Tag Archives: Jack Beck

The Monday Book – Bob Dylan, Performing Artist, 1960-1973

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Monday Book review by Jack Beck

Bob Dylan, Performing Artist, 1960-1973, The Early Years. Paul Williams (1990 Omnibus Press)

Version 1.0.0

Regular readers of this blog will already know that I’m a big fan of Dylan and his music.

This book is both interesting and frustrating. It’s well written and researched and Williams gives due credit to other writers who have covered the same subject and time period. But the more I read, the more it seemed to be as much about the author as about Bob Dylan.

It wasn’t until I got almost to the end that I discovered that Williams had been a rookie cub reporter on a local newspaper in the early 1970s and was able to interview Dylan. He says that Bob was relaxed and straightforward and not doing his usual enigmatic and obscure stuff. That’s fine, but I’m not sure it necessarily gives you any special insights!

At various points Williams puts Dylan on a level with Shakespeare, James Joyce, Beethoven and Picasso. I think that might just be over-egging things a bit.

The book is written chronologically as the title suggests and Williams has certainly covered the period in depth, including both commercial and bootleg recordings as well as un-recorded live performances. But it’s in between this valuable information that he lets loose with his personal and (I think) overblown analysis.

Despite all the careful research I did discover one surprising omission. Williams spend a fair bit of time on Dylan’s 1966 world tour which ended in the UK. He lists the various concerts around the country but misses Edinburgh. I know it’s missing because I was there and have an excellent recording of that night!

So – a bit of a mixed bag, but for died in the wool fans well worth a read!

The Shows go on – and on – –

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Jack gets over the line again – –

A very odd coincidence happened on Monday evening.

I’ve been producing and presenting a weekly Celtic music show on the NPR station in Johnson City Tennessee for nearly twenty years now (WETS.fm). It’s called ‘Celtic Clanjamphry’ and initially airs on their main FM and HD1 channel on Sunday evenings and then repeats on their HD2 channel on Mondays and Saturdays. It then goes out on WEHC.fm here in Virginia on the following Sunday. Because I record them ahead of time with the enormous help of my engineer Dirk, I’m never quite sure which episode is airing any particular week. I got a message on Monday morning from a listener and so I checked the Monday evening repeat to check which one was going out.

Wendy interviewing a turtle

But – –

A few months ago Wendy started working part-time for West Virginia Public Radio as a producer and presenter for their show called ‘Inside Appalachia’ which goes out there on Sunday mornings and is then re-broadcast on a whole host of other NPR stations from Ohio to Georgia, and Kentucky to North Carolina. One of the stations that takes it is – yes – WETS.fm in Johnson City!

Last week her first program came 2nd in Best Feature at the AP Virginias Broadcasting awards, out of more than 400 entries from all over Virginia and West Virginia which was very exciting! Her latest story is all about a 10 year search for the maker of hand thrown clay mugs. It’s quite a moving story!

On Monday past, at 8pm I went to the WETS website to check which of my programs was being broadcast on HD2. Lo and behold, to my surprise they were airing ‘Inside Appalachia’ on their fm/HD1 channel at exactly the same time, and it was Wendy’s mug story! So we were both on the same station at the same time!

So I went to Wendy and told her this and with a big grin on her face she said, “Hmm, which one shall we listen to?”

I’m a smart husband…..