I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours

February 24, 2012 8:27 AM

During Bob Dylan’s tour for his third LP, The Times They Are a-Changin’, released in January 1964, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offered him a half-hour special in which to promote the album. More info.
posted by timshel (17 comments total)

It is interesting how popular culture can change your perception of a song. "The time they are a-changin" are, for me, completely associated with the Watchmen credit sequence now.
posted by razorian at 8:41 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

That cabin set with the guy putting wood in the airtight stove -- that's no set. That was the CBC in 1964. But the times, they changed. In 1968, Pierre Trudeau was elected and Toronto finally got electricity.

But seriously -- great stuff.
posted by philip-random at 8:58 AM on February 24, 2012

Dylan is great and this is great.

The zoom on the hook of the poet with a hook is great, too.
posted by timshel at 8:59 AM on February 24, 2012

Looking at this, then listening to My Back Pages almost makes me want to cry. "Ah but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
posted by Buckt at 9:01 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't know if it's credible & couldn't find the permalink, but ghraydon wallick's comment on the more info was also a bit touching.
posted by Buckt at 9:05 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Looking at this, then listening to My Back Pages almost makes me want to cry. "Ah but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."

Worth noting Bob Dylan is 23 in this performance!
posted by timshel at 9:08 AM on February 24, 2012

So has Dylan
posted by iotic at 9:26 AM on February 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

This is wonderful--although the set is kinda hilarious. You'd have thought a fake coffeehouse would make more sense than this weird cowboy/lumberjack/poet bunkhouse.

I've never noticed Dylan with such a pronounced lisp before, though. I wonder if he'd had some sort of accident (burnt tongue? What gives you a transient lisp?).
posted by yoink at 9:28 AM on February 24, 2012

Bob Dylan is an American treasure. It's not (much of) an exaggeration to say that I've listened to at least one Dylan song every day for the past 40 years. It's never gotten old.

(It kills me when people say Bob can't sing, BTW. His phrasing is as good as it gets.)
posted by Benny Andajetz at 9:30 AM on February 24, 2012

Thinking a bit more about the set: it really brought to mind this wonderful cartoon by Glen Baxter.
posted by yoink at 9:46 AM on February 24, 2012

This is so awesome.

I love how it's just a bunch of hosers sittin' around smokin'. Probably Export A's.
"Hey, where's my smokes!"

Could only get more Canadian if someone froze to death on a toboggan.
posted by chococat at 10:27 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Awesome... I'd seen this version of Girl from the North Country before but never had tracked down the rest.
posted by nathancaswell at 10:40 AM on February 24, 2012

I have a very Yorkville friend who remembers as a teen being introduced to a "young Mr Zimmerman" who played a couple of songs in a Toronto house party.
posted by scruss at 10:48 AM on February 24, 2012

Thanks for this. It's doing a very effective job of counteracting a highly annoying afternoon.
posted by jferg at 12:08 PM on February 24, 2012

>>I'll work my whole life just to try to be half as good as Dylan was when he was just a kid.

>>> So has Dylan

YOU'RE A LIAR!
posted by mrmarley at 1:17 PM on February 24, 2012

Count me as a Dylan fan. However, his harmonica playing is...well, not so good. I am one of millions to mention this. Unlike most of them, however, I have tried at length at playing a strap-on harp. It is almost impossible to play well. The use of the hands to modulate the the deceptively simple dynamics of the harmonica - hell, even the tone and pitch, in addition to all of the rich nuances of the hand-held harp - are nearly impossible to achieve using the classic "harmonica holder." I wish he'd never have tried. The results, in contrast with his genius lyrics, good guitar playing, and great singing, are embarrassing.
posted by kozad at 10:15 PM on February 24, 2012

Count me as a Dylan fan. However, his harmonica playing is...well, not so good.

While watching No Direction Home, the excellent Scorsese documentary about Dylan, I realized that it seems like he's using the harmonica to very quietly help himself find his vocal pitch. He's breathing into it in various positions without really having it sound into the microphone, and he does it consistently after every vocal break/guitar chord progression.

Given the number of years when he wasn't wearing a harmonica and would begin every song phrase with a vocal swoop up toward the desired pitch (which became more pronounced and even parodic as time passed), since watching that I've forgiven him all his bad harmonica soloing, because he was using it in other ways which led to great singing on his part. Great singing which hasn't always been entirely present across his catalog.
posted by hippybear at 8:37 PM on February 25, 2012