Modern Times - Bob Dylan

This is for all non-EC or peripheral-EC topics. We all know how much we love talking about 'The Man' but sometimes we have other interests.
martinfoyle
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Modern Times - Bob Dylan

Post by martinfoyle »

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps ... 6602050345

Sunday, February 5, 2006
City site hosted Dylan's rehearsal

By John W. Barry
Poughkeepsie Journal



Music icon Bob Dylan spent four days at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie last week, privately rehearsing and writing music for an album he is set to record this week in Manhattan.

Bardavon Executive Director Chris Silva said Dylan and his band played on the stage Tuesday through Friday. Dylan worked without a break for 4-5 hours each day.

"I think that's a big deal for the area," said Wasyl Bozydaj, owner of Black Creek Guitars in New Paltz.

Silva said Dylan was enthusiastic about returning for a concert. The ex-Woodstock resident played twice in Dutchess County in 2004.

Dylan and five musicians played new music last week.

"It was experimental, all kinds of different licks," said Silva, who watched the sessions. "They would get into one thing and they would go over it and over it, then they would change gears."

Dylan and the band members didn't ask for anything beyond technical support and some take-out menus. But Silva decided to put out the fruits, vegetables and yogurt Dylan usually requires backstage when he performs.

Silva has been trying for 12 years to get him to play at the Bardavon. But more than setting the stage for a concert, last week's sessions could intertwine the Bardavon with Dylan's legacy.

"For him to be in our space, creating work that then will be recorded ... whenever I play that CD, which will be out in the next few months, I'll know some aspect of that was created in the Bardavon," Silva said.

John W. Barry can be reached at jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com
Last edited by martinfoyle on Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mike Boom
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Post by Mike Boom »

Hallelujah - thought it being out in a few months sounds rather optimistic.
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Cool. New Bob is always welcome. The Bardavon's not far from here. Great old theater. I saw Rufus Wainwright there a few months ago.
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Post by BlueChair »

Hmm. I'm always skeptical when I hear rumours of a new Dylan album. But if it's true I'm really excited, and also hopeful that it keeps Dylan's latter albums on a high note.
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/200 ... 02-07.html


Image


February 07, 2006

Dylan rehearses at the Bardavon

By Sandy Tomcho
Times Herald-Record
stomcho@th-record.com

What happens when one of the greatest living songwriters walks through the door? Chris Silva, executive director of the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, has always been a Bob Dylan fan.

Guess who just spent four days rehearsing his new album at, of all places, the Bardavon? We'll let Silva tell the story:

I have been after Dylan since the day I walked in here 12 years ago. We almost had him back in '94. But last month, I got an e-mail from his agent, the second time this has happened in six months.

It said, "Artist looking for rehearsal space." No name. And then he finally said, "Yeah, it's Dylan. You got the dates or what?" Around the 18th or the 19th it got hot and heavy and on the 23rd it was confirmed for the 31st. I came in at 8 a.m. to get my job done so I could go watch him.

It was a rehearsal with material for a new album he was gonna go into the studio with the next week. He was playing with all kinds of different things, from old blues to kick-ass rock 'n' roll to Hawaiian-tinged music to Rudy Vallee.

He had a slide guitar player in there and a fiddle player and his keyboard, plus he had a pedal steel. Tony Garnier (with Dylan since 1989) plays bass, but the other guys had mandolins. First-rate musicians.

Dylan was all business. He would show up, walk to the keyboard, work for four or five hours straight. He was very low-key, in jeans, you wouldn't have even looked at him twice in the street, which I'm sure is on purpose, so he can sort of disappear. He was a working musician and he came to work.

There was a lot of conversation back and forth about "Let's try this key. Let's try it faster. Let's try it slower. Hey, whaddya think about that lick? Whaddya think about that lick? Let's turn it around here. Let's turn it around there." He was calling all the shots and he was counting off every song.

He's in the studio now and he's recording in New York. Whatever I was hearing for four days, it could just be turned on its head. Who knows how it's gonna end up? It was constant experimentation and that's what was so fascinating about it is that here's this guy that's been doin' it for so long and he's just an experimenter. He's not like, "I got it. I know exactly what it is." He's like, "Let's experiment. Let's find it." He never took a break.

I was in the wings. Every day I waited for him, and when he was done, he just left the building. At the end of the last day, he walked right over to me, and I froze. He thanked me profusely for the space and how much he liked it and how he'd like to come back. I didn't stammer, but I thanked him back and said, "Anytime." I just couldn't get my hand out to shake his. I was too stunned. I was like, "Maybe he won't take my hand," ya know, all these stupid thoughts.

I've met a lot of stars. I've had Al Pacino here and I really enjoyed Al and he was very nice and friendly and everything was cool, but this was a whole different thing. It's just that Dylan thing, that mystique. It was a thrill.
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Post by Extreme Honey »

BlueChair wrote:Hmm. I'm always skeptical when I hear rumours of a new Dylan album. But if it's true I'm really excited, and also hopeful that it keeps Dylan's latter albums on a high note.
Yeah let's hope this album will be along the lines of his last 2, and maybe, just maybe Bob will make a silent comeback to pop culture.
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Post by martinfoyle »

http://www.expectingrain.com/
24 - New Dylan album will be released Aug 29, and the title: "Modern Times". Alan Dean got this confirmed by Sony/Columbia. 2120
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Post by BlueChair »

Hmm!
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Post by wardo68 »

martinfoyle wrote:http://www.expectingrain.com/
New Dylan album will be released Aug 29, and the title: "Modern Times". Alan Dean got this confirmed by Sony/Columbia. 2120
That's encouraging news. I'm not thrilled about the title, but that hasn't kept me from enjoying the last two.
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Post by martinfoyle »

http://www.nme.com/news/bob-dylan/23307

Bob Dylan names new album
And it's out in August
Bob Dylan's first album of new songs in five years will be called 'Modern Times' and released on August 28, according to an inside source at his US record company, Sony-BMG.

A number of hand-picked journalists were given a playback of the album in New York City last week but were required to sign legal undertakings not to talk about what they heard. One record company source described the album as similar in style to 2001's 'Love & Theft'. Another source claimed the dozen songs include "at least three masterpieces".

It appears unlikely that any of the new material will feature in the set-list for his imminent UK and European dates. None of the songs from 'Modern Times' were premiered on Dylan's recent US tour, which wound-up in Florida last month.

He plays Cardiff International Arena on June 27 and Bournemouth International Centre on May 28.
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Post by Mike Boom »

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060612/nym269.html?.v=12
Bob Dylan to Release First New Album in Five Years
Monday June 12, 7:02 pm ET
Modern Times Arrives in Stores and Online August 29

NEW YORK, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Bob Dylan's first new album in five years, Modern Times, will arrive in stores and online August 29. The artist's 44th album features 10 new Bob Dylan songs recorded this winter with Dylan on keyboards, guitars, harmonica and vocals, accompanied by his touring band.

Song titles on Modern Times include "Thunder On The Mountain," "Spirit On The Water," "Workingman's Blues," and "When The Deal Goes Down."

Columbia Records Chairman Steve Barnett stated, "A new Bob Dylan record is an event. Bob is that rare artist whose music defies all trends and resonates throughout all levels of our culture, and he continues to be as contemporary and relevant as any artist in music. We're approaching Modern Times as the third release in an outstanding trilogy of recorded works -- along with Time Out Of Mind and 'Love and Theft.' This is a staggering record by any standards, and is a major priority for our company, worldwide."

Bob Dylan is one of the world's most popular and acclaimed songwriters, musicians and performers, having sold nearly 100 million albums and performed literally thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades.

His most recent studio albums, Time Out Of Mind and "Love & Theft" have been among his most commercially successful and critically lauded, each having sold more than a million copies in the U.S. and earning Grammy nominations for Album Of The Year (Time Out Of Mind won that award in 1998).

He wrote and recorded "Things Have Changed" for the 2000 film Wonder Boys, for which he received both the Academy Award and Golden Globe. The first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles, was one of the most acclaimed and best-selling non-fiction works of 2004, and last year's No Direction Home film, directed by Martin Scorsese, captivated audiences worldwide as it documented Dylan's early career and rise to fame. The film won a Peabody Award in 2006.

Bob Dylan's weekly XM Satellite Radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, debuted in May and has quickly become one of that network's most popular programs.
echos myron like a siren
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Post by BlueChair »

:D

btw, I think too many people are taking the title "Modern Times" too seriously. Dylan has a pretty strong sense of irony, so I wouldn't be surprised if the album continues to explore a lot of old themes and images.
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Post by BlueChair »

From Billboard:

Dylan Surveys 'Modern Times' On New Album

June 13, 2006, 10:10 AM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Bob Dylan will break a five-year hiatus from the studio later this summer with his 44th album. Due Aug. 29 via Columbia, the 10-track "Modern Times" was recorded earlier this year with Dylan's touring band.

It's the follow-up to 2001's "Love and Theft," the No. 5 debut of which was Dylan's best showing on The Billboard 200 since 1979's "Slow Train Coming." The set has sold more than 757,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Modern Times" includes such tracks as "When The Deal Goes Down," "Spirit on the Water," "Thunder on the Mountain" and "Workingman's Blues," according to Columbia.

Dylan, who recently began hosting his own "Theme Time Radio Hour" on XM Satellite Radio, is not currently on the road, having wrapped a six-week North American tour last month in Hollywood, Fla.

In other Dylan news, Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" won the grand prize and the arts documentary prize last night (June 12) at the 27th Banff Rockie Awards in Banff, Alberta.
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Post by Mike Boom »

The enigmatic singer is back on form and keeping his fans guessing with a walk-on role for diva Alicia Keys on his new album

Caspar Llewellyn Smith
Sunday July 2, 2006
The Observer

It has been five years since the release of Bob Dylan's last album, but any notion that the 65-year-old singer might have lost touch with the contemporary world is dispelled by the first verse of 'Modern Times', the opening song on his new record.

'Thunder on the mountain, fires on the moon, There's a ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon,' it begins, before quickly skipping to the lines 'I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn't help from crying/When she was born in Hell's Kitchen, I was living down the line/I'm wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be/I been looking for her even clean through Tennessee.'

It is not known whether Dylan really is a fan of the soul singer 39 years his junior - ever the enigma, he has not discussed the new record yet. But the two of them are thought to have met at the 2001 Grammy awards, when Keys was a five-times winner with her album Songs in A Minor and Dylan won Best Contemporary Folk Album with Love and Theft. Dylan also seems to have done his research - Keys was indeed raised in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York.

'I first heard through the grapevine that he'd mentioned my name in one of his new songs,' Keys told The Observer, the first newspaper to hear Dylan's album, last night.

'I just knew somebody had to be playin' with me! How could such a legend know me? And bigger than that, want to write about me? I haven't heard the song yet - it's top secret. But I'm crazy excited about it and I'm honored to be on his mind.'

This is not the first time Dylan has introduced real characters into his songs - 1963's 'I Shall Be Free' featured Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren - and ever since the early Sixties his lyrics have been subjected to close scrutiny.

Debates about the autobiographical and political nature of his work will be revived with the appearance of this 32nd studio album. His last, Love and Theft, was released on 11 September, 2001, and the reference on the title track of the new record to 'all the ladies in Washington scrambling to get out of town' might lead some to speculate that Dylan has been brooding on the events of that fateful day. Similarly, while the title of the song 'Workingman's Blues' pays an obvious debt to Merle Haggard, with whom Dylan recently toured, and his record of that name, it's the line 'I got a brand new suit and brand new wife' that will have the gossips' tongues wagging in the light of Dylan's uncertain matrimonial status. But, inevitably, the songs elude strict interpretation, and instead the listener is left to contemplate the grander themes of nature and mortality.

The new album may be Dylan's first for half a decade, but in the interim he has starred in the film Masked and Anonymous, written the best-selling Chronicles, appeared in the Martin Scorsese documentaries devoted to his early career and is currently hosting his own show on XM satellite radio in America. Then there is his relentless touring schedule, which this week brought him to Britain for two shows in Cardiff and Bournemouth.

None of the 10 new songs from Modern Times has been played live yet, but the expectation is that this will change after the record's release on 28 August. Dylan rehearsed at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, upstate New York, in late January and early February, before recording the album in a Manhattan studio.

Steve Barnett, chairman of Columbia Records, said that the company was 'approaching Modern Times as the third release in an outstanding trilogy of recorded works along with Time Out Of Mind and Love And Theft'. The new album certainly has a similarly rootsy sound to its predecessors. Among the 10 tracks are at least three pieces that many will see as masterpieces: 'Working Man's Blues', 'Netty Moore' and 'Ain't Talkin', Just Walkin'.'

· Caspar Llewellyn Smith is the editor of Observer Music Monthly.
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Post by wardo68 »

El Vez wrote: Love the cover!
I wasn't expecting something like that. Reminds me of the jacket for "Chronicles".
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Post by BlueChair »

Looks like an easy photoshop job to me
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Post by Extreme Honey »

That's odd, the cab looks like it's from the 50's. I do like the cover though.
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Post by so lacklustre »

I do like the cover though.
I expect Bob is pleased that you approve.
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Post by charliestumpy »

Having noted Mr Dylan's avoidance of playing any new material/'first timer' covers on his current tour, I as usual have ordered a CD copy with DVD (I shall avoid preview copies).

I am sure I will like the album despite his voice.

What I really hope is that there is no new 'religious-political' atrocity on day of release.

Thank goodness his previous proper non-Bootleg release 79 LAT was available here in UK in 2001 (a day earlier than in USA) on 10/11.
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Post by Extreme Honey »

so lacklustre wrote:
I do like the cover though.
I expect Bob is pleased that you approve.
He sure is. He sure is...
Preacher was a talkin' there's a sermon he gave,
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved,
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it's you who must keep it satisfied
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Post by martinfoyle »

http://www.spincds.com/


....... tracklisting is as follows:
1. Thunder on the Mountain (5:57)
2. Spirit on the Water (7:44)
3. Rollin' and Tumblin' (6:03)
4. When the Deal Goes Down (5:06)
5. Someday Baby (4:57)
6. Workingman's Blues (6:09)
7. Beyond the Horizon (5:38)
8. Nettie Moore (6:54)
9. The Levee's Gonna Break (5:45)
10. Ain't Talkin' (8:48).
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Post by BlueChair »

Hmm... looks like at least a few covers are in there, unless Dylan wrote his own "Rollin' and Tumblin'"
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Post by wardo68 »

BlueChair wrote:Hmm... looks like at least a few covers are in there, unless Dylan wrote his own "Rollin' and Tumblin'"
Can't remember where I saw it, but that and "Levee's Gonna Break" were mentioned as old blues songs.
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Post by BlueChair »

I was wrong, all originals.

Two weeks to go and the buzz on this album is really, really good. Journalists have sworn a vow of secrecy, but say that it basically effectively combines the styles employed on Time Out Of Mind and Love & Theft. I've also heard that the album's closing track "Ain't Talkin" ranks up there with the best Dylan closers of all time ("Desolation Row," anyone?)
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