24 May 2011

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan

Mr Zimmerman turns 70 today. Wow!
Probably one of the most hardest working musicians around (he was doing 100 shows a year in the 90's and noughties), he is still touring worldwide and next month he headlines at the Feis in Finsbury Park. What a truly gifted and amazingly prolific man he is.
I am reminded of that [urban myth?] story about how in the 80s he was supposed to have knocked on a door in Crouch End thinking it was Dave Stewart's house but he'd got his road names wrong and it belonged to a plumber called Dave whose mother drank tea with Bob whilst they waited for 'Dave' to come home. More here. (In my less than humble opinion, I think the best thing Mr Stewart ever did was Vegas, his collaboration with Terry Hall, who, in my eyes, can do no wrong.)
So I thought I'd put a collection of Crouch End images together.
Crouch End = the end of the Crouch river. I do like that if you use pre-emptive text it's Crotch End.
In the past Crotch End was the site of the first gold rush in England. Later it became a busy Victorian suburb. These days it's almost impossible to go to up there without bumping into a minor TV celeb or actor pushing a baby buggy.

4 comments:

  1. So what is my favourite Dylan track? I've just spent the last two hours flicking through the lyrics on the mans website and the tracks on my Walkman. An impossible task of course, with the amount of work he has produced. The best I could come up with was todays favourite. Make that favourites, I'm too indecisive to pin it down to just one.

    So today it is Positively 4th Street and Love Minus Zero/No Limit. Tomorrow, who knows!

    An extraordinary artist. Thought provoking, often controversial, never boring. One of those musicians whose lyrics read as well as they sound. Long may he continue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well said Malcolm, I too had a bit of a Bobfest last night looking for the song i'd been singing to myself for days, the one that starts 'When you're lost in the rain in Juarez and it's Easter time too" I knew all the lyrics but couldn't bring the title to mind. ( Just like Tom Thumbs blues)
    But it's the range of the man's work that almost turned my Bobfest into a Sobfest with the achingly beautiful (lost) love songs from Nashville Skyline, Peggy Day, One more night, Tell me that it isn't true. The jaunty melodies belying the sadness of the lyrics. The man's a genius and I must thank Eric Burden for the (misleading) introduction.
    None of Newcastle's record shops had anything by Bobby Dyelan!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oops!
    Burdon! I meant.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think 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.

    ReplyDelete

Please note that comments are vetted by me personally to check for relevant content before they are published, so don't panic when your feedback isn't immediately visible.
If you write anything perceived to be an ad, spam or self promotion, your comment will be deleted and/or marked as spam/blocked.
Thanks, Jane