Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert Revisited

On October 16, 1992 at Madison Square Garden, Sony Music put on a pay per view all star concert to celebrate Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary on Columbia Records. Dubbed "Bobfest" by Neil Young from the stage, the four hour show featured a wide variety of artists performing Dylan songs. It was too bloated, but there were many highlights. Here are some videos (with some mp3s) of the best performances.

Eddie Vedder was joined by Pearl Jam bandmate Mike McCready and Saturday Night Live bandleader G.E. Smith for this seering version of "Masters of War."



Eddie Vedder - Masters of War

The night allowed for a variety of musical styles, usually to great effect. The best example of this was the O'Jay's reprising their classic cover of "Emotionally Yours."



The O'Jays - Emotionally Yours

There were also some fun collaborations. Here are Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, and Rosanne Cash taking turns on "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere."



Booker T & the MG's backed up most of the artists on this night. Here they really got to show their stuff with Neil Young on a fantastic "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."



Neil Young - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

Another great moment was when George Harrison played what I believe is his only live performance of a song he covered early on in his solo career, "If Not For You."



The highlight of the show was when Neil and George joined Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, and the guest of honor, Bob Dylan, among others on "My Back Pages."



Of course, no all star concert would be complete without an even more gigantic singalong, this time on "Knocking on Heaven's Door."



After all of that, Bob came back to the stage alone for one last encore, singing "Girl from the North Country," before exiting to a huge standing ovation.



Hopefully, this concert will be available on DVD at some point, but in the meantime, you can order the live album below. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration from amazon.com

Ten Live Covers From The Black Crowes

Chris and Rich Robinson formed the Black Crowes in 1984. There are have been a lot of highs and some lows on their records over the years, but they have always remained a hugely successful live act. One of the big reasons for this is their ability to mix in great covers into their sets. Here are some of the best that have been captured on video over the years.

A fun video (with some hilarious crowd shots) of the Crowes covering Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35" at the 1991 Monsters of Rock Festival in Moscow.



A cover of Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright" on the first anniversary of The Late Show with David Letterman in 1994.



The Crowes recorded the album Live at the Greek in October of 1999 (and later toured) with Jimmy Page. The album featured mostly Led Zeppelin songs and one of the better versions they did was for "What is and What Should Never Be."



After a three year hiatus, the band reunited in 2005 and recorded the live CD/DVD Freak and Roll... Into the Fog. The highlight was the closing song, a cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Here's the video and the mp3.



The Black Crowes - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

In 2006, keyboard player Eddie Harsch and guitarist Marc Ford left the band. They were eventually replaced by Adam MacDougall and Luther Dickinson (of the North Mississippi Allstars). Joining original members Chris and Rich Robinson, bassist Sven Pippen, and drummer Steve Gorman, they've made two excellent studio albums and released most of their concerts on their website www.liveblackcrowes.com. Here is a sampling of ten great live covers that they've mixed into their shows in the last few years. Listen to these tracks and you will hear why this latest Crowes lineup is one of the great live rock bands around today.

The Black Crowes - Live Covers from 2008 & 2009

Torn and Frayed (Rolling Stones cover) - from Warpaint Live

Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Rolling Stones cover) San Francisco, CA - 12/19/08

Ohio (CSN&Y cover) Cleveland, OH - 7/30/08

He Was a Friend of Mine (Bob Dylan cover) New York, NY - 11/03/08

The Mighty Quinn (Bob Dylan & The Band cover) Philadelphia, PA - 7/01/08

Don't Do It (The Band cover) Hampton Beach, NH - 6/19/09

Oh Sweet Nuthin' (Velvet Underground cover) Alantic City, NJ - 8/29/09

Boomer's Story (Ry Cooder cover) Westbury, NY - 9/04/09

Hot Burrito #2 (Gram Parsons cover) Asbury Park, NJ 9/05/09

So Many Times (Stephen Stills cover) Woodstock, NY 2009

The last track was recorded live in front of an audience, along with the rest of the double album Before the Frost... Until the Freeze, during a series of five shows at Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock, NY. Like the cover above, the whole album is phenomenal and well worth checking out. To truly get the most out of the Black Crowes experience though, you have to see them live, since they've never been better.

Thanks for checking this out everyone.

Buy the Black Crowes' Before the Frost... Until the Freeze on amazon.com

Blind Willie McTell and Bob Dylan

Blind Willie McTell was a blues singer who was born in 1901. He is well regarded by many prominent musicians and critics today as one of the great blues legends due to his haunting vocals, brilliant lyrics, and deft picking on his 12 string. He spent most of his life struggling through many hardships. Although he never recorded what would have been considered a hit song, McTell would record under a different pseudonym for each record agent he encountered, using such incredibly cool names as Georgia Bill, Barrelhouse Sammy, and Red Hot Willie Glaze. In doing so, he left behind an interesting and prolific body of work that spanned over 50 years. Late in his life, McTell became a preacher before passing away in 1959. You can read more about him in this article by Jim Powers here.

Here are four of the best recordings from Blind Willie McTell:

Blind Willie McTell - Statesboro Blues
Blind Willie McTell - Brokedown Engine
Blind Willie McTell - You've Got to Die
Blind Willie McTell - Deathroom Blues

Many musicians have named McTell as a huge influence, including such greats as the Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, and Jack White. They've recorded many of McTell's songs and used some of their favorite lines of his in their own work. It can be argued though that no one has ever paid greater tribute to a fellow musician than what Bob Dylan achieved with his astounding song "Blind Willie McTell." Recorded in the early 1980's, Dylan chose to leave the song off of his Infidels album. Some have argued that Dylan feared writer's block and wanted to keep some of this best songs in reserve or never felt the song was fully realized, but for whatever reason it remained unreleased until a version from the Infidels sessions appeared on the 1989 box set The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3.

Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell (from The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3)

Another interesting take on the song from the Infidels sessions has been widely bootlegged. I prefer this version due to the looser, wilder feel that it has.

Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell (Infidels Outtakes)

Dylan began performing the song live in the late 1990's and it was often the highlight of the night when it made it into the set.



The best cover of the song that I've heard was recorded by The Band, who included this excellent version on their 1993 album Jericho.

The Band - Blind Willie McTell

Bob Dylan also paid tribute to Blind Willie McTell by recording two of his songs for his tremendous and often overlooked 1993 album of covers, World Gone Wrong.

Bob Dylan - Broke Down Engine
Bob Dylan - Delia

If you're new to the site, be sure to check out my post about Bob Dylan's appearance promoting Infidels on "Late Night With David Letterman" in 1984 here.

Buy Blind Willie McTell's Atlanta Twleve String, an excellent recording of a 1949 session at amazon.com

Ten Rare Covers from Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams has included some great covers on her albums (most recently with the AC/DC cover on Little Honey), but she has also sprinkled many covers here and there on various benefit and soundtrack compilations. Here are ten of the best hard to find covers by Lucinda Williams that I've found out there in the ether. Enjoy.

Lucinda Williams - Postively 4th Street (Bob Dylan cover) - 1993

Lucinda Williams - You Don't Have Very Far To Go (Merle Haggard cover) - 1993

Lucinda Williams - Main Roads (Victoria Williams cover) - 1993

Lucinda Williams - Here in California (Kate Wolf cover) - 1998

Lucinda Williams - Cold Cold Heart (Hank Williams cover) - 2001

Lucinda Williams - Nothin' (Townes Van Zandt cover) - 2001

Lucinda Williams - Lately (Greg Brown cover) - 2002

Lucinda Williams - Hang Down Your Head (Tom Waits cover) - 2003

Lucinda Williams - Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys (Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings cover) - 2008

Lucinda Williams - Marching the Hate Machines (The Flaming Lips & Thievery Corporation cover) - 2008

This last cover is excellent and part of a digital only EP that Lucinda released in October of 2008 called Lu in '08. It also features covers of Dylan's "Masters of War," Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," and a new song, "Bone of Contention." There is a link to download it below.

Thanks for checking this out. Look for a post on five of Lucinda's best duets in the next few weeks.

Download Lucinda Williams' digital EP Lu in '08 at amazon.com

The Band - King Biscuit Flower Hour: Complete Masters - 7/17/76 - Washington D.C.

This is as good as bootlegs get. It is everything recorded for The Band's appearance on the classic syndicated radio show "The King Biscuit Flower Hour." This performance was on July 17, 1976 from the Carter Baron Ampitheater in Washington D.C. Previous bootlegs featured only the 10 songs that were on the radio show. This Japanese bootleg from 2003 gives us 15 songs, taken from the pre-broadcast reels.

This would be the final year that Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson would perform live as The Band, culminating in their last show together on New Year's Eve, filmed by Martin Scorcese for his movie The Last Waltz.

For all you audio nerds, the mp3 files here are at 320 kbps. Enjoy.

The Band - 7/17/76 - Washington D.C. -
Complete "King Biscuit Flower Hour" Masters

01 - Don't Do It
02 - The Shape I'm In
03 - It Makes No Difference
04 - The Weight
05 - King Harvest Surely Has Come
06 - Twilight
07 - Ophelia
08 - Tears of Rage
09 - Forbidden Fruit
10 - This Wheel's on Fire
11 - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
12 - The Genetic Method
13 - Chest Fever
14 - Up on Cripple Creek
15 - W.S Walcott's Medicine Show

Some videos of The Band at their very best.












Look for a post on unreleased tracks from Bob Dylan & The Band's Basement Tapes down the road. Thanks for checking this out.

Mary Lee's Corvette - Blood on the Tracks

In the summer of 2001, the New York City club Arlene's Grocery was looking for someone to attempt to cover Bob Dylan's legendary 1975 record Blood on the Tracks as part of their Classic Album Nights. Mary Lee's Corvette stepped up to this daunting challenge and succeeded where few could, faithfully and brilliantly covering the album from start to finish, with a little bit of fun fan participation thrown in during "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts."

Adding some new perspective to these songs with her powerful and soulful voice, singer Mary Lee Kortes was joined on this night by band members Andy York (guitar), Rod Hohl (acoustic guitar), Diego Voglino (drums), Brad Albetta (bass), and Andy Burton (piano/organ). A soundboard tape was first passed around and grew more and more popular until the bold decision was made to release it on cd. It was met with tons of critical acclaim, most importantly from the one person's opinion who would matter most in this instance, Bob Dylan, who liked it enough to feature a track on his website.

Here are two of the high points from Blood on the Tracks by Mary Lee's Corvette.

Mary Lee's Corvette - "You're a Big Girl Now"
Mary Lee's Corvette - "Idiot Wind"

Thanks goes out to my friend Will for first turning me onto this album on a long car ride home a few years ago. Look for a post on ten of my favorite covers of Bob Dylan's songs some time soon.

Buy Blood on the Tracks by Mary Lee's Corvette

Bob Dylan on Late Night With David Letterman in 1984

Liberace, David Letterman, and Bob Dylan - NBC Studios, New York, NY, 3/22/84

On March 22, 1984, Bob Dylan gave this interesting three song performance on Late Night With David Letterman. Dylan was promoting his new album Infidels and decided to grab LA punk band The Plugz to back him up. The members of The Plugz here are Justin Jesting (guitar), Tony Marisco (bass), and Charlie Quintana (drums). This was this makeshift band's one and only public performance. I really wish there could have been more where this came from.

Dylan specifically wrote in his contract that he would not be interviewed, which explains the choice of this first song.

"Don't Start Me Talking" (Sonny Boy Williamson cover)



Bob Dylan - "Don't Start Me Talking" (Live on Letterman - 3/22/84))

"License to Kill"



Bob Dylan - "License to Kill" (Live on Letterman - 3/22/84)

"Jokerman"



Bob Dylan - "Jokerman" (Live on Letterman - 3/22/84)

The performance could have been even more interesting. In this rarely seen video from earlier that day, Bob and The Plugz soundcheck a cover of the Roy Head song "Treat Her Right."



Thanks for checking this out. Look for more Bob related stuff in the near future. I can't wait for his new album, Together Through Life, which will be out on April 28th.

Buy Bob Dylan's 1984 album Infidels from amazon.com

Jerry Garcia & John Kahn - Oregon State Prison - 5/05/82

This is a soundboard recording of Jerry Garcia at his very best, with John Kahn backing him up on bass, playing to inmates at Oregon State Prison on May 5, 1982.

It is one of my favorite bootlegs ever. With the tons of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia shows that are now for sale, it is amazing to me that this excellent show has never been officially released.

Enjoy it and pass it on.

Jerry Garcia & John Kahn - Oregon State Prison - 5/05/82

01 - Deep Elem Blues
02 - Friend of the Devil
03 - Jack-A-Roe
04 - Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie
05 - It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
06 - Run for the Roses
07 - Ripple
08 - I've Been All Around This World
09 - Valerie
10 - Dire Wolf
11 - Reuben & Cerise