Since I saw the Dylan documentation "No direction home" these days (I told you here) - all day long I have Dylan melodies in my head from 'story of Hurricane' - 'Fandango' , fragments of 'Like a Rolling Stone' ..now you've got to get used to it.. with no direction home.. , 'desolation row & it seems I'm about entering my second Bob Dylan phase in my life.
I didn't care too much about Dylan in my youth in the late 60ies when I detected all those groups - my young brother had a poster of curly locks Bob Dylan in his room - he was a legend already & I knew that & thought Bob Dylan was great, but I wasn't that much interested in him to even buy a Dylan record. -
All the years later in all my changing musical taste - well Bob Dylan was always somewhere in the background - I mean you couldn't avoid him - because you heard a lot of cover versions of his songs & I knew he was lyrical & song writer genius - well but his voice didn't atract me to much.
So I had (of course) Joan Baez records (who sang a lot Dylan stuff), Byrds & Jimi Hendrix records (All along the Watchtower) - At age 25 I had hundreds of record from british rock, rythm 'n' blues, pop etc. to californian sound like Eagles, Steely Dan, Dooby Brothers etc. - I had all Leonard Cohen records (who's lyrics & voice has all life time long been very close to me), but never cared about having a single Bob Dylan record. -
In our 'Wohngemeinschaft' (flat-sharing community) there was my room neighbour 'Erich' - Erich had in contrast to me only very view records. - Do you know how tedious it can get if someone with only some view records lives next door to you. - They play the same record over & over again - & some not only play the same record again & again, but play the same song again & again - I must have heard 'the story of Hurricane' about a 100 times - the best music can be spoiled by havin to hear it over & over again & it needs a long time to recover from that. - Later after Erich had left our flat a girl called Roxy lived there - also a 'only-view-records-owner' - so she played infinetly the same record of Lou Reed or Brian Ferry over & over again. She had a stupid cheap record player who started the same record (same side of course) always automatically again. - And we played our music usually very loud in that time. - I remember that sometimes I sneaked in her room late at night while she slept (she could sleep with infinite music) to stop that fucking record player. - That time also spoiled Lou Reed (later one of my faves) for long time to me. - Just like Lynyrd Skynyrd which I couldn't stand to hear for long time anymore, after I've lived with Claudia, who only had 2 Lynyrd Skynyrd records.
I always had enough available music - records later CD's to chose my music to my mood, to my phase in life - & I played records continiously from early morning (well late morning) till very late in the night (yes really late) - ok maybe some new record I'd listened too often had also turned one of my flat-neighbours off & some of my fave songs made them probably start to hate that song forever.
But back to Dylan. - I really detected him when I was about 27 - I saw the film "Renaldo and Clara" a film by Bob Dylan & with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez etc. in a small pub-integrated cinema. - Aah & I loved that film - I really was enlightened, ignious & ardent about Bob Dylan - t'was the time when I bought my first Bob Dylan records - to start with 'Live at Budokan' - the cover of Budokan I hang on my wall (it's still hanging there - I think so - because meanwhile a big philodendron plant is covering it with it's big leaves) - but this phase didn't lead to that point, that I had to have all his records, which with some certain bands & Interprets I have - I had all Rolling Stones, all Eagles, all Leonard Cohen , about all Lou Reed, all Small Faces, all Who, all Doors, all Buffry Sainte Marie, all Kinks records, but I didn't have all 'Mamas & Papas', all 'Simon & Garfunkel', all Pink Floyd records. - Sometimes it's a later or an earlier phase of these musicians that don't intereset me anymore. - But if someone is my really fave I want to have it all, every official & every bootleg available - if it's a writer I read all his books & am at some point dissapointed, that he didn't write more in his life.
Later on I had also Desire & one early root record of Bob Dylan. - meantimes also a long time ago - but since that docu "No direction home" I got again involved - I searched for days in internet about Dylan biograhpies, about his records, films, his Christian phase etc. - he has done so much & had so different phases in life - well where to start with - I remember I had also seen once the film 'Patt Garret .. Billy the Kid' where he played a little role & also made the film music - 'Knocking on Heavens Door' comes from this film.
Of cource my research also lead me to amazon just to look for a records chronology or something like that.
It's so easy to click here & there - one CD costs only 8,95 or 9,99 a.s. - Of course it had to be some of the 60ieth stuff, so "The Times They Are Achanging" - hmm & weel "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" too - I could easily afford to spend 20 bucks on CD's - Well "John Wesley Harding" seemed also to be a must have, like "Oh Mercy", "Highway 61 Revisited" - the famous "Blonde on Blonde" shouldn't be left out - "Another Side of Bob Dylan" was also one of his old Originals - so click, click, click - I want them all - no stop not all yet - that get's too expensive, - but maybe "Street-Legal" & finally "Infidels" should be in the basket -
I got totally in a 'Kaufrausch' (spending spree) - yes it's so easy to click 'em in amazon - But I was a bit shocked when the sum of my order turned out to be 92,62 Euro (about 96 bucks) - I'm very low on money in the moment, but why not - sooner or later I would buy 'em anywhy, so why not at once - that saves me further porto costs.
Of course there are still some CD's missing, like those of his Christian phase (Slow Train Coming etc.) - or his later CD's.. I really had to stop my self to not click them all at once.
One day later - late in the evening I thought, why not take a DVD too - it would be interesting to have some concert video, because in the documentation concerts are only shown in short excerpts - I want to see it all - from the beginning to the end - so next day I searched amazon for Dylan concert DVD's - there was "Bob Dylan - TV Live & Rare '63-'75" - but there was also "Bob Dylan - Unplugged" - Which one should I take? - I couldn't decide so click, click - I took them both.
Well by that occasion - I had also read a very positive critics about "The Bootleg Series Vol.5" - But while I searched for this one I found "The Bootleg Series Vol.6" - again I couldn't decide - so again I took them both - oops 77,88 Euro - that was more than my limits of money spent for such stuff allowed - much more - better not visit amazon in the next few months - it's gonna ruin me..
