Bob Dylan to Perform in Jewish Homeland

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

bob_dylanBob Dylan’s 2010 World Tour is rumored to be swinging home to the Promised Land, where Dylan will perform at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv on May 27.

The concert takes place just three days after Dylan’s 69th birthday, picking up on a tradition of Dylan’s of visiting Israel on his birthday begun in the early 1970s.

The concert will mark Dylan’s first in the Jewish state since he performed three shows in 1993 in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba.

Dylan’s first concerts in Israel took place in 1987 in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The Vatican Disses Dylan

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the Vatican disses Bob Dylan because “despite his ‘great poetic vein’ … he paved the way for generations of unprofessional singer-songwriters who have ‘harshly tested the ears and patience of listeners’ with their tormented stories.”

Honestly, there is more than a grain of truth to that, although it’s hard to see how Dylan is to blame for all the cut-rate wannabes that followed in his wake.

And I don’t just mean Donovan.

“essential reading for any serious Bob Dylan fan” – Dylan critic Peter Stone Brown

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Bob Dylan book jacket.for twitterIn his review of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet, Peter Stone Brown, a long-time music critic and Dylan expert, as well as a singer-songwriter in his own right, calls the book “essential reading for any serious Bob Dylan fan.”

Brown says that in showing “how much of what is commonly referred to as [the Bible] informs a large part of Dylan’s work … Rogovoy succeeds beyond admirably and does so in a more coherent fashion than any previous attempt. ”

Brown offers that “Many of [the book’s] discoveries are not only interesting, but surprisingly mind-blowing, such as linking ‘Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window’ to David, the warrior King,” and that “the last part of the book, from Oh Mercy to the present, was the best part, both in terms of the writing, which has a far more natural flow, and in what is revealed about the songs…. what Rogovoy reveals about Oh Mercy in particular is enough to cause a thorough reexamination of the album and what it is saying.”

Brown concludes that “what this book does is open up a generous host of Bob Dylan songs and at time entire albums to a whole new realm of interpretation. “

When Bob Dylan Accepted a Lifetime Grammy Award by Reciting a Jewish Prayer

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Bob Dylan book jacket.for twitterThe Bob Dylan Examiner explores a bit of Bob Dylan history, recounting the head-scratching moment when Dylan accepted his Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1991 with an obscure recitation of a commentary on the Hebrew psalm 27. The Examiner kindly reprints my explication of this great moment in rock history from BOB DYLAN: Prophet Mystic Poet, and includes rare video footage of Dylan’s amazing speech, in which he quotes from memory commentary from an Orthodox Jewish prayerbook.

Radio interview @ The Allan Handelman Show

Friday, January 29th, 2010

The Allan Handelman Show
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Live feed: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, 4p.m.
Syndicated feed: Sunday, Feb. 7, midnight
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