Presumably what the bureau also had in mind in launching a new website, Come Home Bob Dylan, was garnering a little publicity for the isolated area renowned for its stark beauty and cold winters.

The website includes an online petition calling on Dylan to come home to Hibbing, Minn., as well as sharing pages for photos and video, and links to informational pages on Hibbing and the Iron Range.

Rosenbaum goes on to say that “Rogovoy’s source-hunting is so relentless, one can only bow to his ingenuity as he pins just about every Dylan line you can think of, like a dead butterfly, to its biblical source box. I was particularly impressed by the wealth of allusions to the Davidic stories he finds.”

He hails the book’s “…deepening of the detailed picture now emerging of Dylan’s Jewish upbringing. Rogovoy shows that the Zimmermans were at ‘the center of Jewish life in Hibbing,’ and that young Robert’s bar mitzvah broke attendance records at the local hotel.”

Read the text of the full review here.

In The Heights by Bernard Zalon

Zalon contacted me recently to share one of his newest creations, called In the Heights, which on the surface seems to capture a typical scene out front of 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, which some may recognize as the world headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish outreach movement.

The artist honors me by telling me that while he was working on the piece, he heard me being interviewed on a radio program talking about my book, excerpts of which he had read online. “So I was inspired to add something.  I just finished it, and I think you will appreciate it,” he wrote.

I am immensely humbled by Zalon’s generosity. I can’t think of a better way to have my own work appreciated than by having it somehow inspiring or becoming a part of another’s — especially someone with the talent and vision of Zalon.

If you look closely at the etching, you can see a Dylan-esque figure — perhaps Bob Dylan himself — hanging out among the Hasidim.

Detail from "In the Heights" by Bernard Zalon

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.

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.

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. “

I think the arrangement of the song was really beautiful. I loved the spare acoustic trio. Bassist Tony Garnier, who has been with Dylan for two decades, of course drove the song. Who was the pianist? I love the repetitive, circular phrase he came up with – it really put the song in a whole different place, musically – a bit of modern pop with a hint of jazz.

I think Dylan wasn’t unsure of when to play guitar, as some have suggested. If you listen without watching (at the Bob Dylan Examiner) then you can really hear how he consciously chooses when to play. It’s a lot like a jazz trio in that sense. In any case, this has become Dylan’s playing style in general; it’s not much different from how he plays in his own concerts.

As for Dylan’s voice, sure, to anyone who hasn’t heard him since he recorded “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” he probably sounded awful. But to anyone who has been keeping up with him all these years, especially lately, he actually sounded great — he sang more melodiously than usual, he was always on key (Dylan NEVER sings off key), and he sang with particular conviction last night and original phrasing.

I do have one other question though (besides “who was the piano player?”).

Did it seem to you like Dylan was preparing to play a second song when a bunch of security guys swooped to the stage and pretty much led him off before he could start playing?

I just came home from seeing Crazy Heart, and while I loved the movie, it now occurs to me that it really is just a remake of — although some might call it a great improvement upon — Dylan’s Hearts of Fire.

Mostly I’m surprised that in all the voluminous press that Crazy Heart has received, not once has anyone ever mentioned the film’s inspiration, or source, or resemblance, to the earlier movie.

It’s important to note that the music for Crazy Heart was for the most part written and produced by former Bob Dylan sideman/guitarist T-Bone Burnett. And that Jeff Bridges modeled his character after longtime Dylan compadre and fellow actor Kris Kristofferson.