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I know there’s lots of other news out there about the Won’s. On our way to find out how far above average Wee Won II is Butt I didn’t want to give short shrift to this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom Awards. And that brings me to Bob Dylan, né Robert Zimmerman. That’s right, another white Hispanic. …why are you wasting our time on an irrelevant old leftie protest singer? I mean, he was soooo cool! Heck, he practically invented the “change” part of HOPE and CHANGE. Butt fewer people, including Big Guy, ever went beyond the persona of the...

Obama On Listening To Bob Dylan In College: My World Opened Up MAY 29, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER President Barack Obama awarded Presidential Medals of Freedom today at the White House to Bob Dylan John Glenn, John Paul Stevens, Madeleine Albright, Shimon Peres, Jan Karski, John Doar, William Foege, Dolores Huerta, Juliette Gordon Low, Pat Summitt, and Gordon Hirabayashi. The award is the highest honor a president can give to a civilian. When delivering his brief remarks about each honoree, President Obama thanked musician Bob Dylan for opening up his "world." "I remember in college listening to Bob Dylan...

Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outraged Tuesday at President Obama’s reference earlier that day to “a Polish death camp” — as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland. “The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald “Tusk will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.” The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear...

A 50-year-old Swedish man has been charged with harassment after he played a Bob Dylan song for his ex-girlfriend hoping to reignite an abandoned love. It was around 11pm one evening in June 2011 when the 50-year-old would be troubadour stood outside his ex-girlfriend's balcony, guitar in hand, the Metro newspaper reported. The love-sick man had also cobbled together a group of five other men to serve as vocal accompaniment for the late-night live performance, each of whom donned hoodies with their hoods up.

The times indeed are a-changin’. Bob Dylan, the iconic American singer-songwriter of the 1960s, is now virtually unknown to more than one-in-three adults in this country. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of American Adults have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Dylan who turned 70 last week, while 24% view him at least somewhat unfavorably. This includes 10% with a Very Favorable opinion and seven percent (7%) with a Very Unfavorable one. But 37% don’t know enough about the author of anthems like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Like A Rolling Stone” to voice...

Happy birthday to Bob Dylan, born May 24th, 1941. I’m not big on birthdays, to be honest. What difference does it really make that on one day you are technically one age, and the next day you’re technically another age? You’re as young as you feel, and the older I get, the more it pleases me to think so. There’s predictably been enormous hoopla over Bob Dylan turning 70, and at least 30 new books have been added to the groaning shelves of tomes analyzing, documenting and distorting his music and/or life. I should talk — I’ve written untold thousands...

Seventy years ago today, on Saturday, May 24, 1941, if you were walking the halls at St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth you might have run into members of the Zimmerman family. They would have been there for the birth of Abe and Beatty Zimmerman’s first child, a son whose arrival was noted in the News-Tribune five days later:

Allow me to clarify a couple of things about this so-called China controversy which has been going on for over a year. First of all, we were never denied permission to play in China. This was all drummed up by a Chinese promoter who was trying to get me to come there after playing Japan and Korea. My guess is that the guy printed up tickets and made promises to certain groups without any agreements being made. We had no intention of playing China at that time, and when it didn't happen most likely the promoter had to save face...

The drama that unfolded in Beijing began when police evicted an unregistered "house church" from its usual meeting place. The police arrived again when this same flock tried to gather in a public place last Sunday. A church member who escaped told the Associated Press that about 200 were arrested. This kind of persecution is old news for those concerned about the 60 million or so Christians in China's "underground" churches. The crackdowns have become so common that they rarely inspire protests from human rights activists. Bob Dylan, however, is another matter. His first-ever concert in China opened with an...

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the ex-boxer whose fight to beat a murder rap was immortalized in Bob Dylan’s song “Hurricane,” called himself a victim of “institutional racism” and compared himself and other blacks in prison to victims of the Holocaust.

Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan's longtime girlfriend during his fledgling days as a Greenwich Village folk singer and the woman who appears alongside him on the famous cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," passed away this weekend at her home in Manhattan following a long illness, Rolling Stone reports. Rotolo was 67. In addition to forever being captured on the Don Hunstein-photographed "Freewheelin' " cover, Rotolo's three-year relationship with Dylan, from 1961 to 1964, also inspired him to write three of his early love songs, "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "Tomorrow is a Long Time," and "Boots of Spanish Leather." (Dylan's...

AMHERST, Mass.—A man wearing a Bob Dylan backstage pass who ordered nearly $4,000 worth of pizzas from an Amherst pizza parlor but never picked them up has agreed to hand over the dough. A lawyer for the New Jersey man says his client is a "decent enough" guy with no criminal record who felt bad about the prank.

The Band was a highly-acclaimed and influential 60s-70s rock music group originally consisting of Canadians Rick Danko , Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson along with American drummer/singer Levon Helm . All five were notable musicians in their own right, and three lead singers symbolic of the group's bountiful talent... Original members of The Band first worked together as they joined Toronto-based rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins' backing group -The Hawks- from 1958-63 then onto The Levon Helm Sextet/Levon and the Hawks. They also released a single under the name Canadian Squires, but returned as Levon and the Hawks for...

Blasphemy!… You had Bob Dylan here. How did that go? Here’s what I love about Dylan: He was exactly as you’d expect he would be. He wouldn’t come to the rehearsal; usually, all these guys are practicing before the set in the evening. He didn’t want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn’t show up to that. He came in and played “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” A beautiful rendition. The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can...

Angelo M. Codevilla’s essay, “America’s Ruling Class — and the Perils of Revolution,” published this summer in the American Spectator, and released this week in book form, has already accomplished what few essays do: it has touched a nerve. In his essay, Codevilla contrasts the “Ruling Class,” including both Republicans and Democrats but tending leftward in word and deed, with the the “country class,” consisting of heterogonous individualists who’d rather be judged on their merits than their beliefs and affiliations. Despite its name, it should be emphasized that you can belong to the “country class” and still live in a...

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the Columbine school massacre is not the dead and wounded but of the myths perpetuated.These myths dishonor the lives lost because they impart faulty lessons. Columbine was never about poor picked upon Eric Harris (REB) and Dylan Klebold (VoDKa) striking out at their tormentors. Horrific though it was, Eric dreamt of much more than gunning to death twelve students and one teacher. Eric wanted to annihilate the whole school and then the assembled police and media, live on national television. His goal was to insert this nightmarish vision into our national psyche. Frighteningly enough, he...

What's plain is that the Gaza flotilla's nominal purpose, delivering "humanitarian" supplies to Gaza, was secondary to the aim of provoking a confrontation. The Gaza flotilla turned down an Israeli offer to unload the six boats and deliver the goods to Gaza by truck; it ignored repeated warnings that it would not be allowed to reach Gaza. Its spokesmen said they would insist on "breaking Israel's siege," as one of them put it. View the local newscoverage of BlueStar working to support Israel. Listen & Buy Bob Dylan's "Neighborhood Bully" MP3 Today! Lyrics below. Audio from the IDF soldiers who...

Bob Dylan's cult hit Like A Rolling Stone beat off competition from none other than the rock and roll band 'The Rolling Stones' to be crowned the Greatest Song Of All Times. The folk legend's 1965 hit took the title while the British band's number Satisfaction came second in the list compiled by Rolling Stones magazine. The magazine's editors and contributors spent months piecing together the ultimate top 500 list and Dylan's track from the album Highway 61 revisited won by a huge majority. John Lennon's Imagine came in at three, while What's Going On by Marvin Gaye and Aretha...

The Chinese government has banned Bob Dylan from playing the Chinese leg of his 2010 tour. Dates in Beijing and Shanghai, part of Dylan's tour of east Asia, have been canceled due to the government's concern about the renowned folk singer's long-ago reputation as an "icon of the counterculture movement," according to the Guardian, citing Taiwan-based promoter Jeffrey Wu. Dylan, who puts on about 100 shows a year as part of his Never Ending Tour and has just finished up a Japanese leg, has also canceled dates in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong.

In the subtitles Come gather around people wherever you room And look at the waters around you have grown

Rightwingbob (the best commentator on all things Bob Dylan - imo) links from his blog to a great read in First Things. Good stuff.

(Warning: Contains spoilers for those who still believe in Santa Claus) Bob Dylan’s album Christmas In The Heart struck me both strongly and delightfully upon the very first listen, and it continues to strike me that way after many further spins. However, rather than try to make a grand case here as to why others ought to like the album (I know that some people love it and some people feel quite otherwise) I’m just going to explore why it seems to work better for me personally than most Christmas albums. I do suspect that how I have inwardly responded...

Who's got a beard that's long and white? http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1599922023?bctid=50273075001

In The Weekly Standard of 11/09/2009, Andrew Ferguson uses the release of Christmas In the Heart as a jumping off point to mock Bob Dylan as an artist generally, to mock those who hold his work in high regard, and, more broadly, to deride baby boomers and baby boomer culture. Now, I don’t much mind knocks against the self-importance of baby boomers (perhaps selfishly, since I’m not one myself) but I feel somewhat obliged to respond to his mockery of Dylan and those who enjoy his work. My sense of obligation might come from the fact that I generally like...

Federal Judge Disregards Eleven Years of Material Facts In Bob Dylan Inringement Suit http://jamesdamiano.yolasite.com/ The James Damiano Story

No closure in Bob Dylan Infringement Law Suit New York 10/29/09 Few artists can lay claim to the controversy that has surrounded the career of songwriter James Damiano. Twenty-two years ago James Damiano began an odyssey that led him into a legal maelstrom with Bob Dylan that, to this day, fascinates the greatest of intellectual minds. Read Press Release

We got no choice, we always choose whom we serve. Forget about choosing labels to serve. Aint no matter what you call yourself, it's what's in your heart that counts. Anyone can pick a religion, politcal party or football team and scream Lord, Lord, but that don't matter anyhow. If you are serving the Devil in your heart, the Lord is going to say. Matthew 25:12 "Verily I say unto you. I know you not." It all comes down to whom we really choose to serve. We were created as living temples of service and serve we shall. The question...

Bob Dylan Retains Same Law Firm as George W. Bush in Fifteen Year Plagiarism Law Suit. Also suppresses Plaintiff’s First Amendment Rights acquiring a protective order designating all video taped depositions that are incriminating to Dylan confidential Bob Dylan retains Illuminati Law firm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gundu1yLjWY

Bob Dylan began a live concert tour in Seattle last night and the first song he Played was "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" Gonna change my way of thinking, Make myself a different set of rules. Gonna change my way of thinking, Make myself a different set of rules. Gonna put my good foot forward, And stop being influenced by fools. So much oppression, Can't keep track of it no more. So much oppression, Can't keep track of it no more. Sons becoming husbands to their mothers, And old men turning young daughters into whores. Stripes on your shoulders,...

MORE THAN 4 MILLION MEALS TO BE PROVIDED DURING HOLIDAYS Bob Dylan will release a brand new album of holiday songs, Christmas In The Heart, on Tuesday, October 13, it was announced today by Columbia Records. All of the artist’s U.S. royalties from sales of these recordings will be donated to Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year’s holiday season. Bob Dylan is also donating all of his future U.S. royalties from this album to Feeding America in perpetuity. snip Christmas...

Bob Dylan has shape-shifted more times in his career than any other pop musician. His music has always reflected that need to seek out new forms of self-expression. What's less known is that his paintings function in the same way -- providing virtual chapter markings and sign posts in a lifetime filled with twists and turns. In a museum show that's scheduled to open in Europe in 2010, Dylan will exhibit nearly 100 of his works, including the world premiere of 30 large-format paintings from the artist's upcoming "Brazil" series. The show will also feature original paintings from Dylan's "The...

Click here for the video.

Rock icon Bob Dylan will sing the old yuletide standards "Winter Wonderland" and "Little Drummer Boy" on his first ever Christmas album, with royalties going to charity, his record label said on Wednesday. Dylan's "Christmas in the Heart" album is due out on October 13, nearly six months after the release of his last studio album, "Together Through Life," which topped the charts. Speculation about the Christmas album began surfacing a few months ago, but were initially met with disbelief by some Dylan aficionados, as the singer was not known to record Christmas songs, and his latest albums have featured...

On a rainy day last week in Long Branch, NJ, Bob Dylan, wearing a hood, was peering into a for-sale home when a neighbor called the police fearing he might be a burglar. Two young officers arrived on the scene and neither of them knew who Bob Dylan was. They asked for I.D. - he had none but explained he was a musician on tour with John Mellencamp and they were set to play at a nearby stadium in Lakewood. Without fuss or anger, Mr. Dylan was escorted back to his tour bus where he produced I.D.

Sculptor Alex Queral, 51, from Philadelphia, US, has hand crafted some of the world's most famous faces including President Obama, Jack Nicholson, Bob Dylan and Spartan Kirk Douglas. With a deft hand he has even recreated the actor Patrick Swayze and Sharbat Gula, the Afghan woman with amazing eyes who was made famous by National Geographic magazine. And in an admirable green-fingered move, the artist got his idea and started chipping away when he noticed piles of unused phone books just lying around. He said: "Every year when the new phone book comes out you see just piles of the...

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show. The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour...

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood. A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday. "I don't think she was familiar with his...

Exactly one week after the highly-publicized arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates stirred a national discussion on race relations, legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was detained by police officers in a "low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood" in Long Branch, New Jersey. Makes one wonder why it took so long for this to get reported, and if news outlets that were convinced Gates's arrest was racially motivated will see the delicious irony in a white rock star being questioned by police just because he was "wandering around the neighborhood." The Associated Press sure didn't (h/t Clarence Page): Rock legend Bob Dylan was...

"In Jersey everything's legal, as long as you don't get caught," Bob Dylan sang in one of his Traveling Wilburys tunes. In an ironic switcheroo, Dylan was apprehended in New Jersey last month even though he was not breaking the law. The rock icon was only guilty of not being recognized by the young cops who answered a complaint that there was a weirdo lurking around the Long Branch, N.J., neighborhood who was "wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots, and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head." According to reports, the soggy songwriter told the...

Bob Dylan Retains Same Illuminati Law Firm as George W. Bush in Fifteen Year Plagiarism Law Suit. Also suppresses Plaintiff’s First Amendment Rights acquiring a protective order designating all video taped depositions that are incriminating to Dylan confidential

I just think it's a powerful and beautiful song. Can't BELIEVE this video was from 33 years ago................

Great Interview. This McCotter keeps getting more interesting with every read. His thoughtful and inciteful responses show that he truly understands Dylan's American-grown maverick life. Worth a read.

BOB Dylan made his dramatic conversion from Judaism to Christianity after wallowing in drugs and bed-hopping with female fans -- a switcheroo that apparently jolted one of his biggest fans, Jimmy Carter, a new book about the former president claims.

Just weeks after Bob Dylan announced he wanted to collaborate with fellow legend Sir Paul McCartney, moves are afoot to bring the two superstars together. Industry insiders say Macca is set to team up with Dylan in California over the summer, where the pair are expected to work on new songs as a duo. The news comes after Dylan declared this month that he found the idea of working with the former Beatle “exciting”. McCartney’s spokesman then declared their man would be “very interested” in a collaboration. “Paul has a home in California not too far from Bob’s so the...

Our President may not think we are something special but Bob Dylan does. From Douglas Brinkley's interview in France with Dylan, this was written: In Dylan's America, Brinkley writes in his Rolling Stone article, there would be "a Sousa band playing on every Main Street." "Bob is righteous," Brinkley said, adding that Dylan's morality, the result of fierce patriotism, has intensified with age. "He misses the 'can-do-ism' of America...he's got surprising nationalism."

Bob Dylan, the poet laureate of rock music, has written some of the greatest songs of all time. Whether in the form of a send-off to a former friend, a protest song, or a feel-good ballad immortalizing a good relationship, Dylan consistently delivers interesting, often timeless music. The following is a list of some of Dylan's best from early in his career. 10) Lay Lady Lay, on the country music album Nashville Skyline, features a softer-voiced Bob Dylan (he had temporarily quit smoking during his recuperation from a near-fatal motorcycle accident). It is a very interesting and very, well, strange...

Up until now it had been a mutual love affair. As the campaign for the American presidency gathered pace last June, Bob Dylan lent his support to Barack Obama, telling The Times that his candidacy was “redefining the nature of politics”. In return Mr Obama described the singer as an icon, and boasted of having “probably 30 Dylan songs on my iPod”, including “the entire Blood on the Tracks album”. But in an interview to be published on Dylan’s website today, the hero of 1960s counterculture seems to have cooled on the prospects of the recently elected American leader. Asked...

And the title of his new album is ???

A 22-year-old woman's quest to auction off her virginity has snared hundreds of bidders, including one who says he'll pay $3.8 million to seal the deal - but only if he can tape the magic moment. The woman (above), who goes by the pseudonym "Natalie Dylan," launched the campaign last fall through the Bunny Ranch, a legal brothel in Carson City, Nev. "I'm still getting offers, but I'm not necessarily taking the highest bidder," she said yesterday.