Friday afternoon off, I'm sitting in a cafe listening to the three Dylan songs that Bruce mentioned. He was right on about that, BTW. If there is a Top Ten Best Songs Ever Written, these three are all on it. Here they are, if you feel like listening, too.
Desolation Row: http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=Desolation+Row+Bob+Dylan Visions Of Johanna: http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=Visions+of+Johanna+Bob+Dylan Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands: http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=Sad+Eyed+Lady+of+the+Lowlands+Bob+Dylan ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, October 10, 2014 2:17 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Bruce on Bob I'm counting down the days until the arrival of "Rumors Of Glory," the upcoming memoir by Bruce Cockburn. Until it arrives, I've had to make do with a couple of excerpts -- the introduction to the book, called "Overture," and chapter 4, which is about the time Bruce spent at Berklee School Of Music in Boston: Rumours of Glory: A Memoir by Bruce Cockburn (Excerpt: Overture and Chapter 4) Rumours of Glory: A Memoir by Bruce Cockburn (Excerp... Legendary Canadian singer and songwriter Bruce Cockburn delivers his long-awaited memoir—a chronicle of faith, fear, and activism that is also a lively cultural and... View on www.scribd.com Preview by Yahoo Here's an excerpt from these excerpts, Bruce giving credit where credit is due: "When I think about sitting in a place that had an association with Dylan, I’m reminded of the impact he had. I tend to be influenced creatively by everything I hear that I like, but Dylan remains the songwriter who has had the greatest effect on my music. When The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan hit Ottawa in the summer of 1963, our little group of folkies all had to learn “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Hard Rain,” and “Masters of War”: these are brilliantly written songs that were shaking not just our world, but the world. When Dylan went electric, he did it again. At the time a few folk purists moaned about how they’d been let down by Dylan plugging in, but the rest of the world got it. This was an electric moment! And I don’t mean the guitar. By this time Dylan’s songwriting had evolved to its most masterful level. “Desolation Row,” from Highway 61 Revisited, came out in 1965, and in my mind it remains one of the best songs ever written. The following year Dylan released Blonde on Blonde, with “Visions of Johanna” and “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.” No one has ever written songs better than these. The influence I got from Dylan was less stylistic than it was motivational: Look at what you can do. Look at how broad the field is; you can do any damn thing. You can be as wordy as you want. I’ve always liked words."