and within months had set off bombs at the National Guard headquarters and set in motion plans to bomb targets across the country"http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/weatherunderground/film.html...

Ok, so I'm surfing my XM Radio channels and I hear the most amazing thing: "Ring of Fire," sung by Johnny Cash . . . in Spanish ("Anillo de Fuego"). Then I look at the scanner to see what channel I'm on---I thought I picked "Classic Rock"---and indeed, I'm on the right channel. It's the "Bob Dylan Show," where he hosts a show with his personal favorites. Ok, this sounds interesting. Dylan (I'm sure you can here his voice here) then says, "In any language, we don't want to end up in that ring of fire. That leads me to...

Last December, Bob Dylan literally stopped the music on his "Theme Time Radio Hour" show to honor Charlton Heston. Following the soulful tune “Eve’s Ten Commandments,” Dylan mentioned Heston’s iconic role as Moses in the well-known biblical epic and added, “Charlton gets a bad rap for his strong conservative beliefs and involvement with the NRA, but truth to tell, he was a strong advocate for civil rights, many years before it became fashionable….” Dylan ticked off Heston’s accolades, including the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, and then added, admiringly, “Never mind the fact that he’s in a couple of our...

Thanks to Bob Dylan, rock 'n' roll has finally broken through the Pulitzer wall. Dylan, the most acclaimed and influential songwriter of the past half century, who more than anyone brought rock from the streets to the lecture hall, received an honorary Pulitzer Prize on Monday, cited for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." It was the first time Pulitzer judges, who have long favored classical music, and, more recently, jazz, awarded an art form once dismissed as barbaric, even subversive. "I am in disbelief," Dylan fan and fellow...

Legendary singer-song writer Bob Dylan is billed to play a single concert in Warsaw on June 7. Polish music fans, though not necessarily those of the young generation, are in for a big treat. The artist chose to perform in a student’s club rather than in a big concert hall. It will be his second appearance in Poland. His first visit was back in 1994. At 67, Bob Dylan remains one of the most influential artist and a model to follow for many composers, poets and singers. His LPs and CDs have sold in over 90 million copies. (mk)

Agood deal of hoopla greeted the grizzled rock-musician Neil Young's musical assault on George W. Bush earlier this year. His album Living With War included a hundred-voice choir singing a song entitled "Let's Impeach the President." For those survivors of anti-Vietnam war protests, and their younger would-be imitators, it was a moment for a sharp intake of breath and the tantalizing hope that maybe now, after all, music really could change the world. I mean, everyone has to sit up and take notice of Neil Young, right? Young's crusading album included another song called "Flags of Free dom," in which...

Havah Nagilah Hebrew Havah nagilah, Havah nagilah Havah nagilah v'nismchah Havah nagilah, Havah nagilah Havah nagilah v'nismchah Havah n'ran' nah Havah n'ran' nah Havah n'ran' nah v'nismcha Havah n ran' nah English translation: Come let’s dance, come let’s dance, Come let’s dance, and be merry! Come let’s dance, come let’s dance, Come let’s dance, and be merry! Come let’s whirl, come let’s whirl, Come let’s whirl, and be merry! Come let’s whirl, come let’s whirl, Come let’s whirl, and be merry! Rise, rise, brothers! Rise, brothers, with a glad heart. Rise, brothers, with a glad heart. Rise, brothers, with...

On my recent vacation I was back in San Francisco, where I spent a dozen years as a street reporter, and a place that was always referred to as "the city" when I was growing up in the boonies of the Sacramento Valley. There on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle was a big take-out on the 40th anniversary of the now-infamous Summer of Love. The Chronicle raided the photo archives and dragged out all the old pics from the love in's and smoke in's and be in's of Golden Gate Park and the Haight. It made me...

Not all aged rock icons followed Rolling Stone's script in the magazine's 40th anniversary issue In honor of its 40th anniversary, Rolling Stone recently published interviews with the 20 people who, in its estimation, shaped rock culture. The magazine called it "a family reunion." It is a way of life, a political movement, a worldview and a means of propagating correct values as understood by founding editor (and still chief) Jann Wenner. Wenner is a leftist and a man of parts — cultural commissar, social director and master marketer. "We seem to be hellbent on destruction," Wenner said during his...

Sanjaya Malakar, known for his wild hairdos and frequently pitchy singing style, hit a new low tonight on Fox's "American Idol," according to judge Simon Cowell who characterized his performance as the worst ever in the history of the show, now in its sixth season. "That was utterly horrendous," said Cowell. Malakar, 17, known nationally – even internationally – by his first name only, has survived the first several cuts in the program that relies on public voting to eliminate one contestant each week. He has stimulated a national debate, with his own fan base supporting him enthusiastically and others...

POPE Benedict XVI tried to prevent his predecessor, John Paul II, from attending a Bob Dylan concert. The hardline pontiff makes the confession himself in a book due out next week. Dylan's booking for the 1997 church-arranged event raised eyebrows at the Vatican, given his history of drug abuse. Pope Benedict, who has labelled rock "the work of the Devil", said: "I had reasons to be sceptical and still am. I doubted whether it was in good taste to allow such a performance in front of the Pope." At the time, Pope Benedict was Cardinal Ratzinger and in charge of...

The Pope tried to stop Bob Dylan playing for the late John Paul II because he feared the musician was a "prophet" whose beliefs were at odds with the Roman Catholic Church.   Bob Dylan performs for Pope John Paul II in Bologna in 1997 In a new book of memoirs about his predecessor, Pope Benedict recalls the events of the World Eucharist Congress at Bologna in 1997, a gathering of 300,000 young Catholic pilgrims who were to be exposed to the singer's iconoclastic songs and their "completely different" message. Pope Benedict wrote: "The Pope appeared tired, exhausted. At that...

Pope tried to stop concert by Bob Dylan By Malcolm Moore Last Updated: 1:57am GMT 08/03/2007 The Pope tried to stop Bob Dylan playing for the late John Paul II because he feared the musician was a "prophet" whose beliefs were at odds with the Roman Catholic Church. Bob Dylan performs for Pope John Paul II in Bologna in 1997 In a new book of memoirs about his predecessor, Pope Benedict recalls the events of the World Eucharist Congress at Bologna in 1997, a gathering of 300,000 young Catholic pilgrims who were to be exposed to the singer's iconoclastic songs...

I’m determined to stand whether God will deliver me or notThere are always two important questions about music. The first is “Do I like it?” and the second is “Do I get it?” I have loved Bob Dylan’s music ever since I first heard him in the ’60s, so much so that it is difficult to believe not everyone shares that love. Still, even if you don’t like Dylan’s music, you need to understand it. He has had too great an impact on our world to ignore it. And in a world where increasingly the next generation finds their deepest...

We had an extended debate at the office today....what was the best "MTv Unplugged" performance? Me? Hands down....Alice in Chains! Before any reasons are discussed ..... I was curious as to anyone else's opinions or preferences on the topic?

When John Kerry, child of the 60s, slurred the military with his comment, reported here by NewsBuster Warner Todd Huston, that people who who don't study wind up 'stuck in Iraq,' he was channeling Bob Dylan and the anti-war activist's 1967 song Subterranean Homesick Blues, which includes this line"Get jailed, jump bail"Join the army, if you fail."It's the same song that contains the famous line "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," from which the domestic terrorist group took its name.Hey John, Don't Think Twice - it's not alright.

10/02/2006, Volume 012, Issue 03 A good deal of hoopla greeted the grizzled rock-musician Neil Young's musical assault on George W. Bush earlier this year. His album Living With War included a hundred-voice choir singing a song entitled "Let's Impeach the President." For those survivors of anti-Vietnam war protests, and their younger would-be imitators, it was a moment for a sharp intake of breath and the tantalizing hope that maybe now, after all, music really could change the world. I mean, everyone has to sit up and take notice of Neil Young, right? Young's crusading album included another song called...

BOOK REVIEW & DISCUSSION: Ain't Got No Cigarettes: Memories of Music Legend Roger Miller By Lyle E Style "It's an endless story about Roger. He was one of the cleverest people I've ever met in my life." (Waylon Jennings) This is my own review of Ain't Got No Cigarettes, the first Roger Miller book ever published. My review is based on reading the book (twice) and having several discussions with Lyle E Style, the author. He may stop by later to answer questions (as his schedule allows). This one is a must-read, folks. And for you radio personalities who...

For the first time in 30 years, Bob Dylan tops The Billboard 200 with "Modern Times." Not only is it the legendary songwriter's first album to reach the throne since "Desire" in 1976, it's also his highest debuting album and his best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. The Columbia set moved 192,000 copies in the United States in its first week. "Modern Times" is Dylan's third consecutive top 10 studio set, following 1997's "Time Out of Mind" and 2001's "Love & Theft." Aside from "Desire" and "Modern Times," only two other Dylan albums assumed the...

Forget the Reuters “fauxtography” scandal (well, don’t actually forget it) — the Dylan world is rocked this morning by a completely unsourced quote published in the Christian Science Monitor, in an article that attempts some kind of overview of Dylan’s career coinciding with the release of Modern Times . (Thanks to RCB for the tip.) Here it is, in context (bolding mine): Dylan, who declined to comment for this article, remains, as ever, an enigma. (Three years ago, he called himself “a 62-year-old Jewish atheist.'’) But he’s more open than he’s ever been about his past, even opening himself to...

Fans hail return of Dylan Early critical reception to Bob Dylan's first album for five years suggests the 65-year-old is far from ready for retirement. The living legend's 44th album, Modern Times, earned five-star reviews in Uncut and Rolling Stone magazines, with the latter calling it a "masterwork". The BBC News website asked six Dylan fans to explain their enduring fascination with the man and his music. "He has said enough important things for us to be interested in what he has to say next" Katie Melua, singer-songwriter "The music, the voice, the lyrics all combined to be something really...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc. "I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really," the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Dylan, who released eight studio albums in that time, returns with his first recording in five years, "Modern Times," next Tuesday. Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't...

On July 29, 1966, something happened to Bob Dylan while he was riding his motorcycle near his Woodstock, New York, home. Forty years and a small library of biographies later, it’s still hard to be much more precise or detailed than that. What really befell Dylan on that day remains, like so much in this pop-culture icon’s closely guarded life, cloaked in mystery. Ill-defined or not, the accident has been treated as a major event in Dylan’s life; at least one biographer divides the founder of folk-rock’s career into “pre-“ and “post-accident.” What made the event so significant? Since 1961,...

Cate Blanchett will play Bob Dylan in his "androgenous phase" in a new biopic of the great poet-songwriter's life, it was announced, as Dylan turned 65. But even as he shows up everywhere in books, films and even a Broadway musical, Dylan, who has sought seclusion and mystery all his life, remains as enigmatic as ever. Dylan has clearly shrugged off retirement age, taking on a new job as a radio DJ, publishing a selection of his memoirs, musing in a Martin Scorcese documentary, authorizing a stage musical with his songs -- and appearing in an advert for the Victoria's...

"Rednecks & Bluenecks" is a new book about the politics of country musicians, from Cash and Haggard to the Dixie Chicks and Brooks & Dunn to Steve Earle and Sara Evans. I put up a review of this from the American Conservative the other day, and it turned out not to have a working link. But this one I found from Reason is both linkable and interesting. The One On the Right Was On the Left... The political puzzle of country music By Jesse Walker The surprise tour of last year—a surprise, that is, to anyone whose worldview froze around...

See that picture? That's Richard J. Elrod. He's been partially paralyzed since 1969 after suffering a broken neck. More on him later. Yesterday I had a couple of posts on the husband-and-wife professors who were formerly members of the 1960s domestic terror organization, the Weather Underground. The professors are Bernardine Dohrn of Northwestern University and Bill Ayers of the University of Illinois-Chicago. Feel to drop by Marathon Pundit for more on information on them. On October 8, 1969, The Weather Underground decided to jumpstart the "People's Revolution," in Chicago. They blew up a statue of a policeman (that statue...

The strong data on jobs, growth, and even house prices belie the naysayersTo paraphrase Bob Dylan, you don't need a Wall Street economist to know which way the economy is blowing. For weeks, the experts have worked themselves into a cold sweat worrying about inflation, aftereffects of the killer hurricanes, oil prices, avian flu, and the prospect of the red-hot housing market turning white cold. Rest easy. Things are nowhere near as bad as the worrywarts would have you believe, if recent bountiful economic data are any indication. Indeed, firms add-ed a rock-solid 215,000 jobs in November, the government reported...

Bob Dylan: No Direction Home, directed by Martin Scorsese Amidst great fanfare, veteran director Martin Scorsese’s two-part documentary on the early career of Bob Dylan recently screened on PBS in the US and the BBC in Britain. In a largely chronological fashion, the documentary covers Dylan’s formative years in small-town Minnesota and his move to New York City and the folk scene in Greenwich Village. It ends with the controversy surrounding his “electric” tour of 1966. At the end of that tour, Dylan was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that curtailed his work for a period. He was practically...

Not Dark Yet: In Search of Bob Dylan #4: A Direction Home JARED BLAND Perhaps it's the recent chill in the Toronto air, perhaps it's the old ‘starting a new life phase' bit, or perhaps it's the unavoidable preponderance of media attention on the man lately, but these past few weeks I've found myself re-entering the world of Bob Dylan in the way that I imagine all truly obsessive people do from time to time after being dragged away by other preoccupations, musical or otherwise. Since I'm a romantic, I like to cling to the first reason, and imagine that...

Anybody watching the Dylan special on PBS tonight? I'm a little surprised at some of the comments of the formerly reclusive folk/rock star. He seems like the kind of guy I could have a beer with...unlike his long-ago paramour, Joan Baez, or communist mentor, Pete Seeger.

Mickey Jones can always say that it was Bob Dylan who wanted to see him at the Whisky A Go-Go. He can also lay claim to being in Dylan's band on the famed 1966 tour when crowds booed the singer for going electric, prompting Dylan to whip around and demand that Jones "play f****** loud." Jones, a veteran character actor who lives in Simi Valley, Calif., played drums on Dylan's historic and controversial 1966 world tour. A DVD featuring home movies Jones took of that tour came out last year, and now Jones is included in Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary...

<p>About an hour into Bob Dylan: No Direction Home, Joan Baez—in an interview that will be edited by your PBS station—recalls an invincible young Dylan imagining what they'll be saying about him in the future: "A bunch of years from now, all these assholes are going to be writing about all this shit I write, and I don't know where the fuck it comes from and I don't know what the fuck it's about, and they're going to write about what it's about." Here we are. This documentary comes complete with a Starbucks tie-in, an Apple logo, and a celebrity director's credit. That director is Martin Scorsese, who has surely coveted access to this footage—donated by D.A. Pennebaker, Murray Lerner, and others—having already shot Dylan as the pièce de résistance to his documentary about The Band, The Last Waltz. But before you get too excited about this crossroads meeting, viewer, beware: This project was co-produced by Dylan's manager Jeff Rosen. Scorsese was brought in well after Rosen had already conducted the interviews and approved the material. What will all these assholes be saying about Dylan? In this "Martin Scorsese Picture," whatever the Dylan people want.</p>

In the fall of 1964 I was living in a rented room in north London. The house was owned by a lady who had misplaced her husband somehow — I don’t recall the details. She had a son and a daughter living at home. The daughter was in her early twenties, and working. The son was about my age — I was 19 — and a student at the local art college. I didn’t know much about the art-school scene, and the little I knew I didn’t much like, so I can’t say I found the guy very simpatico. We...

A handful of Bob Dylan fans are steaming that his latest CD goes on sale at Starbucks today. But nothing is ever simple with Dylan; in this case it's tangled up in brew. Bob Dylan Live at the Gaslight 1962, a portrait of the artist as a young folkie, will be sold exclusively at Starbucks. Also today, the two-CD soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's buzz-heavy Dylan documentary, No Direction Home, goes on sale everywhere from iTunes to Target. The simultaneous release of competing CDs by the same artist — completely counter to the way the music business usually works — is...

Dylan Song 'Changed the World' - Poll Bob Dylan's song "Like a Rolling Stone" topped a poll on Friday to find the 100 songs, movies, TV shows and books that "changed the world" in the opinion of musicians, actors and industry experts. Dylan's 1965 single beat Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" into second place in the survey for "Uncut" magazine. Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Robert Downey Jr, Rolling Stone Keith Richards and Lou Reed were among those who gave their views for the poll. "I absolutely remember where I was when I first heard it. It got me through adolescence," rocker...

SEATTLE - Bob Dylan made his mark playing in one cafe. Soon, he'll be in thousands. Starbucks Coffee Co. has reached a deal to produce and exclusively release a CD of 10 Dylan recordings from New York's Gaslight Cafe in 1962, when he was just finding himself as a songwriter. The Gaslight, in Greenwich Village, was a focal point of the folk revival in the early '60s. "Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962" will be available at Starbucks stores in the United States and Canada on Aug. 30. It includes the earliest known recordings of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna...

This summer's family wedding season has drawn to a close for me. The last stop found me in Duluth, Minnesota (not Duluth, Georgia; there would be no runaway brides at this ceremony) from where hails my maternal lineage. These are a hearty breed of Norwegian and Ojibwa stock. Lutheran. Hard working. Honest. Humble. And very, very liberal. Now, I'm not about talking your sanctimonious, excruciating Northeast liberals here, but rather genuine progressives with big, if bleeding, hearts. One of my uncles is a Vietnam Vet and a genuine ex-hippie. My two other uncles share his progressive enthusiasms. For example, one...

An American Traitor: Guilty As Charged By Henry Mark Holzer and Erika HolzerFrontPageMagazine.com | June 10, 2005For three decades Jane Fonda obfuscated, distorted and lied about virtually everything connected with her wartime trip to North Vietnam: her motive, her acts, her intent, and her contribution to the Communists’ war effort.  With the aid of clever handlers, she so successfully suppressed and spun her conduct in Hanoi that many Americans didn’t know what she had done there, and, more important, the legal significance. Three years ago, our book, “Aid and Comfort”: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam (McFarland & Co.), laid bare...

Today, I finished Dylan's autobiography. I enjoyed learning about his early musical influences and his explanation of how the media and some of his fans turned against him. That said, I think the narrative would have been more coherent if he had stuck to chronological order. I also believe he was more interested in conveying feelings than accurately depicting facts. How many snakes hang from trees in South Louisiana? I think Dylan tries (a little too hard) to seem enigmatic. He writes: "Sometimes you say things in songs even if there's a small chance of them being true. And, sometimes...

In his autobiography, Dylan writes: " When [Clausewitz] claims that politics has taken the place of morality and politics is brute force, he's not playing. You have to believe it. You do exactly as you're told, whoever you are. Knuckle under or you're dead. Don't give me any of that jazz about hope or nonsense about righteousness. Don't give me that dance that God is with us, or that God supports us. Let's get down to brass tacks. There isn't any moral order. You can forget that. Morality has nothing in common with politics. It's not there to transgress. It's...

Todd Haynes is a great movie director, so I don't want to mock him too much, but it's hard not to at least say something about the odd direction the Oscar nominee appears to be taking in casting a Bob Dylan biopic he is making. Seven different actors are to play Dylan at different points in his life, one of whom, says Haynes, will probably be a black woman. Haynes has even tossed around some ideas about who might play the black female Dylan, including singer Beyonce Knowles, Oprah Winfrey, and tennis player Venus Williams — each possibility disturbing in...

just read a fascinating book – "Chronicles, Volume 1" by Bob Dylan. There are some real surprises in this book. Most of us baby boomers thought of Dylan as a man with a political agenda. It turns out Dylan wasn't trying to lead anyone anywhere. He just wanted to be a singer-songwriter. It's quite a revelation, and Dylan has an interesting way of telling the story. Dylan was a private man who tried to put his family first. He didn't want to get caught up in the '60s activism. He was conspicuously absent from Woodstock, Altamont and all the other...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (news) said he didn't find the process of writing his new memoirs all "that splendid," according to an article in the latest issue of Newsweek magazine. "I'm used to writing songs," the 63-year-old creator of such '60s hits as "Like A Rolling Stone" told the magazine. "And songs -- I can fill 'em up with symbolism and metaphors. When you write a book like this, you gotta tell the truth, and it can't be misinterpreted." Dylan said he is proud of his book, "Chronicles, Vol. 1," published by Simon & Schuster and excerpted...

Professor Harvey Shulman up there in the tundra came up with the following birthday ode to Bobbie Dylan back in 2001. It combines two of the points from my June Diary, posted yesterday. WITH APOLOGIES TO BOB DYLAN ON HIS 60TH Come gather round faculty wherever you teach And condemn what the universities around you do preach Or accept it that soon you'll have no one to reach Is your integrity worth saving Then you'd better start speaking or you'll end up alone For the times, they are a changing Come teachers and scholars who never say a word Open...

Rock legend Bob Dylan on the stage of the University of St Andrews in Scotland and (inset) Dylan receives his honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Sir Kenneth Dover, Chancellor at the University of St Andrews

BOB DYLAN, the undefinable, has done what many of his fans consider the unthinkable: Appearing in a Victoria's Secret TV commercial. They should lighten up -- it's only underwear.

The times appear to be a-changin' for legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. For the first time, the folk-rocker is appearing in a television commercial: and it's for women's lingerie giant Victoria's Secret. In the ad, Dylan's looking grizzled and iconic while a model cavorts through Venice in a bra and panties as his song "Love Sick" plays. While it's the first time he's personally appeared in an ad campaign, his music was used once before -- as "The Times They Are A-Changin"' was used in a Bank of Montreal ad in 1996. Ed Razek, chief creative officer for Victoria's Secret, said...

<p>Bob Dylan appears in a new series of commercials for Victoria's Secret, his grizzled face intercut with shots of model Adriana Lima cavorting through Venice in a bra, panties and spike heels.</p> <p>Don't worry. The 62-year-old Dylan keeps his clothes on.</p>

Amsterdam — "No, no, no," Bob Dylan says sharply when asked if aspiring songwriters should learn their craft by studying his albums, which is precisely what thousands have done for decades. "It's only natural to pattern yourself after someone," he says, opening a door on a subject that has long been off-limits to reporters: his songwriting process. "If I wanted to be a painter, I might think about trying to be like Van Gogh, or if I was an actor, act like Laurence Olivier. If I was an architect, there's Frank Gehry. "But you can't just copy somebody. If you...

Go ahead and talk about him because he makes you doubt, Because he has denied himself the things that you can't live without. Laugh at him behind his back just like the others do, Remind him of what he used to be when he comes walkin' through. He's the property of Jesus Resent him to the bone You got something better You've got a heart of stone Stop your conversation when he passes on the street, Hope he falls upon himself, oh, won't that be sweet Because he can't be exploited by superstition anymore Because he can't be bribed or...