Band Session II 2024: Bob Dylan
Our next band session celebrates the legendary songwriting of Bob Dylan, whose outspoken lyrics and rich melodies have inspired generations of songwriters and earned the recognition of his peers.
From his humble beginnings as Robert Allen Zimmerman of Duluth, Minnesota to winning Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, an Academy Award and the Nobel Prize in Literature, Dylan has made an indelible impact on American music and culture during his six decades of writing and performing music. Time Magazine called him a “master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation” in naming him one of their 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
Dylan started out as a folk artist, modeling himself after Woody Guthrie, blues artist Robert Johnson and country star Hank Williams. Even after he “went electric” and embraced amplified music in 1965 (much to the chagrin of folk purists), his songs, incorporating “political, social and philosophical influences [and] defying pop music conventions” (Wikipedia) continued to appeal to the counterculture. Dylan was active in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 70s, and many of his songs, like “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” have a political bent and have been used as protest songs.
Many performers have covered Dylan’s work, from his own contemporaries like Janis Joplin and The Byrds to current stars like The Lumineers and Ed Sheerhan. “Visions of Johanna,” from 1966, could practically be a Counting Crows song.
Dylan’s simple melodies and heart-felt, sometimes cryptic lyrics lend themselves to some serious genre bending. (Check out the wildly different spins Dylan, My Chemical Romance and The Grateful Dead put on “Desolation Row,” or Rage Against the Machine and Solomon Burke both covering “Maggie’s Farm.”)
Bird students are encouraged to bring their current style and sounds to the timeless lyrics and melodies of His Bobness and really make these songs their own.
Check out these Bob Dylan songs for inspiration as you plan your performance (see the Spotify playlist on the right for links and covers of many of these tunes):
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Like a Rolling Stone
Desolation Row
Blowin’ in the Wind
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Masters of War
All Along the Watchtower
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Mr. Tambourine Man
Tangled up in Blue
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Positively 4th Street
Visions of Johanna
Ballad of a Thin Man
Just Like a Woman
Simple Twist of Fate
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Inside Out by The Traveling Wilburys
Maggie’s Farm
Forever Young
You Ain’t Going Nowhere
It Ain’t Me Babe
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Important Dates:
Start date: November 11, 2024
End date: January 26, 2025
Dress Rehearsal: January 24, 2025
Show: January 26, 2025
(8 weeks)
Holidays:
Thanksgiving 11/25-11/29/24
Winter Break 12/23/24-1/3/25
Further reading:
Official website
Wikipedia