Friday, April 30, 2021

Too Late by Bob Dylan - An Infidels Outtake Just Released

 There are numerous outtakes and alternative versions of Bob Dylan's songs that are unreleased.  Many have seen the "light of day" in the Bootleg Series of CDs.  Likely, there are enough recordings that can be issued in future CDs for many years to come.  Too Late is an Infidels outtake that is considered an early of Foot of Pride.  There is no Bob Dylan version on Youtube, so I am showing Lou Reed's version at the  30th Anniversary Concert in October 1992.


A "band" version of Too Late was published on YouTube on July 21, 2021.  Rather than create a new journal entry for it, I'll revise this entry.  I must assume that both versions will appear on Bootleg Series #16 Sometime in NY that will be released on September 17, 2021

 



Wednesday, April 28, 2021

I Can Take off My Mask Outdoors Some of the Time


The Centers for Disease Control has issued new guidelines for wearing masks for people who are fully vaccinated.  This is good news for me as I often take long walks through city parks and streets in residential areas.  I am usually at least 6 feet from other people anyway.  I will have to take my mask with me in the event I have to go indoors.  I just hate it when my eyeglasses fog up.

I pray that this miserable pandemic will end so that normalcy can return.

 

Monday, April 26, 2021

Doing the Laundry Takes Up Too Much Time!

 


There are so many steps involved in doing the laundry:

1. Empty the hampers.

2. Separate the colored and white clothes

3. Bring the laundry bags to the basement

4. Place the laundry in the washers.

5. Wait for the machines to finish. (I usually go upstairs during this time)

6. Take the elevator down to the basement again

7.Taking the laundry out of the washers and placing them in the dryers.

8.Waiting for the dryers. (Today I did a few errands during this 30 minute period.  I mailed a letter and bought bagels for tomorrow's breakfast.)

9. Taking the clothes out and bringing them to the apartment

10. Folding the clothes.

11. Putting the clothes away.

This morning I started the process at 7:40 AM and finished at 10 AM.

Well, there are more undesirable activities in this world.  For example:

1. Riding an NJ Transit train.

2. Waiting for the bean counter say "Is there anything else for the good of the order."

3. Staring out at a computer lab waiting for mundane questions.

So is life.


Friday, April 23, 2021

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Salute Her When Her Birthday Comes - April 22

 

Karen on Mother's Day 2011

I will be busy tomorrow morning, so I thought I would post this today.  April 22 would have been Karen's 66th birthday.  It will be sad since we will be apart for the first time on her special day.  I am dedicating a Bob Dylan song to her, She Belongs to Me which first appeared on his Bringing It All Back Home album in 1965.  I am featuring a cover by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band seen on the Mike Douglas show in 1969.

She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black

You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole
Down upon your knees

She never stumbles
She’s got no place to fall
She never stumbles
She’s got no place to fall
She’s nobody’s child
The Law can’t touch her at all

She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She’s a hypnotist collector
You are a walking antique

Bow down to her on Sunday
Salute her when her birthday comes
  For Halloween give her a trumpet
And for Christmas, buy her a drum



My Birthday with a Heavy Heart

This photo was taken at the Oldies Meet and Greet in October 2013

I'll never forget our first date in August 1980 when I saw a knick-knack in her apartment with Taurus the Bull.  She said her birthday was April 22 while mine was April 21, but not in the same year.  I never heard the end of that.  Every year in April we would go out to dinner and a Broadway show to celebrate our mutual birthdays.  Obviously, with her untimely passing, we can no longer do that.  Last weekend Lee and I went out for breakfast on Saturday and dinner on Sunday.

Life must go on.

I thank all my Facebook friends who wished me a happy birthday.

 

Monday, April 19, 2021

All Along the Watchtower - 3 Versions

 

Original Studio Version from the John Wesley Hardin Album (1967)


Studio Version by Jimi Hendrix - 1968


Bob Dylan with his Band at Woodstock 1994

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Just Love Those Chocolate Chip Pancakes at IHOP

 

A new IHOP opened at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center just a few doors away from Ben's Deli.  Since there was a discount coupon in a local newspaper, I thought I'd try it out.  It was much larger than the IHOP on Northern Blvd.  When Lee and I arrived there at about 7:30 there were only a few diners.  I assume it gets busier later in the morning.  Whenever I go to IHOP I must have the chocolate chip pancakes shown above.  No other diner serves that dish.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Yesterday I Experienced Poor Delivery Service from a Major Furniture Retailer

 


I ordered 4 new dining room chairs from a major furniture retailer scheduled to be delivered yesterday.  I don't want to name this store since I am afraid I could be sued since anyone can read this blog.  I received three emails from them stating that the delivery will come between 12:15 and 3:15 PM.  Certainly, a three-hour window is reasonable since I could get out of my house in the morning.  Years ago the customer would be told the delivery could come any time between 8 AM and 6 PM.

At 3:15 I still had not received my furniture.  At 3:45 I called their customer service number and was told all representatives were busy and that I should leave a call back number.  They never phoned me.  Finally, my delivery came at 5:15 PM which was 2 hours late.

I don't want to become aggravated by sending complaint letters.  My recourse is not to purchase furniture in the future from this organization.  If many customers have similar experiences, this retailer would lose much business.

In any event, all's well that ends well.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

The Weight by the Band from The Last Waltz

 


The Last Waltz has to be one of my favorite concert movies. The Weight is one of my favorite Songs by the Band.  Enjoy!

Monday, April 12, 2021

Random Thoughts of the Day

 


I really thought that the Met game should have even started in the rain yesterday.  Both the management of the Mets and the umpires made a poor decision.  MLB must have changed the rules since the game is suspended.  It used to be that any game stopped before the fifth inning would be stricken from the record.

I am getting tired of watching TV commercials for personal injury attorneys.

The race for mayor of New York City is really complicated.  This article from the New York Times is a good summary of the race.  I am undecided at this time.

There is nothing new about the attempt to impeach Andrew Cuomo.  If he survives impeachment,  I don't think he'll be nominated for a fourth term.  As I stated before in this journal, there should be term limits.  Both Mario Cuomo and George Pataki were not elected to a fourth term.

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and the Jeff Slate Footnote Controversy with My Comments


 

Jeff Slate is a New York City-based songwriter and journalist. His writing can be found in the Wall Street Journal, Esquire and Rolling Stone, among others.   He wrote the liner notes for the Dylan Boxed Set More Blood More Tracks.  At the World of Bob Dylan Symposium in May 2019 which I attended his interview of Roger McGuinn.  He recently raised controversy by stating that Paul Simon will only be a historical footnote to Bob Dylan.

I will list here two comments that I found about this:

Sean Ross is a longtime journalist covering the radio industry for Billboard, R&R and others. He is Edison Research’s Vice President of Music and Programming.  He wrote a column comparing the radio airplay of Bob Dylan with Paul Simon (with or without Art Garfunkel).  He also states “Paul Simon/Simon & Garfunkel had more and bigger hit singles than Bob Dylan. Simon had 11 songs that made the year-end top 100; Dylan had three. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” didn’t make 1973’s year-end chart.”  Please read the entire column for his insights.

Dan Epstein is an award winning journalist, pop culture historian, and avid baseball fan who has written for Rolling Stone, SPIN, Men’s Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, MOJO, Guitar World, Revolver, LA Weekly and dozens of other publications.  He wrote an excellent essay in The Forward about this controversy.  I leave it up to my readers to evaluate the details.  He states “Bob Dylan doesn’t need to have his already-vast achievements further burnished by a writer envisioning him as the last man standing amid the fragrant ashes of late 20th century music history. What I find most unpalatable here is the framing of popular music as some kind of zero-sum game, in which there are only winners and losers and only a tiny handful of said winners will ever mean anything in the long run.”

Here is my take on the issue:

I have enjoyed Bob Dylan and Paul Simon (with or without Art Garfunkel) immensely since the 1960s.  I have tons of records, tapes, and CDs by them.  Bob Dylan’s strength is as a song writer which is reflected in his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. I surmise that many Dylan fans are not interested in him as a musician and do not listen to him on commercial radio.  Paul Simon has had many more 45 RPM hits than Dylan, but Dylan’s albums have had a much greater impact whether or not they hit the charts.  I don’t like the way the Dylan is incommunicative with his fans.  He will rarely talk to his audience at concerts.  Paul Simon, on the other hand, spoke to his audience after every number as his did at Madison Square Garden in September 2018.

Dylan and Simon have great respect for each other as they toured together in 1999.  I enjoyed their concert at Jones Beach that summer.

Decades and even centuries from now there will be writings on the popular music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  Only wonderful things will be written about Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.  They have both contributed immensely to our popular culture.  There is no need to quantify their achievements.

 

 

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Tuesday at MoMA

 I don't think I have traveled to Manhattan in 2021 so I thought it was the right time to visit the Museum of Modern Art.  I usually go there about twice a year.  There was nothing in particular that I wanted to see, but there was an eclectic collection of artwork from the 1880s to the present.  Below is a sample of what I viewed today,

by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec


There was a model of the Guggenheim Museum at MoMA


There was even one work by Andy Warhol

I think was by Jackson Pollock



I called this one All Along the Watchtower










Sunday, April 4, 2021

Love Those Traveling Wilburys - Together and Apart

 


I remembering finding about the Traveling Wilburys while watching Mary Hart on Entertainment Tonight in 1988.  Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison formed this supergroup.  They only had two albums, Volume 1 and Volume 3.  Nobody knows what happened to Volume 2.  Perhaps someday it will surface.  I don't think the group ever toured.  Sadly only Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne survive.

This is Traveling Wilburys weekend on Dylan Radio.  Pete Freckelton who runs this internet radio station is playing songs by the group and its individual members.  All have been inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.



Saturday, April 3, 2021

The Billboard Chart of April 4, 1964

 


Likely the print on the jpg file above is too small.  The Top 5 Hits of 56 years ago today on the Billboard Chart were:

  1. Can't Buy Me Love
  2. Twist and Shout
  3. She Loves You
  4. I Want to Hold Your Hand
  5. Please Please Me
Of course, these 5 hits were by the Beatles.  I fondly remember how their music dominated Top 40 radio at that time.  Back then I listened to WABC, WMCA, and WINS.

Thursday, April 1, 2021

I Experienced Side Effects to the Second Dose of the Moderna Vaccine

 For most of today, I was feverish, but as the day moved on I felt better.  I really felt awful in the morning as my temperature reached 101.4 degrees F.  There is a good article from NBC News describing the various side effects.  The good thing is that the side effects indicate the vaccine is working.  They say one is not fully protected until two weeks after the second injection.  Hopefully, by the summer the old normal will be back.

 
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