Welcome to the first part of my "70th Birthday Dylanthology", featuring links to a variety of programs aired by radio and TV stations worldwide.
This is by no means complete or comprehensive -- feel free to add links that might have escaped my attention. Please also check Expecting Rain for additional coverage of Dylan's 70th birthday.
NOTE:
All of these radio and TV programmes (and their descriptions) are © by the stations who produced and aired them. Links to streams and/or downloads and descriptions are provided solely for "nonprofit educational purposes" (one of the criteria of "fair use", Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107).
Presentation (hyperlinks, etc.) © by the author of this blog.
BBC, UK, Radio Programs:
"Bob's Ballad Bases" Broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 10:00PM Tue, 24 May 2011
From Pretty Peggy-O on his first album, to Highlands in the 90s and beyond, folk songs and folk music have informed the melodic, thematic and structural roots of much of his work. As Radio 2's Dylan Season continues, Julie Fowlis examines and celebrates this British and Irish influence.
We hear from people involved in folk song who knew Dylan. Liam Clancy and Jean Redpath met him in New York's Greenwich Village in the early 1960s and we hear Bob himself acknowledge a debt to Liam as he performs a Scottish folksong, Lang A-Growing, at his first major New York concert in 1961.
Bob's visit to London in 1962 is recalled by Martin Carthy, who introduced Bob to a number of variants of English songs. We now also have the publisher demos, recorded soon after his return to the USA, among which are the earliest recordings of landmark songs such as Girl from the North Country and Bob Dylan's Dream, which were informed by his UK visit.
Other contributors include singers Christy Moore and Linda Thompson; the author Clinton Heylin, who has written many books on Dylan and his songs; while Rab Noakes, a singer-songwriter and this documentary's producer, demonstrates how the famous The Times They Are A-Changin' was possibly informed by Hamish Henderson's 51st Farewell to Sicily.
We hear how Dylan's songs exist in a long line, as we go behind the immediate influence to reveal the layers of the traditional sources and oral transmission. This all goes to underline Dylan's description of himself as a "link in the chain".
"Dylan's Women" Broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 10:00PM Mon, 23 May 2011
As Radio 2's Bob Dylan season continues, Bob Harris takes a look at the women behind the songs and discovers how they influenced Dylan as an artist and songwriter.
Focusing largely on the music, tracks include Boots of Spanish Leather, which was written for Suze Rotolo; Like a Rolling Stone, which is said to be inspired by the model and socialite Edie Sedgwick; and Sara, Dylan's homage to his first wife Sara Lownds.
Folk singer Carolyn Hester remembers how Dylan was signed to Columbia after John Hammond saw him playing harmonica at one of her recording sessions. Bob was mesmerised by her singing: "You should have seen this little rough and scuffle little guy, with all this curly hair in the world, pulled his chair right up in front of me... he says, 'you wanna play that again?'"
Suze Rotolo met Dylan in the summer of 1961 and went on to inspire some of his most famous songs. Richard Williams, a journalist from the Guardian, explains how she also introduced him to theatre and artists he'd never heard of: "It wouldn't be exaggerating to say she opened up a new world to him." Richard also remembers the importance of the album cover for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan which pictured Bob and Suze walking down a snowy Manhattan street.
Singer Joan Baez features, who describes how she opened him up to a wider audience: "I adored his music and I adored him... I would present him during my concert so certain credit is offered to me because of that." Billy Name, the archivist at Andy Warhol's Factory, explains the link between Dylan and Edie Sedgwick, who is said to have inspired the song Like a Rolling Stone. And photographer Elliott Landy remembers the time he spent with Bob and his first wife Sara Dylan at their home in Woodstock: "she had a calming effect and she bought him into a wonderful domestic family life".
Other contributors include film-maker DA Pennebaker; actress Sienna Miller; photographer and film director Jerry Schatzberg; Dylan's backing singer Ronee Blakley; and Dylan's first manager, Terri Thal, who remembers how hard it was to get Dylan booked for shows.
Who are the women behind some of Dylan's most revered songs? And how have they impacted on his music? We'll find out as we explore another side of Bob through the eyes of "Dylan's Women".
Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 11:30AM Tue, 24 May 2011
The programme opens with how Dylan grew up a small-town Jew in Hibbing, Minnesota. We hear from Cantor Neil Schwartz he also grew up in the same town and his mother was Bob's Sunday school teacher.
Author of 'Prophet, Mystic, Poet' Seth Rogovoy reflects on Dylan's early years and his Barmitzvah. We explore early Dylan music and author Clinton Heylin believes Dylan not only drew on early negro spirituals but the Old testament for his more engaging material. Helping makes sense of some of the more complex theological messages is Nick Baines The Bishop of Bradford and a life long admirer of Bob Dylan.
It was in the late 1970s, Dylan became a born again Christian and 1979 album 'Slow Train Coming' championed Jesus. Author of 'Down The Highway' Howard Sounes finds Dylan's three Christian albums a "difficult listen". Whether they meant something significant to his audience is another matter, but Al Kasha who helped Dylan with his understanding of the scriptures is convinced you can't doubt the depth of Dylan's religious conversion.
Dylan's embrace of Christianity was unpopular with some of his fans and his album "Shot Of Love" recorded the spring 1981, featured Dylan's first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with explicitly Christian songs. Essentially Dylan's venture into Christianity seemed to be coming to an end.
As we discover with all things Dylan, its tricky to work out what is going on inside the singer's mind but 'Blowing In The Wind - Dylan's Spiritual Journey" will go someway to exploring his thoughts and spiritual beliefs through his songs and these revealing interviews.
The Bob Dylan Story at 70, BBC Radio 2
Kris Kristofferson begins the story of his hero, his inspiration and his friend Bob Dylan in the first of a six part series marking the 70th birthday of the legendary singer songwriter.
It's 1961 and Bob moves from Minnesota to New York, hoping to perform there and to visit his idol Woody Guthrie. Soon, he becomes the most talked about artist on the Greenwich Village folk scene and begins to write the songs that came to define the 1960s such as Blowin' In The Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin'.
The programme features interviews with Dylan's contemporaries Tom Paxton, Jim Kweskin and Dave Van Ronk, who remember his earliest songs and performances. Plus John Hammond, the man who signed Bob to Columbia Records, recalls the making of the 21 year old's debut record. Also, Paul Simon admits the time was right for a folk revival and Joan Baez gives a rare insight into her contribution to Dylan's success.
Bob himself talks about the music that influenced him as a young man, first hearing Woody Guthrie, meeting Peter, Paul & Mary and walking out of the influential Ed Sullivan TV Show in 1963.
Featured tracks include Song To Woody from Dylan's 1962 eponymous debut, Blowin' In The Wind from his landmark follow up The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and title track from his third album The Times They Are A-Changin'.
Kris Kristofferson continues the story of his hero, his inspiration and his friend Bob Dylan in the second of a six part series marking the 70th birthday of the iconic singer songwriter.
In the winter of 62/63 Bob makes his first trip to the UK - the British folk tradition would have a profound influence on his subsequent writing. In 1965 he releases the landmark album Bringing It All back Home, The Byrds have a worldwide hit with his song Mr Tambourine Man and Dylan is seen performing in an early music video to Subterranean Homesick Blues in D A Pennebaker's seminal film Don't Look Back. He is still only 24 years of age. His sixth studio album Highway 61 Revisited is released and Like A Rolling Stone, the opening track, is a top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. His electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival gets a hostile response from the folk establishment.
The programme features an interview with Martin Carthy, who talks about the influence traditional British folk music had on Dylan's work, and Peter Asher and Tom Robinson describe the importance of Dylan's arrival in the British pop charts. Also John Lennon and Carly Simon realise Dylan's lyrics mean so much more than anyone else's, Bob Geldof remembers the first time he heard Like A Rolling Stone and Joe Boyd, stage manager at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival recalls Dylan's controversial performance.
Kris Kristofferson continues the story of his hero, his inspiration and his friend Bob Dylan in the third of a six part series marking the 70th birthday of the iconic singer songwriter.
It's February 1966, and Bob Dylan travels to Nashville to shake up the town and make the best use of musicians Robbie Robertson, Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss and Al Kooper on one of the greatest rock and roll albums ever made Blonde On Blonde. Kris Kristofferson remembers the recording sessions that went on through the night - he was working as a janitor in studio where the album was recorded. Bob undertakes a world tour with The Band taking in a performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, with The Beatles in attendance, and a legendary confrontation between Dylan and the audience at Manchester's Free Trade Hall.
The programme features interviews with producer Bob Johnston and musicians Charlie McCoy and Robbie Robertson. Plus, Bob Geldof and Paul McCartney describe the excitement of Dylan's new electric sound and C P Lee, an audience member at the Free Trade Hall recalls the historic Manchester concert.
With classic tracks from Blonde On Blonde including Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands and Just Like A Woman.
Kris Kristofferson continues the story of his hero, his inspiration and his friend Bob Dylan in the fourth of a six part series marking the 70th birthday of the iconic singer songwriter.
During 1967, while The Beatles release Sgt Pepper and The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd and The Doors are making their album debuts, Dylan rests at home in Woodstock as he recovers from his motorcycle crash of the previous summer. He records 150 songs at nearby Big Pink, a house rented by The Band, a handful of which would become the first bootleg recordings in rock history - The Basement Tapes. In 1968 he releases the country-tinged John Wesley Harding, his first studio album in almost 2 years, then he returns to Nashville to make an album with Johnny Cash. He performs alongside George Harrison and Ringo Starr at the Concert For Bangladesh. His 1973 album Planet Waves pleases the critics, but next Blood On The Tracks would send them into ecstasies and introduce Dylan to a whole new audience.
The programme features interviews with Tom McGuinness, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Robinson and Bob Geldof. Plus, narrator Kris Kristofferson remembers the time he spent with Dylan in Durango, Mexico making the film Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, for which Dylan wrote the classic Knocking On Heaven's Door.
Kris Kristofferson continues the story of his hero, his inspiration and his friend Bob Dylan in the fifth of a six part series marking the 70th birthday of the iconic singer songwriter.
It's 1976 and as the USA braces itself for the Bicentennial, Bob Dylan sets off in search of America - with a travelling band of musicians called The Rolling Thunder Revue. He and The Band call time on performing together and hold a star-studded farewell concert in San Francisco called The Last Waltz. In an unexpected twist he is reborn as an evangelical Christian later that year resulting in three albums of inspirational material he released between 1979 and 1981. Bob performs at Live Aid, joins George Harrison and Roy Orbison in The Traveling Wilburys and finishes the decade on a critical high note with his 25th album Oh Mercy. Things Have Changed - Bob's first song of the 21st Century - is used in the film Wonder Boys and wins him a well-deserved Oscar.
The programme features the thoughts of George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof, Dylan biographer Patrick Humphries and folk musician Tom Paxton.
Kris Kristofferson concludes the story of his hero, his inspiration and his friend Bob Dylan in the final part of a series marking the 70th birthday of the iconic singer songwriter.
Bob Dylan enters the new millenium on a critical high with his 30th studio album Love & Theft. He wins universal acclaim with the first volume of his autobiography, Chronicles, and collaborates with Martin Scorsese on the film biography No Direction Home. In 2006 he makes his debut as a DJ with Theme Time Radio Hour, which runs to100 episodes, and delights listeners with his idiosyncratic observations linking records. Just when you think he has no more surprises up his sleeve, in 2009 he cements himself into the festive season with the release of Christmas In The Heart.
The programme features interviews with broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, musician and Dylan biographer Sid Griffin and journalist Alan Jackson, who recalls interviewing Bob for a 2008 exhibition of his artwork.
With music from the No Direction Home soundtrack, Bob's first No. 1 album in 30 years Modern Times, and the latest volume of his Bootleg Series The Witmark Demos.
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