Masked and Anonymous
Masked and Anonymous is a 2003 drama film directed by Larry Charles. The film was written by Larry Charles and Bob Dylan, the latter under the pseudonym "Sergei Petrov", it stars Dylan alongside a star-heavy cast, including John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris, Chris Penn, Steven Bauer, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Paul Chan, Christian Slater and Fred Ward. An iconic rock legend, Jack Fate, is bailed out of prison to perform a one-man benefit concert for a decaying future North American society; the film touches on many subjects from the futility of politics, the confusion of loosely strung government conspiracies, the chaos created by both anarchy and Nineteen Eighty-Four-styled totalitarianism. It further reflects on life and God's place in a increasingly chaotic world. In some ways, the film is political: it describes how Fate sees the political landscape – people fighting for no reason, a nation without hope, governments that cannot be trusted – but at the same time Fate makes it clear that he "was always a singer and maybe no more than that".
He produces no solutions to any of the problems the film presents. Rather, he makes it clear that he "stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago." Bob Dylan as Jack Fate Jeff Bridges as Tom Friend Penelope Cruz as Pagan Lace John Goodman as Uncle Sweetheart Jessica Lange as Nina Veronica Luke Wilson as Bobby Cupid Angela Bassett as Mistress Steven Bauer as Edgar Michael Paul Chan as Guard Bruce Dern as Editor Ed Harris as Oscar Vogel Val Kilmer as Animal Wrangler Cheech Marin as Prospero Chris Penn as Crew Guy #2 Giovanni Ribisi as Soldier Mickey Rourke as Edmund Richard C. Sarafian as President Christian Slater as Crew Guy #1 Susan Tyrrell as Ella the Fortune Teller Fred Ward as Drunk Robert Wisdom as Lucius The film was shot in twenty days and was funded by the BBC, it was distributed by a well-known distributor of independent productions. The soundtrack is composed entirely of covers of Bob Dylan songs ranging from his early 1960s-era material to work as recent as songs from his 1997 Grammy-award winning album Time Out of Mind.
Artists who perform the songs include Sertab Erener, Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia. Many of the film's actors worked for "scale" for a chance to appear alongside Dylan, including Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Bruce Dern, Jessica Lange, Penélope Cruz, Luke Wilson, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris, Chris Penn, Giovanni Ribisi, Christian Slater, Mickey Rourke, Angela Bassett. In addition to several other actors of note, the band of the lead character is played by Dylan's actual touring band of the time. Other stars in the film include Val Kilmer. Music from Dylan's entire career is presented in the movie, though his recent album Time Out Of Mind receives considerable play, with "Dirt Road Blues" and "Not Dark Yet" both used as background in scenes. Furthermore, a live performance of "Standing in the Doorway" was cut from the final edit, but included as a bonus on the DVD. Masked and Anonymous was given poor reviews upon release. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 25%, based on 80 reviews, an average rating of 4/10.
The website's critical consensus reads, "Unintelligible and self-indulgent Bob Dylan vehicle." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/2 star rating, deemed it "a vanity production beyond all reason." A number of reviewers commented on Dylan's acting, writing that he appeared "near-catatonic" and another that he stared "in mute incomprehension", "never speaking more than one line at a time" and only making remarks that "evoke the language and philosophy of Chinese fortune cookies." The film was panned by Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice and at least twenty other noteworthy periodicals. Amongst the positive reviewers was The Washington Post, stating that the film is a "fascinating, indulgent, pretentious, mesmerizing pop culture curio."Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate of Great Britain, published an enthusiastic essay about the film which concluded: " is revelatory – in the paradoxical sense that it allows Dylan to say some important things out loud, to keep the silences, retain the elements of mystery, which are essential to his genius.
We should ask for nothing else."The film made the ten-best list of the Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum and received positive reviews from The New Yorker and Art Forum. Additionally, the soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy. From 1999 to 2002, Dylan's touring band was joined by veteran guitarist Charlie Sexton. An accomplished unit, the band's new configuration was arguably one of Dylan's best touring groups ever. Highlighted by the interplay of Sexton and guitarist Larry Campbell, the group featured Dylan's longtime bassist Tony Garnier, as well as two drummers: David Kemper and George Receli. Dylan began filming Anonymous soon after Receli's arrival. Maske
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist and poet of French-Canadian descent. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as Catholic spirituality, promiscuity, drugs and travel, he became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. In 1969, at age 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since his death, Kerouac's literary prestige has grown, several unseen works have been published. All of his books are in print today, including The Town and the City, On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody, The Sea Is My Brother, Big Sur. Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts to French Canadian parents, Léo-Alcide Kéroack and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque.
There is some confusion surrounding his name because of variations on the spelling of Kerouac, because of Kerouac's own statement of his name as Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac. His reason for that statement seems to be linked to an old family legend that the Kerouacs had descended from Baron François Louis Alexandre Lebris de Kerouac. Kerouac's baptism certificate lists his name as Jean Louis Kirouac, the most common spelling of the name in Quebec. Research has shown that Kerouac's roots were indeed in Brittany, he was descended from a middle-class merchant colonist, Urbain-François Le Bihan, Sieur de Kervoac, whose sons married French Canadians. Kerouac's father Leo had been born into a family of potato farmers in the village of Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec. Jack had various stories on the etymology of his surname tracing it to Irish, Cornish or other Celtic roots. In one interview he claimed it was from the name of the Cornish language and that the Kerouacs had fled from Cornwall to Brittany.
Another version was that the Kerouacs had come to Cornwall from Ireland before the time of Christ and the name meant "language of the house". In still another interview he said it was an Irish word for "language of the water" and related to Kerwick. Kerouac, derived from Kervoach, is the name of a town in Brittany near Morlaix. Jack Kerouac referred to 34 Beaulieu Street as "sad Beaulieu"; the Kerouac family was living there in 1926 when Jack's older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever, aged nine. This affected four-year-old Jack, who would say that Gerard followed him in life as a guardian angel; this is the Gerard of Kerouac's novel Visions of Gerard. He had an older sister named Caroline. Kerouac was referred to as Ti Jean or little John around the house during his childhood. Kerouac spoke French, he was a serious child, devoted to his mother, who played an important role in his life. She was a devout Catholic. Kerouac would say that his mother was the only woman he loved. After Gerard died, his mother sought solace in her faith, while his father abandoned it, wallowing in drinking and smoking.
Some of Kerouac's poetry was written in French, in letters written to friend Allen Ginsberg towards the end of his life, he expressed a desire to speak his parents' native tongue again. In 2016, a whole volume of unpublished works written in French by Kerouac was published as La vie est d'hommage, edited by Professor Jean-Christophe Cloutier. On May 17, 1928, while six years old, Kerouac had his first Confession. For penance, he was told to say a rosary, during which he heard God tell him that he had a good soul, that he would suffer in life and die in pain and horror, but would in the end receive salvation; this experience, along with his dying brother's vision of the Virgin Mary, combined with a study of Buddhism and an ongoing commitment to Christ, solidified the worldview which would inform Kerouac's work. Kerouac once told Ted Berrigan, in an interview for The Paris Review, of an incident in the 1940s in which his mother and father were walking together in a Jewish neighborhood on the Lower East Side of New York.
He recalled "a whole bunch of rabbis walking arm in arm... teedah- teedah – teedah... and they wouldn't part for this Christian man and his wife, so my father went POOM! and knocked a rabbi right in the gutter." Leo, after the death of his child treated a priest with similar contempt, angrily throwing him out of the house despite his invitation from Gabrielle. Kerouac's athletic skills as a running back in football for Lowell High School earned him scholarship offers from Boston College, Notre Dame, Columbia University, he entered Columbia University after spending a year at Horace Mann School, where he earned the requisite grades for entry to Columbia. Kerouac broke a leg playing football during his freshman season, during an abbreviated second year he argued with coach Lou Little, who kept him benched. While at Columbia, Kerouac wrote several sports articles for the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, he studied at The New School. When his football career at Columbia ended, Kerouac dropped out of the university.
He continued to live for a time in New York's Upper West Side wit
John Wesley Harding (album)
John Wesley Harding is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on December 27, 1967, by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to semi-acoustic instrumentation and folk-influenced songwriting after three albums of lyrically abstract, blues-indebted rock music. John Wesley Harding shares many stylistic threads with, was recorded around the same time as, the prolific series of home recording sessions with the Band released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, released in complete form in 2014 as The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete. John Wesley Harding was exceptionally well received by critics and sold well, reaching No. 2 on the U. S. topping the UK charts. The commercial performance was considered remarkable considering that Dylan had kept Columbia from releasing the album with much promotion or publicity. Less than three months after its release, John Wesley Harding was certified gold by the RIAA. "All Along the Watchtower" became one of his most popular songs after Jimi Hendrix's rendition was released in the autumn of 1968.
The album was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. In 2003, it was ranked No. 301 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, moving to 303 in the 2012 version of that list. The album is named after Texas outlaw John Wesley Hardin. Dylan went to work on John Wesley Harding in the fall of 1967. By 18 months had passed since the completion of Blonde on Blonde. After recovering from the worst of the results of his motorcycle accident, Dylan spent a substantial amount of time recording the informal basement sessions at West Saugerties, New York. During that time, he stockpiled a large number of recordings, including many new compositions, he submitted nearly all of them for copyright, but declined to include any of them in his next studio release. Instead, Dylan used a different set of songs for John Wesley Harding, it is not known when these songs were written, but none of them have turned up in the dozens of basement recordings that have since surfaced.
According to Robbie Robertson, "As I recall it was just on a kind of whim that Bob went down to Nashville. And there, with just a couple of guys, he put those songs down on tape." Those sessions took place in the autumn of 1967, requiring less than twelve hours over three stints in the studio. Dylan was once again recording with a band, but the instrumentation was sparse. During most of the recording, the rhythm section of drummer Kenneth A. Buttrey and bassist Charlie McCoy were the only ones supporting Dylan, who handled all harmonica, guitar and vocal parts. "I didn't intentionally come out with some kind of mellow sound," Dylan said in 1971. "I would have liked... more piano. More music… I didn't sit down and plan that sound." The first session, held on October 17 at Columbia's Studio A, lasted only three hours, with Dylan recording master takes of "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine", "Drifter's Escape", "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest". Dylan returned to the studio on November 6, recording master takes for "All Along the Watchtower", "John Wesley Harding", "As I Went Out One Morning", "I Pity the Poor Immigrant", "I Am a Lonesome Hobo".
Dylan returned for one last session on November 29. Sometime between the second and third session, Dylan approached Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson of the Band to complete some overdub work on the basic tracks, but as Robertson recalled: "We did talk about doing some overdubbing on it, but I liked it when I heard it and I couldn't think right about overdubbing on it. So it ended up coming out the way he brought it back." Dylan had arrived in Nashville with a set of songs similar to the feverish yet pithy compositions that came out of the Basement Tapes sessions. They would be given an austere sound that he and his producer Bob Johnston thought sympathetic to their content. Johnston recalls that "he was staying in the Ramada Inn down there, he played me his songs and he suggested we just use bass and guitar and drums on the record. I said fine, but suggested we add a steel guitar, how Pete Drake came to be on that record." The final session did break from the status quo by employing Pete Drake on the final two recordings.
Cut between 9pm and 12 midnight, "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" and "Down Along the Cove" would be the only two songs featuring Drake's light pedal steel guitar. John Wesley Harding was Dylan's last LP to be issued in both monophonic and stereophonic formats. By the middle of the following year, most of Dylan's LPs would be released in stereophonic. Most of the songs on John Wesley Harding have pared-down lyrics. Though the style remains evocative, continuing Dylan's use of bold imagery and the extravagant surreality that seemed to flow in a stream-of-consciousness fashion has been tamed into something earthier and more to the point. "What I'm trying to do now is not use too many words," Dylan said in a 1968 interview. "There's no line that you can stick your finger through, there's no hole in any of the stanzas. There's no blank filler; each line has something." According to Allen Ginsberg, Dylan had talked to him about his new approach, telling him "he was writing shorter lines, with every line meaning something.
He wasn't just making up a line to go with a rhyme anymore.
Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on April 9, 1969, by Columbia Records as LP record, reel to reel tape and audio cassette. Building on the rustic style he experimented with on John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline displayed a complete immersion into country music. Along with the more basic lyrical themes, simple songwriting structures, charming domestic feel, it introduced audiences to a radically new singing voice from Dylan, who had temporarily quit smoking—a soft, affected country croon; the result received a positive reaction from critics, was a commercial success. Reaching No. 3 in the U. S. the album scored Dylan his fourth UK No. 1 album. By the time Nashville Skyline was recorded, the political climate in the United States had grown more polarized. In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Riots broke out in several major cities, including a major one surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and racially motivated conflagrations spurred by King's assassination.
A new president, Richard Nixon, was sworn into office in January 1969, but the U. S. engagement in Southeast Asia the Vietnam War, would continue for several years. Protests over a wide range of political topics became more frequent. Dylan had been a leading cultural figure, noted for political and social commentary throughout the 1960s; as he moved away from topical songs, he never lost his cultural stature. However, as Clinton Heylin wrote of Nashville Skyline, "If Dylan was concerned about retaining a hold on the rock constituency, making albums with Johnny Cash in Nashville was tantamount to abdication in many eyes.""Our generation owes him our artistic lives," observed Kris Kristofferson, who sang with Cash in The Highwaymen, "because he opened all the doors in Nashville when he did Blonde on Blonde and Nashville Skyline. The country scene was so conservative, he brought in a whole new audience. He changed the way people thought about it – the Grand Ole Opry was never the same again."Helped by a promotional appearance on The Johnny Cash Show on June 7, Nashville Skyline went on to become one of Dylan's best-selling albums.
Three singles were pulled from it. Despite the dramatic, commercial shift in direction, the press gave Nashville Skyline a warm reception. A critic for Newsweek wrote of "the great charm... and the ways Dylan, both as composer and performer, has found to exploit subtle differences on a deliberately limited emotional and verbal scale." In Rolling Stone, Paul Nelson wrote, "Nashville Skyline achieves the artistically impossible: a deep and interesting statement about being happy. It could well be... his best album." However, Nelson would retract his opinion in a review for Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II less than three years writing, "I was misinformed. That's why no one should pay any attention to critics the artist." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau argued that "the beauty of the album" was in the "totally undemanding" and "one-dimensional" quality of the songs, believing Dylan had toyed with the public's expectations again by embracing a country tenor voice and aesthetic. He included it in his "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies.
A few critics expressed some disappointment. Ed Ochs of Billboard wrote, "the satisfied man speaks in clichés, blushes as if every day were Valentine's Day." Tim Souster of the BBC's The Listener magazine wrote, "One can't help. Isn't this idyllic country landscape too good to be true?" All songs written by Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan – guitar, keyboards, vocals Norman Blake – guitar, dobro Kenneth A. Buttrey – drums Johnny Cash – vocals on "Girl from North Country" Fred Carter Jr. – guitar Charlie Daniels – bass guitar, guitar Pete Drake – pedal steel guitar Marshall Grant – bass guitar on "Girl from North Country" W. S. Holland – drums on "Girl from North Country" Charlie McCoy – guitar, harmonica Bob Wilson – organ, piano Bob Wootton – electric guitar on "Girl from North Country" Bob Johnston – production Charlie Bragg – engineering Neil Wilburn – engineering
Dylan (2007 album)
Dylan is a greatest hits album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The collection was released on October 2, 2007 by Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings with worldwide distribution through Sony BMG, it was released as a single-disc CD and a three-disc Deluxe Edition, released as a digipack and a box set presented in replica-vinyl packaging, along with 10 postcards and an extensive booklet. The Deluxe Edition includes the 1971 version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" although the album's liner notes erroneously state that it is the 1967 version. All songs were written except where noted. Dylan Standard Edition at Legacy Recordings.com Box set track listing revealed at Uncut.co.uk
Bob Dylan discography
American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has released 38 studio albums, 91 singles, 26 notable extended plays, 40 music videos, 13 live albums, 14 volumes comprising The Bootleg Series, 19 compilation albums, 13 box sets, 7 soundtracks as main contributor, 5 music home videos and 2 non-music home videos. Dylan has been the subject of 5 documentaries, starred in 3 theatrical films, appeared in an additional 8 films and 10 home videos, is the subject of the biographical tribute film I'm Not There, he has written and published lyrics and memoirs in 11 books and 2 of his songs have been made into children's books. He has done numerous collaborations and tribute albums; the albums Planet Waves and Before the Flood were released on Asylum Records. Dylan has won many awards for his songwriting and performances, including the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for his entire body of work. For a list of these accolades, see List of Bob Dylan awards. Much of his music has been bootlegged; these are notable EP releases containing exclusive non-album tracks.
See discogs.com for more foreign EPs that contain just album version tracks or are just domestic promotional album samplers. The 4 Seasons: The 4 Seasons Sing Big Hits By Burt Bacharach... Hal David... Bob Dylan Odetta: Odetta Sings Dylan Joan Baez: Any Day Now The Hollies: Hollies Sing Dylan Brothers and Sisters - "Dylan's Gospel" The Byrds: The Byrds Play Dylan Judy Collins: Judy Sings Dylan - Just Like a Woman Various artists: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration Wolfgang Niedecken: Leopardefell Various artists: May Your Song Always Be Sung: The Songs of Bob Dylan Steve Howe: Portraits of Bob Dylan Various artists: A Nod to Bob: An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan on His 60th Birthday Various artists: May Your Song Always Be Sung Again: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2 Robyn Hitchcock: Robyn Sings Various artists: May Your Song Always Be Sung: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 3 Various artists: Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan Various artists: A Reggae Tribute To Bob Dylan: Is It Rolling Bob?
Various artists: Dylan Country Martyna Jakubowicz & Voo Voo: Tylko Dylan Les Fradkin: If Your Memory Serves You Well Various artists: Timeless Flyte-The Byrds Dylan Connection Bryan Ferry: Dylanesque Ben Sidran Dylan Different Various artists: Subterranean Home Sick Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home Various artists: Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International The Charlie Daniels Band: Off the Grid: Doin' It Dylan Various artists: Girl from the North Country Willie Nile: Positively Bob: Willie Niles sings Bob Dylan Joan Osborne: Songs of Bob Dylan Dont Look Back Eat the Document No Direction Home 65 Revisited Trouble No More: A Musical Film BBC Sunday-Night Play: The Madhouse on Castle Street Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid Renaldo and Clara Hearts of Fire Backtrack a.k.a. Catchfire Paradise Cove Masked and Anonymous Hard to Handle: Bob Dylan with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Laserdisc/VHS Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration Laserdisc/VHS/DVD/Blu-ray #40 U.
S. MTV Unplugged: Bob Dylan Laserdisc/VHS/DVD Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan DVD The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival DVD/Blu-ray Festival Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music The Concert for Bangladesh Earl Scruggs: The Bluegrass Legend - Family & Friends The Last Waltz USA For Africa: We Are the World: The Video Event Live Aid Willie Nelson: The Big Six-0 Woodstock'94 Eric Clapton & Friends In Concert: A Benefit for the Crossroads Centre at Antigua Willie Nelson and Friends - Outlaws & Angels The True History of the Traveling Wilburys DVD Dylan Speaks: The Legendary Press Conference in San Francisco Biography: Bob Dylan: The American Troubadour, directed by Stephen Crisman American Masters: No Direction Home, directed by Martin Scorsese I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes Folk Songs and More Folk Songs March on Washington Broadcast Quest: The Times They Are A-Changin' The New Steve Allen Show Tonight Bob Dylan: Elston Gunn Live In Concert The Johnny Cash Show Soundstage: The World of John Hammond Hard Rain Saturday Night Live 22nd Annual Grammy Awards Late Night with David Letterman An All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. 33rd Annual Grammy Awards Late Show with David Letterman Mastercard Masters of Music Concert for the Prince's Trust 40th Annual Grammy Awards 73rd Academy Awards 53rd Annual Grammy Awards Late Show with David Letterman John & Yoko in Syracuse, New York Runaway America March on Washington: Commemoration of Martin Luther King's'63 March We Are The World: The Story
