Writing about Bob Dylan's Performances (with Graley Herren)

While on tour in Italy, Bob Dylan stopped by the Vatican on 4th of November to meet Pope Leo XIV in a private meeting. Read the Vatican's official press release here.After we recorded this, Ray Padgett published an interview with Antonio Spadaro, who facilitated the meeting. You can read Laura's review of the Zurich show here.You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.

In this week's Bob Dylan Hotline, we're talking about "Love is Just a Four Letter Word", a song written but never recorded by Bob Dylan, before it was then popularised by Joan Baez. What was it about this song that Dylan might have made Dylan shy to release it? Could it have been a little too personal? If you're interested in the Patreon episode about Dylan the Ghostwriter, you can find that here.You can see “Love is Just A Four Letter Word” in the Dont Look Back songbook here.You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.

In his memoir, Chronicles Volume One (2004), Bob Dylan reveals that he suffered a severe hand injury in the late 1980s. Little is known about the circumstances of his incident that Bob Dylan seems to ascribe a symbolic meaning. One of our listeners was intrigued and so were we, so let's talk about it. The Fred Bals article we refer to a few times can be found here. You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.

Laura talks to Graley Herren about his new book, Dylan in Cincinnati, the challenges of writing about performance, and our shared love for Paul Williams.Order his new book Dylan in Cincinnati here.His book Dreams and Dialogues in Dylan’s "Time Out of Mind" can be found here. Some essays of his that I love and mention in the episode: "Young Goodman Dylan: Chronicles at the Crossroads”"Gender Performance in Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song" “Dylan and the Kennedy Assassination”For more, head to his Substack Shadow Chasing.You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.

In today’s Bob Dylan Hotline we talk about Bob Dylan and gospel music – the ties he had to the genre before his conversion to Christianity, and the enduring impact it had in the decades that followed.Check out the trailer for the documentary Say Amen, Somebody here.You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.

Happy Equinox! What better day to look back on summer and that's exactly what we're doing in this conversation. What do you think? What are your favourite Bob Dylan summer songs? Or do you associate his music with another season entirely?And of course we had to talk about the new upcoming Rolling Thunder Live 1976 box set! One correction: Fort Collins is in COLORADO, I have no idea why I said Florida. I’m sorry about that.You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.

In this episode of the Bob Dylan Hotline, we give our opinion on Bob Dylan ~as women~. Is that different from other episodes, you might ask? Not really, but this time we're talking about talking about Bob Dylan as women. The conversation took us in many different directions because we had a lot to say. You can find our earlier conversation on Women and Dylan here.A few notes:00:18 - A note on the almost impossible popularity of Dolly Parton. The phenomenon of a woman becoming very popular very quickly until the public turns on her and starts tearing her down has now been dubbed as “getting womaned”, since it rarely happens to men to this extent.00:22 - There are luckily a few examples for “kookie” women, from Björk to Kate Bush to Erykah Badu to name just a few, but I think Rebecca’s point was more regarding how willing the public is to accept that kookiness as part of Bob Dylan's character, while female artists are more likely to be reduced to their kookiness.00:35 - I’m really interested in how some of Dylan’s early songs challenge the conventional gender dynamic. “It Ain’t Me Babe” is a rejection of romantic stereotypes, but songs like “Hero Blues” and “John Brown” are about women encouraging a harmful masculinity rooted in violence and aggression. For more on this, check out my talk on Bob Dylan’s Heroic Masculinity here.00:51 - In this context, also consider the re-written lyrics to “To Be Alone With You”, where he sings about wishing to be back in his “true love’s arms / She likes older men, they can’t resist her charms”. Here he directly writes from the place of an “older man”. The same is true for “Spirit on the Water” where he resist the accusation that he’s “over the hill” or past his prime and insists that, given a chance, he’s show her a “whoppin’ good time”. You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.

In this episode Laura talks to Jake Xerxes Fussell about Bob Dylan the folksinger, and the albums Good As I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993). We discuss the song selection, their textured beauty, and what they can retroactively tell us about that moment in Dylan’s career.Jake Xerxes Fussell is a guitarist and singer from Columbus, Georgia, who arranges and performs traditional folksongs. He has released five studio albums and recently co-composed (with James Elkington) a feature length soundtrack film score. He tours regularly in the United States, Canada, and Europe. His sixth and forthcoming album, “The Old Beloved Path,” will be released by Fat Possum Records on September 18th.You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.

Today we're talking about Bob Dylan's fashion through the years! What's your favourite outfit Bob Dylan has worn, or which style do you most associate with him? You can read Graley Herren's excellent essay on gender performance in Bob Dylan's The Philosophy of Modern Song here. And the other essay we mention about Gorgeous George can be found on Graley's Substack.Check out Ray's interview with JJ Holiday, who played with Bob Dylan on Letterman in 1984 and lent him his outfit here. Around 01:13, I'm talking about the chapter on "There Stands the Glass" in The Philosophy of Modern Song, where Dylan writes about the history of tailors Nuta Kotlyarenko, or Nudie Cohn, and Manuel Cuevas. Follow Britt Eisnor on Instagram for great in depth research in to a lot of Dylan and The Band related topics, but also content on Bob's fashion. Shot_of_love_69 – whose name is Alaina – who made the beautiful jacket for Britt is also a must-follow. You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.

In this week's Bob Dylan Hotline, we're talking about Bob Dylan's vocals! What do YOU think his sexiest, spookiest, and most moving vocals are? This question comes from Graley Herren, one of the most referenced people on this podcast because we think he's great, and he has a new book coming out in September, which traces Dylan's career through the lens of his performances in just one city! Pre-order your copy of Dylan in Cincinnati here.Also check out Graley's Substack.You can support Definitely Dylan on Patreon or with a one-off donation at buymeacoffee.com/definitelydylan.Book your Bob Dylan Walking Tour of NYC with Rebecca on ramblintours.com.Get your Definitely Dylan baseball cap here.Rebecca’s bootleg version is here.