THE MUSIC RAMBLER

Bob Dylan: Singer, Songwriter, Pugilist?

Bob Dylan once covered Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" on his Self-Portrait album and it looks like he's taken up the ancient art of pugilism to go along with his other modest talents. According to the statesman.com, while on tour recently in Mexico City:

Dylan did a little boxing at the Nuevo Jordan gym, impressing trainer Rodolfo “Guerco” Rodriguez, who had no idea the man in the ring was perhaps the most famous singer on the planet. “I said…these old guys are going to give each other heart attacks!” Rodriguez told the El Universal newspaper. “They told me that the oldest guy was Bob Dylan, He boxed with all his friends and he did well; you can tell he’s practiced for awhile because he landed some good shots and brought his own professional (equipment). He knows what pugilism is and he enjoys it.”

Bob Dylan’s curious tour of Mexico City (stateman.com)

Expecting Rain (Dylan news site)

Van The Man Requests File Sharing Ban

Van Morrison, one of the most heavily bootlegged performers in Rock & Roll history, seems to have had a change of attitude towards fans who record his concerts and disseminates them using concert file sharing sites. VTM, along with performers such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen, have had a uneasy and unofficially tolerated relationship with the hard core fans who seek out their live concert recordings and studio outtakes. However, the internet and digital recording devices have changed the way that this material is distributed. Recently, Morrison has taken unprecedented steps to curtail fans from recording and distributing his material.   

Death to the Music Industry

So says Simon Napier-Bell who was the onetime manager of the Yardbirds and started in the music business in the mid-sixties. In "The Life and Crimes of the Music Biz", a funny and insightful article in the Observer Music Monthly, Simon doesn't exactly lament the changes that the internet has brought to the music business.

    But outside of the industry, who cares? Pop music has never sounded better or more vibrant, never been more easily available to the listener. The only people who are suffering are the people who brought it on themselves. The major record companies.

The article includes this hilarious story where Simon is having a meeting with "a very dull man indeed" and Bob Dylan calls on line one:

    To begin with, it wasn't too interesting but then Dick yelled, 'I've told you, Bob - no fucking religion! If you can't agree to that, the deal's off ...'

    Bob was arguing the point but Dick was having none of it. 'Look, I'm telling you. There'll be no fucking religion - not Christian, not Jewish, not Muslim. Nothing. For God's sake, man - you were born Jewish, which makes your religion money, doesn't it? So stick with it, for Christ's sake. I'm giving you 20 million bucks - it's like baptising you, like sending you to heaven. So what are you fucking moaning about? You want 20 million bucks from us? Well, you gotta do what we tell you. And what we're telling you is ... No Torah! No Bible! No Koran! No Jesus! No God! No Allah! No fucking religion. It's going in the contract.'

The entire article is well worth reading. Find it here.