The Tant Mieux articles on Bob Dylan appear when they appear, that is, when the mood strikes, so check back or subscribe if the spirit moves you. We do inform Expectingrain, so you'll see us listed there if you check and usually the piece will also make Google News if you have an alert. Still, we'd rather you stop by anyway since there's a lot here and more, perhaps you have something you would like to say?
If you are interested in contributing, we can't promise a yes, but what we can promise for certain is a definite serious read of your work with the hope that yes, you will be included here. We'd like contributors. We like what we have, but diversity is good. Check it out, enjoy, if you have links etc. to share, use the contact link and be in touch - be well, s.r.p - editor.
Entries by sadi ranson-polizzotti (48)
Tell Tale Signs: Tell It Like It Is - Pre-Release Review by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti
sadi ranson-polizzotti
4 Comments
So you want to know if it’s worth buying the boxed set Tell-Tale Signs? It’s worth every penny and not simply for a die-hard Dylan fan, but if you don’t know bootlegs or like the rest of us until now, know the alternate takes of many of the songs (particularly from Oh Mercy), then you’re in for a real treat. Buy it. Get it. This is worth the time because it’s Dylan at his recent best, covering the 90s through the recent-present.
Eye Eye | Significance
Someone asked if I knew the significance of Dylan’s eye logo/banner that drops down in concert and has for sometime now and that is likewise widely branded on a lot of Dylan merchandise at shows and the like.
searching for bob dylan by sadi ranson-polizzotti
My site has a backend search engine query, so it’s easy for me to see how people find Tant Mieux, what they searched for, and what they found. It’s interesting to see what people are searching for when it comes to Dylan. Today, I came upon, horror of horrors, “When did Bob Dylan die in a motorcycle accident?” Obviously, not a query by someone who knows a whole lot (of recent news anyway) about Dylan, but a question that begs to be addressed. I’ll tell you now,
Bob Dylan Approximately? How Close Now... by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti
I’m trying to read Bob Dylan Approximately: A Portrait of the Jewish Poet in Search of God by A Midrash. I say “trying” because so far anyway, it’s not making much sense, no matter how much I want it to at the moment, because I practice Kabbalah and am heavy into the Zohar right now, I’m still not seeing all of this heavy Jewish symbolism in Bob’s work. I see a lot of Biblical references to be sure – some early on, some later when Bob went through Christian re-dux. I keep thinking of the dark-haired woman in Don’t Look Back who whispers, as Pennebaker captures her hissing, “Hav
She Belongs To Me: Democratic National Convention Songs? by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti
I'm Placin' My Bets On You: Live at the MGM Grand - Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti
Who’s Gonna Throw that Minstrel Boy a Bone? by Avner Ohev
***
I find myself inside the Red Hot in the Slope with my oldest friend, as we return to one of our favorite subjects: people with the name
Let Me See You Make Him Smile; Notations - sadi ranson-polizzotti
So he played “Lay, Lady, Lay” in Brooklyn. If you read “Set-List This: Bob Are You There?” Then you know this was the starred song on my list of songs I wanted him to play. Not that I, for a second, am overestimating my self-importance here, because it was perhaps likely happenstance that he chose to play that song – or perhaps not. Perhaps he even read the list and thought, Why not.
dylan outro - sadi ranson-polizzotti
references & rip-offs by sarah e.b.
This year rock n’ roll lost one of its forefathers, Bo Diddley, and a quote we tend to remember him by is this one: “...When is people going wake up and give credit where credit is due?” This is, of course, in reference to the famous “Bo Diddley Beat,” a rhythm that Diddley first popularized and has since been used by Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, U2, and many more. After watching his Beat bring popularity to so many other musicians Bo Diddley became a sort of symbol and advocate for artistic credibility.
standing and dreamin' - sadi ranson-polizzotti
Before I even start, I must thank those who pointed out the very obvious error on my part of comparing the wrong song to “Dreamin’ Of You”, so thanks for that. I appreciate it. Having said that now, here I present a revised version that compares it to the RIGHT song, “Standing In The Doorway”.
if not maggie's farm then where? by sadi ranson-polizzotti
So it all comes down to “Maggie’s Farm”. That’s what Obama said during a recent interview. That it’s this Dylan song (from Bringing It All Back Home, 1965) and a song of great protest – protesting protest (which was actually a recent part of a local chapter of ImprovEverywhere, for the record, with protestors protesting protest before their city statehouse; more power to ‘em) that he likes the most, and seems to identify with the most. This is the same “Maggie’s Farm” of I-won’t-be-part-of-this-club; I don’t wanna work on this farm anymore, I ain’t gonna work on this farm anymore – well I try my best, to be just like I am, but, but everybody wants me to be just like them.
bob dylan @ campagnelli stadium by mark polizzotti
With his gaunt face, pencil mustache, and long black coat, Bob Dylan these days looks more like Vincent Price than the punk laureate of yore. He shuffled onstage last Sunday with a stripped-down band consisting of two guitars, one bass, one drums. Dylan did not once pick up a guitar during the set, did not take center stage save for a brief moment or two, but sat at the far left with a small electric keyboard and vocal mike. Apart from the song lyrics, the only phrase that came out of his mouth was a single thank you about halfway through, a brief introduction of the musicians at the end. Though Dylan has never exactly been a chatterbox onstage, his concerts have usually contained a few moments of offhand monologue, solipsistic though they may be. But on Sunday, virtually no remarks to the capacity crowd. No famously telling hecklers that they were liars--there were no hecklers.
Dylan seemed completely disengaged from the audience. And from where I sat,
set-list this | less is more, Bob are you there?
Let me lay this out simply and with the understanding that this is a highly personal request and by no means encompasses the "all" of Dylan's work that I truly love, but rather, is a list (or partial list) of songs that I have rarely heard in concert (apart from Workingman's Blues) but the rest, the rest I never hear and perhaps I've just missed them, alas, but I would like to hear them. Very much. For what it's worth, here is that list and some brief explanation.
publish or perish | sing and cherish
Okay, so I made, for me, anyway, what I would consider one of the ultimate “yearning” and longing Bob Dylan mixes – a set list – that perhaps could be or should be for the almost broken-hearted. Not quite totally devastated, but perhaps there is a ray of light? So all of the songs on the list speak to some yearning, of which there are many Dylan songs (although I left off what I would consider some of the more obvious ones, like “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”
dylanites of the future | by sarah e.b., contributor
Because Bob Dylan’s fans span generations, I
appreciate the notion that every fan has his or her
own era of Dylan. I am of the Time Out of Mind/
Love & Theft/ Modern Times generation. And Modern
Times, it is comforting to note, connects us to the
contemporary (as Rolling Stone magazine noted, his
simple citing of Alicia Keys reminds us of where we
stand in the here-and-now of music).
i guess it must be up to me | the soundtrack dylan
*You can listen to any of the songs mentioned in this article by clicking here and scrolling down to the song name. - ed.
Why can’t we get enough of Bob Dylan? Why are we such voracious consumers of all that he produces – hell, even if we loathe the vehicle, even if, like me, you saw a CD of songs sold through Starbucks that had supposedly influenced Dylan, you bought it anyway, hating yourself the whole time for buying into anything that had anything to do with Starbucks and music, and in particular with Dylan - not because he’s some saint, but because part of you somehow figured he was above that fray. Mind you, if you’re in there in the first place, the question to ask yourself is why the hell he should be “above” something you clearly are not.
bob dylan bores simon cowell, oh dear! by sadi ranson-polizzotti
It’s somewhat ironic that Simon Cowell of American Idol… uh, notoriety, has stated that Bob Dylan’s music “bores him to tears.” Moreover, “…the Bob Dylans of this world would (not) make American Idol a better show.” Cowell went on to say he preferred Kelly Clarkson and that he had “never bought a Dylan record.”
memories of mick | world tour '66 the home movies
World Tour, 1966
The Home Movies
Through the Camera of Bob Dylan’s Drummer Mickey Jones
What is it about Dylan, then and now, that makes that voice so damn sexy, so damn workable. I mean, I can listen to “Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues.” and I prac