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- American South
- Amputate
- Angela Davis
- Astoria, Queens
- Baptist
- Bassist
- Benny Goodman
- Bessie Smith
- Billie Holiday
- Billy Taylor
- Bisexuality
- Blue Melody
- Blues
- Blues Hall of Fame
- Broadway theater
- Busking
- Carl Van Vechten
- Chattanooga
- Chris Albertson
- Chu Berry
- Circa
- Columbia Records
- Common-law marriage
- Deep South
- Discogs
- Divorce
- Dory Previn
- Down Beat
- Downhearted Blues
- Dudley Murphy
- Eastern Seaboard
- Edward Albee
- Elaine Feinstein
- Ethel Waters
- Fletcher Henderson
- Frog Records
- Gospel
- Gramophone record
- Infidelity
- J.D. Salinger
- Jack Teagarden
- Jackie Kay
- James P. Johnson
- Janis Joplin
- Jazz
- Joe Smith (musician)
- John H. Hammond
- John R.T. Davies
- Key signature
- Library of Congress
- Lionel Hampton
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- Memphis, Tennessee
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- Paul Oliver
- Philadelphia
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- Pitch (music)
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- Rock 'n' roll
- Semitone
- Songs of the Century
- Swing era
- Tenor saxophone
- Trombone
- Trumpet
- U.S. Route 61
- United States
- W. C. Handy
- Wesley Wilson
- White people
- Wikipedia Persondata
- William Frank Newton
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Astoria, Queens
Astoria is a neighborhood in the northwestern corner of the borough of Queens in New York City. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Sunnyside (bordering at Northern Boulevard), and Woodside (bordering at 50th Street).
http://wn.com/Astoria_Queens -
Broadway theater
http://wn.com/Broadway_theater -
Chattanooga
http://wn.com/Chattanooga -
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and number of books. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.
http://wn.com/Library_of_Congress -
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers.
http://wn.com/Memphis_Tennessee -
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, which namesake is from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, and its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States. The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.
http://wn.com/Mississippi -
Moulton, Alabama
Moulton is a city in Lawrence County, Alabama, and is included in the Decatur Metropolitan Area, as well as the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 3,260. The city is the county seat of Lawrence County.
http://wn.com/Moulton_Alabama -
Philadelphia
Philadelphia () is the largest city in Pennsylvania, sixth-most-populous city in the United States and the fifty-first most populous city in the world.
http://wn.com/Philadelphia -
United States
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
http://wn.com/United_States
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Alberta Hunter
http://wn.com/Alberta_Hunter -
Angela Davis
Angela Davis (b. January 26, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American socialist, philosopher, political activist and retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the director of the university's Feminist Studies department. Davis was largely active during the Civil Rights Movement and was associated with the Black Panthers. Her research interests are in feminism, African American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music and social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons.
http://wn.com/Angela_Davis -
Benny Goodman
In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman (May 30, 1909 - June 13, 1986) led one of the most popular musical groups in America. His January 16, 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music."
http://wn.com/Benny_Goodman -
Bessie Smith
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith -
Billie Holiday
http://wn.com/Billie_Holiday -
Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor (born July 24, 1921 in Greenville, North Carolina) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. He is currently the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville. Since 1994, he has been the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
http://wn.com/Billy_Taylor -
Carl Van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.
http://wn.com/Carl_Van_Vechten -
Chris Albertson
Christiern Gunnar Albertson (born October 18, 1931) is a New York City-based jazz journalist, writer and record producer.
http://wn.com/Chris_Albertson -
Chu Berry
Leon Brown "Chu" Berry (September 13, 1908, Wheeling, West Virginia – October 30, 1941, Conneaut, Ohio) was an American swing tenor saxophonist.
http://wn.com/Chu_Berry -
Dory Previn
http://wn.com/Dory_Previn -
Dudley Murphy
Dudley Murphy (July 10, 1897 – February 22, 1968) Murphy was born on July 10, 1897 in Winchester, Massachusetts. He began making films in the early 1920s after working as a journalist.
http://wn.com/Dudley_Murphy -
Edward Albee
http://wn.com/Edward_Albee -
Elaine Feinstein
Elaine Feinstein (born 24 October 1930, Bootle, Lancashire) is a poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, biographer and translator.
http://wn.com/Elaine_Feinstein -
J.D. Salinger
http://wn.com/JD_Salinger -
Jackie Kay
Jackie Kay MBE (born 1961) is a Scottish poet and novelist.
http://wn.com/Jackie_Kay -
James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson [also known as Jimmy Johnson] (February 1, 1894–November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. With Luckey Roberts, Johnson was arguably the most important pioneer of the stride style of jazz piano playing.
http://wn.com/James_P_Johnson -
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 - October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
http://wn.com/Janis_Joplin -
John H. Hammond
http://wn.com/John_H_Hammond -
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
http://wn.com/Lionel_Hampton -
Louis Armstrong
http://wn.com/Louis_Armstrong -
Mamie Smith
http://wn.com/Mamie_Smith -
Paul Oliver
:Paul Ambrose Oliver is a 19th Century inventor.
http://wn.com/Paul_Oliver -
W. C. Handy
William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues".
http://wn.com/W_C_Handy -
William Frank Newton
William Frank Newton (Frankie Newton) (January 4, 1906 – March 11, 1954) was a trumpeter from Emory, Virginia. He played in several New York bands in the 1920s and 1930s, including bands led by Sam Wooding, Chick Webb, Charlie Barnet, Andy Kirk and Charlie "Fess" Johnson. In the 1940s he played with bands led by Lucky Millinder and Pete Brown. He played in clubs in New York and Boston, with musicians such as pianist James P. Johnson, drummer Sid Catlett and clarinetist Edmond Hall.
http://wn.com/William_Frank_Newton
Smith, Bessie Filmography
- It's Black Entertainment (2002)
- Blues Odyssey (2001)
- A Huey P. Newton Story (2001)
- Hollywood Rhythm Vol. 1: The Best of Jazz and Blues (2001)
- The Century: America's Time (1999)
- Blues Masters (1999)
- Bluesland: A Portrait in American Music (1993)
- That's Black Entertainment (1990)
- The Ladies Sing the Blues (1989)
- Brown Sugar (1986)
- Before Stonewall (1984)
- Black Music in America: From Then Till Now (1971)
- ...And Beautiful II (1970)
- Bessie Smith (1969)
- St. Louis Blues (1929)
RELEASE
ALBUMS
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Gin House Blues
- Send Me to the 'lectric Chair
- T'ain't Nobodys Business If I Do
- I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl
- After You've Gone
- Careless Love Blues
- Preachin' the Blues
- Black Mountain Blues
- Sinful Blues
- Homeless Blues
- Downhearted Blues
- Any Woman's Blues
- He's Gone Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- The Bye Bye Blues
- House Rent Blues
- Woman's Trouble Blues
- Work House Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
- Love Me Daddy Blues
- St. Louis Blues
- Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)
- St. Louis Blues
- Sobbin' Hearted Blues
- You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
- Careless Love Blues
- Young Woman's Blues
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town
- I Want Every Bit of It
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- Down Hearted Blues
- Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?
- T'Ain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Any Woman's Blues
- Moonshine Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Dying Gambler's Blues
- Hard Time Blues
- Lost Your Head Blues
- Hard Driving Papa
- Gin House Blues
- Downhearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Beale Street Mama
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Oh Daddy Blues
- 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do
- Keeps On Rainin'
- Mama's Got the Blues
- Outside of That
- Bleeding Hearted Blues
- Lady Luck Blues: 3
- Yodelin' Blues: 3
- Midnight Blues: 3
- If You Don't, I Know Who Will
- Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Jail House Blues
- St Louis Gal: 3
- Sam Jones Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Cemetery Blues
- Far Away Blues
- I'm Going Back to My Used to Be
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Jailhouse Blues
- St. Louis Gal
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Chicago Bound Blues
- 'Ain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do
- Any Woman's Blues
- Easy Come Easy Go Blues
- Ticket Agent, Ease Your Window Down
- Hateful Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- New Gulf Coast Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- I Ain't Got Nobody
- What's the Matter Now
- Baby Doll
- Hard Driving Papa
- The Gin House Blues
- Lost Your Head Blues
- After You've Gone
- Backwater Blues
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- I Ain't Goin' to Play No Second Fiddle
- Me and My Gin
- Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)
- St. Louis Blues
- 'tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Careless Love
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl
- Down Hearted Blues
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- On Revival Day (A Rhythmic Spiritual)
- Send Me to the 'lectric Chair
- Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer
- Back Water Blues
- Careless Love
- J.C. Holmes Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play Second Fiddle
- He's Gone Blues
- Nobody's Blues but Mine
- Woman's Trouble Blues
- Dying Gambler's Blues
- The St. Louis Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Sobbin' Hearted Blues
- Cold in Hand Blues
- You've Been a Good Old Wagon
- Cake Walkin' Babies
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Soft Pedal Blues
- Dixie Flyer Blues
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- T' Ain't Nobody's Bizness if I Do
- Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time
- My Sweetie Went Away
- Any Woman's Blues
- House Rent Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Sinful Blues
- St. Louis Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play no Second Fiddle
- I Ain't Got Nobody
- Empty Bed Blues (Parts 1 & 2)
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer
- Down Hearted Blues
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- St. Louis Blues
- Do Your Duty
- Cold in Hand Blues
- Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
- Empty Bed Blues
- Nobody's Blues but Mine
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Them's Graveyard Words
- New Orleans Hop Scop Blues
- One and Two Blues
- Take Me for a Buggy Ride
- Squeeze Me
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Back-Water Blues
- Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home)
- Young Woman's Blues
- Preachin' the Blues
- The St Louis Blues
- There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-Night
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Careless Love Blues
- Lock and Key
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- On Revival Day (A Rhythmic Spiritual)
- 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do
- Poor Man's Blues
- New Orleans Hop Scop Blues
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- I'm Wild About That Thing
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Do Your Duty
- See See Rider Blues
- Down Hearted Blues
- Wasted Life Blues
- Dirty No-Gooder's Blues
- Blue Spirit Blues
- Worn Out Papa Blues
- You Don't Understand
- Don't Cry Baby
- Keep It to Yourself
- New Orleans Hop Scop Blues
- See If I'll Care
- Baby Have Pity on Me
- On Revival Day (A Rhythmic Spiritual)
- Moan, You Mourners
- Hustlin' Dan
- Black Mountain Blues
- In the House Blues
- Long Old Road
- Blue Blue
- Shipwreck Blues
- Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl
- Safety Mama
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Take Me for a Buggy Ride
- I'm Down in the Dumps
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Beale Street Mama (Papa)
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Cemetary Blues
- Any Woman's Blues
- Boweavil Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Sobbin' Hearted Blues
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Soft Pedal Blues
- Nashville Woman's Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play Second Fiddle
- At the Christmas Ball
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- 'Taint Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Jail-House Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Ticket Agent, Ease Your Window Down
- Boweavil Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Dying Gambler's Blues
- St. Louis Blues
- You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- Careless Love Blues
- I Ain't Goin' to Play Second Fiddle
- At the Christmas Ball
- Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town
- Backwater Blues
- After You've Gone
- After You've Gone
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)
- There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
- Trombone Cholly
- Send Me to the 'lectric Chair
- Them's Graveyard Words
- Hot Springs Blues
- Sweet Mistreater
- Lock and Key
- Mean Old Bed Bug Blues
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- Homeless Blues
- Looking for My Man Blues
- Dyin' By the Hour
- Foolish Man Blues
- Thinking Blues
- Pickpocket Blues
- I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama
- I'd Rather Be Dead and Buried in My Grave
- Standin' in the Rain Blues
- It Won't Be You
- Spider Man Blues
- Empty Bed Blues, Part 1
- Empty Bed Blues, Part 2
- Put It Right Here
- Yes Indeed He Do
- Devil's Gonna Get You
- You Ought to Be Ashamed
- Washwoman's Blues
- Slow and Easy Man
- Poor Man's Blues
- Please Help Me Get Him Off My Mind
- Me and My Gin
- I'm Wild About That Thing
- You've Got to Give Me Some
- Kitchen Man
- I've Got What It Takes
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- St. Louis Blues, Part 1
- St. Louis Blues, Part 2
- St. Louis Blues, Part 3
- St. Louis Blues, Part 4
- Take It Right Back
- He's Got Me Goin'
- It Makes My Love Come Down
- There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
- I Ain't Got Nobody
- Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town
- Lock and Key
- Sweet Mistreater
- Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home)
- Baby Doll
- 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness if I Do
- You've Got to Give Me Some
- Careless Love
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Oh! Daddy Blues
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Yes Indeed He Do!
- I Want Every Bit of It
- After You've Gone
- Squeeze Me
- What's the Matter Now?
- It Won't Be You
- Keep It to Yourself
- He's Got Me Goin'
- I'm Down in the Dumps
- Do Your Duty
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An Introduction to Bessie Smith: Her Best Recordings 1923-1933
Released 1996
Released 1996
- Downhearted Blues
- Jailhouse Blues
- My Sweetie Went Away
- Any Woman's Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- The St. Louis Blues
- Cold in Hand Blues
- You've Been a Good Old Wagon
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- Careless Love Blues
- Baby Doll
- Hard Time Blues
- Young Woman's Blues
- Preachin' the Blues
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Trombone Cholly
- Dyin' by the Hour
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- He's Got Me Goin'
- Shipwreck Blues
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl
- Safety Mama
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Take Me for a Buggy Ride
- I'm Down in the Dumps
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Soft Pedal Blues
- Nashville Women's Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moon)
- St. Louis Blues: Band Intro
- St. Louis Blues: Crap Game
- St. Louis Blues: St. Louis Blues
- My Man Blues
- New Gulf Coast Blues
- Florida Bound Blues
- At the Christmas Ball
- I've Been Mistreated and I Don't Like It
- Red Mountain Blues
- Golden Rule Blues
- Lonesome Desert Blues
- Them "Has Been" Blues
- Squeeze Me
- What's the Matter Now?
- I Want Ev'ry Bit of It
- Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town
- The Gin House Blues
- Money Blues
- Baby Doll
- Hard Driving Papa
- Lost Your Head Blues
- Hard Time Blues
- Honey Man Blues
- One and Two Blues
- Young Woman's Blues
- Preachin' the Blues
- Back Water Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- The Bye Bye Blues
- Sing Sing Prison Blues
- Follow the Deal on Down
- Sinful Blues
- Woman's Trouble Blues
- Love Me Daddy Blues
- Dying Gambler's Blues
- The St. Louis Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Sobbin' Hearted Blues
- Cold in Hand Blues
- You've Been a Good Old Wagon
- Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home)
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Soft Pedal Blues
- Dixie Flyer Blues
- Nashville Woman's Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- J.C. Holmes Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
- He's Gone Blues
- Nobody's Blues but Mine
- I Ain't Got Nobody
- Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time
- My Sweetie Went Away (She Didn't Say Where, When or Why)
- Any Woman's Blues
- Chicago Bound Blues
- Mistreatin' Daddy
- Frosty Mornin' Blues
- Haunted House Blues
- Eavesdropper's Blues
- Easy Come, Easy Go Blues
- Sorrowful Blues
- Pinchbacks, Take 'em Away
- Rockin' Chair Blues
- Ticket Agent, Ease Your Window Down
- Boweavil Blues
- Hateful Blues
- Frankie Blues
- Moonshine Blues
- Lou'siana Low Down Blues
- Mountain Top Blues
- Work House Blues
- House Rent Blues
- Salt Water Blues
- Rainy Weather Blues
- Down-Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Beale Street Mama
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Oh Daddy (You Won't Have No Mama at All)
- 'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do
- Keeps on A-Rainin' (Papa, He Can't Make No Time)
- Mama's Got the Blues
- Outside of That
- Bleeding Hearted Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- Yodling Blues
- Midnight Blues
- If You Don't I Don't Know Who Will
- Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Jail House Blues
- St. Louis Gal
- Sam Jones Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Cemetery Blues
- Far Away Blues
- I'm Going Back to My Used to Be
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Careless Love
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- After You're Gone
- Trombone Cholly
- Me and My Gin
- Safety Mama
- In the House Blues
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Take It Right Back
- He's Got Me Going
- Kitchen Man
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Take Me for a Buggy Ride
- I'm Down in the Dumps
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Aggravatin' Papa
- T'ain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time
- My Sweetie Went Away
- Any Woman's Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
- I Ain't Got Nobody
- Empty Bed Blues
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pig Foot
- Standin' in the Rain Blues
- It Won't Be You
- Spider Man Blues
- Empty Bed Blues, Part 1
- Empty Bed Blues, Part 2
- Put It Right Here (or Keep It Out There)
- Yes Indeed He Do!
- Devil's Gonna Git You
- You Ought to Be Ashamed
- Washwoman's Blues
- Slow and Easy Man
- Poor Man's Blues
- Please Help Me Get Him Out of My Mind
- Me and My Gin
- I'm Wild About That Thing
- You've Got to Give Me Some
- Kitchen Man
- I've Got What It Takes (but It Breaks My Heart to Give It Away)
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Take It Right Back ('cause I Don't Want It Here)
- Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)
- There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
- Trombone Cholly
- Send Me to the 'lectric Chair
- Them's Graveyard Words
- Hot Spring Blues
- Sweet Mistreater
- Lock and Key
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- Homeless Blues
- Looking for My Man Blues
- Dyin' by the Hour
- Foolish Man Blues
- Thinking Blues
- Pickpocket Blues
- I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama
- I'd Rather Be Dead and Buried in My Grave
- Sweet Lovin' Man
- Sugarfoot Stomp
- Southern Stomps
- Big Butter & Egg Man From the West
- Mean Old Bed Bug Blues
- I'm Not Rough
- Working Man's Blues
- Snake Rag
- Keyhole Blues
- Dippermouth Blues
- High Society
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Take Me for a Buggy Ride
- I'm Down in the Dumps
- Safety Mama
- He's Got Me Goin'
- Take It Right Back
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Kitchen Man
- Me and My Gin
- Trombone Cholly
- Alexander Ragtime Band
- After You've Gone
- Young Woman's Blues
- I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
- Careless Love
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
- The St. Louis Blues
- Weepin' Willow Blues
- My Sweetie Went Away (She Didn't Say Where, When or Why)
- 'taint Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Cold in Hand Blues
- You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
- Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home)
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Soft Pedal Blues
- Dixie Flyer Blues
- Nashville Woman's Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- J. C. Holmes Blues
- I Ain't Goin' to Play Second Fiddle
- He's Gone Blues
- Nobody's Blues but Mine
- I Ain't Got Nobody
- My Man Blues
- New Gulf Coast Blues
- Florida Bound Blues
- At the Christmas Ball
- I've Been Mistreated and I Don't Like It
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Beale Street Mama
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Oh Daddy Blues
- 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Keeps on A-Rainin' (Papa, He Can't Make No Time)
- Mama's Got the Blues
- Outside of That
- Bleeding Hearted Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- Yodling Blues
- Midnight Blues
- If You Don't, I Know Who Will
- Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Jail-House Blues
- St. Louis Gal
- Sam Jones Blues
- The St. Louis Blues
- Careless Love
- Cake Walkin' Babies
- Down Hearted Blues
- T'Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do
- Sing Sing Prison Blues
- Sinful Blues
- Reckless Blues
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Nashville Women's Blues
- I Ain't Got Nobody
- I Want Every Bit of It
- Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town
- Honey Man Blues
- Trombone Cholly
- There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
- Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- Lock and Key
- After You've Gone
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Jail House Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Cemetery Blues
- Frosty Morning Blues
- Haunted House Blues
- Easy Come, Easy Go Blues
- Follow The Deal On Down
- Sinful Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Cold in Hand Blues
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Sweet Mistreater
- Empty Bed Blues
- Blue Spirit Blues
- Black Mountain Blues
- In the House Blues
- Nashville Woman's Blues
- Downhearted Blues
- 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- My Sweetie Went Away
- Weepin' Willow Blues
- St. Louis Blues
- Reckless Blues
- You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
- I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
- Young Woman's Blues
- Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- Empty Bed Blues, Parts 1 & 2
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Black Mountain Blues
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Empty Bed Blues
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Preachin' the Blues
- Keep It to Yourself
- Trombone Cholly
- At the Christmas Ball
- Kitchen Man
- You've Got to Give Me Some
- He's Got Me Going
- Thinking Blues
- Devil's Gonna Git You
- Send Me to the 'lectric Chair
- Baby Doll
- Take Me for a Buggy Ride
- Young Woman's Blues
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Aggravatin' Papa
- Beale Street Papa
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Oh Daddy (You Won't Have No Mama at All)
- Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Keeps on A-Raining (Papa, He Can't Make No Time)
- Mama's Got the Blues
- Outside of That
- Bleeding Hearted Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- Yodling Blues
- Midnight Blues
- If You Don't, I Know Who Will
- Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Sing Sing Prison Blues
- Follow the Deal on Down
- Sinful Blues
- Woman's Trouble Blues
- Love Me Daddy Blues
- Dying Gambler's Blues
- St. Louis Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- Homeless Blues
- Looking for My Man Blues
- Dyin' by the Hour
- Foolish Man Blues
- Thinking Blues
- Pickpocket Blues
- Downhearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Agrevatin' Papa
- Beale Street Mama
- Baby, Won't You, Please, Come Home Blues
- Oh Daddy Blues
- 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do
- Keeps On A Rainin'
- Mama's Got The Blues
- Outside Of That
- Bleeding Hearted Blues
- Lady Luck Blues (Test)
- Lady Luck Blues
- Yodling Blues (Test)
- Yodling Blues
- Midnight Blues (Test)
- Midnight Blues
- If You Don't, I Know Who Will
- Nobody In Town Can Bake A Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Jailhouse Blues
- St. Louis Gal (Test)
- St. Louis Gal
- Sam Jones Blues
- Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- Kitchen Man
- Summertime
- Baby, Won't You Please Come Home
- Hot Springs Blues
- Empty Bed Blues, Pt. 1 & 2
- Lonesome Desert Blues
- Me and My Gin
- Lady Luck Blues
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Aggravatin' Papa
- After You've Gone
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Trombone Cholly
- Down Hearted Blues
- St. Louis Blues
- Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
- Blue, Blue
- Back Water Blues
- Cake Walking Babies From Home
- Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town
- Downhearted Blues
- 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do
- My Sweetie Went Away
- Weeping Willow Blues
- St. Louis Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Sobbin' Hearted Blues
- Cold In Hand Blues
- You'd Been A Good Ole Wagon
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- The Yellow Dog Blues
- Nashville Woman's Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- J.C. Holmes Blues
- I Ain't Goin' To Play Second Fiddle
- Young Woman's Blues
- Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- Empty Bed Blues (Part 1)
- Empty Bed Blues (Part 2)
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
- Black Mountain Blues
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme A Pigfoot
- Haunted House Blues
- Eavesdropper's Blues
- Franlie Blues
- Rainy Weather Blues
- Salt Water Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Sinful Blues
- The St Louis Blues
- Reckless Blues
- Sobbin' Hearted Blues
- Cold In Hand Blues
- You've Been A Good Old Wagon
- Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home)
- Yellow Dog Blues
- Soft Pedal Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- Dixie Flyer Blues
- I Ain't Goin' To Play No Second Fiddle *
- St. Louis Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
- Kitchen Man
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- Dying Gambler's Blues
- After You've Gone
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- At the Christmas Ball
- Dyin' by the Hour
- 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Backwater Blues
- Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
- Me and My Gin
- Careless Love Blues
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Aggravatin' Papa
- There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
- I Ain't Goin' to Play Second Fiddle
- Boweavil Blues
- On Revival Day (A Rhythmic Spiritual)
- Trombone Cholly
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- Jail-House Blues
- Weeping Willow Blues
- Cake Walkin' Babies From Home
- Ticket Agent, Ease Your Window Down
- Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town
- Downhearted Blues
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Baby Wont You Please Come Home
- Taint Nobodys Business If I Do
- Any Womans Blues
- Chicago Bound Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Jail House Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- Boweavil Blues
- Bye Bye Blues
- House Rent Blues
- Sing Sing Prison Blues
- Womans Trouble Blues
- Work House Blues
- Aint Gonna Paly Second Fiddle
- St Louis Blues
- Careless Love Blues
- He's Gone Blues
- Love Me Daddy Blues
- Sinful Blues
- You've Been a Good Old Wagon
- Down Hearted Blues
- Gulf Coast Blues
- 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
- Keeps On A Rainin'
- Yodling Blues
- Bleeding Hearted Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- If You Don't, I Know Who Will
- Nobody In Town Can Bake A Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Jailhouse Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Cemetery Blues
- Any Woman's Blues
- Mistreatin' Daddy
- Easy Come, Easy Go Blues
- Moonshine Blues
- Boweavil Blues
- Hateful Blues
- Lady Luck Blues
- Outside of That
- Keeps on A-Rainin' (Papa, He Can't Make No Time)
- Down Hearted Blues
- Oh Daddy Blues
- Midnight Blues
- Baby Won't You Please Come Home
- Aggravatin' Papa
- If You Don't, I Know Who Will
- Jailhouse Blues
- Sam Jones Blues
- Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine
- Yodling Blues
- Bleeding Hearted Blues
- Mama's Got the Blues
- Taint Nobody's Business If I Do
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Beale Street Mama
- Frosty Morning Blues
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- Sweet Mistreater
- Alexanders Ragtime Band
- Trombone Cholly
- Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
- Lock and Key
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
- Dyin' by the Hour
- Foolish Man Blues
- Thinking Blues
- Devil's Gonna Get You
- I Used to Be Sweet Mama
- Standing in the Rain
- I'm Wild About That Thing
- You've Got to Give Me Some
- Kitchen Man
- He's Got Me Goin'
- Blue Spirit Blues
- Do Your Duty
- Young Woman's Blues
- There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
- Back Water Blues
- Muddy Water
- Trombone Cholly
- Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
- Them's Grave Words
- Hot Spring Blues
- Sweet Mistreater
- Lock and Key
- Mean Old Bedbug Blues
- A Good Man is Hard to Find
- Homeless Blues
- Looking for my Man Blues
- Dyin' by the Hour
- Foolish Man Blues
- Thinking Blues
- Pickpocket Blues
- I Used to be Your Sweet Mama
- I'd Rather be Dead and Buried in my Grave
- Downhearted Blues
- T'Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do
- St Louis Blues
- You've Been a Good Ole Wagon
- I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
- Young Woman's Blues
- Muddy Water
- Empty Bed Blues
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down
- Black Mountain Blues
- Do Your Duty
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Surf Coast Blues
- Baby, Won't You Please Come Home
- Easy Come, Easy Go Blues
- Rockin' Chair Blues
- Easy Come, Easy Go Blues
- Frosty Morning Blues
- Chicago Bound Blues
- My Sweet Went Away
- Sorrowful Blues
- Rocking Chair Blues
- Hateful Blues
- Pinchbacks - Take 'em Away
- Eavesdropper's Blues
- Haunted House Blues
- Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time
- Cemetery Blues
- Graveyard Dream Blues
- Far Away Blues
- I'm Going Back to My Used to Be
- Mistreating Daddy
- Any Woman's Blues
- Ticket Agent, Ease Your Window Down
- Boweavil Blues
- Blue Spirit Blues
- Black Mountain Blues
- The House Blues
- Nashville Woman's Blues
- I'm Down in the Dumps
- Blue Spirit Blues
- Kitchen Man
- Foolish Man Blues
- Thinking Blues
- Devil's Gonna Get You
- Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
- I'm Wild at That Thing
- You've Got to Give Me Some
- Standing in the Rain Blues
- He's Got Me Goin'
- Do Your Duty
- Dyin' by the Hour
- Lock and Key
- Gimme a Pigfoot
- Take Me for a Buggy Ride
- I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama
- Trombone Cholly
- Alexander's Ragtime Band
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Born: 1894-04-15
Died: 1937-09-26
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Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues (1929)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:25
- Published: 02 Feb 2009
- Updated: 25 Sep 2012
Bessie Smith, the "EMPRESS OF THE BLUES", (July 9, 1892 or April 15, 1894 — September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. Bessie Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists. Lyrics: I hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down Hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down, 'cause my baby, he done left this town Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today Feel tomorrow like I feel today, I'll pack my trunk, make my getaway St. Louis woman with her diamond rings Pulls that man 'round by her apron strings, 't'want for powder and for store-bought hair The man I love, would not gone nowhere, got the St. Louis blues just as blue as I can be That man got a heart like a rock cast in the sea, or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me Been to the gypsy to get my fortune told To the gypsy, to get my fortune told, 'cause I'm most wild about my jelly roll Gypsy done told me, "Don't you wear no black" Yes, she done told me, "Don't you wear no black, go to St. Louis, you can win him back" Help me to Cairo, make St. Louis by myself Gone to Cairo, find my old friend Jeff Goin' to pin myself close to his side, if I flag his train, I sure can ride I love that man like a schoolboy loves his pie Like a Kentucky Colonel loves his mint and rye1 I'll love my baby till the day I die You ought to see that stovepipe brown of mine, like he owns the <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_St_Louis_Blues_1929
Bessie Smith -- Baby Won't You Please Come Home 1923
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:01
- Published: 04 Mar 2008
- Updated: 05 Oct 2012
Bessie Smith -- Baby Won't You Please Come Home 1923 Bessie Smith (1892 or 1894 --1937) was the most popular and successful female American blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, and a strong influence on subsequent generations, including Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone and Janis Joplin. This is one of her first recordings in 1923 with pianist Clarence Williams. In no other way than living the kind of violent, hard-drinking street life she sang about, could Bessie Smith have inspired in her audiences the powerful empathy that ultimately won her the title, "Empress of the Blues." Throughout her career, Bessie was respected for being a strong, independent African-American woman with tremendous talent and determination. She expressed great pride in her culture, and gladly participated in its earthy pleasures, regularly indulging her taste for alcohol and sex to extremes. How ever much others tried to run roughshod over her, Bessie refused to submit to the slightest abuse without a knock-down, drag-out fight. With few exceptions, she held to her musical ideals with equal tenacity. Though musically illiterate, she regularly collaborated with her pianists to compose and write down her music and her words frequently touched on pertinent events in her life. Her performance style, too, derives considerably from her own personal and cultural attributes. (first posted on ilbofilms feb 24 2008; 492 views)
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_-_Baby_Won't_You_Please_Come_Home_1923
Bessie Smith (Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, 1929) Jazz Legend
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:04
- Published: 04 Jun 2009
- Updated: 05 Oct 2012
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (1929) Bessie Smith (Vocal) Ed Allen (Cornet) Garvin Bushell (as) Greely Walton or Arville Harris (ts) Clarence Williams (Piano) Cyrus St-Clair (tu)
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_Nobody_Knows_You_When_You're_Down_And_Out,_1929_Jazz_Legend
Bessie Smith- I need A Little Sugar In My bowl
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:49
- Published: 17 Feb 2009
- Updated: 04 Oct 2012
good song lyrics: Tired of bein' lonely, tired of bein' blue, I wished I had some good man, to tell my troubles to Seem like the whole world's wrong, since my man's been gone I need a little sugar in my bowl, I need a little hot dog, on my roll I can stand a bit of lovin', oh so bad, I feel so funny, I feel so sad I need a little steam-heat, on my floor, Maybe I can fix things up, so they'll go What's the matter, hard papa, come on and save you mama's soul 'Cause I need a little sugar, in my bowl, doggone it, I need a little sugar in my bowl I need a little sugar, in my bowl, I need a little hot dog, between my rolls You gettin' different, I've been told, move your finger, drop something in my bowl I need a little steam-heat on my floor, Maybe I can fix things up, so they'll go (spoken: Get off your knees, I can't see what you're drivin' at! It's dark down there! Looks like a snake! C'mon here and drop somethin' here in my bowl, stop your foolin', and drop somethin', in my bowl)
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_I_need_A_Little_Sugar_In_My_bowl
Bessy Smith - Tain't Nobodys Business If I Do (1923)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:20
- Published: 25 Nov 2008
- Updated: 02 Oct 2012
Bessie Smith (jul.9,1892 or apr.15,1894 - sep.26,1937) was Americas most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and '30s. Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists. As a way of earning money for their impoverished household, Smith and her brother Andrew began performing on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo, she singing and dancing, he accompanying on guitar; their preferred location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community. In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home by joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child." In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give her an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included Ma Rainey. By the early 1920s, Smith had starred with Sidney Bechet in How Come?, a musical that made its way to Broadway, and spent several years working out of Atlanta, Georgia's 81 Theater, performing in black theaters along the East Coast. Following a run-in with the producer of How Come?, she was replaced by <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Bessy_Smith_Tain't_Nobodys_Business_If_I_Do_1923
Bessie Smith - I'm Wild About That Thing (1929)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:51
- Published: 26 Sep 2008
- Updated: 04 Oct 2012
Bessie Smith (jul 9,1892 or apr.15,1894 - sep.26,1937) was Americas most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and '30s. Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists. As a way of earning money for their impoverished household, Smith and her brother Andrew began performing on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo, she singing and dancing, he accompanying on guitar; their preferred location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community. In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home by joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child." In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give her an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included Ma Rainey. By the early 1920s, Smith had starred with Sidney Bechet in How Come?, a musical that made its way to Broadway, and spent several years working out of Atlanta, Georgia's 81 Theater, performing in black theaters along the East Coast. Following a run-in with the producer of How Come?, she was replaced by <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_I'm_Wild_About_That_Thing_1929
Bessie Smith - Yellowdog Blues
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:02
- Published: 21 Feb 2008
- Updated: 03 Oct 2012
Bessie Smith... Joe Smith (c), Charlie Green (tb), Buster Bailey (cl), Coleman Hawkins(ts), Fletcher Henderson (p), Charlie Dixon (bjo), Bob Escudero (bb) 1925
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_Yellowdog_Blues
Bessie Smith-"Nobody knows you when you're down and out"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:00
- Published: 12 Oct 2009
- Updated: 05 Oct 2012
When celebrating my birthday this month, it was pointed out to me that my birth was not the only disaster to occur in 1929; there was also the Wall Street Crash and the subsequent Great Depression!! So, here is Bessie singing in 1929 of the hard times (we?) caused. With Ed Allen; cnt. Garvin Bushell; alt.sax. Greely Walton; ten.sax. Clarence Williams; pno and Cyrus St-Clair; tuba.
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith-Nobody_knows_you_when_you're_down_and_out
Norah Jones- Bessie Smith
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:01
- Published: 18 Jun 2008
- Updated: 05 Oct 2012
a very good song original sang by "the band" this is the version of norah jones in the house of blues of new orleans
http://wn.com/Norah_Jones_Bessie_Smith
Bessie Smith (Down Hearted Blues, 1923) Jazz Legend
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:25
- Published: 04 Jun 2009
- Updated: 03 Oct 2012
Down Hearted Blues (1923) Bessie Smith (Vocal) Clarence Williams (Piano)
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_Down_Hearted_Blues,_1923_Jazz_Legend
Empty Bed Blues Bessie Smith
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:35
- Published: 08 Mar 2009
- Updated: 05 Oct 2012
At last I have found the FULL version of this classic by Bessie and am posting it for all of her many fans who have so kindly commented on my earlier postings of her. It was recorded at the Columbia studios in New York on the 20th. March 1928 and includes her favourite trombone player; Charlie Green and Porter Grainger on piano.
http://wn.com/Empty_Bed_Blues_Bessie_Smith
Listening Guide to Backwater Blues by Bessie Smith
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:17
- Published: 24 Oct 2010
- Updated: 29 Sep 2012
Bessie Smith is the best-known of the female "classic blues" (or "city blues") singers from the 1910s and 1920s (others include Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Clara Smith, and Mamie Smith). Known as the"Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith's first recording, "Down-Hearted Blues," from 1923, was very successful, and helped her to become the leading African-American performer of the time. She performed in various minstrel and black vaudeville shows, and as her reputation and fame grew, she performed with many of the other leading early jazz musicians of her time: Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and James P. Johnson, just to name a few. Johnson was instrumental in the development of the piano style that emerged from Harlem in the 1920s known as "stride." In the age before sound amplification and microphones, a successful singer needed to be able to project. Smith's voice not only had this quality, it also possessed a rich timbre and tremendous emotive power. Her ability to use "blue notes" and other vocal embellishments, along with a loose melodic phrasing, became hallmarks of jazz and blues inflection that other musicians (singers and instrumentalists) emulated. In this recording of "Backwater Blues," we can hear these techniques at work, and they stand in contrast to the very structured twelve-bar blues form of the song. Notice, however, that although the form remains the same throughout, pianist James P. Johnson's accompaniment style frequently changes during different <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Listening_Guide_to_Backwater_Blues_by_Bessie_Smith
bessie smith - st louis blues II
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:53
- Published: 06 Mar 2007
- Updated: 16 Sep 2012
great blues woman
http://wn.com/bessie_smith_st_louis_blues_II
Bessie Smith - A Good Man is Hard to Find
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:10
- Published: 06 Jun 2010
- Updated: 04 Oct 2012
How is this not up yet?
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_A_Good_Man_is_Hard_to_Find
Careless Love Blues (Louis Armstrong & Bessie Smith, 1925) Jazz Legend
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:12
- Published: 04 Jun 2009
- Updated: 30 Sep 2012
Careless Love Blues (1925) Bessie Smith (Vocal) Louis Armstrong (Cornet) Charlie Green (Trombone) Fred Longshaw (Piano)
http://wn.com/Careless_Love_Blues_Louis_Armstrong_Bessie_Smith,_1925_Jazz_Legend
Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues (1929)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:55
- Published: 30 Nov 2007
- Updated: 04 Oct 2012
Nice one...isn't it xD?
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_St_Louis_Blues_1929
Bessie Smith Careless Love Blues
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:26
- Published: 27 Apr 2009
- Updated: 04 Oct 2012
Careless Love Blues. One of my favorite songs.
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_Careless_Love_Blues
Bessie Smith - I ain't got nobody (1925)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:10
- Published: 28 Oct 2008
- Updated: 28 Sep 2012
Bessie Smith (jul 9,1892 or apr.15,1894 - sep.26,1937) was Americas most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and '30s. Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists. As a way of earning money for their impoverished household, Smith and her brother Andrew began performing on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo, she singing and dancing, he accompanying on guitar; their preferred location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community. In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home by joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child." In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give her an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included Ma Rainey. By the early 1920s, Smith had starred with Sidney Bechet in How Come?, a musical that made its way to Broadway, and spent several years working out of Atlanta, Georgia's 81 Theater, performing in black theaters along the East Coast. Following a run-in with the producer of How Come?, she was replaced by <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_I_ain't_got_nobody_1925
Bessie Smith - Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl (1931)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:49
- Published: 29 Apr 2011
- Updated: 05 Oct 2012
Columbia 14634-D - 11-20-1931 - Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Clarence Williams / D. Small / Tim Brymn) Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 -- September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_Need_A_Little_Sugar_In_My_Bowl_1931
Bob Dylan & The Band - Bessie Smith
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:21
- Published: 08 Mar 2011
- Updated: 25 Sep 2012
Taken from the album "The Basement Tapes" (1975).
http://wn.com/Bob_Dylan_The_Band_Bessie_Smith
Bessie Smith - After You've Gone (1927)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:58
- Published: 07 Aug 2008
- Updated: 04 Oct 2012
Bessie Smith (1892 - 1937) was a rough, crude, violent woman. She was also the greatest of the classic Blues singers of the 1920s. Bessie started out as a street musician in Chattanooga. In 1912 Bessie joined a traveling show as a dancer and singer. The show featured Pa and Ma Rainey, and Smith developed a friendship with Ma. Ma Rainey was Bessie's mentor and she stayed with her show until 1915. Bessie then joined the TOBA vaudeville circuit and gradually built up her own following in the south and along the eastern seaboard. By the early 1920s she was one of the most popular Blues singers in vaudeville. In 1923 she made her recording debut on Columbia, accompanied by pianist Clarence Williams. They recorded "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Down Hearted Blues." The record sold more than 750000 copies that same year, rivaling the success of Blues singer Mamie Smith (no relation). Throughout the 1920s Smith recorded with many of the great Jazz musicians of that era, including Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman and Louis Armstrong. Her rendition of "St. Louis Blues" with Armstrong is considered by most critics to be one of finest recordings of the 1920s. Bessie Smith was one of the biggest African-American stars of the 1920s and was popular with both Whites and African-Americans, but by 1931 the Classic Blues style of Bessie Smith was out of style and the Depression, radio, and sound movies had all damaged the record companies' ability to sell records <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Bessie_Smith_After_You've_Gone_1927
BESSIE SMITH ANY WOMANS BLUES
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:33
- Published: 23 Feb 2008
- Updated: 28 Sep 2012
BESSIE SMITH ANY WOMANS BLUES
http://wn.com/BESSIE_SMITH_ANY_WOMANS_BLUES
Blue Spirit Blues (Bessie Smith, 1929) Jazz Legend
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:56
- Published: 04 Jun 2009
- Updated: 05 Oct 2012
Blue Spirit Blues (1929) Bessie Smith (Vocal) James P. Johnson (Piano)
http://wn.com/Blue_Spirit_Blues_Bessie_Smith,_1929_Jazz_Legend
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Available everywhere October 30, 2012 Download image...(size: 21.6Kb)
Nashville Tennessean
CHATTANOOGA — An anonymous donor has stepped up to ensure the Bessie Smith Strut will go on, preserving the annual music event honoring the hometown blues singer. The board chairman of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center told the Chattanooga City Council that...(size: 1.7Kb)
my SA
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — An anonymous donor has stepped up to ensure the Bessie Smith Strut will go on, preserving the annual music even honoring the hometown blues singer. The board chairman of the Bessie Smith...(size: 1.4Kb)
Huffington Post
What hugely popular female singer beat a rival unconscious, slept with her musical director, seduced her female backup dancers (driving one of them to attempt suicide), had drag queens following her on tour, frequented live sex shows and orgies, and mortified New York society by telling a wealthy...(size: 10.5Kb)
Insurance Newsnet
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Insurance for Bessie Smith Strut still up in the air [Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.]
12 Apr 2012
Insurance Newsnet
...(size: 0.4Kb)
Bessie Smith Strut moves to Riverbend
29 Mar 2012
MSNBC
Chattanooga, Tenn. — The Bessie Smith Strut will move from M.L. King Boulevard to the Riverbend Festival site this year, according to festival Executive Director Chip Baker. The decision was prompted by a request from the city, Baker said Wednesday. "We were told to move the site by the...(size: 3.5Kb)
Stockhouse
ADVISORY, Aug 9, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX News Network) -- What: "The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith" Show will visit the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City's Times Square. In honor of the occasion, Miche Braden will ring the Closing Bell. Where: NASDAQ...(size: 4.3Kb)
Blues legend Bessie Smith in 'The Devil's Music'
23 Jun 2011
Newsday
Quick ReadLegendary Bessie Smith portrayed in off-Broadway musical revue 'The Devil's Music' (AP) -- "There's some that calls the blues the devil's music. Well, honey, I done danced to the devil's music. So, I gotta give the devil his due." So says blues icon Bessie Smith, to whom the devil is a...(size: 7.1Kb)
Rating for Bessie Smith:
23 Jun 2011
The Examiner
“If you value your life . . . I’m in a bad mood today,” says the tough, inebriated Bessie Smith (Miche Braden), known as the “Empress of the Blues.” It’s 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, in what they called a buffet flat, a private establishment where blacks...(size: 8.7Kb)
| Bessie Smith | |
|---|---|
 1936 photograph by Carl Van Vechten |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | (1894-04-15)April 15, 1894 Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States |
| Died | September 26, 1937(1937-09-26) (aged 43) Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States |
| Genres | Blues, Jazz |
| Occupations | Singer, actress |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1912–1937 |
| Labels | Columbia |
| Associated acts | Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters |
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer.
Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s.[1] She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.[2]
Contents |
Life[link]
The 1900 census indicates that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in July 1892. However, the 1910 census recorded her birthday as April 15, 1894, a date that appears on all subsequent documents and was observed by the entire Smith family. Census data also contributes to controversy about the size of her family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, while later interviews with Smith's family and contemporaries did not include these individuals among her siblings.
Bessie Smith was the daughter of Laura (née Owens) and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the gospel", in Moulton, Lawrence, Alabama.) He died before his daughter could remember him. By the time she was nine, she had lost her mother and a brother as well. Her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings.[3]
To earn money for their impoverished household, Bessie Smith and her brother Andrew began busking on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo: she singing and dancing, he accompanying her on guitar. Their favorite location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community.
In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home by joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."[4]
In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe. He arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give Smith an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included the unknown singer, Ma Rainey. Smith eventually moved on to performing in various chorus lines, making the "81" Theater in Atlanta her home base. There were times when she worked in shows on the black-owned T.O.B.A Theater Owners Booking Association circuit. She would rise to become its biggest star after signing with Columbia Records.
By 1923, when she began her recording career, Smith had taken up residence in Philadelphia. There she met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was released. During the marriage—a stormy one, with infidelity on both sides—Smith became the highest paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her own railroad car. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business life, or to Smith's bisexuality. In 1929, when she learned of his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Bessie Smith ended the relationship, although neither of them sought a divorce.
Smith eventually found a common-law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband. She stayed with him until her death.[5]
Career[link]
All contemporary accounts indicate that while Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she probably helped her develop a stage presence.[6] Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920, Smith had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.
In 1920, sales figures for "Crazy Blues," an Okeh Records recording by singer Mamie Smith (no relation) pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to blacks, but the success of the record led to a search for female blues singers. Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923 and her first session for Columbia was February 15, 1923. For most of 1923, her records were issued on Columbia's regular A- series; when the label decided to establish a "race records" series, Smith's "Cemetery Blues" (September 26, 1923) was the first issued.
She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues", which its composer Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s.[7] Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day.[8] Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues," but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to "Empress".
Smith was gifted with a powerfully strong voice that recorded very well from her first record, made during the time when recordings were made acoustically. With the coming of electrical recording (circa 1925), the sheer power of her voice was even more evident.
She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green and Fletcher Henderson.
Broadway[link]
Smith's career was cut short by a combination of the Great Depression,which nearly put the recording industry out of business, and the advent of "talkies", which spelled the end for vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. While the days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, Smith continued touring and occasionally singing in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway flop called Pansy, a musical in which top critics said she was the only asset.
Film[link]
In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and a string section—a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.
Swing era[link]
In 1933, John Hammond, who also mentored Billie Holiday, asked Smith to record four sides for Okeh (which had been acquired by Columbia Records in 1925). He claimed to have found her in semi-obscurity, working as a hostess in a speakeasy on Philadelphia's Ridge Avenue.[9] Bessie Smith worked at Art's Cafe on Ridge Avenue, but not as a hostess and not until the summer of 1936. In 1933, when she made the Okeh sides, Bessie was still touring. Hammond was known for his selective memory and gratuitous embellishments.[10]
Bessie Smith was paid a non-royalty fee of $37.50 for each selection and these Okeh sides, which were her last recordings. Made November 24, 1933, they serve as a hint of the transformation she made in her performances as she shifted her blues artistry into something that fit the "swing era". The relatively modern accompaniment is notable. The band included such swing era musicians as trombonist Jack Teagarden, trumpeter Frankie Newton, tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, pianist Buck Washington, guitarist Bobby Johnson, and bassist Billy Taylor. Benny Goodman, who happened to be recording with Ethel Waters in the adjoining studio, dropped by and is barely audible on one selection. Hammond was not entirely pleased with the results, preferring to have Smith revisit her old blues groove. "Take Me for a Buggy Ride" and "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)", both written by Wesley Wilson, continue to be ranked among her most popular recordings.[11] Billie Holiday, who credited Smith as her major influence along with Louis Armstrong, would go on to record her first record for Columbia three days later under the same band personnel.
Death[link]
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her lover, Richard Morgan, was driving and, probably mesmerized by the long stretch of straight road, misjudged the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. Tire marks at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid the truck by driving around its left side, but he hit the rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The tailgate of the truck sheared off the wooden roof of Smith's old Packard. Smith, who was in the passenger seat, probably with her right arm or elbow out the window, took the full brunt of the impact. Morgan escaped without injuries.
The first people on the scene were a Memphis surgeon, Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation), and his fishing partner Henry Broughton. In the early 1970s, Dr. Smith gave a detailed account of his experience to Bessie's biographer Chris Albertson. This is the most reliable eyewitness testimony about the events surrounding Bessie Smith's death.
After stopping at the accident scene, Dr. Smith examined Bessie Smith, who was lying in the middle of the road with obviously severe injuries. He estimated she had lost about a half-pint of blood, and immediately noted a major traumatic injury to her right arm; it had been almost completely severed at the elbow.[12] But Dr. Smith was emphatic that this arm injury alone did not cause her death. Although the light was poor, he observed only minor head injuries. He attributed her death to extensive and severe crush injuries to the entire right side of her body, consistent with a "sideswipe" collision.[13]
Broughton and Dr. Smith moved the singer to the shoulder of the road. Dr. Smith dressed her arm injury with a clean handkerchief and asked Broughton to go to a house about 500 feet off the road to call an ambulance.
By the time Broughton returned approximately 25 minutes later, Bessie Smith was in shock. Time passed with no sign of the ambulance, so Dr. Smith suggested that they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He and Broughton had almost finished clearing the back seat when they heard the sound of a car approaching at high speed. Dr. Smith flashed his lights in warning, but the oncoming car failed to stop and plowed into the doctor's car at full speed. It sent his car careering into Bessie Smith's overturned Packard, completely wrecking it. The oncoming car ricocheted off Dr. Smith's car into the ditch on the right, barely missing Broughton and Bessie Smith.[14]
The young couple in the new car did not have life-threatening injuries. Two ambulances arrived on the scene from Clarksdale; one from the black hospital, summoned by Mr. Broughton, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver, who had not seen the accident victims.
Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's G.T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital, where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After Smith's death, an often repeated but now discredited story emerged about the circumstances; namely, that she had died as a result of having been refused admission to a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale. Jazz writer/producer John Hammond gave this account in an article in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat magazine. The circumstances of Smith's death and the rumor promoted by Hammond formed the basis for Edward Albee's 1959 one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith.[15]
"The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a white hospital, you can forget that." Dr. Smith told Albertson. "Down in the Deep South cotton country, no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought of putting a colored person off in a hospital for white folks."[16]
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Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia on Monday, October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur's funeral home. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3.[17] Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose.[18]
The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a tombstone—paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith—was erected.[19]
Dory Previn wrote a song of Janis Joplin and the tombstone called "Stone for Bessie Smith" on her album Mythical Kings and Iguanas.
The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.[20]
Selective awards and recognitions[link]
Grammy Hall of Fame[link]
Recordings of Bessie Smith were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. This special Grammy Award was established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
| Bessie Smith: Grammy Hall of Fame Award[21] | ||||
| Year Recorded | Title | Genre | Label | Year Inducted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1923 | "Downhearted Blues" | Blues (Single) | Columbia | 2006 |
| 1925 | "St. Louis Blues" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 1993 |
| 1928 | "Empty Bed Blues" | Blues (Single) | Columbia | 1983 |
National Recording Registry[link]
In 2002 Smith's recording of the single, "Downhearted Blues", was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.[22] The board selects songs on an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[23]
"Downhearted Blues" was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. It is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll.[24]
Inductions[link]
| Year Inducted | Category | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame | Jazz at Lincoln Center, NYC | ||
| 1989 | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award | |||
| 1989 | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | "Early influences" | ||
| 1981 | Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame | |||
| 1980 | Blues Hall of Fame | |||
U.S. Postage Stamp
| Year Issued | Stamp | USA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 29 cents Commemorative stamp | U.S. Postal Stamps | |
Digital remastering[link]
Technical faults in the majority of her original gramophone recordings—especially variations in recording speed, which raised or lowered the apparent pitch of her voice, misrepresented the "light and shade" of her phrasing, interpretation and delivery. They altered the apparent key of her performances (sometimes raised or lowered by as much as a semitone.) The fact that the "centre hole" in some of the master recordings had not been in the true middle of the master disc meant that there were wide variations in tone, pitch, key and phrasing, as commercially released records revolved around the spindle.
Given those historic limitations, the current digitally remastered versions of her work deliver significant, very positive differences in the sound quality of Smith's performances. Some critics believe that the American Columbia Records compact disc releases are somewhat inferior to subsequent transfers made by the late John R.T. Davies for Frog Records.[citation needed]
Popular culture[link]
- The 1948 short story "Blue Melody" by J.D. Salinger and the 1959 play The Death of Bessie Smith by Edward Albee both deal with Smith's death.
- Jack Peñate's song 'Learning Lines' off his first album refers to 'Bessie Smith, sings the blues' in its chorus.
References[link]
- ^ Jasen, David A.; Gene Jones (September 1998). Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880–1930. Schirmer Books. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-02-864742-5.
- ^ Bessie Smith at sparknotes.com
- ^ Albertson. Bessie (Revised and Expanded Edition), Yale University Press (New Haven), 2003. ISBN 0-300-09902-9.
- ^ Albertson, 2003, page 11.
- ^ Albertson, 2003.
- ^ Albertson, 2003, pp. 14–15.
- ^ Oliver, Paul. "Bessie Smith", in Kernfeld, Barry. ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition, Vol. 3. London: MacMillan, 2002. p. 604.
- ^ Albertson, 2003, pp. 80.
- ^ Hammond, "John Hammond On Record", p. 120.
- ^ Albertson, Bessie, pp. 224–225.
- ^ Albertson. Bessie (Revised and Expanded Edition), Yale University Press (New Haven), 2003. ISBN 0-300-09902-9
- ^ "Blues Legend Bessie Smith Dead 50 Years". Schenectady Gazette. 26 September 1987. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=a2VGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-ecMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1073,6477849&dq=theater+owners+booking+association&hl=en. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ Chris Albertson: Bessie: Empress of the Blues (Sphere Books, London, 1972) ISBN 0-300-09902-9), pp. 192–195
- ^ Chris Albertson: Bessie: Empress of the Blues (Sphere Books, London, 1972) ISBN 0-300-09902-9), p.195
- ^ Love, Spencie (1997). One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 67. ISBN 978-0-8078-4682-7. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=J-F3sSgLA_AC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=G.T.+Thomas+Hospital+clarksdale&source=bl&ots=pgJluPHI-I&sig=u-jPmqmQcCjPXplUvWnnIEvppak&hl=en&ei=Hi2rToCWH4mw8gOLiIygCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=G.T.%20Thomas%20Hospital%20clarksdale&f=false.
- ^ Chris Albertson: Bessie: Empress of the Blues (Sphere Books, London, 1972) ISBN 0-300-09902-9), p.196
- ^ Chris Albertson, Bessie: Empress of the Blues (Sphere Books, London, 1975, ISBN 0-349-10054-3)
- ^ Albertson, Bessie, pp. 2–5 and 277.
- ^ Albertson, Bessie, p. 277.
- ^ "Historical marker placed on Mississippi Blues Trail". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. January 25, 2007. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07025/756420-37.stm. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
- ^ Grammy Hall of Fame Award Database
- ^ 2002 Registry choices
- ^ Librarian of Congress Names 50 Sound Recordings to the Inaugural National Recording Registry
- ^ 500 Songs That Shaped Rock
Further reading[link]
- Albertson, Chris, Liner notes, Bessie Smith: The Complete Recordings, Volumes 1 – 5, Sony Music Entertainment, 1991.
- Albertson, Chris, Bessie (Revised and Expanded Edition), Yale University Press (New Haven), 2003. ISBN 0-300-09902-9.
- Barnet, Andrea (2004). All-Night Party: The Women of Bohemian Greenwich Village and Harlem, 1913–1930. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. ISBN 1-56512-381-6.
- Brooks, Edward, The Bessie Smith Companion: A Critical and Detailed Appreciation of the Recordings, Da Capo Press (New York), 1982. ISBN 0-306-76202-1.
- Davis, Angela Y., Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, Pantheon Books (New York), 1998. ISBN 0-679-45005-X.
- Eberhardt, Clifford, Out of Chattanooga, Ebco (Chattanooga), 1994.
- Feinstein, Elaine, Bessie Smith, Viking (New York), 1985, ISBN 0-670-80642-0.
- Grimes, Sara, Backwaterblues: In Search of Bessie Smith, Rose Island Pub. (Amherst), 2000, ISBN 0-9707089-0-4.
- Kay, Jackie, Bessie Smith, Absolute (New York), 1997. ISBN 1-899791-55-8.
- Manera, Alexandria, Bessie Smith, Raintree (Chicago), 2003. ISBN 0-7398-6875-6.
- Martin, Florence, Bessie Smith, Editions du Limon (Paris), 1994. ISBN 2-907224-31-X.
- Oliver, Paul, Bessie Smith, Cassell (London), 1959.
- Palmer, Tony, All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music, Grossman Publishers/Viking Press (New York), 1976. ISBN 0-670-11448-0.
- Welding, Pete; Byron, Tony (eds.), Bluesland: Portraits of Twelve Major American Blues Masters, Dutton (New York), 1991. ISBN 0-525-93375-1.
External links[link]
- Interview with Bessie Smith biographer Chris Albertson
- Bessie Smith at Find A Grave Memorial
- Bessie Smith discography at Discogs
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Smith, Bessie |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American blues singer |
| Date of birth | April 15, 1894 |
| Place of birth | Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States |
| Date of death | September 26, 1937 |
| Place of death | Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States |
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| Demetri Martin | |
|---|---|
 Demetri Martin at Northeastern University on April 11, 2007 |
|
| Born | (1973-05-25) May 25, 1973 (age 39) New York City, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | Since 2002 |
| Genres | Observational comedy, surreal humor, musical comedy, wit/wordplay, sketch comedy |
| Subject(s) | Everyday Life, American Culture, Random Subjects |
| Influences | Steven Wright, Eddie Izzard, Emo Philips, Mitch Hedberg, Socrates |
| Notable works and roles | · Demetri Martin. Person. · Correspondent on The Daily Show · Himself/Various on Important Things with Demetri Martin · Elliot Tiber in Taking Woodstock (2009) |
| Website | www.demetrimartin.com |
Demetri Martin (born May 25, 1973) is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on The Daily Show and for his Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Demetri Martin was born to a Greek American family[1] in New York City, New York, and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey. He is the son of Lillian, a nutritionist, and Dean C. Martin, now deceased, a Greek Orthodox priest.[2] Martin graduated from Yale University in 1995. Although he was accepted into Harvard Law School, he went to New York University School of Law after he received a full scholarship.[3]
Career[link]
In 2001, Martin caught his first big break in stand-up comedy when he appeared on Comedy Central's stand-up showcase Premium Blend. At the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe he won the Perrier award with his show If I....[4] The show was turned into a British television special in 2004. From 2003 to 2004, Martin wrote for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[5] In 2004, Martin had his own Comedy Central Presents stand-up special. His special was divided into three parts. In the first, he performed in traditional stand-up comedy fashion. In the second segment, he used humorous drawings as visual aids, which would serve either as the punchline or a background. During the third segment, he played a guitar and put on a pseudo-play where he would strum his guitar while alternating between playing harmonica and talking; some of his comedian friends dressed as fairies and dragons acted according to the story he was telling, detailing the magical land where his jokes came from. Martin's mother and grandmother also appeared.
Since late 2005, he has been credited as a contributor on The Daily Show, on which he has appeared as the named "Senior Youth Correspondent" and on which he hosts a segment called "Trendspotting". He has used this segment to talk about so-called hip trends among youth such as hookahs, wine, guerilla marketing and Xbox 360. A piece about social networking featured his profile on MySpace.[6] On March 22, 2007, Demetri made another appearance on The Daily Show, talking about the Viacom lawsuit against Google and YouTube.
He has recorded a comedy CD/DVD titled These Are Jokes, which was released on September 26, 2006. This album also features Saturday Night Live member Will Forte and stand-up comedian Leo Allen.
Martin returned to The Daily Show on March 22, 2006, as the new Youth Correspondent, calling his segment "Professional Important News with Demetri Martin". In 2007, he starred in a Fountains of Wayne music video for "Someone to Love" as Seth Shapiro, a character in the song. He also starred in the video for the Travis single "Selfish Jean", in which he wears multiple t-shirts with lyrics written on them.
On September 2, 2007, Martin appeared on the season finale of the HBO series Flight of the Conchords. He appeared as a keytar player named Demetri.[7]
He also had a part in the movie The Rocker (2008) starring Rainn Wilson. Martin played the part of the videographer when the band in the movie was making their first music video.
In 2009, he hosted and starred in his own television show called Important Things With Demetri Martin on Comedy Central. Later in June, it was announced his show had been renewed for a second season.[8] The second season premiered, again on Comedy Central, on February 4, 2010. Martin has stated that Important Things will not return for a third season.
Prior to completing work on his second season, Martin starred in the comedy-drama film Taking Woodstock (2009), directed by Ang Lee, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In the film Martin plays Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay artist who has given up his ambitions in the city to move upstate and help his old-world Jewish family run their Catskill Mountains motel. The film is based on the book written by Tiber.
On April 25, 2011, Martin released his first book, titled This Is a Book by Demetri Martin.
Martin was slated to portray Paul DePodesta as Oakland Athletics assistant GM to Billy Beane in the 2011 movie Moneyball, however was dropped and Jonah Hill took his place in the movie.
Plans[link]
Martin sold his movie concept Will to DreamWorks; he is expected to play a key supporting role.[9] He will play the lead in the film Moon People, a pitch that he sold to Columbia Pictures.
Martin also signed a blind script deal with CBS in October 2010 to produce, write, and star in his own television series.[10]
After CBS was shown the pilot for the series, they decided not to air it.[11]
On August 11, 2011, Fox ordered a presentation of a new animated show they might air.[citation needed]
[edit] If I
If I is a Perrier Comedy Award-winning comedy one-man show written and performed by Demetri Martin at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[12] It was also aired on British television as a special. The show is an autobiographical examination of Martin's life, as seen through various definitions of the word "if."
The title of the special comes from a lengthy palindromic poem that Martin wrote; the words "if I" are at the center of the poem.[13]
Comedic style[link]
Martin is known for being an unconventional stand-up comic. He uses one-liners and drawings on a "large pad", as well as accompanying his jokes with music on either guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboard, glockenspiel, toy bells, ukulele, or tambourine, sometimes all at once.[14] He has cited comedian Steven Wright as an important influence (both use deadpan one-liners in their acts) and he is also a fan of Bill Cosby.[15]
Personal life[link]
According to a July 2011 interview on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Demetri had a short-lived marriage to a girl he knew from high school. They began dating after high school and got married when he was in NYU Law School and she was attending NYU Medical School. He was aged 25 and in the end of his marriage when his stand-up career began.[3]
He is extremely allergic to nuts and peanuts.[16]
Martin moved to Santa Monica, California in 2009.[17]
Filmography[link]
- Invite Them Up (2005)
- These Are Jokes (2006)
- Demetri Martin. Person. (2007)
- Important Things with Demetri Martin (2009–2010)
Filmography and television work[link]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Analyze That | Personal Assistant | credited as "Demitri Martin" |
| 2003 | If I | Himself | British television special, also writer |
| 2004 | 12:21 | Himself | short film, also writer |
| 2004 | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Himself | 1 episode, series writer |
| 2007 | "Someone to Love" | Seth Shapiro | Fountains of Wayne music video |
| 2007 | Flight of the Conchords | Demetri | Season 1, Episode 12 |
| 2008 | The Rocker | Kip (a music video producer) | |
| 2009 | Paper Heart | Himself | |
| 2009 | Post Grad | Ad Exec | |
| 2009 | Taking Woodstock | Elliot Tiber | |
| 2009–2010 | Important Things with Demetri Martin | Himself / Various | writer, series creator, executive producer, and composer |
| 2011 | Take Me Home Tonight | Carlos | |
| 2011 | Contagion | Dr. David Eisenberg | |
| 2011 | Conan | Himself | guest |
Written works[link]
- This Is a Book, April 2011, ISBN 978-0446539708.
Awards and nominations[link]
| Year | Award | For | Category | Result | Other notes |
| 2003 | Perrier Comedy Award | If I | Won | At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe | |
| 2004 | Emmy Awards | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program | Nominated | Shared with Mike Sweeney (head writer), Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Daniel J. Goor, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg |
| 2005 | Writers Guild of America Award | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) - Series | Won | Shared with Mike Sweeney (head writer), Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Daniel J. Goor, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg |
| 2006 | Barry Award | Dr. Earnest Parrot Presents Demetri Martin | Won | Award for best show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival |
References[link]
- ^ "Demetri Martin: The joker in the pack". The Independent (London). August 17, 2004. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/demetri-martin-the-joker-in-the-pack-556879.html.
- ^
- "Sepinwall on TV: 'Important Things with Demetri Martin' Interview". TV & Film. New Jersey Entertainment. http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/02/sepinwall_on_tv_important_thin.html. Retrieved January 25, 2010.
- "Article: 'I know men who can far outgeek me'; Demetri Martin is obsessed with word games and maths, and sets himself bizarre challenges. He's also a favourite to win this year's Perrier Award". The Evening Standard. August 21, 2003. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-106769338.html?refid=gg_x_02. Retrieved January 25, 2010.
- ^ a b "WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 195 - Demetri Martin". Wtfpod.com. http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_195_-_demetri_martin. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
- ^ Martin, Demetri (May 25, 2004). "Diary: A Weeklong Electronic Journal". Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/2101150/entry/2101158/. Retrieved February 24, 2007.
- ^ "Demetri Martin Bio". Comedy Central. http://www.comedycentral.com/comedians/browse/m/demetri_martin.jhtml. Retrieved March 7, 2008.
- ^ "News Team: Demetri Martin". The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Comedy Central. http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/news_team/contributors/demetri_martin.jhtml. Retrieved February 24, 2007.
- ^ "The Flight of the Conchords" The Third Conchord (2007) - Full cast and crew
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave (June 2, 2009). "Another 'Important' Season for Demetri Martin". The New York Times. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/another-important-season-for-demetri-martin/. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ Gardner, Chris (March 27, 2006). "'Will' Fills D'Works Bill". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117940457.html?categoryid=1948&cs=1. Retrieved February 24, 2007.
- ^ "Demetri Martin To Star, Write, Produce Own CBS Show". October 19, 2010. http://demetrimartin.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/demetri-martin-to-star-write-produce-own-cbs-show/.
- ^ "Demetri Martin's CBS Show Not Happening". March 11, 2011. http://demetrimartin.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/demetri-martins-cbs-show-not-happening/.
- ^ Boztas, Senay (August 24, 2003). "Martin Lands Perrier Award". The Sunday Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article883269.ece. Retrieved May 12, 2009.
- ^ "Festival: It's All Geek to Me". The Sunday Times (London). August 17, 2003. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article872984.ece.
- ^ "Comedian Demetri Martin's 'Important' TV Show Fails at Funny". The Daily Texan. February 20, 2009. http://www.dailytexanonline.com/1.1370449-1.1370449. Retrieved January 25, 2010. [dead link]
- ^ Huang, Keith (May 5, 2005). "Word Games". Gelf. http://www.gelfmagazine.com/mt/archives/word_games.html. Retrieved February 24, 2007.
- ^ "Will Ferrell Rider". The Smoking Gun. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/will-ferrell-rider?page=2. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
- ^
- The Adam Carolla Show (podcast), 13 April 2011, 20 minute mark
- Horn, John (June 21, 2009). "Demetri Martin, star of 'Taking Woodstock'". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/21/entertainment/ca-hot-martin21. Retrieved 21 April 2011. "Martin, who recently moved from Brooklyn to West Los Angeles"
External links[link]
 |
This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (May 2012) |
- Official website
- Demetri Martin on Myspace
- Demetri Martin at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview from November, 2006, in Onion AV Club
- Interview from October 2006, in The DePaulia
- Article, in The Scotsman
- Article, in Gelf Magazine
- Interview by Brian M. Palmer
- MP3 Audio Interview on The Sound of Young America public radio show and podcast
- Interview Believer Mag
- New Jersey Monthly Magazine
- Fresh Air, NPR.org
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Martin, Demetri |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer, and humorist |
| Date of birth | May 25, 1973 |
| Place of birth | New York City, New York, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Demetri_Martin
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Louis Armstrong | |
|---|---|
 Louis Armstrong's stage personality matched his flashy cornet and trumpet playing. Armstrong is also known for his raspy singing voice. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Louis Armstrong |
| Born | August 4, 1901 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | July 6, 1971(1971-07-06) (aged 69) Corona, Queens, New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Dixieland, jazz, swing, traditional pop |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Years active | c. 1914–71 |
| Associated acts | Joe "King" Oliver, Ella Fitzgerald, Kid Ory, Bobby Hackett |
Louis Armstrong[1] (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971),[2] nicknamed Satchmo[3] or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.
Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable deep and distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over," whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. It allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man. While he rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, he was privately a strong supporter of the Civil Rights movement in America.[citation needed]
Contents |
Early life[link]
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Armstrong often stated that he was born on July 4, 1900,[4] a date that has been noted in many biographies. Although he died in 1971, it was not until the mid-1980s that his true birth date of August 4, 1901 was discovered through the examination of baptismal records.[5]
Armstrong was born into a very poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, the grandson of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty, in a rough neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, known as “Back of the Town”, as his father, William Armstrong (1881–1922), abandoned the family when Louis was an infant and took up with another woman. His mother, Mary "Mayann" Albert (1886–1942), then left Louis and his younger sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903–1987) in the care of his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong, and at times, his Uncle Isaac. At five, he moved back to live with his mother and her relatives, and saw his father only in parades.
He attended the Fisk School for Boys, where he likely had early exposure to music. He brought in some money as a paperboy and also by finding discarded food and selling it to restaurants, but it was not enough to keep his mother from prostitution. He hung out in dance halls close to home, where he observed everything from licentious dancing to the quadrille. For extra money he also hauled coal to Storyville, the famed red-light district, and listened to the bands playing in the brothels and dance halls, especially Pete Lala's where Joe "King" Oliver performed and other famous musicians would drop in to jam.
After dropping out of the Fisk School at age eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money. But he also started to get into trouble. Cornet player Bunk Johnson said he taught Armstrong (then 11) to play by ear at Dago Tony's Tonk in New Orleans,[6] although in his later years Armstrong gave the credit to Oliver. Armstrong hardly looked back at his youth as the worst of times but instead drew inspiration from it, “Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans...It has given me something to live for.”[7]
He also worked for a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant family, the Karnofskys, who had a junk hauling business and gave him odd jobs. They took him in and treated him as almost a family member, knowing he lived without a father, and would feed and nurture him.[8] He later wrote a memoir of his relationship with the Karnofskys titled, Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans, La., the Year of 1907. In it he describes his discovery that this family was also subject to discrimination by "other white folks' nationalities who felt that they were better than the Jewish race. I was only seven years old but I could easily see the ungodly treatment that the White Folks were handing the poor Jewish family whom I worked for." Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life and wrote about what he learned from them: "how to live—real life and determination."[9] The influence of Karnofsky is remembered in New Orleans by the Karnofsky Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to accepting donated musical instruments to "put them into the hands of an eager child who could not otherwise take part in a wonderful learning experience."[10]
File:LouisArmstrong PeterDavis1.jpg
Armstrong with his first trumpet instructor, Peter Davis, in 1965.
Armstrong developed his cornet playing seriously in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a long term after firing his stepfather's pistol into the air at a New Year's Eve celebration, as police records confirm. Professor Peter Davis (who frequently appeared at the Home at the request of its administrator, Captain Joseph Jones)[11] instilled discipline in and provided musical training to the otherwise self-taught Armstrong. Eventually, Davis made Armstrong the band leader. The Home band played around New Orleans and the thirteen year old Louis began to draw attention by his cornet playing, starting him on a musical career.[12] At fourteen he was released from the Home, living again with his father and new stepmother and then back with his mother and also back to the streets and their temptations. Armstrong got his first dance hall job at Henry Ponce’s where Black Benny became his protector and guide. He hauled coal by day and played his cornet at night.
He played in the city's frequent brass band parades and listened to older musicians every chance he got, learning from Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, and above all, Joe "King" Oliver, who acted as a mentor and father figure to the young musician. Later, he played in the brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and began traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable, which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River. He described his time with Marable as, "going to the University," since it gave him a much wider experience working with written arrangements.
In 1919, Joe Oliver decided to go north and resigned his position in Kid Ory's band; Armstrong replaced him. He also became second trumpet for the Tuxedo Brass Band, a society band.[13]
Career[link]
File:Heebie Jeebies.jpg
“Heebie Jeebies” by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five
On March 19, 1918, Louis married Daisy Parker from Gretna, Louisiana. They adopted a 3-year-old boy, Clarence Armstrong, whose mother, Louis' cousin Flora, died soon after giving birth. Clarence Armstrong was mentally disabled (the result of a head injury at an early age) and Louis would spend the rest of his life taking care of him.[14] Louis' marriage to Parker failed quickly and they separated. She died shortly after the divorce.
Through all his riverboat experience Armstrong’s musicianship began to mature and expand. At twenty, he could read music and he started to be featured in extended trumpet solos, one of the first jazzmen to do this, injecting his own personality and style into his solo turns. He had learned how to create a unique sound and also started using singing and patter in his performances.[15] In 1922, Armstrong joined the exodus to Chicago, where he had been invited by his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver, to join his Creole Jazz Band and where he could make a sufficient income so that he no longer needed to supplement his music with day labor jobs. It was a boom time in Chicago and though race relations were poor, the “Windy City” was teeming with jobs for black people, who were making good wages in factories and had plenty to spend on entertainment.
Oliver's band was the best and most influential hot jazz band in Chicago in the early 1920s, at a time when Chicago was the center of the jazz universe. Armstrong lived like a king in Chicago, in his own apartment with his own private bath (his first). Excited as he was to be in Chicago, he began his career-long pastime of writing nostalgic letters to friends in New Orleans. As Armstrong’s reputation grew, he was challenged to “cutting contests” by hornmen trying to displace the new phenom, who could blow two hundred high C’s in a row.[16] Armstrong made his first recordings on the Gennett and Okeh labels (jazz records were starting to boom across the country), including taking some solos and breaks, while playing second cornet in Oliver's band in 1923. At this time, he met Hoagy Carmichael (with whom he would collaborate later) who was introduced by friend Bix Beiderbecke, who now had his own Chicago band.
Armstrong enjoyed working with Oliver, but Louis' second wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing and develop his newer style away from the influence of Oliver. Armstrong took the advice of his wife and left Oliver's band. For a year Armstrong played in Fletcher Henderson's band in New York on many recordings. After playing in New York, Armstrong returned to Chicago, playing in large orchestras; there he created his most important early recordings.[17] Lil had her husband play classical music in church concerts to broaden his skill and improve his solo play and she prodded him into wearing more stylish attire to make him look sharp and to better offset his growing girth. Lil’s influence eventually undermined Armstrong’s relationship with his mentor, especially concerning his salary and additional moneys that Oliver held back from Armstrong and other band members. Armstrong and Oliver parted amicably in 1924. Shortly afterward, Armstrong received an invitation to go to New York City to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, the top African-American band of the day. Armstrong switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section. His influence upon Henderson's tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins, can be judged by listening to the records made by the band during this period.
Armstrong quickly adapted to the more tightly controlled style of Henderson, playing trumpet and even experimenting with the trombone and the other members quickly took up Armstrong’s emotional, expressive pulse. Soon his act included singing and telling tales of New Orleans characters, especially preachers.[18] The Henderson Orchestra was playing in the best venues for white-only patrons, including the famed Roseland Ballroom, featuring the classy arrangements of Don Redman. Duke Ellington’s orchestra would go to Roseland to catch Armstrong’s performances and young hornmen around town tried in vain to outplay him, splitting their lips in their attempts.
During this time, Armstrong made many recordings on the side, arranged by an old friend from New Orleans, pianist Clarence Williams; these included small jazz band sides with the Williams Blue Five (some of the best pairing Armstrong with one of Armstrong's few rivals in fiery technique and ideas, Sidney Bechet) and a series of accompaniments with blues singers, including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter.
Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 due mostly to the urging of his wife, who wanted to pump up Armstrong’s career and income. He was content in New York but later would concede that she was right and that the Henderson Orchestra was limiting his artistic growth. In publicity, much to his chagrin, she billed him as “the World’s Greatest Trumpet Player”. At first he was actually a member of the Lil Hardin Armstrong Band and working for his wife.[19] He began recording under his own name for Okeh with his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven groups, producing hits such as "Potato Head Blues", "Muggles", (a reference to marijuana, for which Armstrong had a lifelong fondness), and "West End Blues", the music of which set the standard and the agenda for jazz for many years to come.
The group included Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo), wife Lil on piano, and usually no drummer. Armstrong’s bandleading style was easygoing, as St. Cyr noted, "One felt so relaxed working with him and he was very broad-minded ... always did his best to feature each individual."[20] His recordings soon after with pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines (most famously their 1928 Weatherbird duet) and Armstrong's trumpet introduction to "West End Blues" remain some of the most famous and influential improvisations in jazz history. Armstrong was now free to develop his personal style as he wished, which included a heavy dose of effervescent jive, such as "whip that thing, Miss Lil" and "Mr. Johnny Dodds, Aw, do that clarinet, boy!"[21]
Armstrong also played with Erskine Tate’s Little Symphony, actually a quintet, which played mostly at the Vendome Theatre. They furnished music for silent movies and live shows, including jazz versions of classical music, such as “Madame Butterfly,” which gave Armstrong experience with longer forms of music and with hosting before a large audience. He began to scat sing (improvised vocal jazz using non-sensical words) and was among the first to record it, on "Heebie Jeebies" in 1926. So popular was the recording the group became the most famous jazz band in the USA even though they as yet had not performed live to any great degree. Young musicians across the country, black or white, were turned on by Armstrong’s new type of jazz.[22]
After separating from Lil, Armstrong started to play at the Sunset Café for Al Capone's associate Joe Glaser in the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra, with Earl Hines on piano, which was soon renamed Louis Armstrong and his Stompers,[23] though Hines was the music director and Glaser managed the orchestra. Hines and Armstrong became fast friends as well as successful collaborators.
Armstrong returned to New York, in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra of the successful musical Hot Chocolate, an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and pianist/composer Fats Waller. He also made a cameo appearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin'", his version of the song becoming his biggest selling record to date.[24]
Armstrong started to work at Connie's Inn in Harlem, chief rival to the Cotton Club, a venue for elaborately staged floor shows,[25] and a front for gangster Dutch Schultz. Armstrong also had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of famous songs composed by his old friend Hoagy Carmichael. His 1930s recordings took full advantage of the new RCA ribbon microphone, introduced in 1931, which imparted a characteristic warmth to vocals and immediately became an intrinsic part of the 'crooning' sound of artists like Bing Crosby. Armstrong's famous interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" became one of the most successful versions of this song ever recorded, showcasing Armstrong's unique vocal sound and style and his innovative approach to singing songs that had already become standards.
Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's "Lazy River" (recorded in 1931) encapsulated many features of his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is stated by sobbing horns, memorably punctuated by Armstrong's growling interjections at the end of each bar: "Yeah! ..."Uh-huh" ..."Sure" ... "Way down, way down." In the first verse, he ignores the notated melody entirely and sings as if playing a trumpet solo, pitching most of the first line on a single note and using strongly syncopated phrasing. In the second stanza he breaks into an almost fully improvised melody, which then evolves into a classic passage of Armstrong "scat singing".
As with his trumpet playing, Armstrong's vocal innovations served as a foundation stone for the art of jazz vocal interpretation. The uniquely gritty coloration of his voice became a musical archetype that was much imitated and endlessly impersonated. His scat singing style was enriched by his matchless experience as a trumpet soloist. His resonant, velvety lower-register tone and bubbling cadences on sides such as "Lazy River" exerted a huge influence on younger white singers such as Bing Crosby.
The Depression of the early Thirties was especially hard on the jazz scene. The Cotton Club closed in 1936 after a long downward spiral and many musicians stopped playing altogether as club dates evaporated. Bix Beiderbecke died and Fletcher Henderson’s band broke up. King Oliver made a few records but otherwise struggled. Sidney Bechet became a tailor and Kid Ory returned to New Orleans and raised chickens.[26] Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 to seek new opportunities. He played at the New Cotton Club in LA with Lionel Hampton on drums. The band drew the Hollywood crowd, which could still afford a lavish night life, while radio broadcasts from the club connected with younger audiences at home. Bing Crosby and many other celebrities were regulars at the club. In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first movie, Ex-Flame. Armstrong was convicted of marijuana possession but received a suspended sentence.[27] He returned to Chicago in late 1931 and played in bands more in the Guy Lombardo vein and he recorded more standards. When the mob insisted that he get out of town, Armstrong visited New Orleans, got a hero’s welcome and saw old friends. He sponsored a local baseball team known as “Armstrong’s Secret Nine” and got a cigar named after himself.[28] But soon he was on the road again and after a tour across the country shadowed by the mob, Armstrong decided to go to Europe to escape.
After returning to the States, he undertook several exhausting tours. His agent Johnny Collins’ erratic behavior and his own spending ways left Armstrong short of cash. Breach of contract violations plagued him. Finally, he hired Joe Glaser as his new manager, a tough mob-connected wheeler-dealer, who began to straighten out his legal mess, his mob troubles, and his debts. Armstrong also began to experience problems with his fingers and lips, which were aggravated by his unorthodox playing style. As a result he branched out, developing his vocal style and making his first theatrical appearances. He appeared in movies again, including Crosby's 1936 hit Pennies from Heaven. In 1937, Armstrong substituted for Rudy Vallee on the CBS radio network and became the first African American to host a sponsored, national broadcast.[29] He finally divorced Lil in 1938 and married longtime girlfriend Alpha.
After spending many years on the road, Armstrong settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943 in contentment with his fourth wife, Lucille. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, as well as anti-black prejudice, he continued to develop his playing. He recorded Hoagy Carmichael's Rockin' Chair for Okeh Records.
During the subsequent thirty years, Armstrong played more than three hundred gigs a year. Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940s due to changes in public tastes: ballrooms closed, and there was competition from television and from other types of music becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible under such circumstances to support and finance a 16-piece touring band.
The All Stars[link]
Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden, Armstrong's manager Joe Glaser dissolved the Armstrong big band on August 13, 1947 and established a six-piece small group featuring Armstrong with (initially) Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and dixieland musicians, most of them ex-big band leaders. The new group was announced at the opening of Billy Berg's Supper Club.
This group was called Louis Armstrong and his All Stars and included at various times Earl "Fatha" Hines, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole, Tyree Glenn, Barrett Deems, Joe Darensbourg and the Filipino-American percussionist, Danny Barcelona. During this period, Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. He was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time Magazine on February 21, 1949.
In 1964, he recorded his biggest-selling record, "Hello, Dolly!" The song went to #1 on the pop chart, making Armstrong (age 63) the oldest person to ever accomplish that feat. In the process, Armstrong dislodged The Beatles from the #1 position they had occupied for 14 consecutive weeks with three different songs.[30]
Armstrong kept up his busy tour schedule until a few years before his death in 1971. In his later years he would sometimes play some of his numerous gigs by rote, but other times would enliven the most mundane gig with his vigorous playing, often to the astonishment of his band. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under sponsorship of the US State Department with great success, earning the nickname "Ambassador Satch." While failing health restricted his schedule in his last years, within those limitations he continued playing until the day he died.
Death[link]
Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep on July 6, 1971, a month before his 70th birthday,[31] and 11 months after playing a famous show at the Waldorf-Astoria's Empire Room.[32] He was residing in Corona, Queens, New York City, at the time of his death.[33] He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City.[34]
His honorary pallbearers included Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson and David Frost.[35] Peggy Lee sang The Lord's Prayer at the services while Al Hibbler sang "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and Fred Robbins, a long-time friend, gave the eulogy.[36]
Personal life[link]
Personality[link]
 |
This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (November 2011) |
Armstrong was a colorful character. His own biography vexes biographers and historians, because he had a habit of telling tales, particularly of his early childhood, when he was less scrutinized, and his embellishments of his history often lack consistency.
He was not only an entertainer. Armstrong was a leading personality of the day who was so beloved by America that gave even the greatest African American performers little access beyond their public celebrity, that he was able to live privately a life of access and privilege accorded to few other African Americans.
He tried to remain politically neutral, which gave him a large part of that access, but often alienated him from members of the black community who looked to him to use his prominence with white America to become more of an outspoken figure during the Civil Rights Era of U.S. history.
Nicknames[link]
The nicknames Satchmo and Satch are short for Satchelmouth. Like many things in Armstrong's life, which was filled with colorful stories both real and imagined, many of his own telling, the nickname has many possible origins.
The most common tale that biographers tell is the story of Armstrong as a young boy dancing for pennies in the streets of New Orleans, who would scoop up the coins off of the streets and stick them into his mouth to avoid having the bigger children steal them from him. Someone dubbed him "satchel mouth" for his mouth acting as a satchel. Another tale is that because of his large mouth, he was nicknamed "satchel mouth" which became shortened to Satchmo.
Early on he was also known as Dipper, short for Dippermouth, a reference to the piece Dippermouth Blues.[37] and something of a riff on his unusual embouchure.
The nickname Pops came from Armstrong's own tendency to forget people's names and simply call them "pops" instead. The nickname was soon turned on Armstrong himself. It was used as the title of a 2010 biography of Armstrong by Terry Teachout.
File:Louis Armstrong Autograph.jpg
Armstrong's autograph from the 1960s
Armstrong and race[link]
Armstrong was largely accepted into white society, both on stage and off, a privilege reserved for very few African-American public figures, and usually those of either exceptional talent and fair skin-tone. As his fame grew, so did his access to the finer things in life usually denied to a black man, even a famous one. His renown was such that he dined in the best restaurants and stayed in hotels usually exclusively for whites.[38]
It was a power and privilege that he enjoyed, although he was very careful not to flaunt it with fellow performers of color, and privately, he shared what access that he could with friends and fellow musicians.
That still did not prevent members of the African-American community, particularly in the late 1950s to the early 1970s, from calling him an Uncle Tom, a black-on-black racial epithet for someone who kowtowed to white society at the expense of their own racial identity.
He was criticized for accepting the title of "King of The Zulus" for Mardi Gras in 1949. In the New Orleans African-American community it is an honored role as the head of leading black Carnival Krewe, but bewildering or offensive to outsiders with their traditional costume of grass-skirts and blackface makeup satirizing southern white attitudes.
Some musicians criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences, and for not taking a strong enough stand in the civil rights movement.[39]
Billie Holiday countered, however, "Of course Pops toms, but he toms from the heart."[40]
The few exceptions made it more effective when he did speak out. Armstrong's criticism of President Eisenhower, calling him "two-faced" and "gutless" because of his inaction during the conflict over school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 made national news.
As a protest, Armstrong canceled a planned tour of the Soviet Union on behalf of the State Department saying "The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell" and that he could not represent his government abroad when it was in conflict with its own people.[41] Six days after Armstrong's comments, Eisenhower ordered Federal troops to Little Rock to escort students into the school.[42]
The FBI kept a file on Armstrong, for his outspokenness about integration.[43]
Religion[link]
When asked about his religion, Armstrong would answer that he was raised a Baptist, always wore a Star of David, and was friends with the Pope.[44] Armstrong wore the Star of David in honor of the Karnofsky family, who took him in as a child and lent him the money to buy his first cornet. Louis Armstrong was, in fact, baptized as a Catholic at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans,[44] and he met popes Pius XII and Paul VI, though there is no evidence that he considered himself Catholic. Armstrong seems to have been tolerant towards various religions, but also found humor in them.
Personal habits[link]
Purging[link]
Armstrong was also greatly concerned with his health and bodily functions. He made frequent use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight, a practice he advocated both to personal acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way. Armstrong's laxative of preference in his younger days was Pluto Water, but he then became an enthusiastic convert when he discovered the herbal remedy Swiss Kriss. He would extol its virtues to anyone who would listen and pass out packets to everyone he encountered, including members of the British Royal Family. (Armstrong also appeared in humorous, albeit risqué, cards that he had printed to send out to friends; the cards bore a picture of him sitting on a toilet—as viewed through a keyhole—with the slogan "Satch says, 'Leave it all behind ya!'")[45] The cards have sometimes been incorrectly described as ads for Swiss Kriss.[46]
In a live recording of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Velma Middleton, he changes the lyric from "Put another record on while I pour" to "Take some Swiss Kriss while I pour." The line, slightly garbled in the live recording, could just as likely be "Take some Swiss Miss while I pour"—Swiss Miss is a hot chocolate mix that would have been fairly new on the market in 1951. (The line comes at 1:04 in the song.)[47]
Love of food[link]
The concern with his health and weight was balanced by his love of food, reflected in such songs as "Cheesecake", "Cornet Chop Suey,"[48] though "Struttin’ with Some Barbecue" was written about a fine-looking companion, not about food.[49] He kept a strong connection throughout his life to the cooking of New Orleans, always signing his letters, "Red beans and ricely yours..."[50]
Writings[link]
Armstrong’s gregariousness extended to writing. On the road, he wrote constantly, sharing favorite themes of his life with correspondents around the world. He avidly typed or wrote on whatever stationery was at hand, recording instant takes on music, sex, food, childhood memories, his heavy "medicinal" marijuana use—and even his bowel movements, which he gleefully described.[51] He had a fondness for lewd jokes and dirty limericks as well.
Social organizations[link]
Louis Armstrong was not, as is often claimed, a Freemason. Although he is usually listed as being a member of Montgomery Lodge No. 18 (Prince Hall) in New York, no such lodge has ever existed. Armstrong states in his autobiography, however, that he was a member of the Knights of Pythias, which is not a Masonic group.[52]
Music[link]
Horn playing and early jazz[link]
In his early years, Armstrong was best known for his virtuosity with the cornet and trumpet. The greatest trumpet playing of his early years can be heard on his Hot Five and Hot Seven records, as well as the Red Onion Jazz Babies. The improvisations he made on these records of New Orleans jazz standards and popular songs of the day are unsurpassed by later jazz performers. The older generation of New Orleans jazz musicians often referred to their improvisations as "variating the melody." Armstrong's improvisations were daring and sophisticated for the time, while often subtle and melodic.
He often essentially re-composed pop-tunes he played, making them more interesting. Armstrong's playing is filled with joyous, inspired original melodies, creative leaps, and subtle relaxed or driving rhythms. The genius of these creative passages is matched by Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, which extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. In these records, Armstrong almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what was essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art form with tremendous possibilities for individual expression.
Armstrong's work in the 1920s shows him playing at the outer limits of his abilities. The Hot Five records, especially, often have minor flubs and missed notes, which do little to detract from listening enjoyment since the energy of the spontaneous performance comes through. By the mid 1930s, Armstrong achieved a smooth assurance, knowing exactly what he could do and carrying out his ideas to perfection.
He was one of the first artists to use recordings of his performances to improve himself. Armstrong was an avid audiophile. He had a large collection of recordings, including reel-to-reel tapes, which he took on the road with him in a trunk during his later career. He enjoyed listening to his own recordings, and comparing his performances musically. In the den of his home, he had the latest audio equipment and would sometimes rehearse and record along with his older recordings or the radio.[53]
Vocal popularity[link]
As his music progressed and popularity grew, his singing also became very important. Armstrong was not the first to record scat singing, but he was masterful at it and helped popularize it. He had a hit with his playing and scat singing on "Heebie Jeebies" when, according to some legends, the sheet music fell on the floor and he simply started singing nonsense syllables. Armstrong stated in his memoirs that this actually occurred. He also sang out "I done forgot the words" in the middle of recording "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas."
Such records were hits and scat singing became a major part of his performances. Long before this, however, Armstrong was playing around with his vocals, shortening and lengthening phrases, interjecting improvisations, using his voice as creatively as his trumpet.
Colleagues and followers[link]
During his long career he played and sang with some of the most important instrumentalists and vocalists of the time; among them were Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, the singing brakeman Jimmie Rodgers, Bessie Smith and perhaps most famously Ella Fitzgerald.
His influence upon Bing Crosby is particularly important with regard to the subsequent development of popular music: Crosby admired and copied Armstrong, as is evident on many of his early recordings, notably "Just One More Chance" (1931). The New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz describes Crosby's debt to Armstrong in precise detail, although it does not acknowledge Armstrong by name:
Crosby... was important in introducing into the mainstream of popular singing an Afro-American concept of song as a lyrical extension of speech... His techniques - easing the weight of the breath on the vocal cords, passing into a head voice at a low register, using forward production to aid distinct enunciation, singing on consonants (a practice of black singers), and making discreet use of appoggiaturas, mordents, and slurs to emphasize the text - were emulated by nearly all later popular singers.
Armstrong recorded three albums with Ella Fitzgerald: Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again, and Porgy and Bess for Verve Records, with the sessions featuring the backing musicianship of the Oscar Peterson Trio and drummer Buddy Rich. His recordings Satch Plays Fats, all Fats Waller tunes, and Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy in the 1950s were perhaps among the last of his great creative recordings, but even oddities like Disney Songs the Satchmo Way are seen to have their musical moments. And, his participation in Dave Brubeck's high-concept jazz musical The Real Ambassadors was critically acclaimed. For the most part, however, his later output was criticized as being overly simplistic or repetitive.
Hits and later career[link]
Armstrong had many hit records including "Stardust", "What a Wonderful World", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "You Rascal You,"and "Stompin' at the Savoy." "We Have All the Time in the World" was featured on the soundtrack of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and enjoyed renewed popularity in the UK in 1994 when it featured on a Guinness advert. It reached number 3 in the charts on being re-released.
In 1964, Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Hello, Dolly!", which gave the 63-year-old performer a U.S. record as the oldest artist to have a number one song. His 1964 song, "Bout Time" was later featured in the film "Bewitched" (2005).
Armstrong performed in Italy at the 1968 Sanremo Music Festival where he sang "Mi Va di Cantare"[54] alongside his friend, the Eritrean-born Italian singer Lara Saint Paul.[55] In February 1968, he also appeared with Lara Saint Paul on the Italian RAI television channel where he performed "Grassa e Bella," a track he sang in Italian for the Italian market and C.D.I. label.[56]
In 1968, Armstrong scored one last popular hit in the United Kingdom with the highly sentimental pop song "What a Wonderful World", which topped the British charts for a month; however, the single did not chart at all in America. The song gained greater currency in the popular consciousness when it was used in the 1987 movie Good Morning, Vietnam, its subsequent rerelease topping many charts around the world. Armstrong even appeared on the October 28, 1970 Johnny Cash Show, where he sang Nat "King" Cole's hit "Rambling Rose" and joined Cash to re-create his performance backing Jimmie Rodgers on "Blue Yodel #9".
Stylistic range[link]
Armstrong enjoyed many types of music, from blues to the arrangements of Guy Lombardo, to Latin American folksongs, to classical symphonies and opera. Armstrong incorporated influences from all these sources into his performances, sometimes to the bewilderment of fans who wanted him to stay in convenient narrow categories. Armstrong was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence. Some of his solos from the 1950s, such as the hard rocking version of "St. Louis Blues" from the WC Handy album, show that the influence went in both directions.
Literature, radio, films and TV[link]
Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, usually playing a band leader or musician. His most familiar role was as the bandleader cum narrator in the 1956 musical, High Society, in which he sang the title song and performed a duet with Bing Crosby on "Now You Has Jazz". In 1947, he played himself in the movie New Orleans opposite Billie Holiday, which chronicled the demise of the Storyville district and the ensuing exodus of musicians from New Orleans to Chicago.[57] In the 1959 film, The Five Pennies (the story of the cornetist Red Nichols), Armstrong played himself as well as singing and playing several classic numbers. With Danny Kaye Armstrong performed a duet of "When the Saints Go Marching In" during which Kaye impersonated Armstrong. Armstrong also had a part in the film alongside James Stewart in The Glenn Miller Story in which Glenn (played by Stewart) jammed with Armstrong and a few other noted musicians of the time.
He was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show in the 1930s. In 1969, Armstrong had a cameo role in the film version of Hello, Dolly! as the bandleader, Louis, to which he sang the title song with actress Barbra Streisand. His solo recording of "Hello, Dolly!" is one of his most recognizable performances.
He was heard on such radio programs as The Story of Swing (1937) and This Is Jazz (1947), and he also made countless television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Many of Armstrong's recordings remain popular. Almost four decades since his passing, a larger number of his recordings from all periods of his career are more widely available than at any time during his lifetime. His songs are broadcast and listened to every day throughout the world, and are honored in various movies, TV series, commercials, and even anime and video games. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was included in the video game Fallout 2, accompanying the intro cinematic. It was also used in the 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle and the 2005 film Lord of War. His 1923 recordings, with Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, continue to be listened to as documents of ensemble style New Orleans jazz, but more particularly as ripper[jargon] jazz records in their own right. All too often, however, Armstrong recorded with stiff, standard orchestras leaving only his sublime trumpet playing as of interest. "Melancholy Blues," performed by Armstrong and his Hot Seven was included on the Voyager Golden Record sent into outer space to represent one of the greatest achievements of humanity. Most familiar to modern listeners is his ubiquitous rendition of "What a Wonderful World". In 2008, Armstrong's recording of Edith Piaf's famous "La Vie En Rose" was used in a scene of the popular Disney/Pixar film WALL-E. The song was also used in parts, especially the opening trumpets, in the French film Jeux d'enfants (Love Me If You Dare.)
Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, a self-described Armstrong admirer, asserted that a 1952 Louis Armstrong concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris played a significant role in inspiring him to create the fictional creatures called Cronopios that are the subject of a number of Cortázar's short stories. Cortázar once called Armstrong himself "Grandísimo Cronopio" (The Great Cronopio).
Armstrong appears as a minor fictionalized character in Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory Series. When he and his band escape from a Nazi-like Confederacy, they enhance the insipid mainstream music of the North. A young Armstrong also appears as a minor fictionalized character in Patrick Neate's 2001 novel Twelve Bar Blues, part of which is set in New Orleans, and which was a winner at that year's Whitbread Book Awards.
There is a pivotal scene in 1980s Stardust Memories in which Woody Allen is overwhelmed by a recording of Armstrong's Stardust and experiences a nostalgic epiphany.[58] The combination of the music and the perfect moment is the catalyst for much of the film's action, prompting the protagonist to fall in love with an ill-advised woman.[59]
Awards and honors[link]
Grammy Awards[link]
Armstrong was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972 by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.[60]
| Grammy Award | |||||
| Year | Category | Title | Genre | Label | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Male Vocal Performance | "Hello, Dolly!" | Pop | Kapp | Winner |
Grammy Hall of Fame[link]
Recordings of Armstrong were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."[61][62]
| Grammy Hall of Fame | |||||
| Year recorded | Title | Genre | Label | Year inducted | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | "St. Louis Blues" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 2008 | with Bessie Smith |
| 1928 | "Weather Bird" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 2008 | with Earl Hines |
| 1930 | "Blue Yodel #9 (Standing on the Corner)" |
Country (Single) | Victor | 2007 | Jimmie Rodgers (Featuring Louis Armstrong) |
| 1932 | "All of Me" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 2005 | |
| 1958 | Porgy and Bess | Jazz (Album) | Verve | 2001 | with Ella Fitzgerald |
| 1964 | "Hello Dolly!" | Pop (Single) | Kapp | 2001 | |
| 1926 | "Heebie Jeebies" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 1999 | |
| 1968 | "What a Wonderful World" | Jazz (Single) | ABC | 1999 | |
| 1955 | "Mack the Knife" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 1997 | |
| 1925 | "St. Louis Blues" | Jazz (Single) | Columbia | 1993 | Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, cornet |
| 1928 | "West End Blues" | Jazz (Single) | OKeh | 1974 | |
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame[link]
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed Armstrong's West End Blues on the list of 500 songs that shaped Rock and Roll.[63]
| Year recorded | Title | Label | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1928 | West End Blues | Okeh | Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five |
Inductions and honors[link]
In 1995, the U.S. Post Office issued a Louis Armstrong 32 cents commemorative postage stamp.
| Year inducted | Title | Results | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Louisiana Music Hall of Fame | ||
| 2007 | Gennett Records Walk of Fame, Richmond, Indiana | ||
| 2007 | Long Island Music Hall of Fame | ||
| 2004 | Nesuhi Ertegün Jazz Hall of Fame at Jazz at Lincoln Center |
||
| 1990 | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | Early influence | |
| 1978 | Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame | ||
| 1952 | Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame | ||
| 1960[64] | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Star | at 7601 Hollywood Blvd. |
Legacy[link]
The influence of Armstrong on the development of jazz is virtually immeasurable. Yet, his irrepressible personality both as a performer, and as a public figure later in his career, was so strong that to some it sometimes overshadowed his contributions as a musician and singer.
As a virtuoso trumpet player, Armstrong had a unique tone and an extraordinary talent for melodic improvisation. Through his playing, the trumpet emerged as a solo instrument in jazz and is used widely today. He was a masterful accompanist and ensemble player in addition to his extraordinary skills as a soloist. With his innovations, he raised the bar musically for all who came after him.
Though Armstrong is widely recognized as a pioneer of scat singing, Ethel Waters precedes his scatting on record in the 1930s according to Gary Giddins and others.[65] Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra are just two singers who were greatly indebted to him. Holiday said that she always wanted Bessie Smith's 'big' sound and Armstrong's feeling in her singing. Even special musicians like Duke Ellington have praised Armstrong through strong testimonials. Duke Ellington said, "If anybody was a master, it was Louis Armstrong." In 1950, Bing Crosby, the most successful vocalist of the first half of the 20th century, said, "He is the beginning and the end of music in America."
On August 4, 2001, the centennial of Armstrong's birth, New Orleans's airport was renamed Louis Armstrong International Airport in his honor.
In 2002, the Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1925–1928) are preserved in the United States National Recording Registry, a registry of recordings selected yearly by the National Recording Preservation Board for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.[66]
The US Open tennis tournament's former main stadium was named Louis Armstrong Stadium in honor of Armstrong who had lived a few blocks from the site.[67]
Today, there are many bands worldwide dedicated to preserving and honoring the music and style of Satchmo, including the Louis Armstrong Society located in New Orleans, LA.
House[link]
The house where Louis Armstrong lived for close to 28 years was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977 and is now a museum. The Louis Armstrong House Museum, at 34-56 107th Street (between 34th and 37th Avenues) in Corona, Queens, presents concerts and educational programs, operates as a historic house museum and makes materials in its archives of writings, books, recordings and memorabilia available to the public for research. The museum is operated by the City University of New York's Queens College, following the dictates of Lucille Armstrong'swill.
The museum opened to the public on October 15, 2003. A new visitors center is planned.[68]
Discography[link]
Notes[link]
- ^ He preferred that his name be pronounced Louie. "It's like Louis Armstrong - he spelled his name Louis, but he liked it to be said as Louie," recalls Louie Bellson [1]. Armstrong was registered as "Lewie" for the 1920 U.S. Census. On various live records he's called "Louie" on stage, such as on the 1952 "Can Anyone Explain?" from the live album In Scandinavia vol.1. It should also be noted that "Lewie" is the French pronunciation of "Louis" and is commonly used in Louisiana. However, when referring to himself in "Hello Dolly!," he pronounces his name as "Lewis" ("Hello, Dolly. This is Lewis, Dolly"), pronouncing the 's'.
- ^ Armstrong said he was not sure exactly when he was born, but celebrated his birthday on July 4. He usually gave the year as 1900 when speaking in public (although he used 1901 on his Social Security and other papers filed with the government). Using Roman Catholic Church documents from when his grandmother took him to be baptized, New Orleans music researcher Tad Jones established Armstrong's actual date of birth as August 4, 1901. With various other collaborative evidence, this date is now accepted by Armstrong scholars. See also age fabrication Armstrong had no middle name, but a 1949 Time magazine profile gave him the middle name of Daniel. The census and baptismal records confirm he had no middle name.
- ^ For "satchel-mouth."
- ^ The TIME 100. Louis Armstrong. TIME, Stanley Crouch, June 8, 1998. "For many years it was thought that Armstrong was born in New Orleans on July 4, 1900, a perfect day for the man who wrote the musical Declaration of Independence for Americans of this century. But the estimable writer Gary Giddins discovered the birth certificate that proves Armstrong was born Aug. 4, 1901." Retrieved January 8, 2009.
- ^ When is Louis Armstrong's birthday? The Official Site of the Louis Armstrong House & Archives.
- ^ Current Biography 1944, pp. 15–17.
- ^ Bergreen, Laurence (1997). Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life. New York: Broadway Books. p. 6. ISBN 0-553-06768-0.
- ^ Karnow, Stanley (February 21, 2001). "My Debt to Cousin Louis's Cornet". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C02E1D91639F932A15751C0A9679C8B63. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
- ^ Teachout, Terry. "Satchmo and the Jews" Commentary magazine, Nov. 2009.
- ^ "The Karnofsky Project".
- ^ Current Biography 1944 p. 16.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 78.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 142.
- ^ "Satchuated" Gary Giddins, Village Voice April 16–22, 2003. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 170.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 199.
- ^ www.britannica.com
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 247.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 260.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 274.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 264.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 267.
- ^ Collier, James Lincoln (1985). Louis Armstrong. Pan Books. pp. 160–162. ISBN 0-330-28607-2.
- ^ "Louis Armstrong & his Orchestra". Redhotjazz.com. http://www.redhotjazz.com/lao.html. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
- ^ Morgenstern, Dan. “Louis Armstrong and the development & diffusion of Jazz”, Louis Armstrong a Cultural Legacy, Marc H Miller e.d., Queens Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, 1994 pg110
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 320.
- ^ Collier (1985), p221-2
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 344.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 385.
- ^ Hale, James (editor of Jazzhouse.org), Danny Barcelona (1929–2007), Drums, Armstrong All-Star, The Last Post, 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2007.
- ^ Meckna, Michael; Satchmo, The Louis Armstrong Encyclopedia, Greenwood Press, Connecticut & London, 2004.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 491.
- ^ Krebs, Albin. "Louis Armstrong, Jazz Trumpeter and Singer, Dies", The New York Times, July 7, 1971. Accessed October 1, 2009. "Louis Armstrong, the celebrated jazz trumpeter and singer, died in his sleep yesterday morning at his home in the Corona section of Queens."
- ^ Louis Armstrong at Find a Grave
- ^ Collier, James Lincoln (1985). Louis Armstrong. Pan. p. 333. ISBN 0-330-28607-2.
- ^ "Louis Armstrong Dies: 1971 Year in Review". Upi.com. December 28, 1971. http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1971/12295509436546-1/#title. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
- ^ Armstrong, 1954, pp. 27-28
- ^ The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. 3, Disk 7, Mystery of the Blues Special Features, Louis Armstrong: Ambassador of Jazz (DVD). Lucasfilm, Ltd.. Event occurs at 17:30.
- ^ Collier (1985), p. 317-320
- ^ 100 Most Influential People of All Times. Books.google.com. 2007-01-01. ISBN 978-1-60501-124-0. http://books.google.com/?id=WcLJ3aK-ZSkC&pg=PT698&dq=from+the+heart+%22pops+toms%22#v=onepage&q=from%20the%20heart%20%22pops%20toms%22&f=false. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
- ^ "Louis Armstrong, Barring Soviet Tour, Denounces Eisenhower and Gov. Faubus". New York Times. September 19, 1957. http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/reviews/armstrong-eisenhower.html. Retrieved August 30, 2007. See also, from September 23, 2007, *David Margolick, The Day Louis Armstrong Made Noise.
- ^ The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. 3, Disk 7, Mystery of the Blues Special Features, Louis Armstrong: Ambassador of Jazz (DVD). Lucasfilm, Ltd.. Event occurs at 24:28.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 472.
- ^ a b Gabbard, Krin (2001). Louis and The Good Book (CD booklet). New York City: Verve Records. p.1.
- ^ Gilstrap, Peter (February 29, 1996). "Leave It All Behind Ya". Phoenix New Times. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1996-02-29/news/leave-it-all-behind-ya/. Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- ^ Teachout, Terry (2009) Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong pp. 293–294.
- ^ Louis Armstrong, "Christmas Through the Years," Laserlight 12744
- ^ Satchmo.net. 'Red Beans and Ricely yours, Louis Armstrong.'
- ^ Jive Dictionary, by Cab Calloway: "Barbecue (n.) -- the girl friend, a beauty." Retrieved February 10, 2009.
- ^ Elie p. 327.
- ^ Bergreen, 1997, p. 4.
- ^ "Non-masons - Louis Armstrong". Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. http://www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/armstrong_l/armstrong_l.html. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
- ^ Michael Cogswell, Louis Armstrong: The Offstage Story of Satchmo (Collector's Press, Portland, Oregon, 2003) ISBN 1-888054-81-6 pp. 66–68.
- ^ "Hit Parade Italia" Hit Parade Italia - Festival di Sanremo 1968.
- ^ "Mi va di cantare" Lara Saint Paul - lavocedelledonne.it.
- ^ Louis Armstrong: "Grassa e bella" Louis Armstrong Discography.
- ^ IMDb.com
- ^ "Stardust Memories :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. January 1, 1980. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19800101/REVIEWS/1010330/1023. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
- ^ IMDb.com
- ^ "Lifetime Achievement Award". Grammy.com. February 8, 2009. http://www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Awards/Lifetime_Awards/. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
- ^ "Grammy Hall of Fame Database". Grammy.com. February 8, 2009. http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
- ^ "The Recording Academy" (PDF). http://www.grammy.com/PressReleases/443_466_Hall%20of%20Fame%20release%20FINAL.pdf. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
- ^ "Experience The Music: One Hit Wonders and The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". Rockhall.com. http://rockhall.com/exhibits/one-hit-wonders-songs-that-shaped-rock-and-roll/. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
- ^ "Hollywood Walk of Fame". Walkoffame.com. 1960-02-08. http://www.walkoffame.com/louis-armstrong. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
- ^ See Ken Burns' Jazz CD Set liner notes.
- ^ "Library of Congress archive". Loc.gov. February 18, 2009. http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/registry/nrpb-2002reg.html. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
- ^ "Ashe & Armstrong Stadiums". Usta.com. May 25, 2008. http://www.usta.com/Active/News/National-Tennis-Center-News/National-Tennis-Center/14185_Ashe__Armstrong_Stadiums/. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
- ^ "New visitor center at Armstrong museum". Queens Chronicle. November 10, 2011. http://www.qchron.com/editions/western/new-visitor-center-at-armstrong-museum/article_0968722c-bb92-57e9-8de4-e749c6801c24.html. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
References[link]
- Armstrong, Louis. Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans. ISBN 0-306-80276-7
- Armstrong, Louis and Thomas Brothers. Armstrong, in His Own Words: Selected Writings. ISBN 0-19-514046-X
- Bergreen, Laurence "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life" ISBN 0-553-06768-0
- Brothers, Thomas "Louis Armstrong's New Orleans" ISBN 0-393-06109-4
- Cogswell, Michael. Armstrong: The Offstage Story. ISBN 1-888054-81-6
- Elie, Lolis Eric. A Letter from New Orleans. Originally printed in Gourmet. Reprinted in Best Food Writing 2006, Edited by Holly Hughes, ISBN 1-56924-287-9
- Jones Max and John Chilton. Louis Armstrong Story. ISBN 0-306-80324-0
- Meckna, Michael. Satchmo: The Louis Armstrong Encyclopedia. ISBN 0-313-30137-9
- Storb, Ilse. "Louis Armstrong: The Definitive Biography". ISBN 0-8204-3103-6
Video clips[link]
- "Now You Has Jazz"
- "Blueberry Hill"
- "Stompin' At The Savoy" Germany, 1959
- "Tiger Rag"
- "C'est si bon 1962
- "Dream a Little Dream" photo slide show
- "Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra - The Birth of The Blues" - The Edsel Show
External links[link]
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Book: Louis Armstrong |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Armstrong |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Louis Armstrong |
- louis-armstrong.net - Sony BMG Music Entertainment
- Louis Armstrong by Nat Hentoff
- Obituary, NY Times
- Quotes and tributes
- Discography
- Filmography @ imdb.com
- The Louis Armstrong Society Jazz Band
- Louis Armstrong: A Life in Music - slideshow by Life magazine
- Seeing Black jazz critic on the Uncle Tom question
- the official website of the Louis Armstrong House & Archives
- "Louis Armstrong Transcription Project - john p birchall"
- Louis Armstrong at pbskids.org
- David Margolick, The Day Louis Armstrong Made Noise
- Smithsonian Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy
- Louis Armstrong at NPR Music
- Louis Armstrong in Athens, Blog of the Digital Library of Georgia
- Louis Armstrong: discography and early recordings (Real Player format) on the Red Hot Jazz website.
- Milestone Louis Armstrong recordings at Three Perfect Minutes
- Louis Armstrong's autobiography online book
- Louis Armstrong collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Works by or about Louis Armstrong in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Louis Armstrong discography at Discogs
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Armstrong, Louis |
| Alternative names | Satchmo |
| Short description | American Jazz trumpeter and singer |
| Date of birth | (1900-07-04)July 4, 1900 |
| Place of birth | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Date of death | July 6, 1971(1971-07-06) |
| Place of death | New York City, New York, U.S. |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is about the musician. For his debut album, see Bob Dylan (album).
| Bob Dylan | |
|---|---|
 Dylan onstage at the Azkena Rock Festival, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, June 26, 2010 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Robert Allen Zimmerman |
| Also known as | Elston Gunnn, Blind Boy Grunt, Bob Landy, Robert Milkwood Thomas, Tedham Porterhouse, Lucky/Boo Wilbury, Jack Frost, Sergei Petrov |
| Born | (1941-05-24) May 24, 1941 (age 71) Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Origin | Hibbing, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock, folk, folk rock, blues, blues rock, country, gospel, country rock |
| Occupations | Musician, singer-songwriter, producer, visual artist, poet, writer, director, screenwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, harmonica |
| Years active | 1961–present |
| Labels | Columbia, Asylum |
| Associated acts | Joan Baez, The Band, The Byrds, Johnny Cash, Mark Knopfler, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys |
| Website | bobdylan.com |
Bob Dylan (
/ˈdɪlən/), born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades.[1][2] Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights[3] and anti-war[4] movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965.[5] However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.
Dylan's lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie,[6] Robert Johnson,[7] and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard,[8] Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.[9]
Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered to be his songwriting.[1]
Since 1994, Dylan has published three books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries.[10][11] As a songwriter and musician, Dylan has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards; he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."[12] In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.[13]
Contents |
Life and career[link]
Origins and musical beginnings[link]
Bob Dylan was born "Robert Allen Zimmerman" (Hebrew name שבתאי זיסאל בן אברהם [Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham])[14][15] in St. Mary's Hospital on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota,[16][17] and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range west of Lake Superior. His paternal grandparents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) to the United States following the anti-Semitic pogroms of 1905.[18] His maternal grandparents, Benjamin and Lybba Edelstein, were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902.[18] In his autobiography Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan writes that his paternal grandmother's maiden name was Kyrgyz and her family originated from Kars, Turkey.[19]
Dylan's parents, Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice "Beatty" Stone, were part of the area's small but close-knit Jewish community. Robert Zimmerman lived in Duluth until age six, when his father was stricken with polio and the family returned to his mother's home town, Hibbing, where Zimmerman spent the rest of his childhood. Robert Zimmerman spent much of his youth listening to the radio—first to blues and country stations broadcasting from Shreveport, Louisiana and, later, to early rock and roll.[8] He formed several bands while he attended Hibbing High School. The Shadow Blasters was short-lived, but his next, The Golden Chords, lasted longer and played covers of Little Richard rock and roll[20] and other popular songs.[21] Their performance of Danny and the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone off.[22] In 1959, his high school yearbook carried, beneath his photo, the caption: "Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard'."[20][23] The same year, using the name Elston Gunnn [sic], he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and providing handclaps.[24][25][26]
Zimmerman moved to Minneapolis in September 1959 and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where his early focus on rock and roll gave way to an interest in American folk music. In 1985, Dylan explained the attraction that folk music had exerted on him:
The thing about rock'n'roll is that for me anyway it wasn't enough ... There were great catch-phrases and driving pulse rhythms ... but the songs weren't serious or didn't reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings.[27]
He soon began to perform at the 10 O'clock Scholar, a coffee house a few blocks from campus, and became actively involved in the local Dinkytown folk music circuit.[28][29]
During his Dinkytown days, Zimmerman began introducing himself as "Bob Dylan".[30] In his autobiography, Dylan acknowledged that he had been influenced by the poetry of Dylan Thomas.[31][a 1] Explaining his change of name in a 2004 interview, Dylan remarked: "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free."[32]
1960s[link]
Relocation to New York and record deal[link]
Dylan dropped out of college at the end of his freshman year. In January 1961, he traveled to New York City, hoping to perform there and visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie,[33] who was seriously ill with Huntington's Disease in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.[34] Guthrie had been a revelation to Dylan and was the biggest influence on his early performances. Describing Guthrie's impact on him, Dylan later wrote: "The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them ... [He] was the true voice of the American spirit. I said to myself I was going to be Guthrie's greatest disciple."[35] As well as visiting Guthrie in the hospital, Dylan befriended Guthrie's acolyte Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Much of Guthrie's repertoire was actually channeled through Elliott, and Dylan paid tribute to Elliott in Chronicles (2004).[36]
From February 1961, Dylan played at various clubs around Greenwich Village. He befriended and picked up material from many folk singers in the Village scene, including Dave Van Ronk, Fred Neil, Odetta, the New Lost City Ramblers, and Irish musicians Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers.[37] Dylan later described Liam Clancy as "the best ballad singer I ever heard."[38] In September, Dylan gained some public recognition when Robert Shelton wrote a positive review in The New York Times of a show at Gerde's Folk City.[39] The same month Dylan played harmonica on folk singer Carolyn Hester's eponymous third album, which brought his talents to the attention of the album's producer, John Hammond.[40] Hammond signed Dylan to Columbia Records in October. The performances on his first Columbia album, Bob Dylan (1962), consisted of familiar folk, blues and gospel material combined with two original compositions. The album made little impact, selling only 5,000 copies in its first year, just enough to break even.[41] Within Columbia Records, some referred to the singer as "Hammond's Folly" and suggested dropping his contract. Hammond defended Dylan vigorously. In March 1962, Dylan contributed harmonica and back-up vocals to the album Three Kings and the Queen, accompanying Victoria Spivey and Big Joe Williams on a recording for Spivey Records.[42] While working for Columbia, Dylan also recorded several songs under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt,[43] for Broadside Magazine, a folk music magazine and record label.[44] Dylan used the pseudonym Bob Landy to record as a piano player on the 1964 anthology album, The Blues Project, issued by Elektra Records.[43] Under the pseudonym Tedham Porterhouse, Dylan contributed harmonica to Ramblin' Jack Elliott's 1964 album Jack Elliott.[43]
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Blowin' in the Wind was, according to critic Andy Gill, "the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude."[45]
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Dylan made two important career moves in August 1962. He legally changed his name to Bob Dylan,[46] and signed a management contract with Albert Grossman.[47] Grossman remained Dylan's manager until 1970, and was notable both for his sometimes confrontational personality, and for the fiercely protective loyalty he displayed towards his principal client.[48] Dylan subsequently said of Grossman, "He was kind of like a Colonel Tom Parker figure ... you could smell him coming."[29] Tensions between Grossman and John Hammond led to Hammond being replaced as the producer of Dylan's second album by the young African American jazz producer Tom Wilson.[49]
From December 1962 to January 1963, Dylan made his first trip to the United Kingdom.[50] He had been invited by TV director Philip Saville to appear in a drama, The Madhouse on Castle Street, which Saville was directing for BBC Television.[51] At the end of the play, Dylan performed "Blowin' in the Wind", one of the first major public performances of the song.[52] The film recording of The Madhouse on Castle Street was destroyed by the BBC in 1968.[51] While in London, Dylan performed at several London folk clubs, including Les Cousins, The Pinder of Wakefield,[53] and Bunjies.[50] He also learned new songs from several UK performers, including Martin Carthy.[50]
By the time Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, was released in May 1963, he had begun to make his name as both a singer and a songwriter. Many of the songs on this album were labeled protest songs, inspired partly by Guthrie and influenced by Pete Seeger's passion for topical songs.[54] "Oxford Town", for example, was a sardonic account of James Meredith's ordeal as the first black student to risk enrollment at the University of Mississippi.[55]
His most famous song at this time, "Blowin' in the Wind", partially derived its melody from the traditional slave song "No More Auction Block", while its lyrics questioned the social and political status quo.[56] The song was widely recorded and became an international hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, setting a precedent for many other artists who had hits with Dylan's songs. "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" was based on the tune of the folk ballad "Lord Randall". With its veiled references to nuclear apocalypse, it gained even more resonance when the Cuban missile crisis developed only a few weeks after Dylan began performing it.[57] Like "Blowin' in the Wind", "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" marked an important new direction in modern songwriting, blending a stream-of-consciousness, imagist lyrical attack with a traditional folk form.[58]
While Dylan's topical songs solidified his early reputation, Freewheelin' also included a mixture of love songs and jokey, surreal talking blues. Humor was a large part of Dylan's persona,[59] and the range of material on the album impressed many listeners, including The Beatles. George Harrison said, "We just played it, just wore it out. The content of the song lyrics and just the attitude—it was incredibly original and wonderful."[60]
The rough edge of Dylan's singing was unsettling to some early listeners but an attraction to others. Describing the impact that Dylan had on her and her husband, Joyce Carol Oates wrote: "When we first heard this raw, very young, and seemingly untrained voice, frankly nasal, as if sandpaper could sing, the effect was dramatic and electrifying."[61] Many of his most famous early songs first reached the public through more immediately palatable versions by other performers, such as Joan Baez, who became Dylan's advocate, as well as his lover.[62] Baez was influential in bringing Dylan to national and international prominence by recording several of his early songs and inviting him onstage during her own concerts.[63]
Others who recorded and had hits with Dylan's songs in the early and mid-1960s included The Byrds; Sonny and Cher; The Hollies; Peter, Paul and Mary; The Association; Manfred Mann; and The Turtles. Most attempted to impart a pop feel and rhythm to the songs, while Dylan and Baez performed them mostly as sparse folk pieces. The cover versions became so ubiquitous that CBS started to promote him with the tag "Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan."[64]
"Mixed Up Confusion", recorded during the Freewheelin' sessions with a backing band, was released as a single and then quickly withdrawn. In contrast to the mostly solo acoustic performances on the album, the single showed a willingness to experiment with a rockabilly sound. Cameron Crowe described it as "a fascinating look at a folk artist with his mind wandering towards Elvis Presley and Sun Records."[65]
[edit] Protest and Another Side
In May 1963, Dylan's political profile was raised when he walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show. During rehearsals, Dylan had been informed by CBS Television's "head of program practices" that the song he was planning to perform, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with the censorship, Dylan refused to appear on the program.[66]
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Dylan said of "The Times They Are a-Changin'": "This was definitely a song with a purpose. I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close and allied together at that time."[27]
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By this time, Dylan and Baez were both prominent in the civil rights movement, singing together at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.[67] Dylan's third album, The Times They Are a-Changin', reflected a more politicized and cynical Dylan.[68] The songs often took as their subject matter contemporary, real life stories, with "Only A Pawn In Their Game" addressing the murder of civil rights worker Medgar Evers; and the Brechtian "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" the death of black hotel barmaid Hattie Carroll, at the hands of young white socialite William Zantzinger.[69] On a more general theme, "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "North Country Blues" address the despair engendered by the breakdown of farming and mining communities. This political material was accompanied by two personal love songs, "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "One Too Many Mornings".[70]
By the end of 1963, Dylan felt both manipulated and constrained by the folk and protest movements.[71] These tensions were publicly displayed when, accepting the "Tom Paine Award" from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an intoxicated Dylan brashly questioned the role of the committee, characterized the members as old and balding, and claimed to see something of himself (and of every man) in Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.[72]
Another Side of Bob Dylan, recorded on a single June evening in 1964,[73] had a lighter mood than its predecessor. The surreal, humorous Dylan reemerged on "I Shall Be Free #10" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare". "Spanish Harlem Incident" and "To Ramona" are romantic and passionate love songs, while "Black Crow Blues" and "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" suggest the rock and roll soon to dominate Dylan's music. "It Ain't Me Babe", on the surface a song about spurned love, has been described as a rejection of the role his reputation had thrust at him.[74] His newest direction was signaled by two lengthy songs: the impressionistic "Chimes of Freedom", which sets elements of social commentary against a denser metaphorical landscape in a style later characterized by Allen Ginsberg as "chains of flashing images,"[75] and "My Back Pages", which attacks the simplistic and arch seriousness of his own earlier topical songs and seems to predict the backlash he was about to encounter from his former champions as he took a new direction.[76]
In the latter half of 1964 and 1965, Dylan's appearance and musical style changed rapidly, as he made his move from leading contemporary songwriter of the folk scene to folk-rock pop-music star. His scruffy jeans and work shirts were replaced by a Carnaby Street wardrobe, sunglasses day or night, and pointy "Beatle boots". A London reporter wrote: "Hair that would set the teeth of a comb on edge. A loud shirt that would dim the neon lights of Leicester Square. He looks like an undernourished cockatoo."[77] Dylan also began to spar in increasingly surreal ways with his interviewers. Appearing on the Les Crane TV show and asked about a movie he was planning to make, he told Crane it would be a cowboy horror movie. Asked if he played the cowboy, Dylan replied, "No, I play my mother."[78]
Going electric[link]
Main article: Electric Dylan controversy
Dylan's April 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home was yet another stylistic leap,[79] featuring his first recordings made with electric instruments. The first single, "Subterranean Homesick Blues", owed much to Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business";[80] its free association lyrics have been described as both harkening back to the manic energy of Beat poetry and as a forerunner of rap and hip-hop.[81] The song was provided with an early music video which opened D. A. Pennebaker's cinéma vérité presentation of Dylan's 1965 tour of England, Dont Look Back.[82] Instead of miming to the recording, Dylan illustrated the lyrics by throwing cue cards containing key words from the song on the ground. Pennebaker has said the sequence was Dylan's idea, and it has been widely imitated in both music videos and advertisements.[83]
The B side of Bringing It All Back Home consisted of four long songs on which Dylan accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica.[84] "Mr. Tambourine Man" quickly became one of Dylan's best known songs when The Byrds recorded an electric version that reached number one in both the U.S. and the U.K. charts.[85][86] "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" and "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" were acclaimed as two of Dylan's most important compositions.[84][87]
In the summer of 1965, as the headliner at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan performed his first electric set since his high school days with a pickup group drawn mostly from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, featuring Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Sam Lay (drums) and Jerome Arnold (bass), plus Al Kooper (organ) and Barry Goldberg (piano).[88] Dylan had appeared at Newport in 1963 and 1964, but in 1965 Dylan, met with a mix of cheering and booing, left the stage after only three songs. One version of the legend has it that the boos were from the outraged folk fans whom Dylan had alienated by appearing, unexpectedly, with an electric guitar. Murray Lerner, who filmed the performance, said: "I absolutely think that they were booing Dylan going electric."[89] An alternative account claims audience members were merely upset by poor sound quality and a surprisingly short set. This account is supported by Kooper and one of the directors of the festival, who reports his audio recording of the concert proves that the only boos were in reaction to the emcee's announcement that there was only enough time for a short set.[90][91]
Nevertheless, Dylan's 1965 Newport performance provoked a hostile response from the folk music establishment.[92][93] In the September issue of Sing Out!, singer Ewan MacColl wrote: "Our traditional songs and ballads are the creations of extraordinarily talented artists working inside disciplines formulated over time... 'But what of Bobby Dylan?' scream the outraged teenagers... Only a completely non-critical audience, nourished on the watery pap of pop music, could have fallen for such tenth-rate drivel."[94] On July 29, just four days after his controversial performance at Newport, Dylan was back in the studio in New York, recording "Positively 4th Street". The lyrics teemed with images of vengeance and paranoia,[95] and it was widely interpreted as Dylan's put-down of former friends from the folk community—friends he had known in the clubs along West 4th Street.[96]
[edit] Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde
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Dylan's 1965 hit single, which appeared on the album Highway 61 Revisited. In 2004, it was labelled the Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine.[97]
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In July 1965, Dylan released the single "Like a Rolling Stone", which peaked at No.2 in the U.S. and at No.4 in the UK charts. At over six minutes, the song has been widely credited with altering attitudes about what a pop single could convey. Bruce Springsteen, in his speech during Dylan's inauguration into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said that on first hearing the single, "that snare shot sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind".[98] In 2004, and again in 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine listed it as number one on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[97][99] The song also opened Dylan's next album, Highway 61 Revisited, titled after the road that led from Dylan's Minnesota to the musical hotbed of New Orleans.[100] The songs were in the same vein as the hit single, flavored by Mike Bloomfield's blues guitar and Al Kooper's organ riffs. "Desolation Row" offers the sole acoustic exception, with Dylan making surreal allusions to a variety of figures in Western culture during this epic song, which was described by Andy Gill as "an 11-minute epic of entropy, which takes the form of a Fellini-esque parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of celebrated characters, some historical (Einstein, Nero), some biblical (Noah, Cain and Abel), some fictional (Ophelia, Romeo, Cinderella), some literary (T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound), and some who fit into none of the above categories, notably Dr. Filth and his dubious nurse."[101]
In support of the record, Dylan was booked for two U.S. concerts and set about assembling a band. Mike Bloomfield was unwilling to leave the Butterfield Band, so Dylan mixed Al Kooper and Harvey Brooks from his studio crew with Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, best known at the time for being part of Ronnie Hawkins's backing band The Hawks (later to become The Band).[102] On August 28 at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, the group was heckled by an audience still annoyed by Dylan's electric sound. The band's reception on September 3 at the Hollywood Bowl was more favorable.[103]
While Dylan and the Hawks met increasingly receptive audiences on tour, their studio efforts floundered. Producer Bob Johnston persuaded Dylan to record in Nashville in February 1966, and surrounded him with a cadre of top-notch session men. At Dylan's insistence, Robertson and Kooper came down from New York City to play on the sessions.[104] The Nashville sessions produced the double-album Blonde on Blonde (1966), featuring what Dylan later called "that thin wild mercury sound".[105] Al Kooper described the album as "taking two cultures and smashing them together with a huge explosion": the musical world of Nashville and the world of the "quintessential New York hipster" Bob Dylan.[106]
On November 22, 1965, Dylan secretly married 25-year-old former model Sara Lownds.[107] Some of Dylan's friends (including Ramblin' Jack Elliott) claim that, in conversation immediately after the event, Dylan denied that he was married.[107] Journalist Nora Ephron first made the news public in the New York Post in February 1966 with the headline "Hush! Bob Dylan is wed."[108]
Dylan undertook a world tour of Australia and Europe in the spring of 1966. Each show was split into two parts. Dylan performed solo during the first half, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. In the second half, backed by the Hawks, he played high voltage electric music. This contrast provoked many fans, who jeered and slow handclapped.[109] The tour culminated in a famously raucous confrontation between Dylan and his audience at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England on May 17, 1966.[110] An official recording of this concert was finally released in 1998: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966. At the climax of the evening, a member of the audience, angered by Dylan's electric backing, shouted: "Judas!" to which Dylan responded, "I don't believe you ... You're a liar!" Dylan turned to his band and said, "Play it fucking loud!"[111] as they launched into the final song of the night—"Like a Rolling Stone."
During his 1966 tour, Dylan was frequently described as exhausted and acting "as if on a death trip".[112] D. A. Pennebaker, the film maker accompanying the tour, described Dylan as "taking a lot of amphetamine and who-knows-what-else."[113] In a 1969 interview with Jann Wenner, Dylan said, "I was on the road for almost five years. It wore me down. I was on drugs, a lot of things... just to keep going, you know?"[114] In 2011, BBC Radio 4 reported that, in an interview which Robert Shelton had taped in 1966, Dylan claimed that he had kicked a heroin habit in New York City: "I got very, very strung out for a while... I had about a $25-a-day habit and I kicked it."[115] Some journalists questioned the validity of this confession, pointing out that Dylan had "been telling journalists wild lies about his past since the earliest days of his career."[116][117]
Motorcycle accident and reclusion[link]
After his European tour, Dylan returned to New York, but the pressures on him increased. ABC Television had paid an advance for a TV show they could screen.[118] His publisher, Macmillan, was demanding a finished manuscript of the poem/novel Tarantula. Manager Albert Grossman had already scheduled an extensive concert tour for that summer and fall.
On July 29, 1966, Dylan crashed his 500cc Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle on a road near his home in Woodstock, New York, throwing him to the ground. Though the extent of his injuries were never fully disclosed, Dylan said that he broke several vertebrae in his neck.[119] Mystery still surrounds the circumstances of the accident since no ambulance was called to the scene and Dylan was not hospitalized.[119] Dylan's biographers have written that the crash offered Dylan the much-needed chance to escape from the pressures that had built up around him.[119][120] Dylan confirmed this interpretation of the crash when he stated in his autobiography, "I had been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race."[121] In the wake of his accident, Dylan withdrew from the public and, apart from a few select appearances, did not tour again for almost eight years.[122]
Once Dylan was well enough to resume creative work, he began editing film footage of his 1966 tour for Eat the Document, a rarely exhibited follow-up to Dont Look Back. A rough-cut was shown to ABC Television and was promptly rejected as incomprehensible to a mainstream audience.[123] In 1967 he began recording music with the Hawks at his home and in the basement of the Hawks' nearby house, called "Big Pink".[124] These songs, initially compiled as demos for other artists to record, provided hit singles for Julie Driscoll ("This Wheel's on Fire"), The Byrds ("You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "Nothing Was Delivered"), and Manfred Mann ("Mighty Quinn"). Columbia belatedly released selections from them in 1975 as The Basement Tapes. Over the years, more and more of the songs recorded by Dylan and his band in 1967 appeared on various bootleg recordings, culminating in a five-CD bootleg set titled The Genuine Basement Tapes, containing 107 songs and alternate takes.[125] In the coming months, the Hawks recorded the album Music from Big Pink using songs they first worked on in their basement in Woodstock, and renamed themselves The Band,[126] thus beginning a long and successful recording and performing career of their own.
In October and November 1967, Dylan returned to Nashville.[127] Back in the recording studio after a 19-month break, he was accompanied only by Charlie McCoy on bass,[128] Kenny Buttrey on drums,[129] and Pete Drake on steel guitar.[130] The result was John Wesley Harding, a quiet, contemplative record of shorter songs, set in a landscape that drew on both the American West and the Bible. The sparse structure and instrumentation, coupled with lyrics that took the Judeo-Christian tradition seriously, marked a departure not only from Dylan's own work but from the escalating psychedelic fervor of the 1960s musical culture.[131] It included "All Along the Watchtower", with lyrics derived from the Book of Isaiah (21:5–9). The song was later recorded by Jimi Hendrix, whose version Dylan later acknowledged as definitive.[27] Woody Guthrie died on October 3, 1967, and Dylan made his first live appearance in twenty months at a Guthrie memorial concert held at Carnegie Hall on January 20, 1968, where he was backed by The Band.
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"Lay Lady Lay", on the country album Nashville Skyline, has been one of Dylan's biggest hits, reaching No.7 in the U.S.A.[132]
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Dylan's next release, Nashville Skyline (1969), was virtually a mainstream country record featuring instrumental backing by Nashville musicians, a mellow-voiced Dylan, a duet with Johnny Cash, and the hit single "Lay Lady Lay."[133] Variety magazine wrote, "Dylan is definitely doing something that can be called singing. Somehow he has managed to add an octave to his range."[134] Dylan and Cash also recorded a series of duets, but only their recording of Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" was used on the album.
In May 1969, Dylan appeared on the first episode of Johnny Cash's new television show, duetting with Cash on "Girl from the North Country", "I Threw It All Away" and "Living the Blues". Dylan next travelled to England to top the bill at the Isle of Wight rock festival on August 31, 1969, after rejecting overtures to appear at the Woodstock Festival far closer to his home.[135]
1970s[link]
In the early 1970s, critics charged that Dylan's output was of varied and unpredictable quality. Rolling Stone magazine writer Greil Marcus notoriously asked "What is this shit?" on first listening to Self Portrait, released in June 1970.[136][137] In general, Self Portrait, a double LP including few original songs, was poorly received.[138] In October 1970, Dylan released New Morning, which some considered a return to form.[139] In November 1968, Dylan had co-written "I'd Have You Anytime" with George Harrison;[140] Harrison recorded both "I'd Have You Anytime" and Dylan's "If Not For You" for his 1970 solo triple album All Things Must Pass. Dylan's surprise appearance at Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh attracted much media coverage, reflecting that Dylan's live appearances had become rare.[141]
Between March 16 and 19, 1971, Dylan reserved three days at Blue Rock Studios, a small studio in New York's Greenwich Village. These sessions resulted in one single, "Watching the River Flow", and a new recording of "When I Paint My Masterpiece".[70] On November 4, 1971 Dylan recorded "George Jackson", which he released a week later.[70] For many, the single was a surprising return to protest material, mourning the killing of Black Panther George Jackson in San Quentin Prison that summer.[142] Dylan contributed piano and harmony vocals to Steve Goodman's album, Somebody Else's Troubles, under the pseudonym Robert Milkwood Thomas in September 1972.[143]
In 1972, Dylan signed onto Sam Peckinpah's film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, providing songs and backing music for the movie, and playing the role of "Alias", a member of Billy's gang with some historical basis.[144] Despite the film's failure at the box office, the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" has proven its durability as one of Dylan's most extensively covered songs.[145][146]
Return to touring[link]
Dylan began 1973 by signing with a new record label, David Geffen's Asylum Records, when his contract with Columbia Records expired. On his next album, Planet Waves, he used The Band as backing group, while rehearsing for a major tour. The album included two versions of "Forever Young", which became one of his most popular songs.[147] As one critic described it, the song projected "something hymnal and heartfelt that spoke of the father in Dylan",[148] and Dylan himself commented: "I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not wanting to be too sentimental."[149] Biographer Howard Sounes noted that Jakob Dylan believed the song was about him.[147]
Columbia Records simultaneously released Dylan, a haphazard collection of studio outtakes (almost exclusively cover songs), which was widely interpreted as a churlish response to Dylan's signing with a rival record label.[150] In January 1974, Dylan returned to live touring after a break of seven years; backed by The Band, he embarked on a high-profile, coast-to-coast North American tour, playing 40 concerts. A live double album of the tour, Before the Flood, was released on Asylum Records. Soon, Columbia Records sent word that they "will spare nothing to bring Dylan back into the fold".[151] Dylan had second thoughts about Asylum, apparently miffed that while there had been millions of unfulfilled ticket requests for the 1974 tour, Geffen had managed to sell only 700,000 copies of Planet Waves.[151] Dylan returned to Columbia Records, which subsequently reissued his two Asylum albums on their imprint.
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Dylan said of the opening song from Blood on the Tracks: "I was trying to deal with the concept of time, and the way the characters change from the first person to the third person, and you're never sure if the first person is talking or the third person. But as you look at the whole thing it really doesn't matter."[27]
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After the tour, Dylan and his wife became publicly estranged. He filled a small red notebook with songs about relationships and ruptures, and quickly recorded a new album entitled Blood on the Tracks in September 1974.[152] Dylan delayed the album's release, however, and re-recorded half of the songs at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis with production assistance from his brother David Zimmerman.[153]
Released in early 1975, Blood on the Tracks received mixed reviews. In the NME, Nick Kent described "the accompaniments [as] often so trashy they sound like mere practice takes."[154] In Rolling Stone, reviewer Jon Landau wrote that "the record has been made with typical shoddiness."[154] However, over the years critics have come to see it as one of Dylan's greatest achievements, perhaps the only serious rival to his mid-1960s trilogy of albums. In Salon.com, Bill Wyman wrote: "Blood on the Tracks is his only flawless album and his best produced; the songs, each of them, are constructed in disciplined fashion. It is his kindest album and most dismayed, and seems in hindsight to have achieved a sublime balance between the logorrhea-plagued excesses of his mid-1960s output and the self-consciously simple compositions of his post-accident years."[155] Novelist Rick Moody called it "the truest, most honest account of a love affair from tip to stern ever put down on magnetic tape."[156]
That summer Dylan wrote a lengthy ballad championing the cause of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who had been imprisoned for a triple murder committed in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1966. After visiting Carter in jail, Dylan wrote "Hurricane", presenting the case for Carter's innocence. Despite its 8:32 minute length, the song was released as a single, peaking at No.33 on the U.S. Billboard Chart, and performed at every 1975 date of Dylan's next tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue, named after the Shoshone medicine man, shaman, teacher, and activist Rolling Thunder.[157][158] The tour was a varied evening of entertainment featuring about one hundred performers and supporters drawn from the resurgent Greenwich Village folk scene, including T-Bone Burnett, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Joni Mitchell,[159][160] David Mansfield, Roger McGuinn, Mick Ronson, Joan Baez, and violinist Scarlet Rivera, whom Dylan discovered while she was walking down the street, her violin case hanging on her back.[161] Allen Ginsberg accompanied the troupe, staging scenes for the film Dylan was simultaneously shooting. Sam Shepard was initially hired to write the film's screenplay, but ended up accompanying the tour as informal chronicler.[162]
Running through late 1975 and again through early 1976, the tour encompassed the release of the album Desire, with many of Dylan's new songs featuring an almost travelogue-like narrative style, showing the influence of his new collaborator, playwright Jacques Levy.[163][164] The spring 1976 half of the tour was documented by a TV concert special, Hard Rain, and the LP Hard Rain; no concert album from the better-received and better-known opening half of the tour was released until 2002's Live 1975.[165]
The fall 1975 tour with the Revue also provided the backdrop to Dylan's nearly four-hour film Renaldo and Clara, a sprawling and improvised narrative, mixed with concert footage and reminiscences. Released in 1978, the movie received generally poor, sometimes scathing, reviews and had a very brief theatrical run.[166][167] Later in that year, Dylan allowed a two-hour edit, dominated by the concert performances, to be more widely released.[168]
In November 1976, Dylan appeared at The Band's "farewell" concert, along with other guests including Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison and Neil Young. Martin Scorsese's acclaimed cinematic chronicle of this show, The Last Waltz, was released in 1978 and included about half of Dylan's set.[169] In 1976, Dylan also wrote and duetted on the song "Sign Language" for Eric Clapton's No Reason To Cry.[170]
In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Japan, the Far East, Europe and the US, to a total audience of two million people. For the tour, Dylan assembled an eight piece band, and was also accompanied by three backing singers. Concerts in Tokyo in February and March were recorded and released as the live double album, Bob Dylan At Budokan.[171] Reviews were mixed. Robert Christgau awarded the album a C+ rating, giving the album a derisory review,[172] while Janet Maslin defended it in Rolling Stone, writing: "These latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals."[173] When Dylan brought the tour to the US in September 1978, he was dismayed the press described the look and sound of the show as a 'Las Vegas Tour'.[174] The 1978 tour grossed more than $20 million, and Dylan acknowledged to the Los Angeles Times that he had some debts to pay off because "I had a couple of bad years. I put a lot of money into the movie, built a big house ... and it costs a lot to get divorced in California."[171]
In April and May 1978, Dylan took the same large band and backing vocalists into Rundown Studios, a rehearsal space Dylan had rented in Santa Monica, California, to record an album of new material: Street-Legal.[175] It was described by Michael Gray as, "after Blood On The Tracks, arguably Dylan's best record of the 1970s: a crucial album documenting a crucial period in Dylan's own life".[176] However, it suffered from poor sound recording and mixing (attributed to Dylan's studio practices), muddying the instrumental detail until a remastered CD release in 1999 restored some of the songs' strengths.[177]
Born-again period[link]
Further information: Slow Train Coming
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Dylan took five months off at the beginning of 1979 to attend Bible school.[27] His subsequent album Slow Train Coming reached No.3 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and included this Grammy-winning song.
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In the late 1970s, Dylan became a born-again Christian[178][179][180] and released two albums of Christian gospel music. Slow Train Coming (1979) featured the guitar accompaniment of Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits) and was produced by veteran R&B producer, Jerry Wexler. Wexler recalled that when Dylan had tried to evangelize him during the recording, he replied: "Bob, you're dealing with a sixty-two-year old Jewish atheist. Let's just make an album."[181] The album won Dylan a Grammy Award as "Best Male Vocalist" for the song "Gotta Serve Somebody". The second evangelical album, Saved (1980), received mixed reviews, and was described by Dylan critic Michael Gray as "the nearest thing to a follow-up album Dylan has ever made, Slow Train Coming II and inferior."[182] When touring from the fall of 1979 through the spring of 1980, Dylan would not play any of his older, secular works, and he delivered declarations of his faith from the stage, such as:
Years ago they ... said I was a prophet. I used to say, "No I'm not a prophet" they say "Yes you are, you're a prophet." I said, "No it's not me." They used to say "You sure are a prophet." They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say Jesus Christ is the answer. They say, "Bob Dylan's no prophet." They just can't handle it.[183]
Dylan's embrace of born-again Christianity was unpopular with some of his fans and fellow musicians.[184] Shortly before his murder, John Lennon recorded "Serve Yourself" in response to Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody".[185] By 1981, Stephen Holden wrote in the New York Times that "neither age (he's now 40) nor his much-publicized conversion to born-again Christianity has altered his essentially iconoclastic temperament."[186]
1980s[link]
In the fall of 1980 Dylan briefly resumed touring for a series of concerts billed as "A Musical Retrospective", where he restored several of his popular 1960s songs to the repertoire. Shot of Love, recorded the next spring, featured Dylan's first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with explicitly Christian songs; the song "Every Grain of Sand" reminded some critics of William Blake's verses.[187]
In the 1980s the reception of Dylan's recorded work varied, from the well-regarded Infidels in 1983 to the panned Down in the Groove in 1988. Critics such as Michael Gray condemned Dylan's 1980s albums both for showing an extraordinary carelessness in the studio and for failing to release his best songs.[188] For example, the Infidels recording sessions, which again employed Mark Knopfler on lead guitar and also as the album's producer, resulted in several notable songs which Dylan left off the album. Most well regarded of these were "Blind Willie McTell", a tribute to the dead blues musician and an evocation of African American history,[189] "Foot of Pride" and "Lord Protect My Child". These three songs were later released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.[190]
Between July 1984 and March 1985, Dylan recorded his next studio album, Empire Burlesque.[191] Arthur Baker, who had remixed hits for Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper, was asked to engineer and mix the album. Baker has said he felt he was hired to make Dylan's album sound "a little bit more contemporary".[191]
Dylan sang on USA for Africa's famine relief fundraising single "We Are the World". On July 13, 1985, he appeared at the climax at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Backed by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Dylan performed a ragged version of "Hollis Brown", his ballad of rural poverty, and then said to the worldwide audience exceeding one billion people: "I hope that some of the money ... maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe ... one or two million, maybe ... and use it to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks."[192] His remarks were widely criticized as inappropriate, but they did inspire Willie Nelson to organize a series of events, Farm Aid, to benefit debt-ridden American farmers.[193]
In April 1986, Dylan made a brief foray into the world of rap music when he added vocals to the opening verse of "Street Rock", a song featured on Kurtis Blow's album Kingdom Blow.[194] Dylan's next studio album, Knocked Out Loaded, was released in July 1986 and contained three cover songs (by Little Junior Parker, Kris Kristofferson and the traditional gospel hymn "Precious Memories"), plus three collaborations with other writers (Tom Petty, Sam Shepard and Carole Bayer Sager), and two solo compositions by Dylan. One reviewer commented that "the record follows too many detours to be consistently compelling, and some of those detours wind down roads that are indisputably dead ends. By 1986, such uneven records weren't entirely unexpected by Dylan, but that didn't make them any less frustrating."[195] It was the first Dylan album since Freewheelin' (1963) to fail to make the Top 50.[196] Since then, some critics have called the 11-minute epic that Dylan co-wrote with Sam Shepard, 'Brownsville Girl', a work of genius.[197]
In 1986 and 1987, Dylan toured extensively with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, sharing vocals with Petty on several songs each night. Dylan also toured with The Grateful Dead in 1987, resulting in a live album Dylan & The Dead. This album received some very negative reviews: Allmusic said, "Quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead."[198] After performing with these musical permutations, Dylan initiated what came to be called The Never Ending Tour on June 7, 1988, performing with a tight back-up band featuring guitarist G. E. Smith. Dylan would continue to tour with a small, constantly evolving band for the next 20 years.[70]
In 1987, Dylan starred in Richard Marquand's movie Hearts of Fire, in which he played Billy Parker, a washed-up-rock-star-turned-chicken farmer whose teenage lover (Fiona) leaves him for a jaded English synth-pop sensation (played by Rupert Everett).[199] Dylan also contributed two original songs to the soundtrack—"Night After Night", and "I Had a Dream About You, Baby", as well as a cover of John Hiatt's "The Usual". The film was a critical and commercial flop.[200] Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1988, with Bruce Springsteen's introductory speech declaring, "Bob freed your mind the way Elvis freed your body. He showed us that just because music was innately physical did not mean that it was anti-intellectual.[201]
When Dylan released the album Down in the Groove in May 1988, it was even more unsuccessful in its sales than his previous studio album.[202] Michael Gray wrote: "The very title undercuts any idea that inspired work may lie within. Here was a further devaluing of the notion of a new Bob Dylan album as something significant."[203] The critical and commercial disappointment of that album was swiftly followed by the success of the Traveling Wilburys. Dylan co-founded the band with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, and in the fall of 1988 their multi-platinum Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 reached number three on the US album chart,[202] featuring songs that were described as Dylan's most accessible compositions in years.[204] Despite Orbison's death in December 1988, the remaining four recorded a second album in May 1990, which they released with the unexpected title Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.[205]
Dylan finished the decade on a critical high note with Oh Mercy produced by Daniel Lanois. Dylan critic Michael Gray wrote that the album was: "Attentively written, vocally distinctive, musically warm, and uncompromisingly professional, this cohesive whole is the nearest thing to a great Bob Dylan album in the 1980s."[203][206] The track "Most of the Time", a lost love composition, was later prominently featured in the film High Fidelity, while "What Was It You Wanted?" has been interpreted both as a catechism and a wry comment on the expectations of critics and fans.[207] The religious imagery of "Ring Them Bells" struck some critics as a re-affirmation of faith.[208]
1990s[link]
Dylan's 1990s began with Under the Red Sky (1990), an about-face from the serious Oh Mercy. The album contained several apparently simple songs, including "Under the Red Sky" and "Wiggle Wiggle". The album was dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo"; this was later explained as a nickname for the daughter of Dylan and Carolyn Dennis, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, who was four at that time.[209] Sidemen on the album included George Harrison, Slash from Guns N' Roses, David Crosby, Bruce Hornsby, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Elton John. Despite the stellar line-up, the record received bad reviews and sold poorly.[210]
In 1991, Dylan was honored by the recording industry with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from American actor Jack Nicholson.[211] The event coincided with the start of the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, and Dylan performed his song "Masters of War".[212] Dylan then made a short speech that startled some of the audience.[212]
The next few years saw Dylan returning to his roots with two albums covering old folk and blues numbers: Good as I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993), featuring interpretations and acoustic guitar work. Many critics and fans commented on the quiet beauty of the song "Lone Pilgrim",[213] penned by a 19th century teacher and sung by Dylan with a haunting reverence. In November 1994 Dylan recorded two live shows for MTV Unplugged. He claimed his wish to perform a set of traditional songs for the show was overruled by Sony executives who insisted on a greatest hits package.[214] The album produced from it, MTV Unplugged, included "John Brown", an unreleased 1963 song detailing the ravages of both war and jingoism.
With a collection of songs reportedly written while snowed-in on his Minnesota ranch,[215] Dylan booked recording time with Daniel Lanois at Miami's Criteria Studios in January 1997. The subsequent recording sessions were, by some accounts, fraught with musical tension.[216] Late that spring, before the album's release, Dylan was hospitalized with a life-threatening heart infection, pericarditis, brought on by histoplasmosis. His scheduled European tour was cancelled, but Dylan made a speedy recovery and left the hospital saying, "I really thought I'd be seeing Elvis soon."[217] He was back on the road by midsummer, and in early fall performed before Pope John Paul II at the World Eucharistic Conference in Bologna, Italy. The Pope treated the audience of 200,000 people to a homily based on Dylan's lyric "Blowin' in the Wind".[218]
September saw the release of the new Lanois-produced album, Time Out of Mind. With its bitter assessment of love and morbid ruminations, Dylan's first collection of original songs in seven years was highly acclaimed. One critic wrote: "the songs themselves are uniformly powerful, adding up to Dylan's best overall collection in years."[219] This collection of complex songs won him his first solo "Album of the Year" Grammy Award.[220]
In December 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton presented Dylan with a Kennedy Center Honor in the East Room of the White House, paying this tribute: "He probably had more impact on people of my generation than any other creative artist. His voice and lyrics haven't always been easy on the ear, but throughout his career Bob Dylan has never aimed to please. He's disturbed the peace and discomforted the powerful."[221]
2000s[link]
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Dylan's Oscar winning song was featured in the movie Wonder Boys. The line "sapphire-tinted skies" echoes the verse of Shelley[222] while "forty miles of bad road" echoes Duane Eddy's hit single.
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Dylan commenced the new millennium by winning his first Oscar; his song "Things Have Changed", penned for the film Wonder Boys, won an Academy Award in March 2001.[223] The Oscar (by some reports a facsimile) tours with him, presiding over shows perched atop an amplifier.[224]
"Love and Theft" was released on September 11, 2001. Recorded with his touring band, Dylan produced the album himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost.[225] The album was critically well received and earned nominations for several Grammy awards.[226] Critics noted that Dylan was widening his musical palette to include rockabilly, Western swing, jazz, and even lounge ballads.[227] "Love and Theft" generated controversy when The Wall Street Journal pointed out similarities between the album's lyrics and Japanese author Junichi Saga's book Confessions of a Yakuza.[228][229]
In 2003, Dylan revisited the evangelical songs from his "born again" period and participated in the CD project Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. That year also saw the release of the film Masked & Anonymous, which Dylan co-wrote with director Larry Charles under the alias Sergei Petrov.[230] Dylan played the central character in the film, Jack Fate, alongside a cast which included Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz and John Goodman. The film polarised critics: many dismissed it as an "incoherent mess";[231][232] a few treated it as a serious work of art.[233][234]
In October 2004, Dylan published the first part of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. The book confounded expectations.[235] Dylan devoted three chapters to his first year in New York City in 1961–1962, virtually ignoring the mid-1960s when his fame was at its height. He also devoted chapters to the albums New Morning (1970) and Oh Mercy (1989). The book reached number two on The New York Times' Hardcover Non-Fiction best seller list in December 2004 and was nominated for a National Book Award.[236]
No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese's acclaimed film biography of Dylan,[237] was first broadcast on September 26–27, 2005, on BBC Two in the UK and PBS in the US.[238] The documentary focuses on the period from Dylan's arrival in New York in 1961 to his motorcycle crash in 1966, featuring interviews with Suze Rotolo, Liam Clancy, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, and Dylan himself. The film received a Peabody Award in April 2006[239] and a Columbia-duPont Award in January 2007.[240] The accompanying soundtrack featured unreleased songs from Dylan's early career.
Dylan earned yet another distinction in a 2007 study of US legal opinions and briefs that found his lyrics were quoted by judges and lawyers more than those of any other songwriter, 186 times versus 74 by The Beatles, who were second. Among those quoting Dylan were US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia, both conservatives. The most widely cited lines included "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" from "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "when you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose" from "Like a Rolling Stone".[241][242]
[edit] Modern Times (2006–08)
May 3, 2006, was the premiere of Dylan's radio presenting career, hosting a weekly radio program, Theme Time Radio Hour, for XM Satellite Radio, with song selections revolving around a chosen theme.[243][244] Dylan played classic and obscure records from the 1930s to the present day, including contemporary artists as diverse as Blur, Prince, L.L. Cool J and The Streets. The show was praised by fans and critics as "great radio," as Dylan told stories and made eclectic references with his sardonic humor, while achieving a thematic beauty with his musical choices.[245][246] In April 2009, Dylan broadcast the 100th show in his radio series; the theme was "Goodbye" and the final record played was Woody Guthrie's "So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh". This has led to speculation that Dylan's radio series may have ended.[247]
On August 29, 2006, Dylan released his Modern Times album. Despite some coarsening of Dylan's voice (a critic for The Guardian characterised his singing on the album as "a catarrhal death rattle"[248]) most reviewers praised the album, and many described it as the final installment of a successful trilogy, embracing Time Out of Mind and "Love and Theft".[249] Modern Times entered the U.S. charts at number one, making it Dylan's first album to reach that position since 1976's Desire.[250] The New York Times published an article exploring similarities between some of Dylan's lyrics in Modern Times and the work of the Civil War poet Henry Timrod.[251]
Nominated for three Grammy Awards, Modern Times won Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album and Bob Dylan also won Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Someday Baby". Modern Times was named Album of the Year, 2006, by Rolling Stone magazine,[252] and by Uncut in the UK.[253] On the same day that Modern Times was released the iTunes Music Store released Bob Dylan: The Collection, a digital box set containing all of his albums (773 tracks in total), along with 42 rare and unreleased tracks.[254]
In August 2007, the award-winning film biography of Dylan I'm Not There, written and directed by Todd Haynes, was released—bearing the tagline "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan".[255][256] The movie uses six distinct characters to represent different aspects of Dylan's life, played by Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw.[256][257] Dylan's previously unreleased 1967 recording from which the film takes its name[258] was released for the first time on the film's original soundtrack; all other tracks are covers of Dylan songs, specially recorded for the movie by a diverse range of artists, including Eddie Vedder, Mason Jennings, Stephen Malkmus, Jeff Tweedy, Karen O, Willie Nelson, Cat Power, Richie Havens, and Tom Verlaine.[259]
On October 1, 2007, Columbia Records released the triple CD retrospective album Dylan, anthologising his entire career under the Dylan 07 logo.[260] As part of this campaign, Mark Ronson produced a re-mix of Dylan's 1966 tune "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)", which was released as a maxi-single. This was the first time Dylan had sanctioned a re-mix of one of his classic recordings.[261]
The sophistication of the Dylan 07 marketing campaign was a reminder that Dylan's commercial profile had risen considerably since the 1990s. This first became evidenced in 2004, when Dylan appeared in a TV advertisement for Victoria's Secret lingerie.[262] Three years later, in October 2007, he participated in a multi-media campaign for the 2008 Cadillac Escalade.[263][264] Then, in 2009, he gave the highest profile endorsement of his career, appearing with rapper Will.i.am in a Pepsi ad that debuted during the telecast of Super Bowl XLIII.[265] The ad, broadcast to a record audience of 98 million viewers, opened with Dylan singing the first verse of "Forever Young" followed by Will.i.am doing a hip hop version of the song's third and final verse.[266]
In October 2008, Columbia released Volume 8 of Dylan's Bootleg Series, Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989–2006 as both a two-CD set and a three-CD version with a 150-page hardcover book. The set contains live performances and outtakes from selected studio albums from Oh Mercy to Modern Times, as well as soundtrack contributions and collaborations with David Bromberg and Ralph Stanley.[267] The pricing of the album—the two-CD set went on sale for $18.99 and the three-CD version for $129.99—led to complaints about "rip-off packaging" from some fans and commentators.[268][269] The release was widely acclaimed by critics.[270] The abundance of alternative takes and unreleased material suggested to Uncut's reviewer: "Tell Tale Signs is awash with evidence of (Dylan's) staggering mercuriality, his evident determination even in the studio to repeat himself as little as possible."[271]
[edit] Together Through Life, Christmas in the Heart (2009)
Bob Dylan released his album Together Through Life on April 28, 2009. In a conversation with music journalist Bill Flanagan, published on Dylan's website, Dylan explained that the genesis of the record was when French film director Olivier Dahan asked him to supply a song for his new road movie, My Own Love Song; initially only intending to record a single track, "Life Is Hard," "the record sort of took its own direction".[272] Nine of the ten songs on the album are credited as co-written by Bob Dylan and Robert Hunter.[273]
The album received largely favorable reviews,[274] although several critics described it as a minor addition to Dylan's canon of work. Andy Gill wrote in The Independent that the record "features Dylan in fairly relaxed, spontaneous mood, content to grab such grooves and sentiments as flit momentarily across his radar. So while it may not contain too many landmark tracks, it's one of the most naturally enjoyable albums you'll hear all year."[275]
In its first week of release, the album reached number one in the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S.,[276] making Bob Dylan (67 years of age) the oldest artist to ever debut at number one on that chart.[276] It also reached number one on the UK album chart, 39 years after Dylan's previous UK album chart topper New Morning. This meant that Dylan currently holds the record for the longest gap between solo number one albums in the UK chart.[277]
On October 13, 2009, Dylan released a Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart, comprising such Christmas standards as "Little Drummer Boy", "Winter Wonderland" and "Here Comes Santa Claus".[278] Dylan's royalties from the sale of this album will benefit the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme.[279]
The album received generally favorable reviews.[280] The New Yorker commented that Dylan had welded a pre-rock musical sound to "some of his croakiest vocals in a while", and speculated that Dylan's intentions might be ironic: "Dylan has a long and highly publicized history with Christianity; to claim there's not a wink in the childish optimism of 'Here Comes Santa Claus' or 'Winter Wonderland' is to ignore a half-century of biting satire."[281] In USA Today, Edna Gundersen pointed out that Dylan was "revisiting yuletide styles popularized by Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, and the Ray Conniff Singers." Gundersen concluded that Dylan "couldn't sound more sentimental or sincere".[282]
In an interview published in The Big Issue, journalist Bill Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and Dylan responded: "There wasn't any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too."[283]
2010s[link]
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 Dylan performs "The Times they are a-Changin'" at a White House celebration of music from the Civil Rights era, February 9, 2010.
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On October 18, 2010, Dylan released Volume 9 of his Bootleg Series, The Witmark Demos. This comprised 47 demo recordings of songs taped between 1962 and 1964 for Dylan's earliest music publishers: Leeds Music in 1962, and Witmark Music from 1962 to 1964. One reviewer described the set as "a kind of alternate early history of Dylan's songwriting process, 'writing five new songs before breakfast,' as he once famously quipped".[284] The critical aggregator website Metacritic awarded the album a Metascore of 86, indicating "universal acclaim".[285] In the same week, Sony Legacy released Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings, a box set which for the first time presented Dylan's eight earliest albums, from Bob Dylan (1962) to John Wesley Harding (1967), in their original mono mix in the CD format, accompanied by new liner notes by Dylan critic Greil Marcus.[286]
On April 12, 2011, Legacy Recordings released Bob Dylan in Concert – Brandeis University 1963 . The recording was taped at Brandeis University on May 10, 1963, two weeks prior to the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The tape had been discovered in the archive of music writer Ralph J. Gleason, and had previously been available as a limited edition supplement to The Bootleg Series Vol. 9. The recording carries liner notes by Dylan scholar Michael Gray, who writes: "(The) Dylan performance it captured, from way back when Kennedy was President and the Beatles hadn't yet reached America, wasn't even on fans' radar.... It reveals him not at any Big Moment but giving a performance like his folk club sets of the period... This is the last live performance we have of Bob Dylan before he becomes a star."[287]
The extent to which his work was studied at an academic level was demonstrated on Dylan's 70th birthday on May 24, 2011, when three universities organised symposia on his work. The University of Mainz,[288] the University of Vienna,[289] and the University of Bristol[290] invited literary critics and cultural historians from Europe and the US to give papers on aspects of Dylan's work. Other events, including tribute bands, intellectual debates and simple singalongs, took place around the world, as reported in The Guardian: "From Moscow to Madrid, Norway to Northampton and Malaysia to his home state of Minnesota, self-confessed "Bobcats" will gather today to celebrate the 70th birthday of a giant of popular music."[291]
On October 4, 2011, Dylan's label, Egyptian Records, released an album of previously unheard Hank Williams songs, The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams. Dylan had helped to curate this project, in which songs unfinished when Williams died in 1953 were completed and recorded by a variety of artists, including Dylan himself, his son Jakob Dylan, Levon Helm, Norah Jones, Jack White, and others.[292][293]
On December 10, 2011, to mark International Human Rights Day, Amnesty International announced they would release a 4-CD set, Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, to mark the 50th anniversary of the international human rights organization in January 2012.[294] The album contains 76 newly recorded cover versions of songs by Dylan, contributed by more than 80 artists.[295] Included on the album are "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" performed by both Kesha and the Kronos Quartet, Pete Townshend performing "Corrina Corrina", Sinéad O'Connor performing "Property of Jesus", and Lucinda Williams performing "Tryin' to Get to Heaven". Helen Garrett, director of special projects for Amnesty International, said: "Chimes of Freedom is an abundance of riches. It's fair to say that the collection shows how deeply musicians feel about the beauty of Dylan's music—across generations—and how passionate they are about supporting human rights."[295] The 4-CD set of Chimes of Freedom entered the Nielsen SoundScan chart at No. 11, and at No. 39, as it was also released in a 2-CD version by Starbucks.[296]
Never Ending Tour[link]
Main article: Never Ending Tour
The Never Ending Tour commenced on June 7, 1988,[297] and Dylan has played roughly 100 dates a year for the entirety of the 1990s and the 2000s (decade)—a heavier schedule than most performers who started out in the 1960s.[298] By the end of 2010, Dylan and his band had played more than 2300 shows,[299] anchored by long-time bassist Tony Garnier, multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron and guitarist Charlie Sexton. To the dismay of some of his audience,[300] Dylan's performances remain unpredictable as he alters his arrangements and changes his vocal approach night after night.[301] Critical opinion about Dylan's shows remains divided. Critics such as Richard Williams and Andy Gill have argued that Dylan has found a successful way to present his rich legacy of material.[302][303] Others have criticised his onstage vocal style for mangling and spitting out "the greatest lyrics ever written so that they are effectively unrecognisable",[304] and a perceived indifference towards his audience.[305]
Dylan's performances in China in April 2011 generated controversy. Some criticised him for not making any explicit comment on the political situation in China, and for, allegedly, allowing the Chinese authorities to censor his set-list.[306][307] Others defended Dylan's performances, arguing that such criticism represented a misunderstanding of Dylan's art, and that no evidence for the censorship of Dylan's set-list existed.[308][309] Dylan responded to these allegations of censorship by posting a statement on his website: "As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing. There's no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play."[310]
The 2012 leg of Dylan's Never Ending Tour began on April 15, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is the 25th year of the Never Ending Tour. The tour starts in South America where Dylan is scheduled to perform in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Mexico.[311][312] In the summer, Dylan is scheduled to visit Europe. He returns to Kent, England, on June 30, to perform at the Hop Farm Festival; Dylan previously performed there on July 3, 2010.[313] He will appear as a headliner at the 46th Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 8, 2012.[314]
Artist[link]
Over a decade after Random House had published Drawn Blank (1994), a book of Dylan's drawings, an exhibit of his art, The Drawn Blank Series, opened in October 2007 at the Kunstsammlungen in Chemnitz, Germany.[11] This first public exhibition of Dylan's paintings showcased more than 200 watercolors and gouaches made earlier in 2007 from the original drawings. The exhibition coincided with the publication of the book Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series, which includes 170 reproductions from the series.[11][315][10] From September 2010 until April 2011, the National Gallery of Denmark exhibited 40 large-scale acrylic paintings by Dylan, The Brazil Series.[316][317]
In July 2011, a leading contemporary art gallery, Gagosian Gallery, announced their representation of Dylan's paintings.[318] An exhibition of Dylan's art, The Asia Series, opened at the Gagosian Madison Avenue Gallery on September 20, displaying Dylan's paintings of scenes in China and the Far East.[319] The New York Times reported that "some fans and Dylanologists have raised questions about whether some of these paintings are based on the singer’s own experiences and observations, or on photographs that are widely available and were not taken by Mr. Dylan."[320] The Times pointed to close resemblances between Dylan's paintings and six historic photos of Japan and China which had been posted on the Flickr website.[321] Dylan's paintings also appeared to be based on photographs taken by Dmitri Kessel, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Jacob Aue Sobol. The Magnum photo agency confirmed that Dylan had licensed the reproduction rights of these photographs.[322]
Discography[link]
Main article: Bob Dylan discography
The discography lists 34 studio albums, 58 singles, 13 live albums, 9 albums comprising The Bootleg Series, and 14 compilation albums. It also includes three home videos, a bibliography, and a filmography.
Awards[link]
Main article: List of awards received by Bob Dylan
Dylan has won many awards throughout his career including 11 Grammy Awards, one Academy Award and one Golden Globe Award; He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In May 2012, Dylan was one out of thirteen honorees to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[323]
Personal life[link]
Family[link]
Dylan married Sara Lownds on November 22, 1965. Their first child, Jesse Byron Dylan, was born on January 6, 1966, and they had three more children: Anna Lea (born July 11, 1967), Samuel Isaac Abraham (born July 30, 1968), and Jakob Luke (born December 9, 1969). Dylan also adopted Sara's daughter from a prior marriage, Maria Lownds (later Dylan, born October 21, 1961). Maria married musician Peter Himmelman in 1988.[324] In the 1990s, Dylan's son Jakob became well known as the lead singer of the band The Wallflowers. Jesse Dylan is a film director and a successful businessman. Bob and Sara Dylan were divorced on June 29, 1977.[325]
In June 1986, Dylan married his longtime backup singer Carolyn Dennis (often professionally known as Carol Dennis).[326] Their daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, was born on January 31, 1986. The couple divorced in October 1992. Their marriage and child remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Howard Sounes' Dylan biography, Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan in 2001.[327] Dylan now lives in Malibu, California, when not on the road.[328] In total, Bob Dylan has six children (five biological and one adopted) and eleven grandchildren as of 2011.
Religious beliefs[link]
Growing up in Hibbing, Minnesota, Dylan and his family were part of the area's small but close-knit Jewish community, and in May 1954 Dylan had his Bar Mitzvah.[329] Around the time of his 30th birthday, in 1971, Dylan visited Israel, and also met Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the New York-based Jewish Defense League.[330] Time Magazine quoted Dylan saying about Kahane, "He's a really sincere guy. He's really put it all together."[331] Subsequently, Dylan downplayed the extent of his contact with Kahane.[332]
For a period during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dylan was a public convert to Christianity. From January to April 1979, he participated in Bible study classes at the Vineyard School of Discipleship in Reseda, California. Pastor Kenn Gulliksen has recalled: "Larry Myers and Paul Emond went over to Bob's house and ministered to him. He responded by saying, 'Yes he did in fact want Christ in his life.' And he prayed that day and received the Lord."[333][334]
By 1984, Dylan was distancing himself from the "born-again" label. He told Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone magazine: "I've never said I'm born again. That's just a media term. I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come." In response to Loder's asking whether he belonged to any Church or synagogue, Dylan laughingly replied, "Not really. Uh, the Church of the Poison Mind."[335] In 1997 he told David Gates of Newsweek:
| “ | Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else. Songs like "Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain" or "I Saw the Light"—that's my religion. I don't adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity. The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.[1] | ” |
In an interview published in The New York Times on September 28, 1997, journalist Jon Pareles reported that "Dylan says he now subscribes to no organized religion."[336]
Dylan has been a supporter of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in the last 20 years,[337] and has privately participated in Jewish religious events, including the bar mitzvahs of his sons and attending Hadar Hatorah, a Chabad Lubavitch yeshiva. In September 1989 and September 1991, Dylan appeared on the Chabad telethon.[338] Dylan reportedly visits Chabad synagogues; on September 22, 2007 (Yom Kippur), he attended Congregation Beth Tefillah, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was called to the Torah for the sixth aliyah.[339]
Dylan has continued to perform songs from his gospel albums in concert, occasionally covering traditional religious songs. He has also made passing references to his religious faith—such as in a 2004 interview with 60 Minutes, when he told Ed Bradley that "the only person you have to think twice about lying to is either yourself or to God." He also explained his constant touring schedule as part of a bargain he made a long time ago with the "chief commander—in this earth and in the world we can't see."[32]
In a 2009 interview with Bill Flanagan promoting his Christmas LP, Christmas in the Heart, Flanagan commented on the "heroic performance" Dylan gave of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and that Dylan "delivered the song like a true believer". Dylan replied: "Well, I am a true believer."[283]
Legacy[link]
Bob Dylan is one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, musically and culturally. Dylan was included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century where he was called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation".[2] President Barack Obama said of Dylan in 2012, "There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music."[13] Biographer Howard Sounes placed him among the most exalted company when he said, "There are giant figures in art who are sublimely good—Mozart, Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, Shakespeare, Dickens. Dylan ranks alongside these artists."[340] Colin Larkin ranked Dylan at number two in his 'Top 50 Artists Of All Time', a ranking based on the cumulative votes for each artist’s albums that appear in Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.[341]
Initially modeling his writing style on the songs of Woody Guthrie,[6] and lessons learned from the blues of Robert Johnson,[7] Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry".[342] Paul Simon suggested that Dylan's early compositions virtually took over the folk genre: "[Dylan's] early songs were very rich ... with strong melodies. 'Blowin' in the Wind' has a really strong melody. He so enlarged himself through the folk background that he incorporated it for a while. He defined the genre for a while."[343]
When Dylan made his move from acoustic music to a rock backing, the mix became more complex. For many critics, Dylan's greatest achievement was the cultural synthesis exemplified by his mid-1960s trilogy of albums—Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. In Mike Marqusee's words: "Between late 1964 and the summer of 1966, Dylan created a body of work that remains unique. Drawing on folk, blues, country, R&B, rock'n'roll, gospel, British beat, symbolist, modernist and Beat poetry, surrealism and Dada, advertising jargon and social commentary, Fellini and Mad magazine, he forged a coherent and original artistic voice and vision. The beauty of these albums retains the power to shock and console."[344]
One legacy of Dylan's verbal sophistication was the increasing attention paid by literary critics to his lyrics. Professor Christopher Ricks published a 500-page analysis of Dylan's work, placing him in the context of Eliot, Keats and Tennyson,[345] and claiming that Dylan was a poet worthy of the same close and painstaking analysis.[346] Former British poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, argued that Dylan's lyrics should be studied in schools.[347] Since 1996, academics have lobbied the Swedish Academy to award Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature.[348][349][350][351]
Dylan's voice was, in some ways, as startling as his lyrics. New York Times critic Robert Shelton described Dylan's early vocal style as "a rusty voice suggesting Guthrie's old performances, etched in gravel like Dave Van Ronk's."[352] David Bowie, in his tribute, "Song for Bob Dylan", described Dylan's singing as "a voice like sand and glue". Dylan's voice continued to develop as he began to work with rock'n'roll backing bands; critic Michael Gray described the sound of Dylan's vocal on his hit single, "Like a Rolling Stone", as "at once young and jeeringly cynical".[353] As Dylan's voice aged during the 1980s, for some critics, it became more expressive. Christophe Lebold writes in the journal Oral Tradition, "Dylan's more recent broken voice enables him to present a world view at the sonic surface of the songs—this voice carries us across the landscape of a broken, fallen world. The anatomy of a broken world in "Everything is Broken" (on the album Oh Mercy) is but an example of how the thematic concern with all things broken is grounded in a concrete sonic reality."[354]
Dylan's influence has been felt in several musical genres. As Edna Gundersen stated in USA Today: "Dylan's musical DNA has informed nearly every simple twist of pop since 1962."[355] Many musicians have testified to Dylan's influence, such as Joe Strummer, who praised Dylan as having "laid down the template for lyric, tune, seriousness, spirituality, depth of rock music."[356] Other major musicians to have acknowledged Dylan's importance include John Lennon,[357] Paul McCartney,[358] Pete Townshend,[359] Neil Young,[360] Bruce Springsteen,[97] David Bowie,[361] Bryan Ferry,[362] Nick Cave,[363][364] Patti Smith,[365] Syd Barrett,[366] Cat Stevens,[367]Joni Mitchell,[368] and Tom Waits.[369] More directly, both The Byrds and The Band, two 1960s contemporary groups with some measure of influence on popular music themselves, largely owed their initial success to Dylan: the Byrds with their hit of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and subsequent album; and The Band for their association with him on tour in 1966, on retreat in Woodstock, and on their debut album featuring three previously unreleased Dylan songs.
Some critics have dissented from the view of Dylan as a visionary figure in popular music. In his book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, Nik Cohn objected: "I can't take the vision of Dylan as seer, as teenage messiah, as everything else he's been worshipped as. The way I see him, he's a minor talent with a major gift for self-hype."[370] Similarly, Australian critic Jack Marx credited Dylan with changing the persona of the rock star: "What cannot be disputed is that Dylan invented the arrogant, faux-cerebral posturing that has been the dominant style in rock since, with everyone from Mick Jagger to Eminem educating themselves from the Dylan handbook."[371] Joni Mitchell described Dylan as a "plagiarist" and his voice as "fake" in a 2010 interview in the Los Angeles Times, in response to a suggestion that she and Dylan were similar since they had both changed their birthnames.[372][373] Mitchell's comment led to discussions of Dylan's use of other people's material, both supporting and criticizing Dylan.[374]
If Bob Dylan's legacy in the 1960s was seen as bringing intellectual ambition to popular music, now that he has passed the age of 70, he has been described as a figure who has greatly expanded the folk culture from which he initially emerged. As J. Hoberman wrote in The Village Voice, "Elvis might never have been born, but someone else would surely have brought the world rock 'n' roll. No such logic accounts for Bob Dylan. No iron law of history demanded that a would-be Elvis from Hibbing, Minnesota, would swerve through the Greenwich Village folk revival to become the world's first and greatest rock 'n' roll beatnik bard and then—having achieved fame and adoration beyond reckoning—vanish into a folk tradition of his own making."[375]
Notes[link]
- ^ According to Dylan biographer Robert Shelton, the singer first confided his change of name to his high school girlfriend Echo Helstrom in 1958, informing her he had found a "great name, Bob Dillon". Shelton surmises the name Dillon had two sources: Marshal Matt Dillon was the hero of the popular TV western Gunsmoke; Dillon was also the name of one of Hibbing’s principal families. When writing his biography in the mid 1960s, Dylan told Shelton: "Straighten out in your book that I did not take my name from Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas’s poetry is for people that aren’t really satisfied in their bed, for people who dig masculine romance." At the University of Minnesota, the singer told a few friends that Dillon was his mother’s maiden name, which was untrue. The singer later told reporters that he had an uncle named Dillon. Shelton adds that only when he reached New York in 1961 did the singer begin to spell his name ‘Dylan’, by which time he was acquainted with the life and work of Dylan Thomas. Shelton, No Direction Home, 2011, pp. 44–45.
Footnotes[link]
- ^ a b c Gates, David (October 6, 1997). "Dylan Revisited". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/1997/10/05/dylan-revisited.html. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
- ^ a b Cocks, Jay (June 14, 1999). "The Time 100: Bob Dylan". shrout.co.uk/TIME. http://www.shrout.co.uk/TIME%20Bob%20Dylan.html. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
- ^ Dylan sang "Blowin' in the Wind" at the Washington D.C. concert, January 20, 1986, which marked the inauguration of Martin Luther King Day. Gray, 2006, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 63–64.
- ^ "Dylan 'reveals origin of anthem'". BBC News. April 11, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3618291.stm. Retrieved February 6, 2009.
- ^ Marcus 2005, pp. 6–8
- ^ a b Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 243–246.
- ^ a b Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 281–288.
- ^ a b Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Browne, David (September 10, 2001). "Love and Theft review". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,173933~4~~lovetheft,00.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ a b Pessl, Marsha (June 1, 2008). "When I Paint My Masterpiece". The New York Times Book Review. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/books/review/Pessl-t.html. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
- ^ a b c Macintyre, James (August 10, 2007). "Dylan's drawings to go on display—alongside Picasso's". The Independent (UK). http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/dylans-drawings-to-go-on-display--alongside-picassos-460955.html. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
- ^ "The Pulitzer Prize Winners 2008: Special Citation". Pulitzer. May 7, 2008. http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2008,Special+Awards+and+Citations. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
- ^ a b Itzkoff, Dave (29 May 2012). "Bob Dylan Among Recipients of Presidential Medal of Freedom". The New York Times. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/bob-dylan-among-recipients-of-presidential-medal-of-freedom/. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 14, gives his Hebrew name as Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham
- ^ A Chabad news service gives the variant Zushe ben Avraham, which may be a Yiddish variant "Singer/Songwriter Bob Dylan Joins Yom Kippur Services in Atlanta". Chabad.org News. September 24, 2007. http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/573406/jewish/SingerSongwriter-Bob-Dylan-Joins-Yom-Kippur-Services-in-Atlanta.htm. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 14
- ^ "Robert Allen Zimmerman". Minnesota Birth Index, 1935-2002. Ancestry.com. http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=mnbirth&h=9920599. Retrieved September 6, 2011. "Name: Robert Allen Zimmerman; Birth Date: 24 May 1941; Birth County: Saint Louis; Father: Abram H. Zimmerman; Mother: Beatrice Stone" (Subscription required)
- ^ a b Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 92–93.
- ^ a b Gray, Michael (May 22, 2011). "One of a kind: Bob Dylan at 70". The Japan Times. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20110522x1.html. Retrieved December 30, 2011.
- ^ Heylin, 1996, Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 29–37.
- ^ LIFE Books, Bob Dylan, Forever Young, 50 Years of Song, Time Home Entertainment, 2012, Vol. 2. No 2, February 10, 2012, p. 15
- ^ An interview with Bobby Vee suggests the young Zimmerman may have been eccentric in spelling his early pseudonym: "[Dylan] was in the Fargo/Moorhead area ... Bill [Velline] was in a record shop in Fargo, Sam's Record Land, and this guy came up to him and introduced himself as Elston Gunnn—with three n's, G-U-N-N-N." Bobby Vee Interview, July 1999, Goldmine Reproduced online: "Early alias for Robert Zimmerman". Expecting Rain. August 11, 1999. http://expectingrain.com/dok/who/g/gunnnelston.html. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 26–27.
- ^ a b c d e Biograph, 1985, Liner notes & text by Cameron Crowe.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 65–82.
- ^ a b This is related in the documentary film No Direction Home, Director: Martin Scorsese. Broadcast: September 26, 2005, PBS & BBC Two
- ^ Heylin, 1996, Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, p. 7.
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 78–79.
- ^ a b Leung, Rebecca (June 12, 2005). " "Dylan Looks Back". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/02/60minutes/main658799.shtml%20". Retrieved February 25, 2009.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 72
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, p. 98.
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 244–246.
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 250–252.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, 2011, pp. 74–78.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, 2011, p. 333.
- ^ Robert Shelton, The New York Times, September 21, 1961, "Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Stylist" reproduced online: Robert Shelton (September 21, 1961). "Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Stylist". Bob Dylan Roots. Archived from the original on April 21, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080421173626/http://www.bobdylanroots.com/shelton.html. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Richie Unterberger (October 8, 2003). "Carolyn Hester Biography". All Music. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p2005. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Scaduto, Bob Dylan, p. 110.
- ^ A photo of Dylan with Victoria Spivey at this session was used by Dylan on the cover of his 1970 album, New Morning. See Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 630–631.
- ^ a b c Unterberger, Richie. "Blind Boy Grunt". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/blind-boy-grunt-p447197/biography. Retrieved February 12, 2011.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 157–158.
- ^ Gill, My Back Pages, 23
- ^ Sounes, 2001, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 121
- ^ Sounes, 2001, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 116
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 283–284.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 115–116.
- ^ a b c Heylin, 1996, Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, pp. 35–39.
- ^ a b "Dylan in the Madhouse". BBC TV. October 14, 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/music/bobdylan/madhouse.shtml. Retrieved August 31, 2009.
- ^ Sounes, Howard. Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. Doubleday 2001. p159. ISBN 0-552-99929-6
- ^ Rogers, Jude (September 17, 2007). "Josh Ritter". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/sep/17/popandrock.folk.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 138–142.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 156.
- ^ The booklet by John Bauldie accompanying Dylan's The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 (1991) says: "Dylan acknowledged the debt in 1978 to journalist Marc Rowland: Blowin' In The Wind' has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called 'No More Auction Block'—that's a spiritual and 'Blowin' In The Wind follows the same feeling.'" pp. 6–8.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 101–103.
- ^ Ricks, Dylan's Visions of Sin, pp. 329–344.
- ^ Scaduto, Bob Dylan, p. 35.
- ^ Mojo magazine, December 1993.
- ^ Hedin (ed.), 2004, Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader, p. 259.
- ^ Sounes, 2001, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 136–138.
- ^ Joan Baez entry, Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 28–31.
- ^ Meacham, Steve (August 15, 2007). "It ain't me babe but I like how it sounds". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/bob-dylans-songs-offer-rich-pickings-for-other-singers/2007/08/14/1186857512999.html. Retrieved September 24, 2008.
- ^ Biograph, 1985, Liner notes & text by Cameron Crowe. Musicians on "Mixed Up Confusion": George Barnes & Bruce Langhorne (guitars); Dick Wellstood (piano); Gene Ramey (bass); Herb Lovelle (drums)
- ^ Dylan had recorded "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" for his Freewheelin album, but the song was replaced by later compositions, including "Masters of War". See Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 114–115.
- ^ Dylan performed "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and "When the Ship Comes In"; see Heylin, Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, p. 49.
- ^ Gill, My Back Pages, pp. 37–41.
- ^ Ricks, Dylan's Visions of Sin, pp. 221–233.
- ^ a b c d "Bob Dylan Timeline". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/music/bobdylan/timeline/timeline_html.shtml. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 200–205.
- ^ Part of Dylan's speech went: "There's no black and white, left and right to me any more; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground. And I'm trying to go up without thinking of anything trivial such as politics."; see, Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 200–205.
- ^ Heylin, 1996, Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, p. 60.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 222.
- ^ In an interview with Seth Goddard for Life magazine (July 5, 2001) Ginsberg claimed that Dylan's technique had been inspired by Jack Kerouac: "(Dylan) pulled Mexico City Blues from my hand and started reading it and I said, 'What do you know about that?' He said, 'Somebody handed it to me in '59 in St. Paul and it blew my mind.' So I said 'Why?' He said, 'It was the first poetry that spoke to me in my own language.' So those chains of flashing images you get in Dylan, like 'the motorcycle black Madonna two-wheeled gypsy queen and her silver studded phantom lover,' they're influenced by Kerouac's chains of flashing images and spontaneous writing, and that spreads out into the people." Reproduced online: "Online Interviews With Allen Ginsberg". University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. October 8, 2004. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/interviews.htm. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 219–222.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 267–271; pp. 288–291.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 178–181.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 181–182.
- ^ Heylin, 2009, Revolution In The Air, The Songs of Bob Dylan: Volume One, pp. 220–222.
- ^ Marqusee, Wicked Messenger, p. 144.
- ^ Gill, My Back Pages, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Lee, Like a Bullet of Light: The Films of Bob Dylan, p. 18.
- ^ a b Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 168–169.
- ^ Warwick, N., Brown, T. & Kutner, J. (2004). The Complete Book of the British Charts (Third Edition ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-84449-058-5.
- ^ Whitburn, J. (2008). Top Pop Singles 1955–2006. Record Research Inc. p. 130. ISBN 0-89820-172-1.
- ^ Shelton, 2003, No Direction Home, pp. 276–277.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 208–216.
- ^ "Exclusive: Dylan at Newport—Who Booed?". Mojo. October 25, 2007. http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2007/10/exclusive_dylan_at_newport_who.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ CP Staff (April 28, 2010). "Al Kooper talks Dylan, Conan, Hendrix, and lifetime in the music business". City Pages (Village Voice Media): p. 3. http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2010/04/al_kooper_talks.php?page=3. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ Jackson, Bruce (August 26, 2002). "The myth of Newport '65: It wasn't Bob Dylan they were booing". Buffalo Report. Archived from the original on February 23, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080223005652/http://buffaloreport.com/020826dylan.html. Retrieved May 8, 2010.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 305–314.
- ^ A year earlier, Irwin Silber, the editor of Sing Out!, had published an "Open Letter to Bob Dylan", criticising Dylan's stepping away from political songwriting: "I saw at Newport how you had somehow lost contact with people. Some of the paraphernalia of fame were getting in your way." Sing Out!, November 1964, quoted in Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 313. This letter has been mistakenly described as a response to Dylan's 1965 Newport appearance.
- ^ Sing Out!, September 1965, quoted in Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 313
- ^ "You got a lotta nerve/To say you are my friend/When I was down/You just stood there grinning" Reproduced online:Bob Dylan. "Positively 4th Street". bobdylan.com. http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/positively-4th-street. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 186.
- ^ a b c "The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rock List Music. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/rstone.html#500Songs. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Springsteen's Speech during Dylan's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, January 20, 1988 Quoted in Bauldie, Wanted Man, p. 191.
- ^ "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time". Rolling Stone. May 31, 2011. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/bob-dylan-like-a-rolling-stone-19691231. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- ^ Gill, 1999, My Back Pages, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Gill, My Back Pages, p. 89.
- ^ Palmer, Robert (November 1, 1987). "Recordings; Robbie Robertson Waltzes Back Into Rock". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/arts/recordings-robbie-robertson-waltzes-back-into-rock.html. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 189–90.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 238–243.
- ^ "The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the Blonde on Blonde album. It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up." Dylan Interview, Playboy, March 1978; reprinted in Cott, Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, p. 204.
- ^ Gill, My Back Pages, p. 95.
- ^ a b Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 193.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 325.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 244–261.
- ^ "Live 1966". NME. UK. September 6, 1998. http://www.nme.com/reviews/bob-dylan/199. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Dylan's dialogue with the Manchester audience is recorded (with subtitles) in Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home
- ^ Heylin, 2011, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 251.
- ^ Heylin, 2011, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 250.
- ^ Rolling Stone, November 29, 1969. Reprinted in Cott (ed.), Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, p. 140.
- ^ Jones, Rebecca (May 23, 2011). "Dylan tapes reveal heroin addiction". BBC Radio 4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9492000/9492886.stm. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
- ^ Greene, Andy (May 23, 2011). "Questions About Bob Dylan’s Claim That He was Once a Heroin Addict". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-admits-heroin-addiction-in-newly-released-1966-interview-20110523. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
- ^ Brown, Mick (May 23, 2011). "Bob Dylan: finally an admission about his heroin use, but is it the truth?". www.telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8530759/Bob-Dylan-finally-an-admission-about-his-heroin-use-but-is-it-the-truth.html. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 215.
- ^ a b c Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 217–219.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 268.
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, p. 114.
- ^ Heylin, 1996, Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, p. 143.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 216.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 222–225.
- ^ Marcus, The Old, Weird America, pp. 236–265.
- ^ Helm, Levon and Davis, This Wheel's on Fire, p. 164; p. 174.
- ^ "Bob Dylan's 1967 recording sessions". Bjorner's Still On the Road. http://www.bjorner.com/DSN01620%201967.htm#DSN01640. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
- ^ "Charlie McCoy's Bio". www.charliemccoy.com. http://www.charliemccoy.com/bio.html. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
- ^ Wadey, Paul (September 23, 2004). "Kenny Buttrey :'Transcendental' drummer for artists from Elvis Presley to Bob Dylan and Neil Young". The Independent (UK). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kenny-buttrey-550523.html. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
- ^ Harris, Craig. "Pete Drake: Biography". Country Music Television. http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/drake_pete/bio.jhtml. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 282–288.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 463.
- ^ Gill, My Back Pages, p. 140.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, 2011, p. 273.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 248–253.
- ^ Ford, Mark (May 14, 2011). "Bob Dylan: Writings 1968-2010 by Greil Marcus". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/15/bob-dylan-writings-marcus-review. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
- ^ Male, Andrew (November 26, 2007). "Bob Dylan—Disc of the Day: Self Portrait". Mojo. http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2007/11/bob_dylan.html. Retrieved September 24, 2008.
- ^ Christgau, Robert. "Self Portrait". robertchristgau.com. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Bob+Dylan. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 482.
- ^ Heylin, 2009, Revolution In The Air, The Songs of Bob Dylan: Volume One, pp. 391–392.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 328–331.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, ´pp. 342–343.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 267.
- ^ C. P. Lee wrote: "In Garrett's ghost-written memoir, The Authentic Life of Billy The Kid, published within a year of Billy's death, he wrote that 'Billy's partner doubtless had a name which was his legal property, but he was so given to changing it that it is impossible to fix on the right one. Billy always called him Alias.'" Lee, Like a Bullet of Light: The Films of Bob Dylan, pp. 66–67.
- ^ "Bob Dylan cover versions". Bjorner.com. April 16, 2002. http://www.bjorner.com/Covers.htm. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
- ^ Artists to have covered the song include Bryan Ferry, Wyclef Jean and Guns 'n' Roses. "Dylan's Legacy Keeps Growing, Cover By Cover". NPR Music. June 26, 2007. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11376880. Retrieved October 1, 2008.
- ^ a b Sounes, 2001, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 273–274.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 354.
- ^ Dylan's comment in booklet notes to Biograph, 1985, CBS Records.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 358.
- ^ a b Shelton, No Direction Home, p. 37.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 368–383.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 369–387.
- ^ a b Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 383.
- ^ "Bob Dylan". Salon.com. May 5, 2001. http://www.salon.com/people/bc/2001/05/22/dylan/index3.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Hedin, Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader, p. 109.
- ^ "The PlowBoy Interview: Rolling Thunder", Mother Earth News, July/August 1981
- ^ "Log of every performance of "Hurricane"". Bjorner's Still on the Road. August 20, 2006. http://www.bjorner.com/sixh.htm#_Toc481036436. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Kokay, Les via Olof Björner (2000). "Songs of the Underground: a collector's guide to the Rolling Thunder Revue 1975–1976". http://www.bjorner.com/Underground.htm. Retrieved February 18, 2007.
- ^ Sloman, Larry (2002). On The Road with Bob Dylan. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 1-4000-4596-7.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 579.
- ^ Shepard, Rolling Thunder Logbook, pp. 2–49.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 386–401,
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 408.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen (December 12, 2002). "Bob Dylan Live 1975—The Rolling Thunder Revue". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r618513. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
- ^ Janet Maslin (January 26, 1978). "Renaldo & Clara (1978) 'Renaldo and Clara,' Film by Bob Dylan:Rolling Thunder". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A03EFD71330E631A25755C2A9679C946990D6CF. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 313.
- ^ Lee, Like a Bullet of Light: The Films of Bob Dylan, pp. 115–116.
- ^ "Reviews of The Last Waltz". Metacritic.com. October 8, 2007. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-last-waltz. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Bream, Jon (May 22, 1991). "50 fascinating facts for Bob Dylan's 50th birthday". Star Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=11474676. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
- ^ a b Sounes, 2001, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 314–316.
- ^ Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: Bob Dylan". Robertchristgau.com. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Bob+Dylan. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (July 12, 1979). "Bob Dylan at Budokan". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/at-budokan-19790712. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
- ^ Heylin, 2000, Behind The Shades: Take Two, p. 483.
- ^ Heylin, 2011, Behind The Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition, pp. 479–481.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 643.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 480–481.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 323–337.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 490–526.
- ^ Dylan Interview with Karen Hughes, The Dominion, Wellington, New Zealand, May 21, 1980; reprinted in Cott (ed.), Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, pp. 275–278
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 501–503.
- ^ Gray, 2000, Song & Dance Man III, p. 11.
- ^ Björner (June 8, 2001). "Omaha, Nebraska, January 25, 1980". Bjorner's Still On The Road. http://www.bjorner.com/DSN05347%201980%20Second%20Gospel%20Tour.htm#DSN05410. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 334–336.
- ^ Rosen, Robert (2002), Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon, Quick American Archives, p. 137, ISBN 0-932551-51-3
- ^ Holden, Stephen (October 29, 1981). "Rock: Dylan, in Jersey, Revises Old Standbys". The New York Times: p. C19. http://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/29/arts/rock-dylan-in-jersey-revises-old-standbys.html. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 215–221.
- ^ Gray, Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan, pp. 11–14.
- ^ Gray, 2006, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 56–59.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. pp. 354–356.
- ^ a b Sounes, 2001, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 362.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 367.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 365–367.
- ^ Gray, 2006, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 63
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Knocked Out Loaded". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r6448. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 595.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 95–100.
- ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (July 27, 1989). "Dylan & The Dead". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r54428. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 376–383.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 599–604.
- ^ Speech on Bob Dylan's induction to the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, January 20, 1988, reprinted in Bauldie (ed.), Wanted Man: In Search of Bob Dylan, pp. 191–193.
- ^ a b Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 385.
- ^ a b Gray, 2000, Song & Dance Man III, p. 13.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 627–628.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 638–640.
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 145–221.
- ^ Ricks, Dylan's Visions of Sin, pp. 413–20.
- ^ Scott Marshall wrote: "When Dylan sings that 'The sun is going down upon the sacred cow', it's safe to assume that the sacred cow here is the biblical metaphor for all false gods. For Dylan, the world will eventually know that there is only one God." Marshall, Restless Pilgrim, p. 103.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 174.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 391.
- ^ "Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award". Grammy.com. http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/lifetime-awards. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
- ^ a b Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, pp. 664–665. Heylin quotes the speech: "My daddy once said to me, he said, 'Son, it is possible for you to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you. If that happens, God will believe in your ability to mend your own ways.' "
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 423.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 408–409.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 693.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 697.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 420.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, p. 426.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Time Out of Mind". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r314906. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ Dylan had been one of several artists who had won "Album of the Year" in 1971 for The Concert for Bangladesh"Grammy Award Winners: Album of the Year". rateyourmusic.com. http://rateyourmusic.com/list/obelisk/grammy_award__winners__album_of_the_year. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ "Remarks by the President at Kennedy Center Honors Reception". Clinton White House. December 8, 1997. http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/WH/New/html/19971208-2814.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ "Column, tower, and dome, and spire/ Shine like obelisks of fire/ Pointing with inconstant motion/ From the altar of dark ocean/ To the sapphire-tinted skies", ll.67–71 from Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills by Percy Bysshe Shelley, October 1818. [1]
- ^ "2000 Oscars – Winners and Nominees". pcm.com. http://www.popculturemadness.com/Trivia/Oscars/Top-2000-O.html. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ Cashmere, Paul (August 20, 2007). "Dylan Tours Australia with Oscar". Undercover.com.au. http://dir.salon.com/story/books/review/2004/10/08/dylan/index.html?pn=1. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 556–557.
- ^ "Love and Theft". MetaCritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/music/love-and-theft. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ "Love and Theft". Entertainment Weekly. October 1, 2001. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,173933~4~~lovetheft,00.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ This is a reprint of the article from The Wall Street Journal cited in next footnote."Did Bob Dylan Lift Lines From Dr Saga?". California State University, Dear Habermas. 2003-07-08. http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/plagiarbk010.htm. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
- ^ "Did Bob Dylan Lift Lines From Dr Saga?". Wall Street Journal. July 8, 2003. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10576176194220600.html?mod=home_page_one_us. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
- ^ Dylan co-wrote Masked & Anonymous under the pseudonym Seregei Petrov, taken from an actor in the silent movie era; Larry Charles used the alias Rene Fontaine. Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 453.
- ^ A. O. Scott (July 24, 2003). "Film Review; Times They Are Surreal In Bob Dylan Tale". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/movies/film-review-times-they-are-surreal-in-bob-dylan-tale.html. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
- ^ Todd McCarthy (February 2, 2003). "Masked and Anonymous". Variety. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=review&reviewid=VE1117919861&categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
- ^ "Masked & Anonymous". The New Yorker. July 24, 2003. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/masked_and_anonymous_charles. Retrieved February 1, 2007.
- ^ Motion, Andrew. "Masked and Anonymous". Sony Classics. http://www.sonyclassics.com/masked/andrew-motion-essay.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (October 5, 2004). "So You Thought You Knew Dylan? Hah!". The New York Times: p. 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/05/books/05masl.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 136–138.
- ^ "Reviews of No Direction Home". Metacritic.com. October 31, 2005. http://apps.metacritic.com/tv/shows/nodirectionhomebobdylan. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- ^ "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan A Martin Scorsese Picture". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/bob-dylan/about-the-film/574/. Retrieved November 6, 2009.
- ^ "George Foster Peabody Award Winners" (PDF). Peabody. 2006. http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/PeabodyWinnersBook.pdf. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ "Past duPont Award Winners". The Journalism School, Columbia University. 2007. http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/site_map. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Williams, Carol J. (May 9, 2011). "Judges hand down the law with help from Bob Dylan". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bob-dylan-law-20110509,0,7507838.story. Retrieved May 10, 2011
- ^ Siegel, Robert (host) (May 10, 2011). "Bob Dylan's Words Find Place In Legal Writings". NPR. http://www.npr.org/2011/05/10/136181949/bob-dylans-words-find-place-in-legal-writings. Retrieved May 10, 2011
- ^ "Theme Time Radio Hour With Bob Dylan". BBC Radio 6 Music. November 30, 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006x4gt. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
- ^ "Theme Time Radio playlists". Not Dark Yet. http://www.notdarkyet.org/themetime.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Sawyer, Miranda (December 31, 2006). "The Great Sound of Radio Bob". The Observer (UK). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/dec/31/observerreview.radio. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Watson, Tom (February 16, 2007). "Dylan Spinnin' Those Coool Records". New Critics. Archived from the original on February 19, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070219045641/http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/02/16/bob-dylan-spinnin-those-cool-records/. Retrieved February 18, 2007.
- ^ Hinckley, David (April 19, 2009). "Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour: His time might be up". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/04/20/2009-04-20_bob_dylans_theme_time_radio_hour_his_time_might_be_up.html. Retrieved May 16, 2009.
- ^ Petridis, Alex (August 28, 2006). "Bob Dylan's Modern Times". The Guardian (UK). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/aug/25/popandrock.shopping3. Retrieved September 5, 2006.
- ^ "Modern Times". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/modern-times. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ "Dylan gets first US number one for 30 years". NME. UK. September 7, 2006. http://www.nme.com/news/bob-dylan/24234. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Rich, Motoko (September 14, 2006). "Who's This Guy Dylan Who's Borrowing Lines from Henry Timrod?". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/arts/music/14dyla.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
- ^ "Rolling Stone Albums of the Year 2006". Rock List Music. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/rolling.htm#2006. Retrieved October 16, 2009.
- ^ "Modern Times, Album of the Year, 2006". Uncut. December 16, 2006. http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/uncut/news/9182. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Gundersen, Edna (December 1, 2006). "Get The Box Set with 'One Push of a Button'". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/holiday/2006-11-30-box-set-downloads_x.htm. Retrieved September 25, 2008.
- ^ "Blanchett wins top Venice Award". BBC News. September 9, 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6985422.stm. Retrieved September 12, 2008.
- ^ a b Todd McCarthy (September 4, 2007). "I'm Not There". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934602?refcatid=31. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
- ^ A. O. Scott (November 7, 2007). "I'm Not There (2007)". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/movies/21ther.html. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
- ^ Greil Marcus wrote: "There is nothing like 'I'm Not There' in the rest of the basement recordings, or anywhere else in Bob Dylan's career. Very quickly the listener is drawn into the sickly embrace of the music, its wash of half-heard, half-formed words and the increasing bitterness and despair behind them. Words are floated together in a dyslexia that is music itself – a dyslexia that seems to prove the claims of music over words, to see just how little words can achieve."; see Marcus, The Old, Weird America, pp. 198–204.
- ^ "Dylan covered by... very long list.". Uncut. October 1, 2007. http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&title=bob_dylan_covered_by_vedder_sonic_youth_&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
- ^ "Dylan 07". Sony BMG Music Entertainment. August 1, 2007. http://www.dylan07.com/. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Walker, Tim (October 27, 2007). "Mark Ronson: Born Entertainer". The Independent (UK). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/mark-ronson-born-entertainer-398023.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ "What's Bob Dylan Doing In A Victoria's Secret Ad?". Slate. April 12, 2004. http://www.slate.com/id/2098635/. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
- ^ "Dylan, Cadillac". XM Radio. October 22, 2007. Archived from the original on March 12, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080312084612/http://www.xmradio.com/dylan-cadillac/index.xmc. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
- ^ Dylan also devoted an hour of his Theme Time Radio Hour to the theme of 'the Cadillac'. He first sang about the car in his 1963 nuclear war fantasy, "Talkin' World War III Blues", when he described it as a "good car to drive—after a war".
- ^ Michaels, Sean (January 30, 2009). "Bob Dylan to appear with Will.I.Am in Pepsi advertisement". The Guardian (UK). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/30/bob-dylan-pepsi-advertisement-superbowl. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Kissel, Rick (February 3, 2009). "Super Bowl ratings hit new high". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999515?refCatId=1275. Retrieved February 3, 2009.
- ^ Gundersen, Edna (July 29, 2008). "Dylan Reveals Many Facets on 'Tell Tale Signs'". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-07-28-dylan-telltale-signs_N.htm.
- ^ Cairns, Dan (October 5, 2008). "Tell Tale Signs". The Sunday Times (London). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article4859960.ece. Retrieved October 6, 2008.
- ^ Michael Gray expressed his opinion in his Bob Dylan Encyclopedia blog "Tell Tale Signs Pt. 3, Money Doesn't Talk...". Bob Dylan Encyclopedia blog. August 14, 2008. http://bobdylanencyclopedia.blogspot.com/2008/08/tell-tale-signs-pt-3-money-doesnt-talk.html. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
- ^ "Reviews of Tell Tale Signs". Metacritic.com. http://www.metacritic.com/music/tell-tale-signs-the-bootleg-series-vol-8. Retrieved October 26, 2008.
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- ^ Gundersen, Edna (October 13, 2009). "Bob Dylan takes the Christmas spirit to 'Heart'". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2009-10-12-dylan-christmas-album_N.htm. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- ^ a b Flanagan, Bill (interviewer) (November 28, 2009). "Bob Dylan gives interview to The Big Issue". music-news.com. http://www.music-news.com/ShowNews.asp?nItemID=30857&bPrint=1. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
- ^ Torn, Luke (October 16, 2010). "Album Review: Bob Dylan – The Bootleg series Vol.9". Uncut. http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/bob_dylan/reviews/14419. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
- ^ "The Witmark Demos, 1962–1964". Metcaritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-witmark-demos-1962-1964/critic-reviews. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
- ^ "The Original Mono Recordings". bobdylan.com. October 19, 2010. http://www.bobdylan.com/fr/music/original-mono-recordings. Retrieved April 24, 2011. [dead link]
- ^ ""Bob Dylan In Concert – Brandeis University 1963" to be Released April 12". bobdylan.com. February 16, 2011. http://www.bobdylan.com/news/bob-dylan-concert-brandeis-university-1963-be-released-april-12?page=3. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ^ "Bob Dylan und die Revolution der populären Musik". Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz. April 29, 2011. http://www.avl.uni-mainz.de/394.php. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
- ^ "Refractions of Dylan – Cultural Appropriations of an American Icon". www.dylanvienna.at. May 12, 2011. http://www.dylanvienna.at/dylan/Program.html. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
- ^ "The Seven Ages of Dylan". University of Bristol. May 15, 2011. http://dylan-at-seventy.weebly.com/proceedings.html. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
- ^ Topping, Alexandra (May 24, 2011). "Bob Dylan at 70". www.guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/24/bob-dylan-70th-birthday/print. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
- ^ Uhelszki, Jaan (August 4, 2011). "Bob Dylan Helps Bring Hank Williams' Lost Notebooks Back from the Dead". themortonreport.com. http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/music/bob-dylan-helps-bring-hank-williams-lost-notebooks-back-from-the-dead/. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
- ^ Lewis, Randy (October 2, 2011). "'Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams' finds good company in Bob Dylan". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-hank-williams-notebooks-20111002,0,2463973.story. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ^ Eisen, Benjy (December 10, 2011). "Amnesty International Unveils Bob Dylan Tribute in Honor of Its 50th Anniversary". rolingstone.com. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/amnesty-international-unveils-bob-dylan-tribute-in-honor-of-its-50th-anniversary-20111210?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter. Retrieved December 13, 2011.
- ^ a b "Forthcoming 76-song Bob Dylan tribute album streaming on Facebook for Human Rights Day". amnesty uk. December 10, 2011. http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19853. Retrieved December 13, 2011.
- ^ Lewis, Randy (February 1, 2012). "Bob Dylan 'Freedom' tribute album debuts at No. 11 - and No. 39". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/02/bob-dylan-chimes-freedom-amnesty-international.html. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments, p. 297.
- ^ Muir, Razor's Edge, pp. 7–10.
- ^ "Bjorner's Still On The Road: Mashantucket, Connecticut, 27 November 2010". bjorner.com. November 29, 2010. http://www.bjorner.com/DSN32500%20-%202010%20US%20FallTour.htm#DSN32880. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
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- ^ Muir, Razor's Edge, pp. 187–197.
- ^ Williams, Richard (April 28, 2009). "Bob Dylan at Roundhouse, London". The Guardian (UK). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/28/bob-dylan-review. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
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- ^ Lewry, Fraser (April 27, 2009). "My night at the Roundhouse with Bob Dylan". The Word. http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/my-night-roundhouse-with-bob-dylan. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
- ^ Wieland, Martin (April 6, 2011). "Bob Dylan in China: a simple twist of fate?". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/06/bob-dylan-china-ai-wei. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
- ^ Dowd, Maureen (April 9, 2011). "Blowin' in the Idiot Wind". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/opinion/10dowd.html. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ Ross, Alex (April 10, 2011). "Dylan in China". The Rest Is Noise. http://www.therestisnoise.com/2011/04/dylan-in-china.html. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ Wilentz, Sean (April 10, 2011). "The Real Dylan in China". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/04/the-real-dylan-in-china.html. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ Dylan, Bob (May 13, 2011). "To my fans and followers". bobdylan.com. http://www.bobdylan.com/news/my-fans-and-followers. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
- ^ "Bob Dylan Touring Brazil in April 2012". Brazil Dispatch. 2012-02-16. http://www.brazildispatch.com/2012/02/bob-dylan-touring-brazil-in-april-2012.html. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ Pagel, Bill (April 1, 2012). "Dylan Tour Dates". boblinks.com. http://www.boblinks.com/dates.html. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ "Bob Dylan headlines Hop Farm Festival line-up". Kent Online. http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2012/march/27/bob_dylan_headlines_hop_farm.aspx. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ Nebehay, Stephanie (April 19, 2012). "Dylan, Van Morrison headline Montreux jazz fest". Chicago Tribune (Reuters). http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-montreuxbre83i1ll-20120419,0,901506.story. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
- ^ "The Drawn Blank Series". Prestel Verlag. October 31, 2007. http://www.kohlibri.de/xtcommerce/product_info.php/info/p1555_Bob-Dylan--The-Drawn-Blank-Series--Exhibition-catalogue.html. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
- ^ Battersby, Matilda (September 2, 2010). "Bob Dylan paintings at Danish National Gallery". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/bob-dylan-paintings-at-danish-national-gallery-2068935.html. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
- ^ "Bob Dylan. The Brazil Series". Statens Museum for Kunst.dk. September 1, 2010. http://www.smk.dk/en/explore-the-art/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/2011/bob-dylan. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ^ Corbett, Rachel (July 27, 2011). "Dylan at Gagosian Gallery". artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/bob-dylan-gagosian-gallery.asp. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ^ "Gagosian Gallery artists: Bob Dylan". gagosian.com. July 20, 2011. http://www.gagosian.com/artists/bob-dylan/exhibitions/. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave (September 26, 2011). "Questions Raised About Dylan Show at Gagosian". New York Times. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/questions-raised-about-dylan-show-at-gagosian/. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
- ^ Biniot, Ann (September 28, 2011). "Bob Dylan Shanghaied My Flickr!: Meet the Rare Asian Photo Collector Whose Pictures Are Now on Gagosian's Walls". artinfo.com. http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38736/bob-dylan-shanghaied-my-flickr-meet-the-rare-asian-photo-collector-whose-pictures-are-now-on-gagosians-walls/. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ^ "Bob Dylan Paid to License Asia Series Photos, Magnum Says". artinfo.com. October 1, 2011. http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2011/10/01/bob-dylan-paid-to-license-asia-series-photos-magnum-says/. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ^ "President Obama Names Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients". whitehouse.gov. April 26, 2012. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/26/president-obama-names-presidential-medal-freedom-recipients. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
- ^ Himmelman turned down an invitation to perform on The Tonight Show when it became apparent that the performance would fall on the Jewish holiday Sukkot. "Peter Himmelman Puts Family Before Rock 'n' Roll". npr.org. October 12, 2010. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130515341. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 198–200.
- ^ Sounes, Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, pp. 372–373.
- ^ "Dylan's Secret Marriage Uncovered". BBC News. April 12, 2001. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1273409.stm. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Adams, Guy (March 18, 2009). "How did Bob Dylan upset his neighbours? (The answer is blowin' in the wind)". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/how-did-bob-dylan-upset-his-neighbours-the-answer-is-blowin-in-the-wind-1647347.html. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ According to Robert Shelton, Dylan's teacher was "Rabbi Reuben Maier of the only synagogue on the Iron Range, Hibbing's Agudath Achim Synagogue". See Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 328.
- ^ "People, May 31, 1971". TIME. May 31, 1971. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,944419,00.html. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 329.
- ^ Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, p. 494.
- ^ Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 76–80.
- ^ Rolling Stone, June 21, 1984, reprinted in Cott (ed.), Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, p. 288.
- ^ Pareles, Jon (September 28, 1997). "A Wiser Voice Blowin' In the Autumn Wind". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/28/arts/pop-jazz-a-wiser-voice-blowin-in-the-autumn-wind.html. Retrieved May 12, 2010. Reprinted in Cott, Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, pp. 391–396.
- ^ Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, p. 167.
- ^ Heylin, 1996, A Life In Stolen Moments, p. 317 and p.343.
- ^ Sheva, Arutz (September 24, 2007). "Day of Atonement Draws Dylan to the Torah". Arutz Sheva—Israel National News. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/133709. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ Duffy, Jonathan (September 23, 2005). "Bob Dylan—why the fuss?". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4274190.stm. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
- ^ 'Top 50 Artists Of All Time', All Time Top 1000 Albums, Virgin Books, 2005
- ^ "Bob Dylan". Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/175077/Bob-Dylan. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
- ^ Fong-Torres, The Rolling Stone Interviews, Vol. 2, p. 424. Reproduced online:"Rolling Stone interview (1972)". Bob Dylan Roots. June 6, 1972. Archived from the original on April 21, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080421172331/http://www.bobdylanroots.com/simon.html. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
- ^ Marqusee, Wicked Messenger, p. 139.
- ^ Ricks, Christopher (2003). Dylan's Visions of Sin. Penguin/Viking. ISBN 0-670-80133-X.
- ^ MacLeod, Donald (July 13, 2004). "Ricks profile: Someone's gotta hold of his art". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/jul/13/academicexperts.highereducationprofile. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Motion, Andrew (September 22, 2007). "Andrew Motion explains why Bob Dylan's lyrics should be studied in schools". The Times (London). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/poetry/article2503109.ece. Retrieved October 10, 2008.
- ^ "Finally and Formally Launched as a Candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1997". expectingrain.com. May 24, 2002. http://www.expectingrain.com/dok/art/nobel/nobelpress.html. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ Ball, Gordon (March 7, 2007). "Dylan and the Nobel" (PDF). Oral Tradition. http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/22i/Ball.pdf. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
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- ^ Shelton, No Direction Home, pp. 108–111.
- ^ Gray, 2006, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 413.
- ^ Lebold, Christophe (March 1, 2007). "A Face like a Mask and a Voice that Croaks: An Integrated Poetics of Bob Dylan's Voice, Personae, and Lyrics". Oral Tradition. http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/22i/lebold. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
- ^ Gundersen, Edna (May 17, 2001). "Forever Dylan". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2001-05-18-35-years-of-dylan.htm#more. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
- ^ "Bob Dylan: His Legacy to Music". BBC News. May 29, 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/1349116.stm. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
- ^ Lennon: "In Paris in 1964 was the first time I ever heard Dylan at all. Paul got the record (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan) from a French DJ. For three weeks in Paris we didn't stop playing it. We all went potty about Dylan.": Beatles, (2000), The Beatles Anthology, pp. 112–114.
- ^ McCartney: "I'm in awe of Bob ... He hit a period where people went, 'Oh, I don't like him now.' And I said, 'No. It's Bob Dylan.' To me, it's like Picasso, where people discuss his various periods, 'This was better than this, was better than this.' But I go, 'No. It's Picasso. It's all good.' "Siegel, Robert (June 27, 2007). "Paul McCartney interview". A.V. Club. http://www.avclub.com/articles/paul-mccartney,14120/. Retrieved October 13, 2008.
- ^ "They asked me what effect Bob Dylan had on me," Townshend said. "That's like asking how I was influenced by being born." Flanagan, (1990), Written In My Soul, p. 88.
- ^ "Bob Dylan, I'll never be Bob Dylan. He's the master. If I'd like to be anyone, it's him. And he's a great writer, true to his music and done what he feels is the right thing to do for years and years and years. He's great. He's the one I look to." Time interview with Neil Young, September 28, 2005. Reproduced online : Tyrangiel, Josh (September 28, 2005). "Resurrection of Neil Young". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1110988,00.html. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
- ^ Song for Bob Dylan on the album Hunky Dory, David Bowie, 1971
- ^ In 2007, Ferry released an album of his versions of Dylan songs, Dylanesque
- ^ Mojo: What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? Nick Cave: "I guess it's Slow Train Coming by Bob Dylan. That's a great record, full of mean-spirited spirituality. It's a genuinely nasty record, certainly the nastiest 'Christian' album I've ever come across." Mojo, January 1997
- ^ Maes, Maurice (December 31, 2001). "Nick Cave and Bob Dylan". Nick Cave Collector's Hell. http://home.iae.nl/users/maes/cave/vs/dylan.html. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
- ^ Time Out interview with Patti Smith, May 16, 2007: "The people I revered in the late '60s and the early '70s, their motivation was to do great work and great work creates revolution. The motivation of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan or The Who wasn't marketing, to get rich, or be a celebrity.""Patti Smith: interview". Time Out. May 16, 2007. http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/2920/Patti_Smith-interview.html. Retrieved September 8, 2008.
- ^ Barrett, Syd. "Bob Dylan Blues". pink floyd.org. http://www.pink-floyd.org/barrett/sydlyrics.html#misc. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
- ^ Islam, Yusuf (2008). "Yusuf Islam Lifeline 1964". Official Website. http://www.yusufislam.com/lifeline/5/732059b53c9209c0cc0b34c7549ce4a2. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
- ^ Hilburn, Robert (May 19, 1991). "The Impact of Dylan's Music 'Widened the Scope of Possibilities'". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-05-19/entertainment/ca-3173_1_bob-dylan-song. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
- ^ "Tom Waits on his cherished albums of all time". Observer Music Monthly (London). March 22, 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/mar/20/popandrock1. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ Cohn, Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, 1969, pp. 164–165.
- ^ Marx, Jack (September 2, 2008). "Tangled Up In Blah". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/tangled-up-in-blah/story-e6frg8px-1111117308423. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
- ^ Diehl, Matt (April 22, 2010). "It's a Joni Mitchell concert". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/22/entertainment/la-et-jonimitchell-20100422. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Larson, Bethany (April 23, 2010). "Folk Face-Off: Joni Mitchell vs. Bob Dylan". Flavorwire.com. http://flavorwire.com/85781/folk-face-off-joni-mitchell-vs-bob-dylan. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
- ^ Wilentz, Sean (April 30, 2010). "Is Bob Dylan a Phony?". The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-04-30/is-bob-dylan-a-phony/full/. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ J. Hoberman (November 20, 2007). "Like A Complete Unknown". The Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-11-13/film/like-a-complete-unknown-i-m-not-there-and-the-changing-face-of-bob-dylan-on-film/. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
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- Williams, Paul (1991). Bob Dylan: Performing Artist The Early Years 1960–1973. Underwood-Miller. ISBN 0-88733-131-9
- Williams, Paul (2004). Bob Dylan, Performing Artist: The Middle Years (1974–1986). Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-096-3.
- Williams, Paul (2005). Bob Dylan, Performing Artist: Mind Out Of Time (1986–1990 & beyond). Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-831-X.
- Williamson, Nigel (2004). The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-84353-139-9.
External links[link]
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Book: Bob Dylan |
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- BobDylan.com – Official web site, including lyrics and touring schedule
- Expecting Rain – Dylan news and events, updated daily
- BobLinks – Comprehensive log of concerts and set lists
- Bjorner's Still on the Road – Information on recording sessions and performances
- Bob Dylan at the Internet Movie Database
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dylan, Bob |
| Alternative names | Zimmerman, Robert Allen (birth name) |
| Short description | Rock and folk musician |
| Date of birth | May 24, 1941 |
| Place of birth | Duluth, Minnesota, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
