Whiskey – Our Take on the Latest Theme Time Radio Hour

In honour of last week’s surprise announcement that there was a brand new Theme Time Radio Hour episode on the horizon, Robert and Laura are preemptively following in the footsteps of DJ Bob Dylan by dedicating our hour this week to the same theme - whiskey!

One thing we forgot to mention that is really important and wonderful: at the moment, Heavens Door are helping to provide 300 000 meals to local communities, with one meal equaling four meals for a local food bank partner. So if you’re considering buying a bottle, now would be an excellent time! It’s so great to see that the brand is this committed to such an important cause.

Also, this is new: if you want to support Definitely Dylan, you can now do so by symbolically buying me/us a coffee here. Thank you!

Playlist:

1. Moonshiner

2. Copper Kettle (without overdubs)

3. Blind Willie McTell

4. Waitin’ For You

5. Gotta Serve Somebody

6. Nettie Moore

Definitely Dylan Live - 26 July 2020

In the last radio episode before a little summer break, we are tackling the musical side to Rough And Rowdy Ways - we’re talking about arrangements, musicians, and the mysterious absence of a producer credit. In this context we also just HAD TO talk about what constitutes as a borrowing and what is a theft, and we’re asking the difficult question of when co-writing credit is due.

I’m currently working on a big project about the album Rough And Rowdy Ways, going into some of the big lyrical themes. This will be out as a podcast soon, so stay tuned!

Playlist:

1. My Own Version of You - Blake Mills (snippet)

2. My Own Version of You

3. False Prophet (snippet)

4. If Loving Is Believing - Billy “The Kid” Emerson

5. I Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You

6. Black Rider

Definitely Dylan #79 - Happy 79th Birthday Bob Dylan!

The stars have miraculously aligned so that Definitely Dylan’s 79th episode has fallen on the day that we are celebrating Bob Dylan’s 79th birthday! Can we call it a Simple Twist of Fate?

Still in lockdown, Laura and Robert spend the hour talking about some of the words of wisdom found in Dylan’s work that the man himself seems to have lived by.

We also take a look back at one of Dylan’s main influences and what he was up to in the month of May 1941, and we also discuss a recent project by Daniel Romano that reimagines one of Dylan’s albums.

If anyone wants to read the poem “Advice for Geraldine on her Miscellaneous Birthday” in full, you can find it here.

If you’d like to check out Daniel Romano’s reimagining of Infidels, you can purchase it here.

Join us in this celebration, and feel free to leave some birthday wishes in the comments - let’s make this a party!

Playlist:

1. Happy Birthday Everybody - Ray Barretto

2. Sweetheart Like You - Daniel Romano

3. Early Roman Kings

4. Grand Coulee Dam - Bob Dylan and The Band

5. Restless Farewell (Live, 1 February 1964, CBC TV Studios, Toronto, Canada)

6. Satisfied Mind

7. Ain’t Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody (Live , 2 December, 1980 at the Armory, Salem, OR)

Definitely Dylan Live - 15 March 2020

This week we’re bringing you Definitely Dylan’s belated International Women’s Day episode (after all, every day is Women’s Day)!

On this occasion we’re dedicating the hour to the many women that have sung Bob Dylan’s songs over the years by playing a small selection of songs from the Spotify playlist I’ve put together! Join us in celebrating these artists and the contributions they have made to our understanding of Dylan’s work, by reframing the songs and often showing us a different and new dimension to the song’s meaning.

If you’re interested in checking out the IWD episodes from previous years, here’s the “Women & Dylan” episode from 2018, where I make a case for importance of female perspectives in the discussion of Dylan’s songs, especially in their treatment of women. And here’s the one from last year, with requests from female Dylan fans.

If you’d like to check out the episode in which I analyse the song She Belongs To Me, you can listen to that here.

One version that we didn’t have time for and that I couldn’t include in the playlist because it’s not on Spotify, is Ren Harvieu’s gorgeous Just Like A Woman, which she recorded for Definitely Dylan the other week. If you haven’t heard that yet, I urge you to check it out!

Below you can find the Spotify playlist that I’ve put together of some fantastic Dylan covers sung by women. I hope you’ll enjoy it and maybe discover some new favourites. I’d love to know your thoughts!

Let me know what your favourite version of a Dylan song interpreted by a female artist is by leaving a comment below - I’m always up for discovering more!

Correction: the Jackie DeShannon version of Don’t Think Twice (It’s All Right) that we played in this episode id not the one that appeared on her 1965 album, but rather one that she recorded in 1973 (this version remained unrelased until 2015, when it appeared on the compilation All the Love: The Lost Atlantic Recordings). The actual 1965 version has a much more mid-60s folk pop accompaniment, and you can listen to it here.

Playlist:

1. Like A Rolling Stone - Maxine Weldon

2. Clothes Line Saga - Suzzy & Maggie Roche

3. Ain’t Talkin’ - Bettye LaVette

4. Covenant Woman - Hannah Cohen

5. Don’t Think Twice (It’s All Right) - Jackie DeShannon

6. She Belongs To Me - Ane Brun

7. Gotta Serve Somebody Etta James

Definitely Dylan Live - 1 March 2020

On this week’s Definitely Dylan Live, we are discussing some very fine live performances from different points of Bob Dylan’s career, ranging from the confident folk troubadour to the Never Ending Tour.

I’d love to know - when did you last listen to Live at Budokan? Do you agree with us that it’s better or at least more interesting than people give it credit for? And what do you think of the year 1994 in terms of Dylan’s live performances? If you have some shows in mind that we should check out, please leave us a comment.

Lastly, I mentioned that I uploaded Ren Harvieu’s performance of Just Like A Woman to youtube, so if you’d like to listen to that again, you can do that here, while Romeo’s Dylan anecdote can be found here. I’ll be uploading Romeo’s video of Most Of The Time as well, I just haven’t finished it yet.

Playlist:

1. Wade In The Water (Minnesota Hotel Tape)

2. She Belongs to Me (Live at the Savoy Hotel, London, UK, 8 May, 1965)

3. To Ramona (Live at the Isle of Wight Festival, 31 August, 1969)

4. Oh Sister (Live at Budokan)

5. Shelter From The Storm (Live at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC, Oct 19, 1994)

6. Cocaine Blues (Live, August 24, 1997, Vienna, VA)