Here we see Bob Dylan singing ‘Chimes of Freedom’ at Bill Clinton’s Inaugural Concert in 1993.
Bill and Hillary appear to thoroughly enjoy Bob’s presence and his choice of song.
Dylan has this song finished in little more than 3 minutes and when I first watched this I was on the edge of my seat the whole time thinking he would completely flunk a verse. It was just too fast and the band’s music sounded rushed as did Dylan’s vocals. Perhaps there were time restrictions or Bob just wanted to do it that way. Wouldn’t suprise me at all!
Patti Smith delivers the song in her own style – which is expressive and theatrcle. Dylan lets Patti take the verses while providing ingenutive backup singing on the chorus parts. The band also do a great job on this song with Bucky Baxter shining once again on the steel guitar.
The French Interviewer Antoine de Caunes brings out a side of Bob Dylan that is honest and willing to discuss in detail.
Dylan talks about songwriting and how he has changed over time. Although he does sa he is the same as in 1966! That’s gold – and there is a lot of gold in this interview. Bob didn’t think he would change in the mid 90s- ha. Said he was sick of changing.I need not say more – Watch it!
Part One
Dylan released the album ‘Real Live’ which was made up of live performances from the 1984 tour. This tour seemed to take it out of Bob I think. He looks pretty stuffed, but Rock and Roll is tough!
And I thought the album version of “The Man in the Long Black Coat” was haunting but this is a very spooky version here.
Another great vocals only performance Bob gave us in 1995 here. I love the tone of Dylan’s voice in this period and the way he uses the notes. He is really concentrating and he has full faith in the band and he should. This line-up would never lead anyone astray. If you like this sound check out the MTV Unplugged DVD.
I’m glad I found this one! This is Bob Dylan in 1980 during his spiritual period performing a powerful version of one of my favorites – In the Garden.
I started getting into Bob in about 2001 and it took me until last year to find that his Christian work is the most compelling he has done – in my opinion anyway. There is no doubt that Bob Dylan was very high off Christianity, possessed by God and on a mission to sing these songs. I’m sure these songs would have easily come to Bob Dylan after the overload of information he received during Bible School. This was clearly a very important part of Dylan’s life.
Great quality 2 shot filming, a good mix and a great ensemble of musicians to capture as a part of history. The only bad thing is the song is cut short at the end, but it didn’t have that long to go anyway. This song took me a while to get into and seemed complicated to my ears at first. Now it is one of my favorites and it comes across like a simple biblical song for children or something.
Lot’s of people my parent’s age cringe and curse when the religious period is brought up in conversation but I think their minds are manipulated by the stories in the press at the time. The albums were Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love. Many of them were just story type songs and weren’t just in your face preaching. I don’t find it unusual at all.
One of my old bands: 69 For Pa, we wrote a whole bunch of songs about Mini Golf. The property in the bush where I live was cattle ground before my parents built so the ground is hard, dry, dusty clay. For some reason we made a 9-hole mini golf course with rakes, brooms, picks and shovels. The band and I played the course everyday and eventually started coming up with ideas for songs about the many facets of our Mini Golf course.
It felt completely natural to write those songs at the time because Mini Golf was such a big slice of our lives. When you can’t think of anything but one thing, you often end up writing a song related to it in some way. I can relate to Bob when he wrote them songs way back when.
