freewheelin-on-line take six Freewheelin’ 204 August 2002 I must admit that I didn’t have a great deal to do with the design on the cover of this month’s Freewheelin’. For those who were able to attend the Second Annual John Green Day at the Moat House Hotel Northampton on the 31st August, the images will be immediately familiar as this design adorned both the cover of the programme and also the T-shirt that marked the event. The design was actually constructed by Phil Townsend of lazycarrot.com.and it’s a beaut. In fact it is a must for this months cover, if nothing else it will always be a reminder of something good that happened in August 2002. One thing that I particularly like about the cover is that Phil replicates the centre piece image from the ‘Basements Tapes’ album of Dylan sitting with a lyre behind a reel to reel machine. What I have always found so cool about that image is Dylan’s multi-coloured jacket. I have scoured every Oxfam shop in the country hoping to find a jacket like that but to no avail. Remember the story of Joseph and his coat of many colours? It was what made him special, he stood out from the crowd: an interpreter of dreams who found favour with rich and poor alike. Oh, to have a coat like that! I wonder what happened to that jacket? Perhaps it was handed down from father to son: from Dylan to Jakob; just like the original from Jacob to his son Joseph. Or perhaps Dylan took it with him on a jaunt to the UK but then decided that it brought him so much bad luck that he just left it on a park bench where it was found by charity worker who put it on a coat hanger and hung it in the window of his shop. Where it remains to this day. Waiting for me (or you) to find it………… 2 Freewheelin-on-line take six (freewheelin’ 204) Page 4 20 Pounds Of Headlines by Mark Carter The continuing chronicle of Bob Dylan in the Press 7 Was You What It Wanted by Jim Gillan 9 Like Judas Kissing Flowers by Robert Forryan 14 These Days You Can’t Find An Anarchist by Neil Watson 16 Boots Of Spanish Leather Part 3 by Patrick Webster 18 Keep On Rocking In The Free World by Russell Blatcher 22 Hipsters, Flipsters & Finger Poppin’ Daddies by CP Lee 26 Mixing Up The Medecine by Richard Lewis 27 Fun In The Basement With The Freewheelers by Paula Radice 29 John Green Day 2 by Chris Cooper 33 The Missionary Times by J R Stokes 43 The Sad Dylan Fans… cartoon by Mark Carter 3 by Mark Carter Plenty more album and tour reviews dominating our look at the Oct /Nov 2001 press this month so, as is by now traditional, we’ll start with the 8,646th review of Love And Theft (not that I’m counting). In his review for thedailypage.com, Stuart Levitan reckoned that Bob was making the best music of his career and that, after a “four-year wave of renewed artistic and commercial success….Love And Theft, a majestic romp through the swamps and alleys of American history, is the first great rock album by a senior citizen”. In a lengthy and wordy appreciation on the amazingly named website dancing about architecture.com, Peter Gorman also rated it as amongst his very best; “…Dylan’s confidence is evident throughout /// He loves his music, loves it so much that he’s going to take it away and make something of it himself. Let others stand in awe of the tradition and offer up there practiced renditions, making timeless songs sound immediately dated. Dylan’s not smashing idols, he’s dressing them up back at his place, bringing it all back home. Again.” On the First Church of Holy Rock n Roll website, Dr. Filth and the Reverend Coomers was lyrical about the merits of the album, tying it in with th events of September 11th (“…You need this album right now to help you through this mess”) and how it differs from Time Out Of Mind and much of what has gone before, “…I think it’s about an equal split between having a load of renewed confidence and being half past give a shit”. A nice readable article and a brief glimpse into the post-September 11th American psyche. Sean Wilentz also produced a thoughtful and well written essay called On Love And Theft and the Minstrel Boy, which appeared on bobdylan.com and is well worth reading;”…Dylan, remember has been out there a very long time. He spent time with the Rev. Gary Davis, and Robert Johnson’s buddy Son House, and Doc Boggs, and Clarence Ashley, and all those fellows, he played for Woody Guthrie, and he played for and with Victoria Spivey, and Buddy Holly looked right at him at the Duluth Armory less than three days before Holly plane-crashed to his death, and there isn’t an inch of American song that he cannot call his own. He steals what he loves and loves what he steals.” Mary Dickie, on eye.net, awarded it four stars in a brief review that concluded….”it actually sounds like Bob’s having fun. Who knew?” and a 4 ½ star review in the UK’s Making Music 4 (this one actually appearing in ye olde magazine, rather than on a computer screen.) concluded that Bob was having so much fun because he narrowly escaped death in 1997 and that the album goes to show that “the true greats can never be written off.” In the Minnesota Star Tribune, Jonn Bream and Chris Riemenschneider asked various Minnesota musicians to give their verdict. Here’s just a sample; Thea Ennen; “…It feels like classic Bob to me.”, Paul Metsa; “..It is a grand record among great ones..Mississippi and Sugar baby are as good as he’s ever written.”, Lauren MacLeash; “… It’s fresh, fun and thoughtful … This one’s for his fans.”, Mark Trehus; “…Maybe the best album he’s ever done – and easily the funniest.”, Tony Glover; “…It’s fun to hear him being so playful…There’s no deadwood on it. Even Time Out Of mind has that Make You Feel my love, which is like a bad Garth Brooks song.” Onto the concert reviews, beginning with two on the Cincinnati Xavier University Cintas Center. Chris Varias, for the Cincinnati Enquirer, claimed that the stage show had improved tremendously, spurred on by Love And Theft, and that Dylan, Campbell and Sexton have become “the best guitar trio on the road”. The Cincinnati Post’s Keith Herrell also rated the show as an improvement and simply expressed the wish that “We don’t know how long Bob Dylan’s current neverending tour will go on. All we can do is hope that it truly never does end, and sit back – or stand up – and enjoy it while we can.” Kate Vukelic of the Indiana Statesman was so impressed with Dylan’s Hulman Center show that she exclaimed; “Dylan performed like he just got a record deal and he was playing his first show at the Roxy, in L.A. His sincere effort showered fans and brought shame to the hackneyed contemporary acts currently on tour.” An unknown reviewer for the Grand Rapids Press was less than excited by the main set of Dylan’s Van Andel Arena show but felt that the encores “cranked up the volume, the intensity and the fun-meter to turn what had been a mostly ordinary, sometimes plodding evening of classics-mixed-with-new-stuff into a rare treat for the 6,500 people on hand.” The Toronto Sun’s Jane Stevenson had no such complaints about the Toronto Air Canada Centre gig, praising the band and especially Bob for simply .. well, let her tell you; “… whatever Dylan lacked in terms odd elocution – words were often undecipherable – the folk rock Buddha more than made up for in his guitar playing and frankly, just by being Bob.” Reviewing the same show for the Toronto Star, Vit Wagner decided that, although he didn’t mention the events of September 11th, they were on Dylan’s mind anyway in the songs that he chose to play: “…If we didn’t already know it, the old sage in the white suit and guitar had come to warn us that war is hell and danger lurks. Or maybe he planned to play those songs anyway. Who can say for sure ?” Joel Selvin, a fan from way back, was just as impressed with the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium show. His San Francisco Chronicle Review not only informed us that Dylan “seems to have grown into his mythic stature with grace and authority” but that Wait For The Light To Shine was the theme song for Town Hall Party, an old country and western television show. The 3,800-seat hall has played host to gigs by the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, all “historic concerts” and is “one of the great rock n roll rooms in California. Add to the list the Dylan show on his Love And Theft Tour.” The Rocky Mountain News’ Mark Brown felt that the Denver Coliseum show was littered with so few Greatest Hits that it was geared towards the hardcore fans but was an exceptional performance nonetheless; “…he held the room full of thousands of fans rapt with a tender , warm version of Sugar Baby off his new album.