Posted on 06/28/2005 4:00:59 PM PDT by jeepgal
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Fans of Bob Dylan will soon be able to buy never-released recordings of the musical legend along with their cup of Starbucks coffee, producers announced.
In a deal aimed at rekindling cafe culture, Dylan 63, is allowing the US coffee chain to exclusively distribute an album of recordings of his 1962 concerts at New York's famed Gaslight Cafe.
The 63-year-old folk idol is the latest of a string of musical legends to have albums produced by Starbucks and then distributed over the counter at its cafes as the firm becomes a significant force in the recording industry.
The album, which includes newly restored live recordings from Dylan's celebrated 1962 performances at the Gaslight Cafe, will go on sale in the United States and Canada on August 30, Starbucks' Hear Music and Sony BMG said.
"These archival recordings capture a young Bob Dylan at a pivotal moment in his career when he began to find his voice as an innovative artist and songwriter," the companies said in a statement.
The 10-song compact disc entitled "Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962" includes the earliest surviving live recordings of Dylan classics such as "A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," both of which Dylan later released to great acclaim.
Additional tracks include a third Dylan original, "John Brown," as well as covers of traditional folk songs such as "The Cuckoo" and "Barbara Allen."
"Fans have been seeking access to these early recordings for more than four decades," said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment.
"This album offers a unique perspective on Dylan when he was an emerging artist and also captures an important moment in the history of America's coffee-house culture."
In its own attempt to revive American coffee-house culture, Starbucks has played a growing role in US music sales as it moves sideways into the recording industry.
Under a similar deal last year, Starbucks sold 775,000 copies of the last studio album of the late soul legend Ray Charles, "Genius Loves Company," making up more than a quarter of all sales of the multiple Grammy Award-winning disc.
In the longest deal of its kind, Starbucks will exclusively retail "Gaslight" for 18 months for 13.95 dollars.
On the same day that "Gaslight" goes on the cafe counters, Sony BMG will release another Dylan album, "Bob Dylan No Direction Home: The Soundtrack -- Bootleg Series Volume 7," Sony BMG Music said.
Marking a big week for Dylan devotees, the album releases come a day ahead of the scheduled US television premiere of "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan," the first full-length film biography of Dylan, directed by Martin Scorsese.
Dylan's soulful lyrics became the anthem of the politically turbulent 1960s but his popularity has endured for four decades.
Now I'd probably clock him on the head with my purse.
I love her.
So, this was before Bob learned to sing...;^)
He later gave singing lessons to Joe Cocker and Neil Young :-)
"I have actually met Dylan. Coffee shop in Ventura, CA on Main Street. I was 20 years old and just coming out of my hippie stage."
In Dec. 65 or Jan. 66 I saw him at a theater next to the now missing Long Beach Pike.
It was at precisely the time he brought on controversy, by doing accoustic.
The first set was just Bob, on a stool with his voice, his harmonica and his guitar. Folk music.
After a break, the curtains parted to a full rock and roll band, with Bob on accoustic guitar.
I'll be watching for the Dylan CD at Starbucks, where I find some good music. Ray Charles, mentioned in the article, and the latest Van Morrison CD--his best in many years.
Neither response is appropriate.
Dylan went to great lengths to distance himself from that hippie/leftist crowd you were once part of. His last folkie "protest" album was recorded way back in 1963 (before our involvment in the Vietnam War), but unfortunately that (very short) period of his career is what he's most known for. When the leftists tried to turn him into one of their gods he abruptly changed course (in 1965), went electric, and started playing straight-ahead apolitical rock and roll. The commies labeled him "Judus," but Bob didn't care, and was only too happy to disassociate himself from those fools.
He's been mostly apolitical ever since, even through several stylistic (and religious) changes.
I met Bob a couple of years ago. A buddy of mine was road manager for a couple of bands that Tony Ganier( bass player/band leader) was in, he got us backstage passes.Before Bob showed up we had dinner with Maria Muldaur, Rambling Jack Elliot and the band. I lent Maria a sharpie pen and asked for it back, saying I needed it so" when I meet Bob...."...she laughed at me and told me that she has known Bob for 35 years and that she has NEVER seen Bob sign an autograph and that I was dreaming if I thought that he would. Well...I like a good challenge...LONG STORY SHORT...I now proudly display my signed backstage pass and signed tour hat in my music room. Whats with the flying purse ? dude, chill.LOL
I think much of his best music has been since then.
Dylan is a legend, but the legend was captured by the left-wing, years and years ago, even though they booed him as a "sell-out" as early as 1966.
"Now I'm a liberal up to a degree
I want everybody to be free
But if you think I'll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter,
You must think I'm crazy.
I wouldn't do it for all the farms in Cuba.
From the Album:
Another Side of Bob Dylan
I agree with you -- much of Dylan's later music is overlooked, and it's among the best he's ever recorded. Time Out of Mind ('96) and Oh Mercy ('89) are incredible.
Yep, 1964. ....the year before he jettisoned his lefty past.
He definitely towers over Cat Stevens. Or even Donovan.
Captured on tape during Captain & Tenille gigs at Mister Donut, Waffle House and Howard Johnsons in the midwest during the early 1970s, the recordings catch Captain & Tenille at a vulnerable stage in their early career. For example, in one Howard Johnson's performance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during 1973, the struggling duo were booed and pelted with French Toast.
You're right, there were those great, overtly gospel albums. But before and afterwards, there were always some religious themes.
People will always identify him with those cafe days, apparently, and when they imagined he was leftist.
Okay. I saw him at the L.A. Forum in '78 and the Santa Monica Civic in '79. If you can get good quality boots of those two shows, I'd be interested.
They are certainly among my favorites too (and we must be the same age!) I think of all my Dylan albums, I probably wore out Time Out Of Mind the most, though. I thought it was so dark it was (almost) funny at points. Leonard Cohen has nothing on Bob, when Bob is bummed and thinking he's fixing to die.
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