16 Comments
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Susan Stirling's avatar

This is a massively interesting interview with Jeff Gold re:Dylan’s archives…your interviews are impactful and are historic documents, too. I love reading these Ray, so thanks a million.

Philip May's avatar

Thank you! That was fascinating. A great read! Thanks to Jeff for being honest and interesting. Learnt a fair bit, too!

Matt Littleton's avatar

Just awesome, what a great interview. What I love about your newsletter is you never know what's going to show up, or when? It just does, and it never disappoints. Great work, as always! I quickly pulled up Dylan Brandeis to listen to it again, Bob Dylan's Dream is an absolute gem. Thx Ray! And Jeff for sharing so many interesting back stories!

Louise's avatar

This is such an interesting interview - really enjoyed it.

Phil Redo's avatar

Such a great interview. I worked with a guy who was driving in the Village in the 1980’s ( I think? ) and saw Dylan walking on the street. He double parked around the corner, in front of a record shop, ran in, bought a Dylan album and intercepted Bob as he was crossing the street. He signed it. Asked why he had that particular album with him.

Lee Ranaldo's avatar

Ray! Wow! This post is immediately in my top 5 fav Flagging posts! What a window into the artists 'working method! Just fantastic, thank you!

It's somehow hard to imagine the impact of Dylan (Beatles, et al) fading into the sands of history+time--but we still talk of Michelangelo, don't we? The special ones whose work+legend endures. Might there be a 'Hamnet' a few centuries from now based on Highway 61 Revisited?

Jay Essman's avatar

Great interview! Just to play the Devil's advocate, the difference with the Ionic stuff is you are getting a unique version of an iconic song that cannot otherwise be purchased in sound quality that T Bone Burnett, the most famous record producer since George Martin, alleges is incomparable. The leaked download is irrelevant in that context, and cool as a lyric sheet is as a one-of-a-kind collectible, that's not what Dylan is famous for: it's the records you can listen to. Not that I'd pay a million bucks for an Ionic record, but I can see its value if you have Elon Musk (or, to name two dead Dylan fans, Paul Allen or Steve Jobs) money. Also, I was under the impression it was marketed primarily to audiophiles, not art collectors, based on descriptions of the pre-auction listening sessions.

Paul Schmitz's avatar

Great interview. He makes one jealous - how cool to come across stuff and be trusted by people to go through it and make fair offers. And to be the first to see Dylan archives. Really interesting lens into collecting too

Patrick Humphries's avatar

Fascinating. well done the two of you…

Tom Wilmeth's avatar

I was under the impression that Freewheelin' was retooled to eliminate "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" from the LP. Bob took this opportunity to replace three other songs for newer, stronger compositions. Thoughts on this premise?

Martin Viva's avatar

Yep, Dylan went to England dec./jan. 62/63, and learned a lot of new songs from among others Martin Carthy. He used the melody from some of them for his new songs like “Girl From the North

Country”, and they were better than fx. “John Birch Society Blues”. I don’t think there were other reasons for changing those four songs than he simply had wrtten better songs.

Ken Keiran's avatar

I couldn't read this when you first posted it and almost deleted it. I'm glad that I didn't, this was extremely fascinating. You do such a great job asking questions and then get out of the way. This was very good. Thanks.

Nancy Cobb's avatar

Did Gold say how he knew the painting on his wall in Woodstock was of Sara? Did he ask Dylan, Sara, or Jeff Rosen? In fact, it was intended (by Gold?) to be auctioned by Christy's but withdrawn shortly before the sale, due to the caption "Untitled (Sara)" and her name is NOT listed as the subject of the painting in the Bob Dylan Center.

Leah's avatar

Pls interview Arie De Reus, he has so many rare Bob Dylan archives, everything imaginable!

Steve Paul's avatar

Great interview, Ray. Lots of insight and nuggets.