Lowell George
would have been 65 years old today. He was the shining star of southern rock band Little Feat in the 1970s and the writer of the truck-driving anthem ‘Willin’’, which Dylan has performed many times in concert, starting in 1990 in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas that September 6, 8 and 9 respectively. Lowell George died in June 1979. Little Feat’s co-founder was Richie Hayward (they had been in an earlier band together), who in 2004 became a shortlived member of Dylan’s Never-Ending Tour band, playing drums and percussion in a supporting rôle to George Racile (who was having problems with one arm). Hayward played from the Tulsa Oklahoma concert of February 28 (not playing on the opening number or the encore songs this first night) through till the end of the April 4 concert in Washington D.C..
Bob and the media
For those who liked Part 1, the third and final part of John Carvill’s excellent and thoughtful essay You Had To Ask Me Where It Was At: Bob Dylan & the Media, plus clickable links to the earlier parts, is now online here.
Summer Days
There are still places available for our Summer Days weekends in June, including the one that could be combined with catching two or three of Dylan’s Spanish and French concerts (in Barcelona, Carcassonne and Bordeaux). See here for details and pictures.
Bob and the UK General Election
The Times – or The London Times, as Americans insist on miscalling it – runs a regular snippety featurette called ‘Chatter: Trends, topics and tweets’, which surely typifies both the way the broadsheet press has dumbed down (presumably to compete with British television) and the increased way that they fill the paper with punters’ contributions that they don’t have to pay for. Anyway, last Wednesday the contributions they ran included this, from a Louise Johnson:
I’m an undecided voter in a marginal constituency, so for once, my vote sort-of matters. What a daft system. In related news, our doorbell broke yesterday and we’re not mending it ’til May 7.
Chronicles Volume One Index
PDF copies of this are still available: see the previous blog entry.
Bob and Lourdes
Sarah and I took some American friends to visit Lourdes the other day – the first time we’d been to look at it, though it’s only 45 minutes from our house. I was sorry we ran out of time there before I’d had the chance to look for a flesh-coloured Christ that glows in the dark, though I’m sure they’re available, judging by the plethora of gift-shops spilling out onto the pavements with enticing things like plastic mini bottles for holy water and Virgin Mary thermos flasks.
Taken from this post:
ODDS & ENDS
