SOUNDTRACK: BROKEN BELLS Live at SXSW, March 17, 2010 (2010).
The only disappointing thing about this download from NPR’s All Songs Considered is that it consists of only three songs now. I guess the band (or more likely the label) didn’t want the whole show streaming or downloadable, so they let us have three songs (the original show was ten).
But three is better than nothing. The excerpt includes “The High Road,” “The Ghost Inside” and “October.”
The band sounds great in this setting. I’m unclear just who all is playing live, but the page says that the live band is a six piece (with Danger Mouse jumping from drums to keyboards and back again). They reproduce the songs very well, but at the same time they’re not just mimicking the album.
It’s a nice teaser to want to see them live.
[READ: April 4, 2011] “Bob Dylan Goes Tubing”
Today is Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday. It’s not often that I get a story that coincides with a day quite so nicely. Happy birthday, Bob.
This begins as a delightfully weird little story and develops into a strangely profound story about family and celebrity.
A family is renting a vacation home by Lake Sturgeon for the summer. The mother notices a man on a raft who is floating towards them. And she says that from a distance the guy looks like Bob Dylan, only older. (He is older, her husband ponts out).
When the man gets closer, he reveals himself to indeed be Bob Dylan. Well, he doesn’t reveal himself to be Dylan, he just is Dylan. And he accepts their hospitality and doesn’t make a fuss. He thinks that he’s on a different lake (Lake Kashagawigamog), but he seems content where he is.
And that’s when their son Ryan, introduces him to the fun of tubing.
There is a lot of humor to the story (it was a National Magazine Award Nominee in the humor category), but it’s not a very funny story. Obviously the premise of Bob Dylan tubing s quite funny, but as the story continues its proves itself to be not so funny.
For Dylan won’t leave. He stays in their house, and the family is basically paying for his food and cigarettes. (Okay, that is quite funny). He’s a good companion for the family (especially Ryan, whom he is teaching to play guitar), but he has never once offered to pay for anything. (No even a cheque when he leaves?)
As the story and the summer draw to a close, some of Dylan’s loneliness is revealed. And the story ends on a poignant yet positive note.
It’s really quite a nice story. I wonder what won the Award that year.
It’s available here.
I Just Read About That... 