Guardian/Observer staff photographer Sarah Lee first watched Dont Look Back whilst perched on a crowded bed in a Camden flat with a struggling rock combo called Coldplay. As she’s now a BAFTA photographer, Sarah checks plenty of other names in this episode, including Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston , Austin Butler and Cate Blanchett . On celebrity photography: “I like having no control. I like pressure. I’m always terrified”. On Dylan album cover photography: “He knows why it works. He doesn’t need C...
Jun 11, 2023•53 min•Ep. 80
Rebecca Slaman , writer and social media guru, is a fan of Bob Dylan’s “perfect random meme humour.” Twitter? “Girls lust after him! But I’ve seen some pretty egregious stuff. Old people don’t understand the platform.” Dylan’s 1987 film Hearts of Fire ? “He cannot act. How can he not act? He’s been acting his whole life. So bad - but so entertaining!” Songs like My Own Version of You? “They clue us into his mind palace. He radiates this energy.” We know you’ll enjoy this energetic episode from a...
May 14, 2023•51 min•Ep. 79
In the 61st year of her singing career, five-time Grammy nominee Bettye LaVette warns us that our chat will be “straight, no chaser”. And she lives up to that promise. Bettye describes her surprise backstage meeting with Bob Dylan: “He kissed me on the mouth. It was no big deal. I’ve kissed Otis Redding and David Ruffin”. Working with Keith Richards on her Things Have Changed album of Dylan songs was more fun: “We were instant friends” (other friends/fans include Jon Bon Jovi, Pete Townshend and...
Apr 16, 2023•50 min•Ep. 78
Like his main man Bob Dylan, comedian Simon Munnery knows a few things about heckles: aside from being arrested in Edinburgh for heckling Arthur Smith, he met his future wife when she heckled him in Australia. When not on the road, Simon joins his local Morris Men in Bedfordshire pubs , serenading fellow drinkers with his version of Blind Willie McTell. But he no longer owns any Dylan albums (“I’ve given them all away. I went through a period of being quite evangelist”). Munnery cracks us up wit...
Mar 19, 2023•46 min•Ep. 77
Journalist Helen Barrett was lullabied to sleep as her mother sang Mr. Tambourine Man; she had it played at her mother’s funeral (“the Dylan version, not the Byrds cover”). To top it off, Baby, Stop Crying was the soundtrack to her Dylan-loving parents’ divorce. Helen analyses Dylan’s clothes (“John Lennon wasn’t given to copying people, but he copied Dylan’s look”), his album covers (“when I was nine, I wanted to be Sally Grossman”) and his current incarnation (“he’s the ringmaster of a magical...
Feb 19, 2023•54 min•Ep. 76
Michael Bonner , editor of music magazine Uncut , takes on Dylan’s 2022 UK concerts, as well as The Philosophy of Modern Song (“Dylan mimicking the critical noise around Dylan”). Other topics include an in-depth dissection of Key West (“ambient, amniotic and immersive”), Dylan’s “thing that he has about dual guitarists” and a couple of unfortunate Donovan concerts. Plus David Lynch, Sam Shepard, Tom Verlaine, Nick Cave and novelist Jim Thompson. Bonner considers the difference between “artists w...
Jan 22, 2023•45 min•Ep. 75
Comedian and columnist Stewart Lee remains “grateful to the people who brainwashed me into listening to Bob Dylan during a period of emotional and physical weakness.” He remembers seeing Dylan live at Hyde Park with his kids (“one of the greatest nights of my life”) as well as the time he alienated the audience at a Teenage Cancer Trust Benefit. “It was a good gig. 'Cause it was true. Self-sabotage keeps you alive. Chaos and confusion create a bubble that protects you.” Stew namechecks Dylan, Ma...
Dec 25, 2022•59 min•Ep. 74
Writer Matt Rowland Hill is well placed to comment on Dylan’s ‘Property of Jesus’ years: “the kind of fire-and-brimstone Christianity that I grew up with was exactly the kind that Dylan converted into. He was ripe to be captured”. At the age of 17, Matt wangled his way past security in London, hoping to accost his hero, only to told by members of Dylan’s band that “Bob’s getting his pre-show acupuncture”. He did, however, manage to spend a drunken evening with legendary literary critic Christoph...
Nov 27, 2022•52 min•Ep. 73
Jeff Hanna , founder member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band , is a team player. He has played with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Jackson Browne, John Prine, Levon Helm, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Rosanne Cash, Linda Ronstadt and Matraca Berg. Oh, and Roger McGuinn, Jason Isbell, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Larry Campbell and... Lee Marvin. Plus Mother Maybelle Carter (“my first guitar hero”), June Carter Cash, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Roy Acuff and Vassar Clements. Wh...
Oct 30, 2022•42 min•Ep. 72
Australian singer/songwriter Emma Swift's highly acclaimed Blonde On The Tracks album, with guitar backing by life partner (and former podcast guest ) Robyn Hitchcock, was her breakthrough recording. Emma swears that "singing Dylan's songs is like wearing a magical cape. Suddenly you have special powers. My job is to give each song a different emotional angle". Currently based in London and East Nashville ("where you go into the grocery store and everybody looks like an extra from The Last Waltz...
Oct 02, 2022•46 min•Ep. 71
Prize-winning poet and playwright Caroline Bird reminds us that “we’re all poets when we’re asleep. Writing is trying to find a way to dream while we’re awake”. On Bob Dylan: “You always hear him choosing the dark side of the road”; “What I love is that his songs are full of denial. Whenever the emotion gets too real, he runs away” and “He’s so naïve about love”. On Mr. Tambourine Man, first heard at age eight: “It goes past the point where he’s trying to find a truth”. On Dylan’s lyrics: “He ho...
Sep 04, 2022•50 min•Ep. 70
Patti Smith Group guitarist and author Lenny Kaye reminds us that “Bob Dylan is still experimenting, seeing who he might be, putting on the weirdest shows ever, upending barriers”. Almost in one breath, Lenny gives forth on working with or listening to Suzanne Vega, John Coltrane, Gayle, The Stooges, Brian Eno, The Byrds, Bing Crosby and Janis Joplin (“I wanted her to be my girlfriend”). His colleague Patti Smith fought for “the freedom to have a field of noise, beyond language. But also: a hit ...
Aug 07, 2022•52 min•Ep. 69
Film director/screenwriter Justin Trefgarne talks about Dylan, but also about fathers, sons, archetypes and coincidence. “Bob has been the guardian angel and surrogate father for my entire adult existence,” he tells us. From his first encounter with Like A Rolling Stone (which he played for five hours straight), “everything was up for grabs”. Hear how young Justin paid off a bouncer in Seattle to get seats to his first Dylan concert. How he won a Dylan soundalike contest in Las Vegas. And that t...
Jul 10, 2022•55 min•Ep. 68
Singer/Songwriter/Actor John Doe tells terrific tales: hanging with Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder in Memphis , gigging with Nick Lowe in London and hearing his voice come out of Christian Bale’s mouth in Todd Haynes’s Dylan biopic I’m Not There. Did John’s appearance with LA punk band X on the Letterman Show in 1983 inspire Dylan’s wild 1984 set with The Plugz ? What did he say when he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Bruce Springsteen at that Grammy thing? Did Jerry Lee Lewis actually c...
Jun 12, 2022•49 min•Ep. 67
Belfast’s Steven Cockcroft (co-host of leading Beatles podcast Nothing Is Real ) offers unexpected takes on The Boys and Bob: “Roll On John isn’t about an individual, it’s about the sanctification of Lennon” and “The Travelling Wilburys was a calculated move by George”. Also on the menu: Dylan’s questionable harmonies on an obscure Ringo album track and his controversial cover of Paul’s Things We Said Today . Plus: did you know that John asked Bob to play piano on Cold Turkey? Have you discovere...
May 15, 2022•57 min•Ep. 66
Our special culinary episode with critic Eric Asimov includes the story of long-time Dylan bass player Tony Garnier’s delicious Christmas gumbo and Dylan’s wine-making venture, Planet Waves (“the wine has aged better than the album”). A fan since hearing “I Want You” the age of eight, Eric is “drawn to the atmosphere Bob creates. It’s misty. It’s archaic. You can’t place it in time. It stretches back into history”. Eric’s take on the live performances is simple: “his devotion to his art takes pr...
Apr 17, 2022•54 min•Ep. 65
Singer, songwriter and saxophonist Curtis Stigers tells us true stories with a cast of characters including Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. A fan from way back (“Bob is the perfect creation. He’s an art form in himself”), his jazzy cover versions include Things Have Changed (“people go nuts for that song. Their heads explode”). A committed conversationalist with a huge wealth of musical knowledge, Curtis has strong opinions about Shawn Colvin, Jim Croce, The Carter Family, Neil Diamond...
Mar 20, 2022•57 min•Ep. 64
Comic actor Thom Tuck discovered Bob Dylan when, growing up in Bangladesh, he caught the promo for Subterranean Homesick Blues on MTV Rewind. His family eventually returned to Leeds, where his outsider status was made even worse/better by his obsession with all things Bob. At university, he didn’t improve his lot by writing a play called “One More Layer of Skin”. Despite it all, Thom maintains that Dylan remains his “prism by which to understand the world”. Opinions: Thom reserves a special plac...
Feb 20, 2022•38 min•Ep. 63
Fellow podcaster Laura Tenschert’s Definitely Dylan contains multitudes of theories and insights which she shares in this eye-opening episode. German-born Laura learned English by listening to Bob, which gave her sharper ears than most. Dozens of songs are given forensic treatment, ranging from classics like Lord Protect My Child and Buckets of Rain to oddities like Fur Slippers and Dirty World. Topics covered include Dylan commenting on his creativity via his songs, where the next generation of...
Jan 23, 2022•53 min•Ep. 62
Writer and musician Richard Strange insists “If you don’t want to be Bob Dylan, you shouldn’t be writing songs”. He takes us on a journey that starts in his Brixton comprehensive (“I was always bunking off, going to art galleries and the haunted, dingy Soho flesh-pot folk clubs”). He discovers “the boy band of Beat literature: Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg”. And he reminds us that Another Side of Bob Dylan still provides “an embarrassment of riches, lyrically and emotionally”. From witnessing ...
Dec 26, 2021•46 min•Ep. 61
Author, editor and podcaster Andy Miller is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore: “Bob Dylan is not a safe option!” “The heritage industry around the Beatles and Dylan is neutering the anarchy of the music. The world sees me as just another bloke buying a Dad Rock box set at Christmas. But it’s not a hygienic vision of what rock ‘n’ roll used to be. It is what rock ‘n’ roll used to be!”. Other trenchant Miller observations include: “Tarantula is an incredibly rewarding book. Take a ...
Nov 28, 2021•58 min•Ep. 60
Music journalist Kate French-Morris found her calling in a University of California class taught by Greil Marcus (“he gets closer to Bob’s mind than anyone can, with his sideways thinking and his cattiness”). Kate shares a birthday with Dylan, but her main man might be Bruce Springsteen , who figures strongly in this, our first studio recording for over eighteen months. From her discovery of Hurricane over the speakers of an LA coffee shop to her in-depth consideration of Lay, Lady, Lay, Most Of...
Oct 31, 2021•50 min•Ep. 59
While held captive for 32 months by Somali pirates, writer and Dylan fan Michael Scott Moore had plenty of opportunity to contemplate lyrics, especially All Along The Watchtower. He was given a Bible during his captivity and discovered, in Isaiah, “the ramparts, the princes, the two horsemen and the wildcat. The whole song clicked! It’s about the fall of Babylon! Or Western Capitalism. Or the music business.” His other favourite captivity song was Jokerman (“freedom just around the corner for yo...
Oct 03, 2021•48 min•Ep. 58
Comedy writer Daniel Radosh initiated the Twitter hashtag #BD969 , celebrating every officially released Dylan song, as well as posting four playlists for The 80th Birthday: Bob Dylan For Beginners . We discuss these gems and open up the contentious topic of Dylan’s album cover art, from best to worst and everything in between. Other albums covered include 1974’s Planet Waves (“it feels like it’s about to spring on you and scratch your eyes out”) and Rough and Rowdy Ways (“very danceable!”). Dan...
Sep 05, 2021•52 min•Ep. 57
Jonathan Taplin , former road manager for The Band, has done it all. He set up the equipment for Dylan’s electric set at Newport in ‘65 (“the soundcheck lasted ten minutes”) and was production manager for Dylan and The Band at the Guthrie Tribute in ’68. He organised the groundbreaking Concert For Bangladesh and produced the concert and film of The Last Waltz . Oh, and he was responsible for Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets getting made. Jon “was brought into the circle” by Albert Grossman (“after...
Aug 08, 2021•48 min•Ep. 56
Ann Powers , writer and lead music critic for America’s National Public Radio, joins us from her East Nashville home to discuss gender, sexuality and “the body” in Bob Dylan’s work. Sparked off by an emotional encounter involving Joni Mitchell , Ann compares Mitchell’s work with Dylan’s and discusses other groundbreaking female artists like Roberta Flack, Kate Bush, Madonna, Megan Thee Stallion, Candi Staton, Chaka Khan and Sarah Silverman. With Ann, we contemplate Dylan’s early years as a “bagg...
Jul 11, 2021•47 min•Ep. 55
Journalist Richard Williams joins us to talk Dylan and to surf “the waves of his career”, from Freewheelin’ (“one revelation after another”) to Murder Most Foul (“I was astonished by it. The level of detail. It’s like a John Coltrane quartet.”). Richard reminds us of “one of the great things I learned from Dylan: if you don’t understand something, that doesn’t invalidate it”. Our discussion includes generally unloved albums like Knocked Out Loaded (“Brownsville Girl contains the best single line...
Jun 13, 2021•49 min•Ep. 54
Music and political journalist John Harris joins us just before Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday to celebrate the man with “the wink and the nod and the little impish skip” as well as the man who gives us “the solace of emptiness”. Mr Harris is not afraid to go against the grain: “”Love And Theft” is as good as Highway 61 or Blood On The Tracks”. As for John Wesley Harding, he happily quotes a friend who told him, “we wanted a big meal and he gave us a salad. It’s good for you - but a bit chewy.” The h...
May 16, 2021•58 min•Ep. 53
Nashville musician Charlie McCoy ’s Dylan-related achievements include those distinctive guitar licks on Desolation Row , that blues harmonica on Obviously Five Believers (a rare example of another person playing harp on a Dylan session) and the inventive bass lines on John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. His motto: “Say yes - and then figure it out!” On his work as a session musician: “The song is the picture and we are the frame”. On Dylan’s harmonica style: “I’ve tried to...
Apr 18, 2021•52 min•Ep. 52
Musician and writer Michael Simmons has written dozens of Dylan cover pieces for MOJO magazine, as well as incisive liner notes for Another Self Portrait and Bob Dylan 1970 . “I remember where I was when Kennedy was assassinated and I remember the exact moment I heard Like A Rolling Stone. It sounded like freedom.” He praises Bob as both “a revolutionary” and “an evolutionary” artist and reminds us that “the difference between a great talent and a hack is the willingness to fall on their face in...
Mar 21, 2021•42 min•Ep. 51
