5140
Ciao Michele!
Sono Angelica, ho 12
anni. Sono una fan di Dylan; lo conosco grazie a mio padre, anche lui
un suo fan.
Ti scrivo per segnalarti un film che ho visto a scuola,
"PENSIERI PERICOLOSI" di John N. Smith. In questo film si parla e si
discute di Dylan, in particolare della canzone "Mr Tamburine Man". Poi,
alla fine, fanno ascoltare anche un pezzo della canzone
di cui si è
discusso.
Invece, per la sezione libri, volevo segnalarti "CITTANOVA
BLUES" un libro di Guccini che ho preso in biblioteca. Anche quì
viene
citato Dylan. Praticamente c'è un ragazzo americano che parla a Guccini
di un nuovo cantante americano (Dylan,
appunto).
Ti saluto e
complimenti per il bellissimo sito!!!
Spero che mio padre quest' anno
mi porti a un concerto di Dylan, e non mi lasci a casa come al
solito...
Saluti
Angelica
Ciao Angelica , piccola e stupefacente
dodicenne fan di Bob , grazie per le segnalazioni e spero tanto che tuo
padre ti porti finalmente a vedere un concerto di Bob , se ti lascia a casa
come al solito mandami la sua e-mail , lo faremo inondare di proteste da
tutti i lettori di MF !!!!
Mr. Tambourine
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5141
interessante articolo - leggete
soprattutto la parte in
cui i due vecchi amici di infanzia di Dylan raccontano della sua
adolescenza....
Paolo Vites
----------------------------------------------------------
Review by Mitch M.
These have been
three phenomenal shows at the House of Blues in Dallas. Being from the
Bay Area, this was my first time
flying somewhere to see Dylan and it
was very well worth it, to say the least. I heard from an apparently
well-connected fan
that Dylan and his band practiced for a few days in
Dallas before the first show, and you could tell. They played a wide
range
of songs during these three nights, with very sharp performances
on just about all of them. Overall, Dylan's musical mood seems
to be
very aggressive and intense, with an enormous amount of emphasis
through changing the length of syllables, volume, and
tone of voice.
It's wonderful because he seems totally involved in every line. The
stacatto rhythms and intensity remind me a bit
of his tone during that
unique 1974 tour with The Band ("Before the Flood"), except now he is
varying his emotional expression
alot more and is more musical.
While
the first show was excellent, the second was the most explosively
phenomenal for me. The set list was probably the best
I've experienced
in about 25 shows, including "Visions of Johanna," "I'll Be Your
BabyTonight," and a chilling, swamp blues
version of "Masters of War."
Around midway through the show, Dylan seemed to lock in and elevate,
with his singing merged
almost unconsciously into the music, as if
they were
seamlessly driving each other to greater heights. This is
what always happens when Dylan's shows are exceptional. The grand
finale, "Blowing in the Wind," rode a high tide to almost symphonic
proportions -- an astounding evolution from its origins on
"Freewheelin'".
Tonight was also excellent, with a superb set list
again, including
"Senor," "Ballad of a Thin Man," "Stuck Inside of
Mobile" (easily the best live version of this song I've ever heard him
perform),
"Lay Lady Lay," and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll."
The finale was the wonderful mayhem of "All Along the
Watchtower."
These shows featured many songs with that sense of explosive mayhem,
such as all three performances each
of "Highway 61," "Honest with Me"
and "Thunder on the Mountain." What seems a bit better than the few
shows I've seen the
last year and a half is that there are more layers
of varying sound, Denny Freeman has become a much more expressive lead
guitarist, and Dylan has ramped up his intensity
another notch. He
seems to be driving the band very hard, and they seem to love being as
dominating as they were these few
nights in Dallas.
After the first
show, I said to my friend that Dylan came across like a demon. That
must be a pretty apt description because the
headline in the Dallas
newspaper the next morning was "Demonic Dylan."
This added fury and
almost anger in the delivery of most of the songs was especially
interesting because before the show
started on the second night, three
late middle age guys sat in front of me in the first row of the
balcony. The one right in front of
me wore a "Hibbing Hockey" cap. I
thought it must be a Dylan souvenier. After a bit he and I started
talking and he told me
that he actually grew up in Hibbing. I thought
he looked
about Dylan's age so I asked whether he knew Dylan back in
Hibbing. He told me that he went to high school with Dylan, his
father
was in business with Dylan's father (Abe), and he was the leader of the
rock band at Hibbing High that competed with
Dylan's band at talent
shows. His brother, sitting next to him (also with a Hibbing cap), is
close friends with Dylan's brother.
Confronted with this very
unexpected opportunity, I went right to the heart of the matter and
asked him the main question
that's been on my mind about Dylan since I
became a fan almost 40 years ago. I asked him what made Dylan so angry
back in
Hibbing? Even on "Freewheelin'" in 1963, there is a pronouced
element of anger ("You just kinda wasted my precious time;"
"I'll
stand over your grave 'till I'm sure that you're dead") and this
emotion has been a continuous strand (among many othes) in
almrost all
of his albums.
He answered right away, showing no doubt. Dylan's
schoolmate said that Dylan was very angry back then because Hibbing in
the late '50's was a horrible place to grow up. It was very violent,
full of juvenile delinquents, and Dylan "got bullied alot." I
asked
him if he ever actually saw Dylan getting bullied. He right away said
yes, he can clearly remember some guy punching
Dylan in the face. He
said that anyone with some "creativity" got bullied, and a short,
skinny kid like him got a big dose. But he
said that just about
everyone who graduated Hibbing High back then grew up real angry,
because it was a horrible place. And
just about everyone did
everything they could to get out. (This fellow joined the Army and has
been a musician in Austin, Texas
for many years.) This all made alot of
sense, and I wondered why I hadn't read about Dylan being bullied in
any of the
biographies or articles about him.
I told him that I had
read some speculation that Dylan had a cold and distant relationship
with his father, and that may have
been a wellspring for some of his
anger. This schoolmate rejected that notion out of hand. He said that
he knew Abe
Zimmerman very well and that he was a great guy in every
way and his father had an excellent relationship with him. He noted
that Abe was a "stern Jewish father" to Dylan, but not in any way that
would cause lingering anger. He assured me that Dylan
was
full of
anger when he left Hibbing because of being bullied for many years.
He
also mentioned that Dylan's high school girlfriend, Echo Helstrom, was
very strange looking, with very white hair. He
seemed to want me to
add that to the picture of what Dylan was like back then.
He said that
a few years later a mutual friend brought him a copy of "Freewheelin'"
and told him to listen to this new album that
Bobby Zimmerman had
recorded. He told me that he couldn't believe his ears. He was utterly
shocked that these incredible
songs were coming from his schoolmate.
He said he never imagined that Zimmerman would produce anything like
this. He still
knows the coffee shop owner in Minneapolis who gave
Dylan a try out during his year of college there but wouldn't even
hire
him to perform at that humble venue.
This conversation stayed
with me during the shows last night and tonight. ("Everyone of those
words rang true and glowed like
burning coals.") As I watched his awe-
inspiring and yes, demonic, performances, individual lines of anger and
revenge popped
out, like a new line he has added to "Workingman's
Blues," singing, "I couldn't believe/they would kick
me/when I was
down." There was, "I'm going to create an imperial empire." And I
thought of: "If ever I catch my opponents
sleeping/I'll just slaughter
'em where they lie," (from "Ain't Talkin'") and the flow of anger
weaving through large segments of his
body of work. And then I started
to watch him on stage with a bit of a different eye. His demeanor was
that of a gunslinger, a
super tough guy. At the end, when he knew he
had totally conquered, he pointed both hands at the
crowd cocked as if
they were pistols, as if saying, "I am really bad, and I just kicked
ass." It was exaggerated toughness. After
that conversation with his
old Hibbing schoolmate, I saw it as perhaps overcompensation for years
of being a victim.
During the Halloween concert at Carnegie Hall in
1964, Dylan said, "I'm wearing my Bob Dylan mask." I have to believe
that
he is having a bit of fun with his tough guy act, and is probably
very aware of all that it conceals. It must feel very good to him.
He
played these three nights in Dallas as if he still has lots to prove.
Whatever pain he suffered back in his early years, he has
turned it -
along with all the other aspects of his mind - into works of searing
honesty that will live on long after we are all gone.
Grazie a Paolo Vites che ci fornisce sempre
notizie interessanti e di prima mano
Mr.Tambourine
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5145
Ciao
Michele, come stai?
ti seguo sempre, anche
se ho poco tempo per scriverti.. speriamo di
rivederci quest'estate per
qualche concerto!!
Intanto ti mando il link di questa notizia.. pare
che la "nostra
amica"
brasiliana pazza di roma e foggia abbia colpito
ancora, stavolta in
casa
sua :)
http://notizie.alice.
it/notizie/spettacoli/2008/03_marzo/08/musica_brasile_san_paolo_fan_sale_su_palco_e_bacia_bob_dylan,
14241374.html?pmk=nothpspe
un abbraccio
ila ladybird
Ciao ladybird ,
devo risponderti io perchè avrai letto che Michele ha deciso di scendere a
questa fermata di MF , la notizia ha addolorato me e così tutti quelli che
lo conoscono , lo apprezzano e lo stimano , ma credo che abbia i suoi buoni
motivi per aver fatto questa scelta , io posso solo sperare che ci ripensi e
torni a riempirci di notizie su Bob , come dice lui everything
passes...everything changes , quindi quello che vale oggi vale solo per oggi
, il domani è incerto per ognuno di noi , di conseguenza anche Michele non
può essere certo di non riprendere la guida di MF . Non conosco la vostra
amica pazza brasiliana pazza di Roma e Foggia , forse un giorno la
incontrerò anch'io , quien sabe ? Continua a scriverci .
Mr. Tambourine
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5148
Caro Mr.
Tambourine,
ho già avuto modo
di farlo privatamente ma permettimi di ringraziare anche pubblicamente
Michele per l’incredibile lavoro svolto in questi anni.
La sua passione e
la sua competenza ci hanno permesso di essere aggiornati sulle attività
del Nostro, di discutere e scambiare opinioni sulle Sue opere, spesso di
conoscerci personalmente ai concerti o in altre occasioni. Michele ha
aggiornato il sito con una frequenza ed una costanza raramente
riscontrabile (lo posso dire perché bazzico la rete dai tempi di Fidonet,
l’età della pietra della telematica… e ho visto tante iniziative lodevoli
aprire e chiudere nel giro di poche settimane). E’ doveroso ringraziarlo
con tutto il cuore per aver messo a disposizione di tutti noi grandissima
parte del suo tempo libero. Spero che in qualche modo Michele possa
rimanere un punto di riferimento per i dylaniani italiani, su queste
pagine o altrove.
Detto questo
tantissimi auguri di buon lavoro anche a te, chiunque tu sia, e
complimenti per il coraggio di prendere in mano un testimone così pesante.
Alla prossima.
Bruno “Jackass”
Grazie Bruno , a parte il dispiacere e
devo dire per me dolore perchè Michele è per me una persona speciale , mi ha
fatto molto piacere la tua mail , sono daccordo con te , Michele resta
sempre nei cuori di tutti , tanto ci ha dato , quanti momenti belli passati
assieme , ai concerti , ai Dylan-days , ai Maggie's Fram festivals , sulle
pagine del sito , quanti momenti di piacevole lettura , un modo intelligente
e costruttivo di passare il nostro tempo libero e di coltivare la nostra
passione per la musica di Dylan e per quell'incredibile personaggio che è
Bob . E' vero , è un fardello pesantissimo , MF pesa come una portaerei , io
ce la metto tutta e spero che tutti voi che avete aiutato Michele in tutti
questi anni abbiate il tempo e la volontà di fare altrettanto con me . Prima
o poi ci incontreremo di sicuro , quando avrò le idee un pò più chiare e un
pò più di tempo e avrò preso l'andazzo giusto comincerò a cercare di
organizzare concerti e riunioni per il piacere di tutti noi . A presto e
grazie per le bellissime parole che rimarranno nel mio cuore .
Mr: Tambourine
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