Is It Rolling, Bob? Talking Dylan

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Recorded 22nd January 2021

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John Niven Jan 24, 2021

Show notes

Novelist John Niven loves up Dylan's Neighbourhood Bully: “I have a soft spot for Heritage Rock acts trying to do Punk in the late 70’s and early 80’s” before summing up the Dont Look Back days: “When you’re in your 20’s, you’re all about the cruelty”. His response to attending a New York screening of Eat The Document? “An absolute pile of heroin-addled lunacy”.

But Niven has immense respect for the man and his work: “Listening to Dylan is like reading James Joyce. It can take 20 or 30 years to see the whole picture”. The author of the must-read novella Music From Big Pink references John Updike, Joe Strummer, Jez Butterworth and... Rolf Harris before advising how to deal with awful Q & A sessions.

John Niven was born in Ayrshire and graduated from the University Of Glasgow with first class honours. He has written for The Times, The Independent, Word, Q and FHM. His novella Music From Big Pink explored the 60’s Woodstock scene from the point of view of The Band’s fictional drug dealer. John’s bestselling novels include Kill Your Friends, The Amateurs, The Second Coming, Cold Hands, Straight White Male, The Sunshine Cruise Company, Kill ‘Em All and his latest, The F*ck-It List. His screenplays include Kill Your Friends and How To Build A Girl.

The Prophet (November 16, 2011)

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Recorded 12th November 2020

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Edward Docx Dec 27, 2020

Show notes

Edward Docx (novelist/screenwriter/journalist) is a hyper-articulate defence witness for some of Bob’s least understood albums: Street-Legal, Infidels, Empire Burlesque and Together Through Life. “There is no uninteresting Dylan album. He opens his veins and says "This is what it’s like for me now."” How passionate is Ed Docx about Bob Dylan? After recording the podcast, we continued our digital discussion for another hour.

Here’s Ed on Street-Legal: “It’s his Bosworth. After the battle, there’s blood and corpses and death and everything’s gone wrong. But somehow, he picks himself up and starts to sing! I don’t think he ever dared go there again. It was so bleak.” His reaction to accidentally discovering I And I at age 14: “I thought: what great human being has written this down? I couldn’t believe the depth and strength and beauty and layered wonder.” Join us for our longest - and possibly most articulate – episode thus far.

Edward Docx is half Russian on his mother’s side. He was born in the North East and grew up in the North West, went to school in Manchester and then on to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he read English Literature. He started writing fiction when he was in his teens and completed three unpublished novels before The Calligrapher was published in 2003. His other novels are Self Help (longlisted for the Booker Prize/winner Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize), The Devil’s Garden and Let Go My Hand. He is associate editor of Prospect Magazine. His journalism appears in most leading European and American newspapers and magazines. In addition, Ed works extensively in television and radio and teaches on the Guardian’s Master Class series on fiction writing.

Bob Almighty (April 21, 2016)

American Tunes for Coronaviral Times: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and John Prine (May 1, 2020)

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Recorded 5th October 2020

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Pamela Thurschwell Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

Academic and author Pamela Thurschwell gives us her conflicted feminist take on Dylan, including his queer lyrical metaphors and what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a Dylan mansplaining session. Her namechecks range from Amy Rigby, Emma Swift and Joan Baez to Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Hall and Jane Eyre.

Pam describes Dylan as “the dangerous guy who sees the world as it is”, but also “fragile”, “mean” and just plain “ornery”. “Why do I always go for the Dylan boys?”, she tells us, then gives in-depth excavations of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue and Positively 4th Street (“it was great to hear someone so pissed off”). For a surprising discussion that encompasses male passive-aggression, gender relation complications and the mega-talent that is Joni Mitchell, don’t miss this groundbreaking episode.

Pamela Thurschwell is Head of English Literature at the University of Sussex. Before working at Sussex, she worked at University College, London, and she studied at Cambridge and Cornell Universities. Pam has written books and articles on a wide variety of writers and artists including Dylan, George Eliot, Henry James, Sigmund Freud, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Morrissey, Pete Townshend, Daniel Clowes, Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Carson McCullers, Willa Cather and Toni Morrison.

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Recorded 7th September 2020

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Daragh Carville Nov 01, 2020

Show notes

Screenwriter Daragh Carville (ITV’s The Bay) praises Dylan’s “extraordinary ear for spoken language” while reminding us that he “draws on cinema, is fascinated by storytelling but his own films don’t work at all”. All the great story-songs are explored, including Highlands (“I phoned people up, I was so excited!”), Dignity (“it never resolves but at the same time it’s perfectly satisfying”), The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, Brownsville Girl, Hurricane, Isis, Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream, The Ballad Of Hollis Brown, Clothes Line Saga, 4th Time Around and plenty more.

Daragh particularly praises the 21st Century Dylan: “in the last twenty years, his persona is Humphrey Bogart crossed with a riverboat gambler” and enjoys his “obstinate personality. It’s like a marriage. You love the flaws, too”. Films are discussed (Shane, The Gunfighter), Dylan’s early contemporaries like Phil Ochs are considered, even video games are touched upon (Red Dead Redemption!). Join us there - when you feel good enough to go.

Daragh Carville is a playwright and screenwriter from Armagh in Northern Ireland. He is a recipient of the Stewart Parker Award and the Meyer Whitworth Prize for playwriting. His first feature film, Middletown, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and his second, Cherrybomb, at the Berlin Film Festival. Plays include Language Roulette, Observatory, Family Plot, This Other City, The Life and Times of Mitchell and Kenyon and History. Daragh’s television work includes ITV’s The Bay (Series 2, 2021), Being Human, 6 Degrees and The Smoke. Radio plays: Regenerations - about a Doctor Who convention - and Dracula, starring Michael Fassbender. He teaches Scriptwriting at Birkbeck, University of London.

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Recorded 10th August 2020

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Loudon Wainwright III Oct 04, 2020

Show notes

Sitting on the porch of his Long Island lockdown hideaway, serenaded by a local bird, Loudon Wainwright III reminds us that he was proclaimed “the first of the new Bob Dylans”. It helped me get a record deal but then it got to be a pain in the ass”. He still has a “reservoir of respect, admiration and awe” for the man and his work. “I dream about Dylan a lot. He is on, in and under my mind: the Muhammad Ali of songwriters.”

Loudon has seen Dylan in concert and been visited by him backstage after his own concerts. “I was headlining at Max’s Kansas City. He came with Doug Sahm. They were both wearing cowboy hats. Bob said, “I really like that ‘Dead Skunk’ song”. He has worked with everyone from producer Bob Johnston and Nashville cats Kenny Buttrey, Ron Cornelius and Hargus “Pig” Robbins to David Mansfield, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and good buddy Christopher Guest (“he does a great Bob Dylan impression”). Despite his admiration, he stopped listening for many years after John Wesley Harding. “I was too threatened by his greatness”.

Meet the man who happily called himself - along with Bruce Springsteen, John Prine and Steve Forbert - one of Bob Dylan’s “dumbass kid brothers”.

After two previous nominations, singer/songwriter/actor Loudon Wainwright III won a Grammy for 2009’s High, Wide And Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project. His songs have been covered by Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, Earl Scruggs, Mose Allison, Big Star, Norma Waterson and his son Rufus Wainwright. Loudon’s many albums include Attempted Mustache, Fame and Wealth, I’m Alright, Therapy, History, Grown Man, Little Ship, Last Man On Earth, So Damn Happy, Recovery, Strange Weirdos, Older Than My Old Man Now, Haven’t Got The Blues (Yet) and Years In The The Making. His latest album, backed by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, is I’d Rather Lead A Band.

Loudon’s film acting credits include Knocked Up (for which he also wrote the soundtrack), The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Scorsese’s The Aviator. TV acting credits include a recurring role in M*A*S*H, as well as his Netflix Special Surviving Twin.

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Recorded 8th July 2020

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Dan Bern Sep 06, 2020

Show notes

Singer/songwriter/podcaster/painter Dan Bern admits: “It was not lost on me, being an isolated Jewish kid in Iowa, that Bob had come from just up the road in Minnesota.” When he first heard Dylan at age 15 (“everything he was saying had a bit of a sneer to it. It was a portal for me”), he traded in his cello for a guitar and started writing songs. They eventually included the outrageous Talkin’ Woody, Bob, Bruce and Dan Blues (“When I met Springsteen, he said, “I hear ya wrote a SONG about me!”).

Bern sat through Renaldo & Clara twice in a row in a Camden Town cinema when it was first released: “it seemed so fun and free and loose”. On Bob’s Born-Again days: “Jews wrestle with God. They talk to him as if he’s just another dude”. Does he keep up? “Bob’s songs are always with me. Like Bible verses, floating in and out of my head. It’s a nourishing songbag.”

Share our long-distance visit with the man Dylan once called “a scurrilous little wretch” (after he wrote a fake interview with Bob’s mother). All this and more, as they say.

Dan Bern has released 25 albums and played thousands of shows across North America and Europe. Bern’s songs have appeared in numerous TV shows and films including Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story, and Get Him To The Greek. He also writes and performs songs for the Amazon Prime kids’ programme The Stinky and Dirty Show. A visual artist, Bern has had gallery showings in Florida, New York City and San Francisco. He is the author of several books, and acts in the radio drama podcast 10,000 Crappy Songs: in which he plays an ex-songwriter turned private eye. In addition, he runs the 24/7 internet radio station, Radio Free Bernsteinn. Dan Bern’s latest album is Regent Street.

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Recorded 29th June 2020

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Rufus Jones Aug 09, 2020

Show notes

Actor Rufus Jones (writer and co-star of Channel 4’s Home) has hardly answered the BobPhone before he confesses that, despite his Cambridge English degree, “Dylan still scares the hell out of me”. But he’s relieved that “Bob’s entering a 'jolly grandpa' phase. He seems less concerned with preserving the myth”.

Rufus references Beyoncé, the Eagles (“the story of the Eagles is better than the sound of the Eagles”), T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Hieronymus Bosch and Christopher Ricks before moving on, via Desolation Row, to the enigma that is Murder Most Foul (“it reads like bad poetry but sings like good poetry”).

In an episode recorded before the release of Rough And Rowdy Ways, theories are promulgated, lines dissected and numerology explored. Murder Most Foul is “a confounding song. He takes a piece of real life and spins it into something abstract and horrific.” Join us for a dark but enlightening day in Dallas.

Rufus Jones began his career as part of the sketch comedy group Dutch Elm Conservatoire. In the West End, he appeared in the hit comedy Dead Funny. His acclaimed TV series Home was nominated for a BAFTA. Other television work includes three series as David Wilkes in W1A, Four Lives, Flack, Loaded, Stag, Fresh Meat, Trying Again, The Casual Vacancy, Bob Servant, Hunderby and Holy Flying Circus (as Terry Jones). His films include Stan And Ollie, The Foreigner, Paddington and Silent Night (due for a Christmas 2020 release).

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Recorded 15th June 2020

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Rob Stoner Jul 12, 2020

Show notes

Rolling Thunder Revue bass player and bandleader Rob Stoner on Jacques Levy, Emmylou Harris, Sam Shepard and how he “made out with Joan Baez on a motel room balcony” for Renaldo & Clara. Rob also sets the record straight on the Scorsese Netflix film: “I got a beef with that Van Dorp character!” and alerts us to his uncredited harmony vocal on Abandoned Love.

What was it like playing live with Bob? “Sink or swim. If you’re good enough, you ought to be able to swim”. Did Bob actually never speak to Mick Ronson on the Rolling Thunder tour? “It was written into the contract”. The Fort Collins concert, where Hard Rain was recorded? “Bob was in a foul mood, man.”

Other insights include how Elvis miffed Bob, rehearsal details for the 1978 Alimony Tour and John Lennon’s “Dylan imitation” on Ticket To Ride. Roll up, roll up - for an historic episode.

While still in school, Rob Stoner was signed to a songwriting contract by Leiber and Stoller. As a session musician, he played and sang on classic recordings including American Pie. His albums with Dylan include Desire, Hard Rain, Bob Dylan At Budokan and Live 1975. Following his stint with Bob, Rob released a critically-acclaimed album of original songs on MCA Records. He also became the first non-Southerner to release an album on Sun Records. His songs have been recorded by Link Wray, Johnny Winter and Robert Gordon. He has played with Chuck Berry, Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and countless others. Rob lives in Rockland County, New York, where he remains active on the music scene.

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Recorded 3rd June 2020

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Danny Horn Jun 14, 2020

Show notes

Actor/musician Danny Horn, 31, played The Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies in the West End; but it was listening to Dylan at age 14 that changed his life. Do Dylan and Davies have anything in common? Danny tells us that - in 1967/68 - “they both made love letters to versions of their own countries that never existed. And they share a mercurial way of thinking”.

Despite hanging out with Ray D, Danny knows his Bobby D. The conversation ranges from analysis of songs like Abandoned Love (“he’s both wounded puppy and venomous snake”) to the film I’m Not There (yes to Charlotte Gainsbourg, no to Christian Bale). All topped off with a hilarious near-death experience at The Royal Albert Hall. Join us for a funny, socially-distanced but intimate take on “the clown inside” of Bob Dylan.

Danny Horn is an actor and musician, born in London in 1989. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has worked frequently on stage and screen since graduating in 2010. He won acclaim for his performance in the hit West End musical Sunny Afternoon, which charted the early years of The Kinks. Other stage acting work includes The Dead Dogs and The Revenger’s Tragedy. Film and television work includes Emmerdale, Vera, Hetty Feather, Scar Tissue, M.I. High, Legend of the Bogeyman and Doctor Who. With his group the Shared Myths, Danny has just released his first album: Quitting Smoking.