Huzzah, it’s Definitely Dylan’s 100th radio episode! That’s 100 hours of us playing and enthusiastically discussing Bob Dylan’s songs: the lyrics, the themes, and of course the music and performance!
To celebrate, I asked our lovely listeners to tell us what songs they’d like to hear, and we received many, many fantastic requests, out of which we’ve chosen a few for this hour.
If you enjoy this, and you have a particular song or performance you’d like to hear on the show, tell us in the comments, maybe we can play it in an upcoming episode.
A few notes on this week’s programme: if you’d like to listen to the very early episode in which I talk about the evolution of several Dylan songs on the stage (including “One Too Many Mornings”), you can find that here. I also thought I’d share the bootleg recording of the slightly earlier 1976 performance of the song that I mention in the episode. This version comes from 1 May, so it is almost a month before the Hard Rain version (I incorrectly remembered it only being a few days earlier). This is a stunning version, but I think you’ll agree with me that the version on Hard Rain is a much more confident vocal performance.
Also, “Too Much Of Nothing” was covered by Peter, Paul & Mary. Mary Travers does a terrific job on lead vocal and the song features, as you might expect, some wonderful harmonies. For better or worse, their version also rid the song of pretty much all of its chaotic energy.
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Playlist:
One Too Many Mornings (Hard Rain)
When He Returns (Live in Toronto, Canada, 18 April, 1980)
Too Much Of Nothing
Born In Time (live in Newark, NJ, 1 February, 1998)
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Take 1)
It Takes A Lot To Laugh It' Takes A Train To Cry (Newport Folk Festival, 25 July 1965)
Girl from the North Country feat Johnny Cash (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)